Sunday 2 February 2014

Mad Weather

Its was hot and muggy yesterday and most of the week,today? its quite cool,well I have freezing feet and will be in trackies later I feel.
Today..went too fast,got out a bit later than usual,I could hear the on and off showers and a bit of wind,the washing was still on the line and son no3 work clothes and mine were in among it.Feeling a little seedy after a late night ,a good friend birthday bash as boys house,I only had a nip of that American Honey with a bottle of beer so I doubt that did too much harm but its almost a tonsil sort of offness,its getting around so with luck we ll make it through the going back to school illnesses as everyone congregates in one spot again.Son 5 is on teh bus ,the best bug picker upper. The Principal we have this year seems ok,very interested in the interested sort of way in the grounds so i hope he appreciates my efforts,dont go much on new assistant,too many health issues and his habits are already annoying me,never mind it will be a good year I insist on it.
Finiahed well this is the preliminary pic of the first Pay It Forward 2014 works,it went like this " I promise to make a small art work and send to the first five people who reply to post who then copy and post on their page" I have three replies and two works done
 Shearing shed
Punty Bush (Casia)
And the weaving peice is off the loom,just have to cut  and sews ends 


This is the end bit,I trippled the weft and its more closed in weave,the first section is a bit open but a wash  and dry in dryer may pull it together,wondering if I rewarp loom with the 12 DPI next or wait and get some 8ply cotton from Bendy for a thicker ones. The last bit pictured is an experimental piece,Ill sew ends under and use it as a table centre topper,I played with some texture there too with a few random bobbles,thinking of adding lazy daisies! Hmm its fun!!

Wednesday 29 January 2014

My day off

Nothing exciting,i took a day off ( (I worked the longweek end Monday due to miscommuncation from trades people,he apologised of course but that didnt help the fact i lost my last real day off) anyhow I took today as a personal leave to take Son no5 into his college to pick up and pay his book hire etc,end up spending $280 on uniform,260 odd on extra books hed handed back that I had to buy again( he should have held onto them) I indulged in a new Crochet Book when I ordered his Jacaranda Atlas, nearly bought a second novel too but will wait til Ive finished the last Dan Brow book,Ill send my new books to my SIL if she wants them.
I read a blog today
http://thatcrazyquiltygirl.blogspot.com.au/
she has the most fantastic quilt ,made in the pattern of crop circles,now I want to do one too,after ive done the Rothko one of course...
On the Good News side, if its good at all, but certainly could have been worse,Son is home,he indeed broke his back,sounds terrible but his words,hes wearing aback brace for next three months to help fractured compress disk to heal,the break in upper arm awas the part just before the "ball" on the bone,so they had to put ball back into joint(dislocated) then plate the break,he is black and blue but fairly happy,Im not sure if its the intial wont be at work for three months or the fact boredom hasnt set in. He informed me this moring that he thinks his jersy is still out in the bush but its ripped up so no matter.  3rd of January 1990 I lost my beautiful baby brother when he collied with three roos while out checking the water on our station,I think this is why Son 1 ,said sorry more than once while waiting for ambos,but only son 3 actually roused later when everyone was gone that they werent considerate of me, the stress of this has only just started to set in,as soon as Ive trained up new man at work Im drawing a few days off , I look at Son 1 now and shake me head and am thankful hes here and jovial,he can come to town with me anytime while hes healing. No doubt it will be one of many more accidents to happen and having five boys just more than doubles it.
My new book!!






Monday 27 January 2014

just a quickie

That optim yarn has changed its color,

much better I think the next time I spin this stuff Ill do natural then dye......
the storm that gave a taste of what it had in smell and cool winds





Sunday 26 January 2014

claiming

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Saturday 25 January 2014

Australia Day 14

Well the days nearly over,Im still here looking at this and that,determined the bird who has taken over my even growing garden is none other than this beautiful singing little fella
Grey Shrike-Thrush with photos here, In the first link there a recording,i worked who he was from searching through the Birds Australia
It would appear he and his mate who Ive never heard or seen have taken possession of our garden and severals others as they have a territory of some size and mate for life as well,I surley hope that pesky cat next door hasnt knocked off his mate cause hes doing an aweful lot of calling from day break to around 11 then in the afternoon to dusk.
The frog are really belting it out over in the swamp behind us,Im going out this even ing to see if I can get a recording of the spotted thigh frogs http://frogs.org.au/frogs/species/Litoria/cyclorhyncha/


