Featured Artist: Gaye Tait ( The Tait Gallery )

Featured Artist: Gaye Tait ( The Tait Gallery )

How fantastic is this,another of my fab student friends,picking a favourite is hard,perhaps the ultimate fav is the Blue Glass Themed one and the one after tha is the bottom left,I feel its very emotive

A garden Reveiw

Im gently getting back into my garden,just keeping stiff alive for the most but I do have some gems and some surprises as well

Pink Giant spider lilly

I think a White Spider Little very like the above
I feel silly now but I had a bigger clump of these and as they did nothing for a few years i chucked them out,this one is a lonely surviver....Theres some nerines i there some place too so hoping not watering much over the last couple years havent killed them.

Am on the prowl for a few of these now

 And the Brown Turkey in disguse is bearing well this year,making the effort to water every second day,eaten two already.Wont be able to make jam but I might try that with a pack of dried ones from Woolies. Oh in disguise hmmm well the old Turkey i remember looked like this  http://www.rossevansgardencentre.com.au/products/plants/fruit-trees/fig-brown-turkey   so Im thinking this variety is definiety the old type we had in my Dads garden and also Grandfathers.The smell however is divine and Im hoping the sun doesnt hurt them too much so I can ta least one properly coloured and eatable instead of half dried!

The nasty little corner Im working on...I have planted a few things on the right,society garlic,a crepe mytle which the bunnies havent found,next are agapanthus and spider lillies of course when i foind them but also a lovely gardenia,I got one from Bunnings on Wednesday,a bale of sugarcane mulch and a good raking(I have room in bin this week) and it ll be much improved,too my shame Im posting a pic for encouragement to finish project

Saturday yay!!

The end of the first week,of son 3s start in his Apprentcisehip,of course he is the biggest expert now of how a workshop on a minesite works and the larrakins who work there ,such his trade supervisor who spends over 40 mins in the toilet to where the workshop super barges off to and bawls him out,hilarious accounts,Parick you should write a book one day.
The bus was late last night,I was there at 5.55pm,the bus pulled in just after 7, I should have raced back home but its been a very long week so we went and bouyght tea,wont be doung that for a while,poor wallet is in shell shock and I didnt get any anyway as what I brought home for Angel no 1 was suffient for a big growing boy. Anyhow Son 3 is back on Tuesday so no running around for a few days.65ks into town at 4am and then pick at 6pm,its gets tiring.
Warm this week but exhaustingly so though Im still getting migraines on and off,Ive just about caught up with most things and if it hadnt have been for intereuption yesterday I would have a lot more done.I feel for the fire areas in Victoria and SA, on top of the Perth Hills last weekend. We wont see that type of fire here,the bush is not as thick though there has been some very bad ones out the other side of Coolgardie,here in Kambalda,Im comfortable in my safety.Hubbys told me some harrowing tals of his fire fighting days as ateenager and I dont think I wont to know more and I think in all truth it wouldnt be good for him to ponder over them either.My Dad did a bit of fire volley work,I rememebr him coming home black from head to toe and the stink of smoke and ash pervaded the house for days.The night he was called to help,we were travelling back from Bourke to Louth (we lived about 15 miles on the other side of the river from Louth itself on "Delta") I recall watching the mile after mile of red horizon,blazing bush that seemed to glow.He told us the next day,well he told Mum while we listened in,of the med dropping their bags and shovels to chase the bunnies which were coming out of the fire and running for their lives,they were on fire and sarted new fires as they run,the image he described as stayed with me,hilarious in a hystericalway scared way,full knowing the cosequences of it all. The ones Hubby attended were at the same time as Cyclone Tracey hit Darwin, but all media was focussed on that disaster not the bush, so not much is known about it.Only real referance I could find

1974/75: The severest season for perhaps 30 years in the far west with 3,755,000ha burnt, 50,000 stock lost and 10,170km of fencing destroyed. 1.5 million ha were burnt in the Cobar Shire in mid-December and 340,000ha in the Balranald fire. The Moolah-Corinya fire burnt 1,117,000ha and was the largest fire put out by bush firefighters. Its perimeter was over 1,000km.
Curtisy of http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/dsp_content.cfm?cat_id=1180  accessed 18/01/2014


Theres a few more references but its mostly Government issue,changes to regulations etc this Blogger has a few good shots of town itself,thought it was worth adding  http://jagjourney.blogspot.com.au/2012_10_01_archive.html
Hubby and his team/mates/family had a very close call and were cut off by fire,its sheer luck they made through,turning hoses on themslevs from I could make out,remembering the eqipement wouldnt the high techie stuff of today mostly old truck with a water tank and pumps bolted on(Dads was an old army jeep,Willys,a box trailer with a sheep jet pump and water tank) from his recount I think he blames inexperience and miscommunication,the locals knew the land and the New Fire Captain didnt and was a stickler for rules and regulations,which the most part would be appropriate but in this instance he didnt know what he was doing,knowing some of the pople involved its a wonder he wasnt strung up. The history of the Bush Fire service here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_South_Wales_Rural_Fire_Service ,it shows the changes that were being implemented around that time.Anyhow no doubt there ll be any stories like this out there for years to come as the seasons change,populatons grow and live in such fire prone areas.

