BACK AGAIN

IT'S SUNDAY NIGHT - alarm is set for 2.15a.m.  what fun.
it's been a lovely three days in melbourne, a night with chris and ian then two nights in south melbourne with vicki, then back to northcote at chris and ian's.  
Vicki and I did the 'clean up the bay' on saturday morning, meeting a whole lot of locals down on south melbourne beach and picking little bits of plastic and rubbish out of the sand for an hour. it was a meditative thing to do, and a walk along the beach in perfect sunshine was a pretty good way to start the day.  we've spent the last two days op shopping, having lunch, getting last minute things organised (like picking up my passport) and now i'm ready to go. just have to get to sleep

it's amazing how much you can accumulate in one hour just picking up tiny bits of plastic, all things that can get stuck in a bird's or sea animal's stomach

    we rewarded ourselves at the end of the day with a visit to the rooftop bar at the Brighton Baths - still Melbourne's best kept secret, not another soul there :0)

picked up some of my artwork in bridport street, this is a fabulous building

                       about 6 a.m. at vicki's in south melbourne

good old melbourne, still looking good

I visited my favorite bank to get some yen at the foreign exchange, a tradition for me.  i love this building in collins street.  but they've moved the exchange to a crummy branch further down :0|

    I still can't figure out what this fabulous room is doing in the bank, but i love it.

    Over to chris murphy's - little sappho is a new addition to the family, a sweet lovely little dog

   
    pics from the bus trip down, wonderful skies and terrible upholstery, where do bus companies go
    to find these awful fabrics??

 
   Melbourne, in the city and fitzroy

got to chris's thursday off the bus and tram to find no one home - but chris appeared in about 10 minutes - taken the dogs for a walk

I dropped into 

Mario's to get an

idea of the wall

space for my 

show, it's just

right

Vicki and I dropped into the print workshop for their print fair  -  the place was buzzing and i caught up with martin, deborah klein, kyoko and a whole lot of other printmaking people i haven't see for ages, also libby  -  libby, vicki and i finished the day at the enoteca for a drink and now i have to go to sleep for maybe 4 hours if i'm lucky, then i'm off to the airport :)

bad pic of martin caught mid sentence, but a nice shot of the print workshop in situ in gertrude st     the old press looks great set up in the window, they should leave it there.

BACK ONLINE

IN MELBOURNE NOW after a pleasant day on the bus/train from mildura.  spent the evening at donnie's with ruth and we all watched the lunar eclipse between slices of pizza.  

first, a walk 

around donnie's

magnificent garden

look carefully up into the top left of the palm trunk and you'll see the beautiful kestrel
that is nesting there.  as we watched the pair flew out of the tree and away

just before the lunar eclipse began

WHOO HOO

GETTING READY TO GO - today is packing packing packing   -  packing up artwork to go to Mario's exhibition next month,  packing artwork for our Tussock show at pt.lonsdale, my bag for japan :0)  -   the house is clean thanks to val the cleaning lady, and i'm heading off to a friend's tonight so i can get the early bus to Melbourne from Mildura.
Looking forward to the eclipse of the moon tonight, I'm having dinner at donnie's. from there we'll get a good view, just outside Mildura on flat land looking out over vineyards.
My book is finished and also ready to be packed up, i'll have boxes, bags and packages everywhere by the end of the day.

i'm very happy

with this book -

and i've really

enjoyed the process

of using monoprint

as my base art -

the watercolour

wash can be really

loose - fun to do

FOUND IT!

YES, I'M ASHAMED TO SAY i found my camera after three days of racking my brains, backtracking, wondering where the hell i could have left it and thinking it had to be here somewhere.
yes, i found it in an embarrassing place as i had dreaded i would.    in the wheelbarrow, outside parked under the huge rubber tree, cunningly camouflaged by all the black plant pots, spades etc.   my poor little canon - it's fine after its adventure in the great outdoors, thanks to fine weather, no frost, no rain and plenty of shade.  deary deary me!

well, it's lucky i did because i got these great shots of the resident willy wagtail, who found a partner this year and they've set up house in the garden about 10m from the house.  very territorial, these little fellas, i've seen him attack kookaburras, magpies, the shingleback lizard - he's always on guard

the nest

is a perfect teacup

shape finished in beautifully

wound layers of spiderweb.

it's such a perfect thing,

and today is the first day

i've seen little willomena

sitting on it.

i love my zoom lens :0)

this is the first time i've seen a willy wagtail
 sit still for more than 10 seconds

LOVELY IMAGE

THIS IS SUCH A SIMPLE COLLAGRAPH  -  just a few emu feathers and a strip of
torn piano music, they work so well together.  from the weekend class

WHERE'S MY CAMERA?

I can't find my camera - i can't see how it can be anywhere but here,  it's a complete mystery. so no photos.  I'll drag out the fuji,  but i won't be happy if i have to take it to japan. it's less compact

so here's a few pics from the archive :0)   

TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY

FROM THE BUS -  the driver (better let him remain nameless 

on the net) has started pointing out things for me to photograph :0) 

and he slowed down specially on the Buronga bridge so i could get 

a good shot of the Murray 

The vineyards are looking wonderful, thick new green foliage 

Ruth le Cheminant is in 

residence at the Art Vault

and last night she drove

me back to Wenty, we

had a drink on the 

riverbank as the sun went

down then went down to

the Royal for dinner, we

sat in the 'Sheepshitters Room'

- took me two years to

realise that's a take on

bullshitters.  Of course in 

polite society it's called

the Hessian Room :0)