SUNNYBUN ARRIVES

I PICKED UP SUNNY at the airport 9.30 friday morning, it was great that her flights give us a good weekend together to head off to broken hill. we had friday at home and just conked out completely - slept and read out in the glorious autumn sun on the riverbank. we had dinner at home and an early night, a game of scrabble too of course.  it's just lovely to have her here again.

an absolutely lazy lazy day - and perfect weatherSATURDAY, OFF TO BROKEN HILL

bluey's on the ball, checking out the road ahead

surprisingly we had light rain almost all day, not enough to spoil anything though
we got to broken hill around midday, had a classic counter lunch at the Theatre Royal pub - steak of course. then checked into the Palace Hotel, an amazing place, i'll let the pictures tell the story.

i've just put a whole stack

of photos on here - this

hotel is so mad and fun

i couldn't decide what to

leave out.

we loved it, our room was

small and crummy with a

bathroom across the hall (just

like home really) with the

classic brown wardrobe, a

tiny old telly, but doors out

onto the biggest, longest

gorgeous verandah you've 

ever seen.

WE VISITED the regional gallery, house in a wonderful old building originally Sully's Emporium, two levels of great rooms and beautiful old mahogany balustrading, lots of diverse work and a real energy unlike our lacklustre mildura arts centre

I was really pleased to find
that almost the whole town
centre is original - buildings
mostly local stone and some
wonderful public buildings
and pubs. 

loved this wall art - we're not sure what it's meant to be, it was also on the main signage for this building which i think was employment maybe?

 the pub buildings are great,

i loved the green of these

tiles

the cemetery is
huge and full
of wonderful
graves and
statues, some
very sad ones
too

                               this grave was very small, so sad




SUNDAY   up before dawn to drive home through pooncarie.  we could've visited the menindi lakes but it was a rough road, quite a lot of emus, and we just headed home to do some things before sunny's evening flight. we were buggared basically,  too much fun :0)

a gps check before getting up, sunny in her flash new
dimmey's jamies, we both scored bigtime, 40% off storewide.

our room, crummy decor,

fake wood panelling and

window frames in faux

woodgrain paint that 

looked like thick poly-

urethane varnish, eeuw.

tiny telly, old brown

wardrobe,   it was just

what i'd imagined.  beds

were comfy and the 

verandah was just

spectacular

    the view from the verandah - a huge stone hill topped with these

   crazy new buildings

Add caption

   

   trying to channel thelma and louise,  more like her maj and kate :0)

   emus just run every which way when they're spooked so driving back on the unmade

   roads looking out for emus and roos was an exercise in 'alert but no alarmed'

this bloke was just unloading a huge murray
cod as we pulled up to the pooncarie pitstop
for a sandwich

then we headed home and had a chill out afternoon, lunch in the sun
out on the riverbank and sadly, off to the airport to say goodbye to my
darling daughter  :0{      A lovely weekend

WHAT A GOOD DAY

A BRISK WALK to get the paper, a visit to the gym (long long long overdue - i must do it regularly), coffee at artback where i met the new principal of the primary school who's interested in artists working with her students and wants a turnover of art loaned to go on her office walls, all good.
and back home for a day without anything to do except start sorting out my article for the next Mildura Living magazine.   a daunting task but exciting at the same time.   scary - i've never done it before and it's about someone i know and like a lot.   responsibility to tell it well.   i'll do my best.

and sunny arrives tomorrow for our weekend in broken hill.  i'm looking forward to this time so much.

     I've decided this is where i write - not a bad spot

     
      and the drink's non alcoholic 

lime and soda -  lemon and pomegranate from my own trees  :0)

now i'm just playing with my new camera :o)

BACK TO WORK

EASTER IS OVER - it was a wonderful weekend.  yesterday it was back to the Art Vault for another wednesday at the computer.  a better day - i'm getting familiar with everything and i'm redesigning the monthly newsletter.   the weather continues to be lovely and last night driving home (with the setting sun in the middle of the windscreen, the sky was spectacular.   A day of writing today and getting ready for a weekend in broken hill with sunny.  really looking forward to that 

 these gorgeous scarves are made by a friend of julie's and are for sale in the art vault.  finest diaphanous silk in the most beautiful glowing colours, they hang there tempting me every day i work there. fortunately they're way too expensive for me to even consider but i love to look at them.

  spectacular skies

FAMILY EASTER

A PHOTO ESSAY of a lovely easter weekend with susan, sean, jenny and freddie - perfect weather, cool nights and warm days, blue skies and hardly a breath of wind.  lots of time out and about and downtime at home, scrabble, home cooked meals, and talk talk talk  :0)

brekky out on the river bank, everything's green after the recent rain.

favorite cups for a coffee in the sun

lunch at the brewery on saturday after strolling around the market down on the river bank.  then a trip on the Rothbury riverboat up through lock 11  in perfect weather

 this is the murray river flag

the captain told us these swallows have their nest on the underside of the riverboat we were on. this one's sitting in a niche in the wall of the lock as we waited to go through

back home in time for an istanbulu cocktail at sunset

sunday coffee in bed with bags'o'easter chockie

wentworth had the 'junction junk' day - a garage sale trail around town.  i bought a wonderful old carter brown hardback complete with trashy dustcover  - $1 from marg whyte down the road

a sausage in bread at the town hall 

the zephyrs were in town, all parked outside artback cafe, about twenty of them
in immaculate condition

 on the walk back past the junction


Sunday afternoon we had lunch at Trentham estate winery.  the food was fantastic as usual and we lay on the grass and watched all kinds of crazy things being whizzed along the river behind boats,   blowup rides, water skiiers, a kind of chair on a ski, kneeling things.  there had  been speed races on the river all afternoon but at the end of the day it was time for fun on the water

diamonds on the murray

jewels on the murray

HOME AGAIN for another round of istanbulus and a second go at watching 'the wonder boys', we all conked out half way through saturday  night,  some of us managed to see it all last night :o)

 

barbecue, snags, chops and big spuds -  a great finish to the weekend

EASTER WEEKEND

BEAUTIFUL ROSES from my favorite roadside stall - i messaged denise the grower on FB because i hadn't seen the sign out for a while. wanted susan and jenny to see her lovely flowers.   she said they'd been battered about by recent rain but she'd find me some and leave them for an easter gift.  lovely!

J

HAPPY EASTER DAD 

and happy easter to all of you  :0)

VISITORS COMING :0)

THE HOUSE IS LOOKING GOOD - i've been tidying up - the whole living area had become part of the print studio with plates, ink and art materials spread far and wide.  they've been replace with vases of autumn berries and good old steele arrived this week to cart away the piles of trimmings and branches i've been hacking off with my handy dandy bosch lady saw :0)

steele does a bit of circlework around the birdbath

a visit to ARTBACK yesterday morning for a coffee under the grapevines

lovely sitting in perfect

autumn sunshine under

the vines

then home to do another print before an easter weekend of just hanging out with family :0)