From my sketchbook

I am supposed to try and sketch for 10 minutes a day, the button container at the top was yesterday's 10 minutes.
The bottom is a doodle but I dont think that counts as a sketch.
I havent done one today, I may have time but I dont know.
I still have dogs and chooks to see to but as it has cooled off I have made a casserole and it is in the oven.
I have a friend staying and I couldnt think what I had to do 3, usually it is only 2 of us and this meat had been sitting in the freezer for a while and needed cooking. If it heats up before we finish it I can always freeze the remains!
We had to get the paper this morning and it was interesting looking at all the tourists wandering around, but a lot of the shops were pretty empty or closed.
We had a lovely time last night even when the power went off just before midnight and we did our count down in the glow of candles.
I hope this year is a little less difficult than last year but I am afraid at our age the best we can hope for is to still be here!

Wishing I was back on Kangaroo Island

We have gone right back into hot summer and that is ok if you dont mind getting burnt at the beach but with both of us having had nasties cut out and John's actually being a melanoma we are both a lot more cautious about being out in the sun.
Of course it is also sticky and the evaporitive airconditioner isnt so good when its like that, so apart from yesterday when I had a drawing lesson (which was fabulous and is on my other blog) I havent done as much as I would like but I was up early this morning getting stuff done and have been sitting in front of a fan doing some stitching.
Out here where my computer is is a bit like an oven.
So a few more photos I took while we were away, to remind me of the sea breezes and the blue of the sea.
I have made the cold cucumber and leek soup for tonight.
On New Years Eve 7 of us get together each year, and we all do a course, mine was entree this year but I decided a cold soup would be fresher. We head over to Parawa tonight on the back roads, Victor has been a nightmare to get around, the tourists, well they are tourists and one tends to go in very early to avoid them.
We are having a cool change which is along the coast but is trying to push in so I hope tonight will be cooler.
I have to do the feeds, the other night there was a large black snake in the chook shed so I am having to be extra cautious.
The phots, at the top the road home from Willson River, the rocks on the beach at the mouth of Willson River, then Hanson Bay, and finally the view of the mainland from the front of the cottage at Penneshaw, the one we sat outside each night and saw as we had our evening drinks and nibbles.
I would like to thank all who have visited in the past year and hope you come back for more.
Happy New Year to you all.

Leaving Penneshaw and home

After packing up, getting home and unpacking I was too tired to blog.
I think the 5 km hike the day before may have hd something to do with it.
Today I have washed floors and generally tried to get the house sort of clean, but in this weather, hot and a bit windy I am afraid it wont stay that way for long.
The photos first show the beach and our little cottage is on the second tier, 2nd from the lef
Then from the ferry just as we were about to leave and the third one is of the ferry unloading on the mainland.
I have been meaning to play with my flower stitcher and twin needles, as I broke the last lot I had I moved over to my more sophisticated Pfaff which I can get the flower stitcher onto and it has a button for use with twin needles. Once I got going it was great, reminds me of the rock pools I saw on the Island with sea anemones and odd bits of shell etc.
Finally a small box of some of my collections while we were away, shells and rocks and bits of wood, floats and that really nasty poly twine and some leaves.
I havent unpacked the skulls yet and a couple are still out waiting for the ants to get to them.
Talking of skulls I really wanted a possum skull and John nearly had a fit as I made him stop the car by another bit of road kill, no he was saying as I picked up a freshly killed possum, but I stashed it behind a log and I hope that next year when we come over I can remember where it was and nothing will have taken the skull too far and it will all be clean and lovely.
Sorry but I think it is the scientists daughter coming out in me.

Mouth of the Willson River, KI

I got these a bit out of order, but this afternoon we walked through the scrub and along kangaroo tracks next to the Willson River and down to the beach. Not an easy walk, and I was very tired by the time we had done the round trip.
We did this walk about 12 years ago, may well have been longer and at the time it wasnt easy, but a much hotter day and there had been a fire through. This time the scrub was much thicker so the walk down along the river was slower, and the second photo is of some young black swans on the river, this was what it was like all the way along.
The first, 3rd and 4th photos are of the small bay at the mouth, the mouth was sanded up and not flowing out. The tracks are ours and no one else had been there for a while.
John of course was fishing and he did catch one small salmon trout, which we brought home for entree.
This is the 3rd beach we have walked that has had a pair of hooded plovers on it, I think with babies, but although I found broken egg shells I wasnt going to disturb them by looking.
Sorry, I dont seem to be able to get out of the Italics!
Walking through thick scrub with a fishing rod and bucket is not easy, but then crawling through thick scrub with a back pack on isnt either, and as one of the skulls I had was a bit 'ripe' the flies loved me too, even if it was in a plastic bag.
I collected some bird and wallaby skulls, some need a bit more time out with the ants. (Weird? yes!)
There is a house on the top of the cliffs but no one was there, I know because we walked much further than we needed to on the way home and finally had to back track to the house to find the track out.
I have to say I felt terribly pleased that I managed it, but everything is now stiff! I dont like it when my back spasms.
I think if you enlarge the last photo you will see a Kangaroo Island wallaby, there were lots as we walked back, not terribly frightened of us but usually hidden under the bushes so a clear photo was not possible.
Our last night for another year, I could live here permanently but know it is not possible.

Hanson Bay and a bit of Flinders Chase

This morning we set off with a sandwich for lunch and headed down to the other end of the Island.
We stopped first at Hanson Bay, a lovely bay with the sea an incredible color. Every so often we try to fish here but today we walked the beach and I took loads of photos and then went on down to Flinders Chase, where we managed to get an infringement notice! All rather silly as we were legally parked and were looking at the koala and some Cape Barren Geese not far from it.
What with being told off for walking where we have always walked by a shack renter (not owner) with a very nasty dog, and told not to feed the sea gulls when I was trying to feed the wrens it has not been a stress free few days!
The tiny blue scaveola flowers were so pretty I had to take their photos, then three photos of Hanson Bay and finally some of the Cape Barren Geese.
Click on all photos to enlarge.

Koala in a gum tree

Today we went wandering and found this Koala up in a gum tree, not the best photo but the best my little camera will do

A quiet Christmas

John walking an amost empty beach, we had gone down to get some sea water to defrost the oysters we had for lunch in and did some walking looking for shells, I found a cowrie, always special.
The table set up for lunch and it will be the same for dinner tonight when we have roast duck, always used to be goose, I really am not sure when turkeys became the thing for dinner but now there are only two of us it is duck.
The ferry which has been so busy all week has one day off and is tied up, tomorrow it will be all go again.
I am listening to cd's, first the lovely Bryn Terfel one John gave me for Christmas, Scarborough rair and now an old one of Katherine Jenkins, La Diva, I hope some one has dot me her ultimate collection for Christmas and it is waiting at home.
I have them turned up rather as in the house over the road we have a collection of young playing dud duf music.
The final photo is of the line of shells on the beach this morning.
I am about to put the duck on and then go for another walk,
I hope you all had a day full of fun and laughter and no stress.