I had to be up early to go into Victor for a blood test, fog in the valley and white gum blossom on the road, did I take a photo? no. I was running late. Later we went in to get the mail and walk on the beach. A drowned feather, abandoned sea pearls, low tide and sea gulls with the Bluff and sun on the water. A nice early walk.
We have had more rain and the grass is growing quite well as the weather has been warm, a bit muggy but what rain fell was slow and steady. Just as we like it. we actually got a bit wet on our walk around Pt Elliot on Wednesday. Yesterday was cool but the clouds have been magnificent. Much to George's annoyance or delight, I am not sure which a little honey eater has built a nest and is now sitting on eggs just near the bedroom window. Not an easy place for a photo but there she is. George cant get into the bedroom now as the door has been fixed but when he is allowed in he sits at the window watching.
double click to enlarge the photos.
It has rained here all day and been very tropical and muggy, we did walk but got quite damp. It is a nice follow up but the weeds will be bursting forth in the garden and paddocks.
Yesterday we did get to the port to see the replica of HMB Endeavour. Captain Cook's ship. the B stands for Bark as that is the type she is. we had seen her in Whitby but here you can get up really close and although I dont want to go on board I just want to look.I love the ropes, the paint work, the cannon, well all of her but have no desire to sail in her, I get terribly sea sick. The two other tall ships were there, local ones The Failie and the One and All, I am not sure what they do with the Failie these days but the One and All is a training ship. Only problem was as it was early morning the sun was in the wrong place and my photos are not the best. double click and they should enlarge.
A bit of yesterday. I made walnut biscuits, the baby black chickens are growing, hope for more hens than roosters, some are pure Australorp and some crossbred. I got a bit nostalgic for Japan and am dipping in and out of a lovely book called Ryokan so a small sketch and the last photo is my unfinished embroidery of poppies, a lino cut I bought from Djanne Cevaal.
feel totally exhausted, a day in Adelaide, hair cuts, down to the port, more on that tomorrow, and a couple of galleries. Off to make a salad to go with the fish.
Since the rain everything has grown,including the weeds and the lawn that desperately needs mowing. John has gone fishing and it was freezing cold, well 8 degrees C this morning but I decided as the day will warm up I would have a wander with my camera.
double click to enlarge the photos.
This morning as we were about to go for our walk we met Marshall Sumner, one of our aboriginal elders gathering branches to use in a smoking ceremony to night. He is an interesting man, I have met rarely but seen often. He does a huge amount locally for the recognition of aboriginal ceremonies and he and John were discussing a local tree that needs to be saved, it has neither a shield or a canoe cut from it, possibly something to do with gathering turtle eggs and needs/ should be preserved for future generations, always unfortunately an expensive exercise. He is such a wonderful looking man I had to ask for a photo and the rest of our walk photos are a bit boring. We had a wonderful rain yesterday 5.6 mm so the window shot is taken to show that it had rained. we are greening up quite nicely but are due for a burst of hot weather later on in the week.
double click the collage to enlarge.
We went in to shop this morning, and it was cool and damp, not at all what I had expected. Instead of going straight home and as we hadnt walked yesterday and wouldnt this morning either I suggested we went over to the Kings Beach car park just to look at the sea. To our surprise there was a red sail between us and west island. Some lovely clouds so I took some photos and turned them into a collage when we got home. I have been stewing more fruit to freeze and John has been making bread and George has been in my work room and finding naughty things to play with and generally make a mess. One of the problems with an old house and doors that warp and dont fit in their frames, he has found out how to open the one from one side of the house to the other. Wicked kitten.
Oh dear where have my days gone. I have been house cleaning and stewing fruit to freeze and my arthritic joints have been playing up so not a lot to write about. Our walk yesterday was interesting as the day before we had gone to the cliff walk and in between the two mornings the beach here at kent reserve had changed again. Very low tide, water rushing near the reefs, a shag drying its wings and a piece of kelp. I actually found a badly damaged dead sea dragon, too damaged to work out if it was a leafy or not but it came home with me and I hope I can get its head on when it dries out. I do every so often find them but they are hard to see and the gulls make a mess of them. I am trying to get on with some embroidery, a lovely lino cut of poppies on hand dyed cloth that I got from Djaane Cevaal, ages ago and have just started it. Lovely to do but I feel wicked sitting and sewing when there is much to be done.
