Pomegranite Book cover

This started out as a piece of painted cloth which I then used my lino cut of a pomegranite over the top. Then some Free motion machine stitch and now made up it looks pretty good for the cover of my sketchbook .
I have done quite a few things but so far I havent managed to either scan or photograph them. It is so hot that we only just exist by not doing too much. I am afraid that when the temperature gets over about 38 C our evaporative air conditioner doesnt work terribly well, sitting under a vent and with a fan on helps so I have been trying to do things that dont use a lot of energy. It has been around 42, I hope it doesnt last for too long.
One of Ann Wood's papier mache boats is under way, nice and mindless to paste scraps of paper on a cardboard base, I love her boats you can see them here as well as all the other lovely things she makes. She has a tutorial somewhere.
A couple more small houses are finished and a few other unfinished things.
We are out tonight to sit on a friends terrace facing the sea, we are all taking in a platter of finger food, sounds wonderful.
Tomorrow is Adelaide, not looking forward to that but we have appointments and it cant be helped.

My computer is working again.

Not a good week my washing machine stopped spinning, so now I have a new one, and my computer has been having problems, again, I think it is on the way out but John did a bit more to it yesterday and it seems a bit better. I just need it to last out a bit longer.
I am thrilled with the new washing machine as I will now be able to do a bit of felting in the new one, the old would only work on cold water. The local white goods shop was luckily having a special on washing machines, I had to laugh when they said the smaller ones didnt do big loads, this is a 5.5 kg weight of washing, my od one was a 4kg! So with any luck it will hold and wash more than the old one.
Also during the week these lovely books arrived, so birds may be the next thing I make, if I ever have time. I havent had much time to look at Maggie Grey and Isobel Halls book yet but there are some interesting things in there.
As well as trying to doing weaving in Jude Hills Boro class and using my embellisher in Dale Rollersons class, I am making more small houses, they are rather addictive, this little one has just been finished and I have two more to embroider and finish. I had been using the machine but we are having a burst of very hot weather, around 40degrees C for a few days so hand stitching in the cool may be the way to go.
We walked on the beach yesterday morning early, so I could shop and we could be home before it got too hot and I hadnt realised when i took this photo that I had the clouds reflected in the wet sand. I rather like it.
John went fishing this morning so another early start to go to the market and then headed up to see Tabby and the girls as I havent seen them for over a week, Millie was having a dont want to know you morning.
We apparently have fish so I had better go and see if it has cooled down a bit and feed the animals and put on some hoses. I will be doing late night and early morning watering for the next few days.

Australia Day

Sorry about the repeat birds, I had trouble identifying the different shots I had taken
This morning we were up bright and early to go into the Australia Day celebrations, a very dear friend of ours and her husband were our areas recipients of the local awards, they certainly deserved it and Bettyanne made the most of it. She is a darling. New Mayor made a good job of it, always interesting to see how they get on.
We had a coffee afterwards with friends and then came home to a seafood salad and a bottle of wine under the glory vine by the house. While we sat and chatted I took numerous photos of the birds and the garden around where we sat.
The honeyeater was catching insects, what a good fellow.
The peacock watched what was going on from his perch and finally I have a vaguely reasonable photo of one of the many little male blue wrens who with their drab little wives inhabit my garden.
The hydrangeas are out in full flower. I seem not to have got some of the other photos of the garden in, oh well I am not terribly good at making these composite photos.
With any luck if you click on it it will enlarge, probably enough for you to see that John has a mouthful of chocolate!

Three days of beach walks

People walking dogs and children on the beach quite early this morning, a sunny blue sky day,
Yesterday, grey and windy with waves roaring up the beach and a dead fish left in their wake.
Sunday, at the Bay, a plover, sorry spur winged lapwing standing on the reef.
Things can change so quickly. I washed a wool blanket today, still not dry, it became overcast and cool with a few large drops of rain as I hung it out.
Such is life.

