My new child

I have had problems loading photos today so this one finally came through from my pictures and is not the one I would have used from picasa, which was cropped but it is late and I am tired and not everything has gone to plan today. I did get over to see a friend yesterday, the one who lost her husband and had lunch and a long long chat about well everything. It was lovely, I have had so much trouble finding time for all of this and finally on the spur of the moment both of us had nothing on. Today was shopping and a few other things and I have been trying to finish a beanie for my granddaughter, well it is finished but looks huge and she wants a pom pom, its so long since I made one the first one that I spent hours over all the wool fell off when I tried to tie the lot together, I have found another way of doing it and I just hope this works! I hate wasting wool. Off to make sure the butter chicken for dinner isnt burnt, oh yes and of course another drama with one of my mares, at this time of the year my daughter who is the stud mistress these days gets a bit frazzled and when it was my mare with a tummy ache she rather let fly. She has been treated and is now in a nice paddock so I hope all is ok in the morning. Oh for a peaceful life.

Using my old camera

This morning when I walked Max I grabbed the old camera, not that it is that old, my Nikon coopix s8000 which I still love but the clarity and zoom on the new panasonic lumix is a lot better.
The peacocks are calling and taking an interest in the hens so will I manage to get chicks this year without the foxes getting them is always the question.
As I walked a huge flock of ibis were circling above me, so a photo was a must, we have been having interesting weather lately, wind and lots of different clouds, a bit warmer today but quite windy.
Spring is just around the corner and the early cherry plum blossoms are out, a lot of mine like this one have self seeded and if they are in a place that doesnt matter I leave them, this one has been a bit battered by the last few days weather but was a froth of blossom, and yes it stays.
I planted a few little rock daffodils around and this one caught my eye this morning too.
The weeds have also been catching my eye but until we have a few dry warm days I am afraid my joints wont let me to weed, and any way when I try I bring up half the earth as well, frustrating.

A wonderful wild blustery walk

We walked along the cliffs this morning, windy and big swells crashing in. I took a zillion photos but I think that these probably , I am not sure, give the best idea of what it was like.

Walking around the bay

These wonderful mallows were in full flower as we walked around the mouth of the Inman River and on the beach yesterday.
The one bit of bright blue on a day that just got greyer and greyer and a perpetual drizzle set in.
Not a nice day and cold! I keep looking at Darwin temperatures and wonder how I will survive as they seem quite hot, well we have been in 11 and 13 degrees C here and they are 33!
These photos were really what caught my eye, the Islands, the river mouth, the beach and the reeds in the sandhills behind the beach.
A lovely walk but we got home and opened up the fire and I ended up doing some more work on my travellers blanket, lots still to do and I should have done it ages ago, still a few more patches are on properly and it was nice to have the blanket on my knees as I worked and listened to classical music.
John has gone fishing today and the sun is out a bit I hope it stays that way for a while.
I am tidying up!

In my mail and walking

Today in the mail came these lovely little matchbox books from Gina Ferrari of Fan my flame blog, tiny and quite beautiful. My long standing connections with Japan meant I had to get the japanese book, and as I had hoped to go to the UK and get a mug or somesuch thing to add to the Royal stuff I have and then I wasnt going so I had to have something from the silver jubilee and so what better than this from Gina.
Not quite as good as going to get the real thing but almost. Thanks Gina.
Yesterday I did two walks, or perhaps it was the day before, any way, we have been having interesting clouds lately so these taken from above the house and looking west along the valley, then the beach walk, we hadnt done one for so long, so a rather boring one of the Bluff and Wright Island and we found this very owl like tree that had been cut down, eyes and a beak, what more could you want from nature?
Two foals born today, the first for the season, a filly at about 2 am in the freezing cold and a colt at about 9 am, one a Welsh Section B and the other a Welsh
A, nice to have early ones but the weather is so foul I do worry about them.
Photos when they unscrunch a bit.
Both Mums are maidens so it was  nice that all went well.
I have been wandering a bit over the last two days which has been very nice. I just wish this weather would warm up a bit.

I am a rotten book maker!

 I have spent days trying to work out how to make this book. I used a small premade box that the mini magnums come in, at least two layers of paper and gesso, then several layers of paint, put on and wiped off and then finally a stencil sprayed on, I wonder if I should put a protective layer over that? But what?  Would acrylic wax be ok? Any ideas would be very gratefully accepted.
I had cut up several sheets of paper and these were made into folios and finally today I found my waxed thread and had a go at binding them all together.
Of course as with anything I do, the holes were not quite right, I broke 3 needles but finally I have something that I think will work.
Even to the used envelope on the back.
Didnt know how to fasten it, I had the elastic but had a sudden brain wave, use clips which I have done. Yes there is an extra hole, I thought I might find something I could dangle from it.
Something achieved at last.