This week has been a bit of a muddle but here are the photos, or some of them from my camera this week, including a photo of my bruised arm, I meant to take that out but forgot. Beach walks, George, Max, the wonderful hanging pods on the chinese wisteria and today, picking fruit at a friends place this morning. I have already stewed up 2 potfulls to freeze. We walked and then went up along the range road, as well as a lovely small covered orchard they have a patch of tomatoes, kale and beans so we came home with a lovely collection of goodies. Oh and one of the photos is my pumpkin patch, a bit slow to get going but now doing a good job of covering some bare ground, and we should have pumpkins for winter. The only trouble is it has been rather cool and things have slowed down their ripening.I think there are some banksias and some gum flowers and possibly some pea chicks.
A nice tiring end to the week, or is it the beginning? I am never sure.
It has been a bit of a shattering week. The silly fall I had has left me with a spectacular bruise on my arm, fascinating colours that change every day, and I think my back probably needs a massage to realign it. Oh the joys of aging. we went to the funeral of a dear friend yesterday, it was well done and he is now free from the big C but I know he would have preferred to be around for his wife of 59 loving years as she has dementia. All rather shattering and a bit close to home.
To cheer myself up I went outside to take this photo of the light shining through the beautiful striped leaves of my canna who lives in a big pot, the frosts cut it back end of every winter, but every spring it returns. Nature is so clever.
John has gone fishing, but he rang to say he is on his way home, with nothing, all they caught was under size, just as well I have a cold chicken. That was supposed to be for dinner last night (warm) but a last minute use call from a grand daughter to say come and have a BBQ it's my birthday which I knew, meant no chicken and a fun night. Not late at all but I was glad to get to bed.
My pea hen has had chicks, they are about 5 weeks old now. Amazing so far she hasnt lost any. Very low tide for our walk this morning. I feel rather tired and full of aches. I did a silly thing yesterday, I pulled out a plastic container from under the bed to get some felt and forgot to put it back. Not wanting to wake John up last night I didnt turn on the light and basically fell into it as I went to bed, Talk about a mess, he was half asleep, I couldnt move and trying to get me out of a very confined space was not easy, I have a nasty scrape down my left arm where I collected the bed base and a lot of other aches and pains and bruises. I can laugh about it now but then!! I really wont go into any more about it but golly gosh it was not nice.
We do look young, 19 and 21, and John with no beard, he grew it later that year as the sellers at the elders markets thought he was too young and wouldnt take his bids. We were buying sheep then. We had a lovely morning over at the Goolwa markets and then a walk on the beach, trouble is I had a dreadful night because my new knee was playing up, I dont think it should be as its over 2 years since it was done but it sometimes doesnt like lying in bed. We have organised a take away pizza and a bottle of bubbles and some strawberries and we will sit on the saddle of the Bluff and eat them. It wont be a late night. Once upon a time!!!
double click to enlarge the collages.
Thursday was windy and rough and we walked along the cliffs from Petrels, lovely noisy walk and then this morning it was very muggy and not terribly clear and after going into the market we walked along the beach at Hayborough and watched little sails going up at the Yacht club. They look lovely. Yesterday it was shopping and a friend came out in the afternoon, which was great, a nice long chat. It is still relatively cool but when the sun comes out it suddenly warms up. I am doing odds and ends around the house and a bit of painting, hung another cloth fish that I embroidered, it is only made of denim as George has taken to leaping at things so i thought it didnt matter what happened to this and its mate I did a while ago. Anything to keep him amused.
I am getting to the stage of wondering why I do these things, there is a pile of odd sewing, things I have made, and what to do with them? I love to do them as they keep my hands occupied but no one in my family is really interested in what I do. I suppose there will be a huge bonfire at some stage to get rid of it all. I just hope I am not here to see it.
We have had around 80mm of rain since the 29th, wonderful although some of it did come down a bit hard and fast. At least the garden has had a good soak and the rain water tanks are full. We did have one overflowing gutter which flooded part of the kitchen and I am still drying out cushions from the miners couch, I had left a window open but it has mostly dried up now.
I have been having on going back aches from digging a hole in the garden, something once upon a time I would have done with no problems at all. ridiculous.
I have been sewing these little patches, not sure what I will do with them but they are in my something useful basket, maybe brooches, maybe not. We walked on Monday morning, the photo of the boats and again this morning but not yesterday as it was teeming, roads flooded, water all over our road but this morning it has miraculously almost dried out.
I am trying to sort out one of my work rooms, I think I shut the door after Christmas and havent been back in. Still quite a lot of work to do in it but at least a start has been made.
Had a lovely short visit from a friend this morning, she was collecting some wool tops I had no more use for. I dont felt and she does. It really was nice just to see someone other than John!! Sometimes I think I am becoming a bit of a hermit.