It was hot hot hot!!

It was 43' yesterday,I had the sprinklers on the rock gardens as I was feeling ill with the feirceness of it.The galahs found it quick smart,playing like kids,rolling on theirs backs,flapping around chattering etc,so god to watch,took my attention away from the migraine I has harbouring

 the wind was carrying the drift through to a nice little spot, public seating included

and look at this chap stalking through!!!

Lino Prints again

Just thought Id put these two up, Enjoy!!

Well this edited to stand the right way up but it doesnt load onto this page like that so just twist and turn!!LOL
Lino Prints done in the positve (well thats how I describe them) and then hand painted.The top one I only half colored as I like that effect.

Some play and more

I just spent some time surfing the few blogs i follow regualrly,they provide me with some inspiration and I have to admit a moment to not be where I am at teh moment.the time has come in my life where i wish I was not here but in a place where I can meet new people and do things like walk on the beach or wander down to the cafe strip and have a coffee or tea.To do that here I have to drive three hours one way for a beach,or 45 mins the other for a taste of the cafe world,lol.
Ive given up on hoping things will come good for us to have that farm back again,Ide be happy just to know I ll have a roof over my head at the end of the year. Theres Gala event here in town on Wednesday night I think in aide of raising money for breast cancer,its a cocktail event that has $150 a head on the tickets,even if I could round that up Iseriously dont have anything to wear,yer right what woman doesnt say that but seriously (again) I simply dont have evening clothes , good going out clothes yes,my life has centred around art and work for so long. Im most comfy in jeans or shorts,my tees are Ripcurl,Unit or Hurleys. I have heaps of nice clothes one would wear to an afternoon tea or church but not a cocktail event,Ive been looking for the perfect black dress for ages but none seem to look ,hmm ok,lol. I think if we were back three and half years ago I would be happy to fork out a little but right now Im concentrating on A. gettting through the next three years of private educating son if not the next year, B,getting through study and surviving work,shortly I have to learn properly how to do my sons books so he can do his end of the business,threats of dire concequeneces from hubby dont help either.I think the oldest put it right in a nut shell, despite the money and the effort,this fuction is out of my comfort zone,sheesh he hit it on the nail,one of the organisers is a friend sort of but the other just shoots daggers though Ive been told she s like that with a lot of people lol.
On the creative front

A bit of work to do with it but it didnt make me feel much better when others referred to it as a bit rough,I did say it was unfinished right? theres another one Im also playing with but itls a positive edition where the back ground is black,Ive printed a couple of those out so I can add color which I want to play with today. When I get a good one Ill keep it unseen as the print swap is coming up in a few months. 

This one will be water colored and then Ill decide to continuing with cut or leave it,not perfect but thats ok.

The VD I have sitting on the table still remains blank,supposed to have some ideas for the WIK exhibit.not sure if Ill do a repint or a mixed media,a couple of ideas rollng around,one is a print of a glass (wine) and the other is an image of a lemon  (yellow) ,I have in my mind sitting on a bench  with maybe a white plate nearby set in a graphite back ground. The idea behind it is memory of my chldhood where the lemon was a symbol of the orchard that was so much part of the cooks (Mums,Grandmothers etc)lives in a bush kitchen, cakes nearly always had lemon icing,lemon tea was my grandmothers fav as fresh milk wasnt always available,we had a cow but not everyone had the feed for one. Just ideas floating. Still havent enrolled yet for this year,maybe later today.

Something arrived,this map the original of hung on my father office wall for as long as I can remember,there was a ballot on 80 of them reprinted in Bourke from the original just before Christmas and Im so happy I won the right to purchase one!! Hales was an old grocery hardwear store that had a long history in Bourke in the long hard droughts of the 20 to 50s,they supported a lot of the stations in providing supplies on credit til things come good,I bought my very first fabric and wools from there as a child so I have fond memeories of the place. The map shows most of the stations associated with my family including Mothers and Dads,some have passed onto different people but most are still there. Im hoping to have it framed one day,it ll be a bit expensive!!
And gorgeous is this,a destash froma a lovely lass on Rav,this was my own Christmas Gift to myself this year,I dont have much Wollmeise in my own assortment much less lace (only one other complete skein thats nearly a Featherweight) Im thinking Nuverm at this stage but I cant start it till I have some UFOs out of the way

And more shots from our last walk,Ive been dragging the two boys out fro one every second day,though the last one they did on their own,the older one is very over weight and spends all night wandering the house and then sleeping all day,the youger one sleeps half the night then half the day,hes skinny and lack muscle tone.Although i dislike the early rises on school mornings,at least they well he younger one will actually do something.Neither have friends here now and dislike going away from the house,another reason to move to a more interesting neigbourhood

 Love the color of the bush and the soils.

The weather bureau is forcasting rather nasty hot weather,expecting 44 up monday onwards,thank heavens I have Wednesday off,a trip to a skin specialist couldnt have come at a better time. Theres been recorded 51' up in the Pilbera....

I am Sailing,I am Sailing

Cyclone Christine,she brought just over three inches of rain in 16 odd hours!!And Hubby had to take his kyak out for a run through the niddle of town which is divided with a creek that normally is dry and hardly noticable.Beautiful it was ,hope we get another!!