PICS FOR ROS

 NO ONE escapes my granny photos.  no more recent photos of cal to put on the blog so i'm putting on these favorites for you ros. hope you get to see them.
only two weeks to go till i'm in osaka holding him in my arms  -  mmmm :0)








 could he be the new dalai llama?
 

ANOTHER GORGEOUS DAY

BOY, WINTER here is pretty good so far.   it can be really cold at night and heating is still something i have to work out - the wood heater works well, but i can see myself going through this $100 stack of redgum in no time.  But the days are gorgeous, sunny and
clear, it was 19 today.
another day of doing some illustration work, and planting new trees.   i stopped at the lock tonight and took some pics at sundown.

this is a strange photo - i was taking a photo of the logs and their reflections and these two galahs just flew into the picture, it all looks unreal, even the logs

mr. pelican - i think another etching is in the wings, so to speak

SPUD

HAVING SPUDVILAS for a name naturally leads to the nickname spud but i never cease to be amazed at at the variations people come up with.
anniespud, spuddles,  spudsy,  spudsy-wudsy, spudster, spuddie and now this week, two new additions - spudlicious and spudirific.  they're getting better :0)

KEV - WHAT'S HE ABOUT??

I'm feeling very tired seeing kevin rudd  back on the scene, smirking and patting disabled people on the head.  He's awful.  i love this little snippet from a story about his latest silliness, tweeting his shaving mishap.

'He has previously posted a self-deprecating video of himself exercising.

Two of the most viewed videos about him were posted by others - one where he is seen eating his own ear wax in Parliament and another of out-takes where he swears while recording a video message'.

much more fun than his tweets of himself

TOO TIRED

NO PICS TODAY i've had the whole day at home, artwork in the morning, gardening in the afternoon. boy, do i need to get that bath installed.   hopefully next
week, ken the builder says.  
It was -1 deg  today when i woke up, just icy.   but the day was bright and sunny by 10,a really beautiful day.  the weather just seems more extreme here, colder mornings and warmer days.  i've got the wood heater going tonight, it's not exactly warm but it's taken the chill off the room.  i'll try to keep it going and see if it gradually warms up to
comfortable.  otherwise it's just four layers of clothes.

I've planted five more trees, all eucalypts and acacias, all drought tolerant and tough as
buggery - or so i believe.   time will tell.

TODAY

I'VE GRADUATED! i'm a frontier woman - with my handy dandy girlie mini chainsaw i've cut up all the kindling for my combustion heater after having a load of split redgum delivered. tomorrow's the big day when i burn it all day to see how it goes.
it's midnight here now and it must be literally freezing outside, i think 1 deg is forecast overnight and it feels like it now. i have high hopes for the redgum, frozen fingers crossed.

although the nights are clear and cold - fabulous stars - the days are fine and sunny, it's pretty nice if i can just heat up this house

this beautiful little paddle steamer choofed past this morning, what a nice
holiday they must be having.

 on a bunnings run this afternoon after lunch with donnie and julie - i came out the front door and this was waiting for me - spectacular

a candid shot of domestic bliss - damon and kyoko in the kitchen at the art
vault - they invited me for dinner and i took cakes from stefano's.

_______________________________________________________________________________

GONE FISHIN'

THE RIVER was alive with birds this morning - cormorants, terns, gulls and pelicans all chasing a large school of fish up the river.

SWEATBOX SHOW

LAST NIGHT friday was the opening of the annual sweatbox and agri art show in wentworth. sweatboxes are large old timber boxes that were used to transport the dried fruit in this area. not used any more, they're transformed into various objects each year in this annual show.
damon kowarsky and kyoko imazu are currently artists in residence at the art vault, and they came over to stay last night.  we all went to the opening together.

damon's delightful portrait of me - i think i'm morphing into julia gillard

pics from the sweatbox show. michael keenan with a lamp made out of diptins, another very local thing - tins with handles used for dipping the fruit before drying (i think).

one of the winners - i met him but don't remember his name

tables made out of  a sweatbox, they have stencils on them with the company names etc.  i liked these

SATURDAY - brekky with damon and kyoko - a double yoker for starters

then a drive down to thegoa lagoon and along the river bank to look at the gigantic redgums, they're so impressive, impossible to capture the scale in a pic

then on to Wheeldon's hardware store, more a mecca for secondhand shop scroungers - damon and kyoko are experts with years of experience.
we also took in the mildura antique fair, it was really good.   i bought a few bits of australiana to take
over to japan.


after saying adieu to damon and kyoko i drove home along seventeenth street -  these bits of machinery always make me smile.   they've been sitting on the side of the road for weeks, for sale.  i think they look like they're going to run away, or like something from shaun tan's imagination.

i stopped on the way home to buy oranges and avocadoes here, the fruit is all $3 a bag, and i liked the colourful little stall.

eucalypus woodwardii - i've bought one of these to plant

WORKING WORKING

HEAD DOWN bum up here, working on my book to get it finished before my trip. but it's not a bad desk to be tied to.  there were big groups of cormorants and pelicans chasing a school of fish back
and forth across the river today.  funny to watch.

It's been beautiful and sunny here  -  around 18 each day - so i spent a couple of hours in the garden
planting out acacia shrubs and irises in the front section.   think i'll scatter irises right down the drive eventually.  there are stacks growing right round the perimeters, too far away to enjoy.

K 1 P 1

KEVIN LEARNS STOCKING STITCH

CAL the COMIC

sunny and dean are in osaka this week, meeting their new nephew cal - here he is from a couple of days ago

rene's comment on the complete 4 times longer movie '. . .it looks like he is an out-of-work actor putting together a 'moods/expressions' folio cut. '

19 deg DAY

It was a beautiful day today, here's my morning 'read the paper' spot in the garden - light fog then bright sun all day.

an egg with the window sunlight shining through it

A DAY IN TOWN

THINGS TO DO     in mildura today, work and organising things for the bathroom - i took time out to get pics of things i've been meaning to photograph on the last few trips.

THE BIRDS . . .

these pigeons are sitting on the wires at the merbein backroad intersection every day,  always 100's of them, pigeon corner i call it.  

In Etiwanda Ave there are three trucks sitting there loaded with oranges. they've been there for a week, i hope those oranges have a destination - it's pretty grim up here for fruit growers.

FROM THE WINDOW

From my bedroom window, the trees on the victorian bank of the murray reflected on a beautiful still morning

from the kitchen window -  there are around seven or eight kookas who live around here, often they're lined up on the power line as i drive in the front gate.

from the

front yard -

last night,

the lock 

and beyond,

pelicans

roosting in

the trees 

where the

murray comes

in to join

the darling.

just to prove i don't spend all my time taking photos, here's a progression of concertina dummy books i've been working on for my current book.  coming along nicely, i want to finish it before i go to japan at the end of the month so when i get back i can start on my own exciting project.