On this site theres recordings of frogs in this area,scroll down to find this fello,we also IDed the Shoemaker and another couple
Yes I love frogs,Im currently still setting up a corner in garden where I can establish a froggy motel,would ideally need a large camp oven like this,still holds water but no good to cook with,cant waste a good oven,lol. My reason being memories of the one that sat in the garden under the big plum tree,there was hardly any cover except for shade and boy didn't the green tree froggies love it,taddies all summer.
On the other front the day was turned very warm and muggy with weather warnings for wild weather ,yer right,hail wind and storms for us,the area within/compassing Yalgoo to Kalgoorlie through to Norseman and Southern Cross.Theres a couple very heavy storms passing through Norseman,will be interesting if any form and come through here,Ill have to dash out and put away the bags of fleece I have out drying from the flood last Wednesday,only a bit at base of a couple bags but wanted to see if I could get the collected moisture out of another couple bags,theres a prise winning fleece from Wagin  as well,the bag has rotted so Ill be grabbing a few large bins from Kal,Ill have time to do something with them later as wool doesnt really decay,a wash and card and it ll be fine.
Weaving,got the cotton,still waiting fro new reeds but have warped and trying this
not happy with the weave itself it a bit open,using Cotolin.60 cotton 4o linen,the new reed is a 10DPI which should be a closer match,Ive doubled the yarn both warp and weft but still not suited to the 7.5.Ill finish it .weave singles for end and cut off,then roll ends and sew,even if I only use as cleaning cloths it wont be wasted. dying to do an arty one as a table centre.I ordered these colors from ashford Australia,beaut service,kept in contact and were quick,Id started an order with Petlins for similar colors but stopped completing order as they wanted it faxed through when I wanted ti use CC instead of Paypal as I hadn't topped up that account,bingo a parcel arrived with the white and lighter shades of green and blue,no idea where the moneys come out,Ill check accounts again on Tuesday and will ring them too as theres a couple other bit i want yet.Need a second 5DPI and a pair of 12DPIs to weave thick arty stuff and fine lace weights (re Wollmeise lace I have stashed),Im hoping they dont sent bailiff lol.
Got busy yesterday and made Plum Jam,from this recipe, it was simple and fairly easy,its more like preserve though and it sort of soaks into the bread,toast is ok,I got three jars of the dorito sauce size. You can tell it shop bought fruit,it lasts the zing but Im not going to complain,it felt god to be cooking something that was part of life in the bus,next will be fig,from dried figs,this recipie at the shop,not sure about impoted fruit but it be fun either way,after that Ill make another batch of apricot but might cheat and add pectin this time.

finally broke and balled this optum up,dont go much on color,going to sit and look at it ,maybe Ill redye it raspberry and grey or purple and orange,dont know gloriously soft,buggered up the plying,somehow over the three years or so it sat on the wheel i spun half back to front,lol

And some bunny pics,both were sitting out in the green"acrage" foraging as bunnies do but heard me and split up,Miz buuny coming over to see what food I had and Fluffa sat for a mere second before disappearing past me to his camp spot,I think I needa few more to keepup with lawn


Wednesday 22 January 2014

Still raining

The town is cut off for a few hours till the main body of water drains away,a lot of people are complaining but really it doesnt happen like this often, even Cyclone Christine are pretty good,heavy rain for a few hours. Hubby and a few mates went canoing down that big stream,a couple of them had a drink or two meaning capsized lol.Hubby lost a paddle and his newish akubra hat



This was from a deep low that passed over us from Tuesday night til now,water everywhere,Frogs are gong bonkers!

Rain Rain Rain

Its one of those seasons that just surprises and surprises,its been raining gently to moderately for nearly 24 hours,glorious,I have been able to put jeans on with my fav Susans cardie,old but faithful and my latest knitted sock from EGMTKs,the blue beautiflly soft ones I designed myself
Havent taken a pic of them finiahed yet lol have to wsh them again,but very ahppy with them
Im looking at this pattern for something unusual should try it in DK for lighter wear in Australia
Feeling a little stressed this afternoon,Son No 1 was flown out to Perth this morning after crashing his bike,nasty break on the high near his shoulder on top of the same arm being dislocated,with no suitable doctor in Kalgoolrie he was flown out this morning,I didnt see him off as I thought they were going early,feeling a failure as a Mum for not going in but problem with other son as well caused a bit of overload,I hope hes ok,(of high spirits unless it was for my benefit) and they operate fast,he seems to think he ll be able to fly home on Friday but I doubt they ll let him on the plane so close to surgery, Im sort hoping I can drive down,even just to get away from this place.
Theres a nice lamb roast in teh oven and Im off shortly to go into Kalgoorlie to pick up other son from mine bus...

Monday 20 January 2014

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

Saturday 18 January 2014

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

Friday 17 January 2014

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.



Tuesday 14 January 2014

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!!!



Saturday 11 January 2014

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.

Friday 10 January 2014

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....