Blossom

The first photo is of me trying to find some dingbat fonts to use in Sharon B's Studio Journal class. I am not doing very well with this class as my computer skills are pretty poor and I have had various interruptions. I am afraid I think this is a class in which I would like over the shoulder help! I suppose at least I know know what a dingbat it!
We are also supposed to take lots of photos, which I do any way but it is finding the time to collate them all that is a problem.
I took this one out of the bedroom door this morning, we had showers all night, or so it seemed but the rain gauge didnt have much in it to show for the amount of noise on the roof and this morning it is bright sun shine and the prunus mume at least I think that is what it is, It is now an old tree is flowering, always the first.
I was in Adelaide yesterday, drove up and back and saw my mother who is ill, she seems to have a bronchial infection but was off with the pixies, told me she was in hospital had no home to go to and didnt like it there but she is well looked after and not much more we can do. She was very tired after about an hour so I turned around and drove home again. Well not quite as I called in to see P who gave me toast and a cup of tea and a sympathetic ear.

My mother and Millie and unfinished dolls

It has been freezing cold here and all my joints have been complaining so I have been doing some scanning of the photos that Tabby gave me last night of Millie and my mother she took a couple of weeks ago. I will take them up to my mother when I see her tomorrow.
Tabby and Millie and John came for dinner last night, I managed to make some meat go far enough with lots of vegetables in a casserole.
I have also been trying to finish off these dolls but they are taking me a while to get to them as I am still knitting. They need hair and a cloak and a few other bits and pieces.
I have just realised that the traders bazaar for Geelong is on the Saturday morning and now I dont know if I will be trading or not as we have dear friends coming from Western Australia while I am away and I want to get home to see them. It will be a good 9 hour drive and I dont want to be driving too late in the day, originally I was going to spend the night somewhere on the way home. I have time to make up my mind later.

The plants we saw yesterday and a rather nice sign

It has rained all day today, well almost and I am glad we walked yesterday, the wattles were flowering well and the coastal correa was out, a bit different to the one on Eyre Peninsula. I am not sure what the last plant was but I loved the way its branches were all over the place. This walk is well sign posted with these rather nice painted signs.
John and I have been tidying up cupboards, his of old files and mine of the cookery books that needed a new home. We are both aching!
I havent had time to do much more than sit and do a few rows of knitting.

Saturday walk at Pt Elliott

There were oyster catchers on Bashams Beach this morning walking around with shellfish in their beaks. A seal was rolling and diving off the granite rocks and a rainbow was off Pullen Island as we walked around the walking trail this morning. A light shower followed us back to the car.
A lovely brisk morning followed by a coffee at the Flying fish Cafe, couldnt be better.
We managed to get the new bookcase up at last but as my back is still sore after being attacked by my physio (no more for a while) I didnt get it full of the stuff I want to get in it, but I did manage to tidy up around the front door.

Working on a new doll

John went off to Murray Bridge today but as my back is still painful after my physio trip yesterday I decided to stay home.
After the mundane sweeping tidying, dish and cloth washing and going for a walk I decided I need to get on with some small dolls to sell at my table at Geelong in September, which is looming rather fast.
So I made a few very simple bodies and as I already had some polymer clay faces did a bit of designing, they are basically rather like the forest people I did last year but maybe garden people this time, it really depends on how they turn out.
Last time these little people walked off my table so I hope these will too.
A lovely sunny day but still cold and by the time I went for a walk the cloud had returned and the wind was up.
John's day was not quite as long as he had thought it would be thank goodness.

In the mail today

I am always envious of people who get lots of goodies in the mail, today it was my turn, I saw these on Alma Stoller's web site, I have been dropping into her blog for quite a while and bought one of her left over class sets from her etsy site, a few extras came too and I am thrilled with them. I have loved her whimsical faces for ages.
I couldnt remember what I had bought when an envelope postmarked New York had to be picked up today from the post office as it wouldnt fit in our box.
Freezing cold for us here today, minus 2 degrees and a solid frost, and not followed by a bright sunny day but cloud which just makes it even colder.
I had an early morning physio appointment for my back, always makes me feel tired and then shopping, normally never on a Thursday as it is pension day in our retirement town but today I got caught up in it.
Tomorrow I may go with John to Murray Bridge but I will see in the morning.

What I did today

You probably cant read my writing but this was a re cipe that caught my eye while I was waiting in the hairdressers today.
John had a 1 o'clock meeting so we had lunch, a coffee and a small sausage roll for him a coffee and a spinach and fetta something in filo pastry about 2 inches square for me, I bought flowers for my mother and then dropped him at his meeting and went late to see my mother, she was having Christmas in July so I got a bit of the end of the festivities with a small Christmas skit with a very hugely pregnant Mary who then produced a live about 5 month old boy. Dont ask but it was funny.
Any way I managed a small sketch of someones front gate which is on my other blog and a walk around a suburban block pinching four geraniums and a daisy and then collected him and came home.
Nothing of huge interest but this sounded like a decadent breakfast.