Bit of this and that

After I had put the photos up I thought I should have done a grid, I might think of that tomorrow.
We had a heavy fog the other morning and I was out of the front door with the camera taking this rather odd shot down the track.
A bit more of Pt Willunga for V, the reason there were not so many people was that when I took these they were all up watching the cycle race so the beach looked deserted, it filled up later, just one of those magic days.
John and I walked along the beach here this afternoon as it drizzled all morning not much in it but still a bit of precipitation, and it was cold and grey on the beach. Unbelievable.
My yellow crocosma is flowering by the bedroom door, I just missed a tiny honey eater at the flowers, trying to be a humming bird. Another early morning photo, I like early morning, too tired by the evening. I have the red-y orange one as well but am very fond of the yellow.
I spent most of the day washing and tidying so I can get on with a few things tomorrow, although my 'other' room is still a mess and I need to clean that up as well.
Why am I such a messy person! I spend more time tidying up so I can get on with things. I admit to not being able to find a heap of stuff since I had to put visitors in one room and move everything from there into the other.
Not enough room, not enough cupboards!
Should I be thinking of downsizing? Heaven forbid.

Tour down Under at Pt Willunga

It was a magic day yesterday at Pt Willunga. We had a lunch date and were there in time to see both parts of the Tour as it passed just near the friends holiday house we were lunching at.
Helicopters, cycles, they go so fast you have no hope of seeing or trying to pick out an individual, I have no idea who these were.
We left early to get there before the road closures and it was one of those magic days, the beach looked stunning and the tide was way out, the colour of the sea was incredible.
Lovely to sit and catch up with some of the younger generation and not feel quite so old!
A good lunch and a lovely summers day.
The photos of the beach are for V, enlarge and enjoy.

Friday night

The opening of the Rotary Art Show and we went to dinner after wards at the Beach Hut, an interesting place which serves pizza and Indian food.
so first the view from our table, looking over the road to the Bluff, then the tandoori prawns, or a couple that were left after we had eaten most of them, and our combination pizza, Mexican for John and Mediterranean for me. We rolled home full of food and good wine!
I am doing Jude Hil'ls Spirit Cloth on line class and this is a bit of my preparation from the class before, I have been having a lot of fun ripping up shirts and finding stuff I have made doing eco dyeing.'
I am really looking forward to this class, but thats not all, I am also about to embark upon Dale Rollersons new on line class using the embellishing machine and tomorrow I start a 5 day painting course, so I think I will be in a total state of "help! I have taken on too much" by the end of the week and blogging may not happen much.

Today

I am still having problems trying to edit my photos but I will get around to it, it is a matter of remembering what to do and having time to do it.
It has rained all day today, just quietly and so far a bit more than 13mm which is wonderful for filling the rain water tanks and not being so heavy it washes the ground.
the first photo I took of the wet from inside the sitting room and was amused to see a little black pug face peering in at me when I took it.
I had wandered around the garden before the rain started just taking small photos of things in pots by the back door.
So some bedding begonias in a pot, a mix of geranium, and some herbs and a yellow nasturtium which is still flowering, shows how on the whole we have had a mild summer as usually they have died down by now. My pots are a bit messy but I havent been able to get a clear run at sorting them but now my knee is feeling so much better I hope to clean them up a bit soon.
Finally the rose Lamarque flowering her head off over the shed, such a lovely rose with a wonderful lemony scent.
I have carried on a bit about the Queensland floods on my other blog (on the side bar) so I wont say any more here except I dont know how people cope in those situations.

