I SURVIVED

WELL THE TRIP TO THE ACCOUNTANT and the financial advisor were both helpful and useful. i came home mid afternoon and organised anne hederics to come out and watch the lunar eclipse with me.
AND while i was suffering in mildura amidst talk of GST and PAYG, good old steele was carting away all the piles of garden rubbish.   lovely to come home and find it gone.

the moon rose as the sun set - i headed off to get anne

 we started off waiting at the racetrack - a great view across the flat farmland to the horizon, but then we realised we'd have a better view of the moon from the perry sandhills so we drove out there in perfect time to see the beginning of the lunar eclipse.

the beginning of the eclipse from the sandhills

buildings at the base of the perry sandhills,  paddy melons in the water from recent rain

driving home past the lock

next morning . . . the moon setting outside my bedroom window

MONDAY MONDAY

I WORKED MY LITTLE BUTT OFF I got out my fantastic Bosch power saw, small and girlie size :0)   and sawed off all the old dead roses out the front,  including the two huge old climbing ones that were twisted through wire on the pergola structure. there are huge piles of weeds and trimmings all over the place, hopefully they'll all be gone this afternoon after the wonderfully named Steele Scaddings comes with his trailer.
Tidied up the whole house and then went to yoga, i'm so stiff after three days of gardening and printing, lots of bending. then home to cook roast lamb for anne and steve. a big thank you for the help steve gave me last week when the ceiling caved in :0)
TODAY is horrendous day -  going to the accountant about my tax and i can't even open up MYOB reports, then to a financial adviser.   i feel anxious and stupid whenever i approach anything to do with figures and my income.  yuk.

SUNNY SUNDAY

ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL DAY  -   i gardened again, planted a lot of the plants i bought yesterday at the native plant nursery on the way home from the festival. 

pelicans to greet me in the morning

the garden in the circular drive is all tucked in with peastraw and lots of new plants

after a morning of gardening i spent the afternoon doing a new plate, an illustration for my current book 'Where's Annie' 

this is the copper plate before printing, i'm happy with the prints and i'll be adding some handcolouring

MULTI CULTURAL FESTIVAL

AFTER 3 DAYS OF RAIN the sun came out and the weather was perfect for the first milduran multi cultural festival.   great food and entertainment all afternoon from people of tonga, afghanistan, burundi, italy, india, turkey and many more countries

    i went with donnie,  in the background here


this lovely turkish girl izzie gave me this scarf, 'a gift from me she said after i'd bought a few things at her stall.

         the 'afri boys'  from burundi

   this baby was tiny but was a really adventurous little fellow, crawling 
    across to the stage again and again - he was having a ball

                                the burundi boys drummed, danced and rapped, just great

at the end of a big day, gardening all morning and the festival in the afternoon, what better than one of my own 'istanbulu' cocktails made with pomegranate bought at the festival market

GARDENING

I'M GOING OUT to plant all the succulents i got from jenny up at stawell. two bags full and i'll just be able to push them into the damp damp earth :0)   then into mildura for multi cultural day at nowingi park on the murray river :0)

SLUMP

I FELL INTO A FUNK YESTERDAY - after the ceiling drama i spent the morning first with two electricians who came to put in some lights and checked for damp around the power point under the hole in the roof,   then with AAMI on the phone about insurance. they had a guy out by lunchtime to do a temporary patch up and put a tarp on the roof. so a semblance of order is restored.  raked up all the leaves that steve had thrown off the roof and cleaned up the yard.  called steele scadding (love that name) to come and do a big 'load up' of all the piles of stuff accumulating in the yard, and take a trailer load away. that'll feel good.
THEN - already feeling tired, i made the mistake of trying to do some reconciling of my MYOB and bank statements.  talk about  a mess, i'm going to get a bookkeeper once a month, i simply can't do it.

its tax time - always horrible for me.

so i went off to the pub for tea to meet up with a stack of people. thought that would cheer me up but if was greeted with the news that the wonderful couple who run the twilight darling river cruises have been told they can't leave from the wharf any more - i'm writing a letter to the editor and to the council,  Wentworth really needs people like greg and julie to be supported and encouraged - they do a great job.

i know rain like this is no novelty down south - but here it's been gorgeous to see it just falling and falling for three days.  now everything's green and the day looks sunny and cool  -  perfect for a spot of gardening

the gorgeous one - yellow is his color

always good to have a riveting speaker at your dinner

my temporary patchup thanks to AAMI, now let's see
how  long it takes to get the claim processed

HARI AIR - A DAY OF WATER

IT'S BEEN PISSING DOWN - ever since i got home from torquay on monday.  wonderful fine steady rain, non stop.
the garden looks so thankful, and it's been lovely to just hear it when i go to bed,  to wake up to low grey skies and water everywhere but it's taken it's toll.
i'm sitting here after a day of mini disaster, looking over to the lock. the rain is light, almost nonexistent, but over the lock is heavy purple/grey cloud and i'm just hoping it's passing over to the north, not coming here.

the ceiling collapsed today under the weight of water that had accumulated from the incredible amounts of water that have been pouring down.    i have an 18'" diameter hole with insulation hanging out of it,   books, cds all wet  and thankfully my wall of etchings, all by friends, was grabbed off the wall and towelled dry quickly, i think they're all ok.    touch wood.  priorities :0)

i called steve hederics from artback when it happened, the adrenalin was rushing so much my fingers could hardly hit the screen but he came and got up on the roof and checked everything out.  thank you steve.

its been a hairy day but as steve said, it's the best time to check out the rooves, when it's raining,  which doesn't happen that often here.

THE YIN
the plants are
loving the rain

AND THE YANG . . .

 my loungeroom ceiling was leaking, more and more as the day went on. thank god i was home because around the middle of the day the ceiling between two beams just gave way and water gushed into the loungeroom, on my books, cds and dangerously close to the wall of prints by friends - my treasured possessions

not a pretty sight

 thank god for friends,  i called steve hederics and he was around within 1/2 hour to check out the roof and help out.   no damage to the prints,  everything's spread out to dry and it's still raining and raining.

west wing, damages, entourage, frasier, 30 rock, spooks,
six feet under, mad men - all spread out to dry

ANOTHER ART VAULT DAY

A BUSY DAY and now i'm home in a house full of stuff that needs sorting,  i need to do a lot of tidying and putting away tomorrow.  
delightfully, it's been raining all day and still is,  unfortunately i have a leak here in the loungeroom.  leaves banking up on the flat roof i reckon.  :0{