NO PHOTOS

YESTERDAY i arrived down at torquay loaded with towels from the target xmas sale.  no photos, just an afternoon lying on the beach with the crew, getting sunburned and eating out at the pub. a good day.

time to get up :0)

BOXING DAY

COMING into geelong  -   corio bay sparkling in the sun

i visited dear leigh hobbs www.leighhobbs.com.au and dmetri on the way to geelong – staying with denise tonight,  bbq today at nina's, it's always good to catch up with her son lee on

his trips home from the UK -  that smile!

 

denise cooking up a storm in nina's backyard

thursday  it’s morning at denise’s – she’s still asleep. i’m thinking i might go to the after-christmas sales on the way to torquay today.  staying with the sisters  :0)    susan and sean and jenny and freddie,  some beach time coming up i imagine.

CHRISTMAS IN MELBOURNE

goodbye to the dalton clan – what a lovely family night we had.   kris came back to melbourne with me so the drive was a talkfest all the way, great to have
that time with her.

I had vicki’s lovely house to stay in christmas night, and had planned for sunny, rene and sayaka and i to have a picnic in the gardens but it was pretty breezy so we just stayed in and opened up the doors to the courtyard.  wonderful to have the kids with me,  it’s been a year since i’ve seen them all together.

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being introduced to rene and sayaka's two kittens via the

phone photos

sayaka -  in good shape :0)

i splashed out on baby clothes at the mildura baby shop - 

closing down so big discounts.  very cute goodies

  

it's CHRISTMAS DAY

I'm driving krissy down to melbourne for her flight home this morning, then rene and sayaka and sunny are coming over to vicki's, hopefully the weather will be warm enough for us to take our christmas food down to the st kilda botanical gardens.

a gift from don - beautiful poppy heads to grow - when the watering system is working

COOL COOL CHRISTMAS

PHEW  it's cooled right down.  after a day of holing up with the aircon at helen and don's the weather has completely changed.  yesterday was a great day here at sierra vista, with the extended dalton family, three generations celebrating patriarch john's 86th and christmas eve.  no words needed

krissy 

bakes

a

cake

bon and em do the pistachios

brave jen's given herself the onorous task of christmas eve dinner, christmas dinner and food for em's 30th on the 27th

the gorgeous

sisters, dressed for dinner

bon and dave

-recently engaged

ah yes, the party started later . . .

COOL CHANGE COMING

WHAT A RELIEF  it's cool here in the grampians after a hot hot night. left home
yesterday with next door's hoses thumbing their noses at me, me with a broken pump.
i'm glad to leave it all behind for a week.

loaded up the esky with ice, yabbies and fresh fruit for xmas and drove non stop to helen and don's.  sadly the heat beat my esky, and the yabbies are going to be turfed out, hope there are some prawns left at the supermarket today.

i'm having trouble uploading photos on this computer, will try later

happily in-stawell-ed

UP AT 5.30 to do a lot of watering only discover - yes, after brendan's efforts yesterday and a whole evening of ecstatically watching the sprinklers, this morning i watched the water pressure slowly die away again. left a message with brendan and drove away.
anyway, after a day of driving, from 8.30 till about 3,  i'm here at helen and don's, a few gin and tonics under the belt and having escaped a 40 deg day by being safely encased in the air conditioned comfort of my toyota.   don had a  chilled g and t waiting, and helen and i spent the afternoon playing scrabble.  now it's off to bed.  photos tomorrow, i have to organise getting them onto the blog from the computer here. 

CHRISTMAS IS COMING

I'M HITTING THE ROAD today to visit helen and don in the grampians, jenny and rob in stawell, then rene and sayaka and sunny in melbourne on christmas day.  high fire danger and 40 plus temperatures today so i'm leaving early. 

i'm leaving with the pump still not working, brendan was here again yesterday and it was glorious last night to watch all the sprinklers in action, but this morning the pressure's died away again.  i'm outta here, it'll have to survive as well as it can.

end of the week

look at these little fellas - the beautiful grass parrots that are here almost every day - they're the most beautiful iridescent shades of lime and turquoise on the back with a flash of orange when they fly.

 i went for an early morning walk up to the thegoa lagoon and discovered another section of water - full of egrets, spoonbills and herons. it really is lovely up there, i'm only starting to explore the area, there are great places to go in all directions.

the trees along the river are amazing -  huge beautiful old redgums

it was weird this evening - about two million corellas came and settled in the trees all around the house, every so often they'd all take off, wheel around and settle again, very alfred hitchcock.

and of course there was the daily water drama

the pressure disappeared again, hardly any water pumping out of the river, brendan came again, it was fine when he left and now, at 9.30p.m.  i've realised the automatic system hasn't come on - boy am i sick of this.   and it's nearly christmas, probably can't get anything done now so everything will dry out while i'm down south for a week.

groan.

MORE WATER PROBLEMS

WATER WATER WATER

I guess i just have to get used to the idea that i'll be dealing with water issues every day for as long as i live here. the whole place is all about water and heat.  
THE PUMP stopped yesterday so the previous night's automatic watering hadn't happened.
another visit from brendan to lift the pipe into the river off the riverbed where it had
settled and gathered sediment from the bottom.  

he managed to stay dry - very agile :o)

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LAST NIGHT i attended an opening at stefano's gallery 25 in deakin avenue.    photographs by frank zaetta, a mildura institution who'd taken portraits of just about everyone in town in his life here as a professional photographer and larger than life character.    

Julia Zaetta, frank's daughter painted a colourful picture of her father as she described his life as photographer, migrant, family man, musician, blasphemer (in the grand italian style) and local eccentric - a very affectionate and funny opening speech

when i heard julie mention doreen civelli as a relative, i remembered that i'd met

zaettas before in melbourne with my dear friend denise civelli - turns out julia is

denise's cousin - small world

THE LOVELY MIA

How's this for a healthy looking bub-to-be.

MIA photographed at the art vault, i can't believe she still has two months to go.

WEARING THE UNIFORM

WHEN jen and rob gave me my wonderful garden trolley it came in this box with a diagram of what the good property owner should wear in the garden.   the  other day i found this while cleaning out the bungalow and  realised i am now wearing the uniform

40deg PLUS

BOY it was hot yesterday - wednesday - i put the evaporative cooler on and closed up the house then drove into mildura to deliver martin to the airport.  I was very sorry to see him go, we've had some great trips and meals together while he's been here.   Very hot and windy out at the airport. i came back in to have lunch with new friend ruth then home to discover in the evening that the WATER IS NOT WORKING - a red light with 'failure' on it has lit up on the pump.  GRRRR!  i'll investigate this morning.

just a work day

nothing to report, i finished putting up the blinds round the verandah and it really feels good, and spent a lot of time cleaning out the studio making space. just about time to start working on some drawings for my april show at the art vault.