Various

Well the ironing is done, some washing and the house dusted and vacuumed so I am now feeling rather as if I have been pulled through a bush backwards.
Yesterday was interesting but very tiring, sitting for over 3 hours listening to parliamentry hopefuls is not for the faint hearted, at least I didnt waste my time as quite a lot of knitting got done, I can listen and knit, and our 3rd choice got in not bad when there were 9 vying for the pre selection.
He is a little young but knows the ropes and at least the one we really didnt want didnt so that was a help.
Photos, a road sign with or name on it, the old shearing shed with a huge elm in its winter garb behind it, then flowers that are out in the garden.
I havent had time to do any sketching, perhaps later today or tomorrow. Still things to do today and it gets dark so early.

Graffiti and seagulls

This morning we walked towards Victor and the Bluff from the Kings Beach car park. It was supposed to rain and blow all day but is still calm and not a lot of rain.
I was rather taken with the graffiti on the sign, not that I like it but it looked so odd as there is almost no sign of civilisation around.
The sea gulls had all come inland and were in the next paddock, on the grass, you hardly ever see them there and I was so fascinated with them I managed to take lots of photos as you can see.
A lovely morning and I have been busy sorting out 'stuff' for most of the afternoon.
We are out to dinner tonight, Japanese I believe, with friends who went to Japan with us.
tomorrow it is Adelaide for the pre selection of the Liberal candidate for Mayo, our federal seat and I am going to be a Madame de Farge and take my knitting as I think there will be a lot of talk and I am not happy with too many of the candidates and I am missing out on a friends 70th Birthday lunch.

July TIF

I have finished my July TIF after a lot of thought, this month was the half way of our year so that was the suggestion from Sharon Boggon of in a minute ago blog who instigated this challenge and my colors are more or less what I saw on my computer screen of the suggested colors.
As a farmer I tend to think in seasons so the dark blue is winter, with silver at the bottom indicating the frosts we get and in the top corner seeds as this is when we seed our paddocks, the flower piece is spring, the light blue summer and the central piece our autumn, brown for the first part and green for when we get rain. Remember this is Southern Australia.
This took me for ever to work out and there are many ideas in my Studio Journal, which is part of an online class I am doing with Sharon but I am afraid that when it came to doing it, I went back to using my instinct On what colors I wanted and how I wanted it to be. Seems to be the only way I can work!
A cold and damp day we get showers but still no steady downpour of rain. I did the shopping this morning, a dear friend came to visit briefly and I actually managed a walk out the back between showers.

Small Shrine with a big foot woman

I decided that my small shrine needed a deity of some sort, so one of my big Foot Women volunteered and is happily ensconced inside and I did manage to close it with a pair of buttons and a wire hook.
I am also terribly excited as Maggie Grey had a give away on her blog and I won her small embroidery. I am so excited as I never win anything, well I did once win a horse rug that didnt fit anything so I gave it away. When John was Mayor and if I happened to win anything, (which I didnt) I would have had to donate it back, so I hope Maggie doesnt want it back because when it arrives it is not going any where.
I am a bit late going out and feeding the dogs and chooks as it is pouring with rain and very cold but I had better put on all my wet weather gear and do it.

A small embellished Shrine

This is not quite finished, but I am getting there, it is my last part of my on line classes, and we had to put together the bits we liked. I am not entirely sure this has worked but it is getting there.
Very cold here today and both the fire and the heater in this end of the house are working full blast.
I will be in Adelaide tomorrow to see my mother and collect my sewing machine.
I am on antibiotics and not feeling quite the best, I have a nasty spot of infection near my nether regions and just keep on feeling tired.
I feel guilty if I have a rest, how stupid can one be!

Embellish and zap

I thought I really should show that I have been doing a bit, actually I have done quite a lot, even got the floors vacuumed before Millie and her parents arrived, she is now sitting and rolling over, not long before she crawls.
the first is a bit of embellished hand stitched stuff on felt that goes into holes when heated. I put the back up of the burnt one and the front of another that I liked without it going into holes. Using the heat gun it really stinks.
Then two more from yesterday, the bubbles on the incoming tide and the sky over Victor with the change coming in.
I am trying to get the last teddy bear outlined on the cot blanket but I have to concentrate and I keep getting interrupted.
I am also trying to do more of my studio journal but so far there is nothing I really want to put up, although cutting up colored magazines is fun.

