Had a really good night's sleep. had an interesting day using encaustic wax to make a picture.Layering and transferring pictures. I was slow but got there in the end. Lovely to catch up with old friends, I do love coming here. Off to happy hour, not that I will drink, had my one bubbles at the exhibition opening a few minutes ago.
I have made two of these little Easter Bunnies to go on eggs and a nice little bowl I found in the $2 shop. My smaller flowered moth orchid is giving me joy as the others have stopped flowering. I hope they start flowering again as they look very healthy but I suppose time will tell. The last photo was our walk this morning with an interesting sky. Loved it. We have been out for lunch with an old school friend, great to catch up and meet a few new people. A lovely afternoon. I have fed George and Max and now for a short rest. All this people meeting is tiring.
This morning I wanted to go over to look at the Mix it Up show at Yankalilla, I usually exhibit here but I only had one thing entered , and that a left over from another show. a really good exhibition of art and crafts. We talked about a walk but things are not working terribly well in the joint department at the moment and I am trying some new pain killers so John suggested we did a bit of a tour and went to Rapid Bay to look at the new jetty that has been built and see the old one. Interesting as I havent been there for years, the caravan park was full, being Easter Friday, and there were people every where. I found the rusted remains of the old jetty quite interesting, we had dived there years ago, now the place was full of divers in very high tech gear, when I think of what we dived in and with it makes me laugh, a pair of long johns and a cotton top, home made lead weights and a very primitive porpoise tank. Times have changed and so have we, but I do think we had the best of it. Freezing but pristine waters and no one else diving in those days. Any way it was a lovely couple of hours and all not far from home.IN our early days Rapid Bay was a mining town, so the beach unlike most of our lovely beaches is mostly pebbles. They mined dolomite and shipped it out hence the old jetty. I remember going in the dead of a very stormy night to rescue a friend from a yacht who was terribly sea sick on a trip to Kangaroo Island. I am not sure that would be possible with the new jetty as it seems to be purely recreational. What fun we had.
I am still slowly working on the second art doll, taller and a bit harder to work on. we walked this morning, last photo along the cliffs near Petrels, yesterday the waves were huge on the beach and being very loud as they broke on the outer reef, today was quite different, and quite cold, a southerly wind and not as many clothes on as I would have liked. we came home the back way, along Tugwell road, one of my favorite ways to come home, dirt track and trees close to the road. Magic. It has tried to rain a bit today, overcast and a bit threatening but nothing really happening. I am trying to work out if I have everything for the class in Ballarat after Easter, slowly getting there. John found some quinces on the tree he thought the birds had eaten them all but no, there were more than he thought so we will be having quinces and yoghurt for breakfast for the next few days. I made rock buns as he was out of biscuits, a change from walnut biscuits.So relatively busty and enjoying it although George got into my work room and I had a hard job evicting him. He has got very heavy. He loves it in there, another cat (in the mirror!) and things he can throw around. We brought in 2 cattleya orchids as they are about to flower and he has had a lovely time pulling out bits of bark from the potws and either hiding them under rugs or throwing them around in the air. Wicked cat.
I think I need Cinderella and her fairy god mother to turn this into a carriage, it is big. I havent got in to see what others are in there and how big they are, so we are assured of pumpkin soup and roast pumpkin over winter. The pony is one we swapped for a mare last season, he is a nice little fellow, called Dalgangle Motown, we will see how he goes over our mares, not exactly what we were looking for, actually we didnt need another stallion but time will tell. John has gone fishing today and I have made a chocolate cake and an impossible pie to take up to have lunch tomorrow with my sister and my friend P, its supposed to be fairly cool so I hope it is. I dont much like driving to Adelaide but I am now more or less organised.
There are definite signs of autumn. Colder nights and even the days are more pleasant. We have had a lot more rain than normal and the garden has been loving get it. Canna flower, jack in the pulpit, bromeliad flower and the lovely big leaves of the elephants ear.
We went in to town early this morning to have a walk before a doctors appointment. We didnt have a lot of time but there were not many people around and I took a few photos. Not often one becomes a tourist in ones own home town. The sign with the seal etc was new and I hadnt seen it before. Not sure how the locals feel about the seal as they have eaten almost all the fairy penguins but they are here. The railway station taken from the south. love all those roof lines, almost looks Japanese. The sign with the steam train on top is relatively new and I havent taken a photo of it before. I really like it. The causeway over to Granite Island was rather exposed with the low tide. No photo of the horse tram or the horses, it was too early. a lovely mornings walk.
double click to enlarge the photos.
