ON THE ROAD AGAIN

I'M IN BED listening to the birds at don's.  the drive down was perfect, big blue skies, warm sun, huge everchanging clouds and podcasts :0)     the canola fields are in full bloom and they always
lift my spirits

THE PAST WEEK

RECENT PICS of my gorgeous son with the family - they're settling in to tokyo, spending a bit of time at the beach. i must check the map and see where that is, my geography is pretty awful :0(

a favorite visitor, the yellow rosella

THE KITCHEN is almost done, i changed all the new doorknobs back to the original wooden knobs, they suit the doors better and are nice to use.  happy now :0)  i have a new matchstick blind to put up  and the new fridge is installed.  lovely !!

these s/s knobs are gone now, i could see i'd always be straightening them and they just don't seem right.  happy with the cupboards though

climbing up and
realising how greasy
the shelving was up
high meant a clean
out of heaps of
glassware, everything
laid out all over the
kitchen - thank god it's back to normal now.


here it comes :0)

Had a lovely night on Saturday, sonja and helen came over around 

4 and after a couple of hours in warm sun on the verandah we had dinner,  mussels again :0)

sunrise on sunday morning

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

BOOK WEEK and THE SHOW

AFTER A WEEK of painting and climbing up and down the ladder i had a full day of talks and workshops for the end of book week.  Mildura West Primary School, a big noisy fun school with great teaches and kids.

SATURDAY/SUNDAY  the Wentworth Show, it's the best.  the committee asked me to take the photos this year, no pay just free entry but what fun to have an excuse to just wander around taking endless pics of animals, people and food :0)

always a favorite, the
fruit and vegies
made into animals :0)

 memories of my
experience of
judging the 'citrus
gift presentation' -
when they swapped
first and second
around after i'd
chosen them.  show
politics  :-O

these roaming
dinosaurs were
a huge hit,
specially with
young boys

my pilates teacher Lou's kids Ava and Alfie

for the first time there aren't sheep available for the working dog trials - so many people are destocking in the drought, so they tried goats instead.   i don't thing the dogs or goats knew what to make of each other. luckily no dogs were gored

WEARABLE ART  - costumes made out of woolpack fabric, top is a sunset, next a hilarious jar of preserved apricots - gaye is one of the women i deal with at the Wentworth Standard when i send in pics

my occasional hairdresser emily models a steampunk entry

AFTER A FULL DAY in very warm sun on saturday and up early sunday to photograph the dog trials, i headed home at midday and enjoyed not one but two vanilla slices and a G&T on the verandah wearing my new bling from my favorite tent at the show, i like to call it the sparkly tent, full of fabulous very inexpensive jewellery and scarves.

hard to see but these are very 

sparkly rhinestones with silky

tassels,  very glam :0) 

vanilla slices by tonia, she has a business at Yelta which i may have to follow - these are the BEST!! 

KITCHEN PROGRESS

THE NEW COOKTOP is great, first celebratory meal cooked on it, mussels with tomatoey garlicky spaghetti and a martini - well deserved after the disruptive previous few days. 

Now i'm deep into painting the cupboards, getting rid of all that knotty wood and lightening everything up, new brushed S/S doorknobs and i've taken down the dark wooden venetian. it's coming along nicely, i'll be painting every day this week.

I'm buying a new fridge too, realised after ordering it that it's
10cm too high for the cavity - and they don't make them any shorter.
so friend sue with her super duper
power tools, came around and we
moved the cupboard carcasss up.

GIRL POWER!!

COOKING

amongst the 

paint cans, 

the kitchen 

is a complete schemozzle!

trouble is self portrait land,  i've used a transparent medium as a
finish between layers and it's coming through the darks as a chalky bloom.  i had a good chat to steve at Art Stretchers, the maker of the medium and i've used it incorrectly. so now i'm trying to scrub
off a layer or two of black background with turps.  i may have a few unuseable
(more recent and better) little portraits and i need
to enter the RickAmor soon
with a photo.   grrrr