A seal and other beasties

We had a lovely walk this morning over the causeway to Granite Island. The camera got a good work out as we saw a seal just under the causeway, the closest I have got for ages, he was having a lovely time rolling on his back and rolling over and around.
then the horse tram was coming with the interesting back drop of the steps up to the top of the island, a cormorant and then two young sea gulls who were standing conveniently close to us.
We had a coffee at the Anchorage and then home.
It is now blowing a gale, but at lest the towels I had washed dried. Iwas a little bit domestic today, really didnt feel like it, I think if I am not careful I will turn into a not terribly clean or tidy old woman!!
I feel really wicked as I havent done a painting for my other blog for ages, but after the rather long walk my hip decided it didnt like me, then the Crows who started off in front lost two key players and lost quite badly, again, football!!

Embellisher samples

Well the first photo is called old walls and is a heap of silk and stuff on felt and then covered in a chiffon scarf and burnt back with a heat gun.
the next is a paper napkin bonded onto felt that had transfer foil put on it and then distressed, then a piece with silk hankies that was then burnt back, the fourth is the other side.
I had fun doing these.
Cold today but I did manage to shop and went for a walk up the back in our old pine forest so felt that I had done something to help the plump being I am becoming.

My mermaid is finished

This is Ankai Nou, an online class I did with Angela Jareki. No where near such a lovely face as Angela does but I wasnt going to do another one as this is the third.
One of my grand sons had a very lucky escape last night when his car went off the road and into a neighbours front paddock in wet and wintry conditions on his way home from work last night.
Luckily only bruising but his car is a write off.
I am madly trying to get a few things finished, I did get some embellish stuff done and I have almost finished the little jumper, but more stuff is sitting on my work tables.
I have spent most of the week home trying to clear stuff up and dont seem to have got very far, I suppose there is always the week end!!

Walking around the base of the Bluff

It has been so wet and now we have gale warnings and sheep grazier alerts out.
So John and I took advantage of the break in the weather straight after an early lunch to head into Victor and get the papers, it is school holidays so no delivery on the school bus, and then go around to the road around the base of the Bluff and to the little jetty you can see in the background of the second photo.
We walked back stopping at one of the little beaches where I gathered some shells and sea glass and on for a coffee at Whalers. We sat outside as we had jackets and hats but as the wind started to get up we came home.
The first photo is of Wright Island, the second of a mallow by the road around the Bluff and the third is a close up of the flowers on the mallow.
As usual click on the photos for a bigger view.

Zap Zap

Here is all I have managed for week 5 of embellishstitchenrich and I feel very guilty.
But I have made a start on the cot blanket, I have made another head and skun it but not painted it for the mermaid., I have had both hips and knees X rayed and I have been to the physio, so my back is feeling a bit better.
Lots of lovely rain and all the dug up drain trenches are now full of gooey sticky mud which is ok, but woe betide any one who walks it into the house.
Oh and I finished 'Wire in the blood', by Val McDairmid a scary sort of who done it that I couldnt put down at the end.

More Encounter Bay houses

I huddled over a heater for most of the day, I dont think the temperature got over 10 degrees all day, it rained and hailed off and on and I hope we got a lot of rain, we certainly didnt get much overnight.
I had the fire out and a new flue installed, thank goodness I had the fire lit again by 3.30 pm.
Somehow not a lot got done although I did skin another face for the mermaid as I really didnt like the last one. Still to paint this one.
I asked Dale what rayon she used to knit stuff with and it is floss!! I will need my glasses for that.
Our PM came into the district for about 1/2 hour to see the state the lakes and Murray were in, I dont think he was well briefed and he didnt let the local Mayors know he was coming, in the old days that was regarded as very impolite.
Not what you would call a roaring success and still no water for the area and the Coorong is on a world heritage listing.
Not good for Australia. I only hope he eventually learns and also stops opening his mouth, we are all heartily sick of the sound of his voice offering nothing.
Politicians!!

Walking Encounter Bay

As we walked yesterday, early on a Saturday very cold morning I thought I would turn the camera away from the lovely views of the beach and Islands and to the houses that look out over it.
They vary from the renovated very early cottage which is the first one, through to a slightly younger stone cottage, to the very modern ones that are replacing the old shacks to the little shack that is probably about 1950's it has been there for as long as I have been married any way.
Then the miriad of dog walkers, all with their "fluffies" which is my generic turn for todays designer dogs, mostly in this case Maltese Shiz Zu crosses.
Spoken of in a derogative by me, a breeder of pedigree dogs!! I just cant cope with these rather sweet little dogs as very often they have the worst physical problems of both breeds, and they yap.
Today I attended a very cold windy not well attended AGM of our Welsh Pony group, the lack of members coming was appalling, especially as after pressure from members we had it on a Sunday with a BBQ lunch.