Collections

Well not strictly but the first is a collection of beach found rocks that is gradually building up, I always seem to come home with a rock of some sort, today it was one that was heart shaped and one like a dinosaurs tooth.
The beach threw up this collection of kelp and sea grass onto the beach, it looked very photogenic.
Then there was a collection of bubbles and froth as we walked this morning. As the last photo shows it was cold and a bit damp and there was a strong wind blowing, so different to yesterdays wonderful morning of blue sky and still seas.
It has mizzled all day today and I have had to find a wind cheater to wear, it happens but I wasnt expecting it.
We talked this morning to friends in Queensland, they are not in danger of floods but are cut off from the main towns and are wondering if and when any new supplies will get into their small community. Luckily being people who have lived in the bush all their lives they keep a well stocked kitchen even now they are retired and in a coastal area.
The floods have been absolutely horrendous, I have been hearing horror stories of people with ponies and horses watching from the roofs of their houses as they were swept downstream. It all happened so suddenly and there was no warning especially in the Lockyer Valley and now they are telling a huge number of people in the Brisbane area to evacuate to higher ground, but as one man holding a baby said, where is the higher ground? 3/4 of the State of Queensland is under flood alert, places are having 100 mm in an hour, the whole State is saturated and it will take weeks for the floods to go down and there is more rain to come. It is a disaster of unimaginable proportions and I am not sure if they are ready for it.
Droughts for years and now this.

More houses, dolls and our walk

This morning we walked around near Kent Reserve again, a beautiful morning for a walk not too hot and a calm sea. The sea gull seemed to think so as well.
Here is the back and front of my latest little house and also a small collection of the latest ones with some of the cloth dolls waiting for new homes in my hall.

Land and sea

This morning we went early for a walk, and as it was pretty windy we went around by The Bluff. We went through the back way and the Bursaria Spinosa was in full flower, in some places this is called Australian Christmas bush, a lovely thing that this year is covering itself with honey scented small flowers.
I love the back road, it is not used often and some of the properties around it are not farmed in the way our farm is and has a certain wildness to it.
There was a fair wind from the south east blowing so we parked by Whalers and walked the dirt road around to the Bluff jetty. It was a rather wild and lumpy sea and we both thought this fellow in his boat was quite mad, but then perhaps he enjoyed wasting petrol and the thumping his boat was giving him. (click on the photo).
Nearer to the shore these waves were rolling in, rather dirty from all the Murray River water that is finally making its way to the sea.
Last night, after a prompt from one of the blogs I follow, one of the Paris ones and I cant remember which, we went to the 4.30 session of 'The Tourist' with Angelina Jolie and Johhny Depp, a wonderful romp with fantastic views of Venice (and a little bit of Paris). Just the thing for a summers evening and even John enjoyed it.
I made a pizza to finish the evening off and a glass or two of wine. Sometimes I think we are boring, perhaps we are but we enjoyed it none the less.

Summer beach walking

Here is one of the little hooded plover which has a proportion of the beach fenced off as it has a nest. My new camera does make taking these photos a lot easier.
The cockle train was coming along by the beach just as we were going down the ramp so I stopped and took photos, as you can see it is very close to the beach.
The swamp at the end of the river, it is no longer flowing out to sea although fresh water is seeping through the sand.
We almost got sun burnt on our walk today. A bit later than we wanted to be as I had to see the surgeon who did my knee, my post op appointment. He tells me the tear in the meniscus was a 20 year olds tear, not an over 60, I didnt like to tell him it was actually an over 70 year old but he tells me it should be ok for a while although now there is no more meniscus I dont really have a cushion there any more.
Very hot and humid and most uncomfortable.
After spending most of the day working out photos on the computer I think I just may have won. I hope so. John said I was having too many problems with the adobe starter edition so now I am seeing what else works for me.
Swollen feet and the one I badly bruised the other day is not happy. Heavens above I just get over one thing and another rears its ugly head!
Millie and Tabby came for dinner last night and we had a lovely time and Millie went home with more 'stuff'. A dolls bed and several dolls I had forgotten I had. Not sure Tab was quite so pleased about it all but Millie was ecstatic.
She really is beginning to chat and I think enjoyed being the center of attention. Of course I forgot to take photos we were having so much fun.