I dont think I ever remember seeing such a low tide with banks of sea grass exposed and the sea birds feasting. Of course we dont always walk along the beach here but even so it was a fascinating sight and the reef on the tumble about, which was too far away for my little camera to catch was very exposed. It was cold and windy this morning with quite a disturbed sea beyond the reef. The photo of the black post is the one that usually has a cormorant on it, I dont think I have ever seen the base exposed before. I am attempting to do some house work, not sure what is wrong with me as I am continuously tired and if I sit in my chair for a while I fall asleep. I am also trying to start on another slightly taller art doll, she is on the same lines as the last one but the skirt will be taller. I am taking my time over her.
It is quite cold!! Amazing, and windy and the humidity has gone. I took a photo of the Australian cedar tree we have growing in the garden, grown from a seed I brought back from Queensland probably 25 or more years ago. Love this tree. Then we went walking on the beach near Kent reserve, there have been lots of jelly fish washed ashore over the last few days, these were more or less gathered together but a fraction of what are on the beach, large and small. Then a lovely shot of the sea and sky and reef, it was quite a low tide. Beautiful.
I think I have finished the little art doll, and I think I would like to make another, having learnt from this one. This morning we went over the peninsular to the other coast at Normanville and walked. As it is a long week ejd there were lots of people and it was much warmer than at home. We were still having fog but high humidity. It was lovely to walk on a beach that I had known intimately as a child, and although there were very few shells I found a cowrie, bliss.
John calls them triffids, I call them verbascum. I love the architectural look of them. They mildly self seed around the garden.
Foggy and humid this morning, certainly not cold. I took these photos as I was driving in to Victor to shop this morning. The fog was still hanging around when I came back home a couple of hours later. High humidity and no wind seems to be the cause. I will be glad when this humidity has gone as it just makes me not want to do much.
Hot, sticky, damp, everything feels so tropical, I feel as if we are all growing mould. No energy.
This mornings walk was interesting, very low cloud, no wind and reflections, which were lovely but it was not pleasant walking. the two crows were fossicking amongst the sea weed. I have nearly finished the art doll but still not qite. She has been fun to make.
I have spent the last few days trying to get an art doll done. Lots to think about and if I make another I would do it differently but I am quite pleased with this little lady. Not finished yet but getting there. The garden has been springing to life with the last few rains we have had, although you wouldnt think it was autumn, too warm and muggy but that just makes things grow. The colchiums are out, I must remember to divide them up a bit, and the autumn jot sedum is getting organised in different places. The garlic chives, which I curse at times is making the bed by the drive look a bit cleaner and brighter with their white flowers. Had one of those days when the walk in the morning made me tired and so I have read and fiddled with nothing useful all day. Well I have done some washing, hope that counts as useful.
As you can see it was overcast and grey, but warm and muggy. Biggish swells were coming in onto the reef and making the waves ripple as around this young gull who didnt seem to want to fly away. There is always a shag on the short black post but my little camera makes it difficult for me to get him in close up. as you can see the sky was interesting. We had a thunderstorm last night and another 10mm of rain, good as it re fills the tanks but some did come down rather fast and the pin oak leaves which are falling keep blocking up the downpipe into the tank by the house and water over flows the gutters. At least the window was shut this time so no water actually in the house. I am playing with wire for a skirt for an art doll, trouble is my fingers dont much like the wire. time will tell if I finish it,
We went over to Goolwa this morning to get some chilies from the market, my farmers market doesnt have them and there is a man at Goolwa who does, I freeze them. We went up to see a new exhibition of photographs, rather interesting. Then on to walk on the beach at Middleton. Not really my sort of beach, the sand tends to be a dirty colour but it was low tide and quite nice to walk along. Lots of surfers out and about. Big wide skies and surf but pretty small waves. I suppose I have never been a surfer, we were divers but the children were. I liked to see what was under the surface of the water! On to call in to Tabby and family and then home for lunch, I had made a ricotta and marinated vegetable terrine which is rather nice, makes enough for three lunches with a sliced of home made bread to mop up the juices. I made walnut biscuits after lunch and havent done a lot since. It is hot and muggy, not my kind of weather so I read for a while. Now it is time to do the feeds and tonight, thank goodness is Johns night to make pasta, a nice one with egg plant I bought yesterday, tomato, chili,basil, garlic and smoked salmon. He is the pasta specialist.
