AUTUMN PAINTING THANKS TO JACQUIE

I have been sadly lacking in inspiration to paint, draw, create in some way until I saw Jacquie's blog...Bunny Mummy.

Jacquie had drawn a fun picture of a Spring Fair, being heartily tired of winter.

Well, I am heartily sick of Summer and as we have two red leaves on our persimmon tree I decided to do one of Autumn, loosely using the Spring drawing as a stepping stone.

I used these lovely watercolour pencils that belonged to my mother. She died many years ago and I have always treasured them, 'saved' them for special occasions. Silly me! The pencils are lovely to use and mix and no mess to clean up!

As you can see I have used pen first, then coloured in with the pencils. and REALLY enjoyed myself....so a big thankyou to Jacquie!!! Daughter no 2 has a new house with a red front door and I am rather taken with it so here it is.The tree at the front of the house is our persimmon tree...a version anyway.

I haven't set the world on fire but it is a beginning for me

We also had a dear friend and her family staying for the weekend and she also inspired me as she often picked up her visual diary and headed outside so I have to thank her. Louise often travels,  both in Australia and overseas and has kept visual diaries for years. Lots of writing and sketching. She has a wonderful small paint set with a tiny bottle of water and off she goes. I am sure she doesn't even think of it but what an amazing collection tp be passed on to her next generation.

A sideways picture of the persimmon tree a couple of years ago! I  couldn't work out once it was up here how to change it so here you are! It is a beautiful tree whatever the season, survives well without a lot of water and has delicious fruit...what more could you want!

We have had some rain, beloved drops of water so everything is looking clean and fresh. It won't do much for the pastures unless we get some follow up rain but oh my garden is happy...and the lawn...and the trees! And me! I feel so refreshed and it was lovely lying in bed listening to the rain on our tin roof, drifting off to sleep and waking up to hear the rain still raining...bliss!

And talking about the persimmon tree, we have noticed some kangaroo poo on the green patches of lawn, they have been coming in to enjoy something green. When we took the dogs outside a few nights ago we surprised a kangaroo just outside on the lawn, only a few feet away from my husband working in his study. How cheeky was that! 

Have a good day, hopefully see you soon!

MY AFGHAN RUG APPEARING, AN ENORMOUS ENTRANCE AND MY NAUGHTY COW

We went for a drive two weeks ago as the big one wanted to show me a farm entrance... what an entrance!!

Look at the size of the log  over the top! a whole tree trunk, suspended at least three metres over the road.

and then were the cattle, I think the horns sort of matched up the log!

Our front gate will never look like this!

This morning I was very interested to see on little woollie's site, littlewoollie@blogspot.com that she is opening an on-line shop for my favourite wool. the colours are lovely and so I wish her good luck.

I have been very slack at showing my crafting. Truth is I haven't been doing much but have dragged out the afghan rug I started a long time ago so that I could be doing something for myself. I could be knitting little things as we have two babies coming into the family soon. one in about a month and the other not until Octoberish. I think I will wait until they come but maybe not?!

These are just a few colours and maybe not quite the right shade using my camera.

There are two yellows which I really love, this one and a lovely warm more golden yellow. Do visit her, I am sure she will be very happy to show you!

And now a photo of one of our cows that are staying with us.

Can you see what she is doing? She has squeezed her head through the wires of the fence into the garden and she has been eating the agapanthus leaves back to the base!! You can see a few straggly leaves on thre right of the photo! We have been here for twelve and a half years and this has never happened before, even through the ten years of drought! She must be starving for some green, any green will do! I actually understand, I am craving some green too! We actually have plenty of feed as we never overstock so it is just the green she wants. 

I am fifth generation Australian but think I must be a throwback to my English and Scottish ancestors as the heat and lack of green really get to me! I shouldn't complain....I have very little to complain about and heaps and heaps of blessings! And Autumn will be coming soon....there are two leaves on my persimmon tree that have coloured up!
AND  a quick thankyou for the comments you leave. I love to read them and do feel encouraged when I read them, AND I am trying to do the same on other blogs.

BIRDS HAVING A SWIM AND A WORD ON COMMENTS

A post today without a photo, no camera when you need one!I went for a walk this morning up to the dam, dogs at my side for once and was so thrilled to see about 20-30 parrots, probably green grass parrots all enjoying the water. They were on the edge, little legs covered and were splashing and preening themselves, watched at a distance by a mother duck and her two babies. Some would fly away and I would think, they have gone, but no. A circle of the dam and they were back in, I am sure cavorting with glee. It really made my day. So often when I walk past the dam, our golden retrievers has rushed up before me and any birds have taken off. I haven't ever seen parrots doing this before so it really was a treat.

Years ago the big one was on the quad bike in the far paddock when he saw a wedge tailed eagle having a swim in a shallow dam. The big one sat quietly on the bike watching for some twenty minutes or so. The eagle would fly in, splashing his wings as he half flew, half swam through the water, then take off, fly around and come back in. We have never had another opportunity like this and wonder whether eagles often swim like this. He was obviously having a wonderful time, just being in and enjoying the moment. 

I would be very interested if others have seen something similar.

I always look forward to comments and haven't always  been commented on others posts. It is much easier for me now with the iPad as I don't have to log out of one address and into my address and then remember to log back. Doesn't sound much but it just seems to be. So, my intention is to make more comments this year. There are so many amazing bloggers, so many stories being told, so many projects out there. So thankyou to all of you who share their lives in some way or another in this blogging world of ours.

MORE VISITORS TO THE GARDEN!

On coming home from a day in Melbourne yesterday, listening to one of the dogs signalling his delight at us being home, the big one VERY dramatically said, WHAT ARE THEY DOING IN HERE!! I looked vaguely around, not seeing anything until a flash of brown in the wrong place caught my eye! Four of the beasts!!!

They were having a lovely time, chewing voraciously on the green grass under and around my beautiful persimmon tree. Not contented chewing at all, in fact if they were children I would say they were stuffing every bit of food into their mouths as they could!

Obviously I grabbed the camera before I did anything, just dumped my first load from the car on the table before rushing outside to snap the she-devils!

Then the big one found the bull was out too, looking very silly to be away from his girl-friends. then another three cows were found in another paddock again. Not the sort of thing to happen when you have been away from the farm for the day! And these fences that let us down are actually quite good so we are still not certain how they escaped. Before too long everything was sorted.

It did remind me of Greedy for Colour some years ago when she rang, 'Muuum, the cows are in the garden and they have trampled over everything!' I was duly sympathetic but added that she had joined the long line of farmers' wives who had had to deal with that problem. Not that that made her any happier!!

I was very thankful that these cows were desperate just for that patch of green grass, they needed some extra nutrition. Only one tiny branch was broken off so we were very lucky.

This morning I had another couple of visitors, looking for water...it is due to be 38 degrees today and is very hot already.

Have a good day and see you soon!