Clouds and sea

 After the market we walked along the base of The Bluff as it was threatening rain, which happened, and here it was at least a bit sheltered.
Not too many people out and about but we did see a seal, he was a bit quick for a photo but I am always pleased to see them, even if at the moment they are being blamed for the lack of fairy penguin numbers.
I know P wont like this, she complains about my collages but it is much easier to put up several photos this way.
I love the natural bowl made of granite on the rocks, worn by nature not by humans.
You can click and double click to enlarge these photos.
I am still being frustrated by the fact that everything I am doing is taking for ever to dry, intermittent showers was the way the weather bureau described today, a bit more than intermittent and very cold as well.
I suppose in a few weeks we will be complaining about the dry and the heat.
Have a lovely week end.
I am off to see if either my glue or my paint is dry.

Water water every where

We had over an inch of rain last night, plus gale force winds and freezing , well not really freezing but cold for us temperatures.
This morning when i walked max there was water all over our neighbours flat but by the time I got down there to go in to get the mail and papers it had dropped a bit,but even so.
I love the bubbles and odd waves and riffles that the creek has when it is in flood. I see I even got a duck.
I love it when the creek floods. Sorry to have so many watery photos but although I am doing some textile stuff and an on line class with Carla Sonheim, I havent got very far with anything as yet, not enough to show.
Perhaps over the week end I will get it done.
I love doing on line classes but I run out of room on my computer, no thats not right, I use up all my allowance of gigabytes or whatever they are with so many of them now on video and I have to sit and write it all down so I dont have to go back to it again and again. John gets cross when his computer goes slow as it is the business computer.
Also I really like to see what I am doing so I tend to get some stuff done and then wait to the end. This time I found my gesso wasnt thick enough so I have had to go over the cardboard several times and in this cold weather it doesnt dry very quickly.
I have spent 2 days trying to work out how to bind my book I want to take away with me to Darwin, finally I think I know what I am doing, simple longstitch and using a pizza box for a cover, but that is taking time to dry too.
This one I am making will have several different types of paper in it, I am hoping for lots of time to play in it!
I really wanted to do coptic stitch but it is so long since I did a bookmaking class I have forgotten and all my books seem to make it all very complicated.
Perhaps another one later, but I also have a lovely little one that Fiona Dempsey had made for me.
click to enlarge.

Fabric bowl and the duck pond is full

I have finally finished this small bowl, made from sari twist and cotton, it took me so much longer than I expected it to but as a first attempt at basket weaving with fibre I found it fun and rather soothing.
I did have to strenghten the top with a bit of wire woven in around it so now it holds its shape quite well, not that you can notice the wire.
Damn I have just lost the side photo, oh well you get the idea.
At the moment I am making books, slowly as I had forgotten how to and have to go back to my notes.
I had an early trip into have a blood test and then shop and on the way home finally stopped and took some photos of the duck pond on the way into Victor.
It had been fiddled with to make it deeper and of course that mucked up the bottom so it doesnt hold water as well as it once did. The last few years it either didnt fill at all with the drought or not much but this year it is overflowing and looks wonderful. I would imagine the red gums are enjoying a nice drink as they like to have their feet wet occasionally.
It is still amazingly wet, I tiptoed along the back road yesterday to go over to Yankalilla and decided to come home on the bitumen, a wise move as  Inman Valley hadnt had much rain and the minute I hit the Back Valley entrance it poured all the way home.
Cold and blowing now.

Two walks

 This morning I walked Max up the hill behind the house and as we had had a bit of rain over night I took photos of clouds, muddy tracks and water lying in paddocks.
Then we ewent in to get the mail and papers and walked along the cliffs by Petrels Cove, there seems to be some sort of shelter being erected but we will wait to see what it is.
The wind came up and there was rain out to sea but closer in the sea was this incredible colour and then that small thing in the bottom right hand corner was my first whale for the season, it just cruised around the Bluff and there it was.
Click on collage twice to enlarge it.
The home photos were taken with my nikon camera and the sea ones were taken with the panasonic.
I didnt feel terribly well yesterday still coughing and so I didnt do a lot but today I feel much better, I just hope I keep on feeling that way, so depressing to feel so off.

A bit of play

 I am tking things pretty slowly although I am still walking.
Over the last few days I have managed to do these, I needed to use up those little fme faces so here are two I put together as well as a small doll I have been playing with.
I seem to have been surprise surprise a relatively good housewife, washing done making food J can eat as his teeth are not working terribly well yet with the new plate where they took out teeth, so soft stuff like soup and pasta etc. In between i am aching and still coughing and not feeling like death but not much like doing too much.
I need to get back to the sewing machine but at the moment I am spending some time between a fairly nothing book which I am enjoying much to my surprise and making a small basket out of sari twist which is slow but fun. I havent made a basket for so long.
The soup made and I am heading out to sit by the fire, brr its still remarkably cold in here where my computer is. Then I will think about making a chicken lasagna for dinner tonight.

Trying the new camera

 After hours of stuffing around I have finally loaded some photos taken with the new camera.
I am quite pleased with them and at least now I know how to load etc, but wading through the how to is a nightmare, fine on a disk but then I have to read it.
I am not sure how happy I am with the new glasses either, some how the focal lenght for the computer is not quite right so ba.
Any way here are the three owls, or two owls and a womble, and some plants in the sunroom. I havent done any fiddling with  them except to crop as I am using my normal photo editing.
Small differences in how my two cameras work will now keep me on my toes.