DIFFERENT TIMES

LOOKING BACK AT MY LAST POST - visiting the wenty library to photograph storytime.   now the library's closing, along with the op shop.  everything's grinding to a halt from COVID19.
in the past two weeks rene has arrived, been up here with the family for three days, then i travelled back to torquay and we had gail's house for three days. altogether they had 12 days here and got back to tokyo safely,  all flights except for returning australians are cancelled and who knows where else this pandemic will take us. i'm more or less self isolating for two weeks, or maybe indefinitely depending on what happens.  i'm very lucky to live in this gorgeous place, the butcher birds are singing now as i write.
i'm used to being alone and scraping by, but a lot of people who work with people and are used to decent wages, with mortgages to pay will struggle.   all live entertainment is shutting down, galleries,
restaurants etc.

SO, since the 7th . . .
i've trashed my original portrait of sonja and painted over it, it's coming along nicely and i'm looking forward to getting back out there and doing more.

i've painted over it 

a second time, trying

to get the sense of

engagement with the

viewer that she has

mal
delivered
my archie
entry, all
framed.

now the
archie is
postponed

RENE and family arrive - so great to have them here

 scary moment 
- mara tried
to dip her 
feet in like
me and 
seconds after
this pic, she
slipped into
and under
the water. i
leapt in and 
grabbed her,
made us
realise how
easily a child
could drown. 
it sends 
shivers up 
my spine

cal cooked

the barbie,

very seriously

i made a big
chocolate
ripple cake
for the kids,
it disappeared
in two sittings

sitting on the
verandah, lots of butterflies after a
big big rain

WE ALL DROVE DOWN to torquay, i went separately via castlemaine and took marg down to her sister's there.  lynne is a sculptor, fabulous work and a lovely house and studio, great garden. 

just one more dust storm on the way

I STAYED WITH RENE AND FAMILY at gail's for three nights, family time with sunny and luke, susan and sean, jenny and freddie, grigor came round on two nights, gail . . . some beach time, op shop time, lots of cooking and talking, just right :0)

we all headed down to the beach and it was FREEZING! i wrapped poor little mara up in my scarf but we all hightailed it back to the house. luckily next day was beautiful

Mara fell in love with gail's plush dressing gown

    a beautiful visitor to gail's garden, the king parrot

BACK HOME NOW and staying here, i have painting, knitting, sewing, netflix, the garden and cleaning out the old bungalow to keep me busy.

the bee eaters here yesterday, i think they're getting ready to leave.  nice to stroll around the garden in lovely weather

BUSY DAY

THE WENTWORTH LIBRARY invited me to go down and watch the Australian ballet doing an interactive session with the littlies at storytime.  they were doing the nutracker.  of course i rushed down with the camera and was pretty disappointed that there was one girl there in black tshirt and pants who read them the story and then did actions with all the kids.  my romantic notions of gorgeous costumes and elegant dancers went out the window.  but it was lovely, the little kids were so funny, and the boys who looked horrified at first that they were asked to join in, ended up trying the hardest.

I loved watching the boys,

at the beginning they

didn't want to take off

their shoes or get

involved, but they ended

up being completely into

it, concentrating hard, 

really listening then

just going for it  :0)

 

i got home and trashed sonja's portrait, it just wasn't working so i've started again and i can see the painting i want ready to emerge :0)

LAST NIGHT susan came out with thomas middlemost, huge monoprint expert and collector, also her daughter romy and friends anne and drew.
it's been cooler this week, just delightful.  perfect temperature to sit out on the verandah

LOVELY VISIT AND RAIN!

ON WEDNESDAY i had a visit from dear julie, my old editor and her lovely husband roger.  It was so good to have them here for an overnighter, we just stayed in and had a roast lamb dinner - just right because after a lot of warm dry weather it was a heavily overcast and wet day, a whole day of rain and quite cool temperatures which i just revelled in.

LAST NIGHT susan wald opened her show at MAC - work done after her residency at the Art Vault last year when she spent some days out at Mungo.   i'd seen the monoprints then, but in the meantime she's done these very large powerful paintings.

PHONE FOUND

HE HE!  After all the hassles of getting my new phone up and running, all good, i finally found the old one.  it was at the bottom of a large tub of water that i left in the garden for the kangaroos.  i decided to empty it onto a dry looking vine and there at the bottom was my poor phone.  it must have dropped out of my shirt pocket, a very bad habit that i have.  i must only have it outside in my special
little carry bag. 
tax scares are over, the phone is sorted, i've had a couple of agents to look at the house, now i have time to work on my book and sonja's portrait.
she came out for friday night, we had a nice dinner at home, a sitting next day after attending an auction down the road ( good price, $500,000) and a sitting, then a movie in the afternoon.
not happy at all with the portrait, i think i may have to destroy it and start again?  not sure

this was how it
was when i started
on saturday after
a week of not
looking at it - there
is none of sonja's
warmth here

still not capturing sonja at all  :0(

LOST PHONE

WELL . . . the week has been dominated by the loss of my phone and as i sit here and type i'm sure it's no more than 10m away but do you think i can find it.   had to buy another one and now apple ID won't recognise my new phone (it wants to  send a verification code to my old phone!)   so frustrating because i can't access any apps or the cloud  - have to re enter my contacts one by one.   sigh.  still trying to get help. 

gorgeous clouds coming back from town yesterday

these little petals are our constant companions at pilates, layla is our instructor lou's daughter and the other little fella belongs to one of the class.   now they're getting close to walking we're wondering what the future will bring :0)    they're hilarious as they watch, bamboozled, as we do our various horizontal and upside down exercises 

THIS WEEK

DUST DUST DUST!!   I'M OVER IT!   this was tuesday, just horrible all day so i did my usual escape to the movies,  saw Emma which i didn't like much despite beautiful costumes, landscapes and magnificent houses.   very unlikeable characters.

and this delightful dustscape was what i drove through to get home.   thankfully it was just

the one day, it's been perfect ever since, lovely sunny days and light breeze

I started a portrait of
Sonja today - two
sittings of about an
hour and a half
each.  i'll have
another sitting next
week and work on
it from photos and
the small portrait
i did in the meantime.

while we were having lunch on the verandah

these bee eaters will flitting about, catching

their own lunch