EASTER DAY

We have had a very happy family day, Easter egg hunt, roast lamb and lots of chocolate but not a glut as we have had in other years. Now it is quiet, one family has gone home, two staying here and having screen time. The dogs have been fed; eggs....not chocolate....for dinner tonight and I am having a peaceful cup of tea.

Happy Easter and Easter break to you all.

MORE PAINTING

I've been working on a watercolour, based on our beautiful crepe myrtle. It is very old, pruned years ago and then left to ramble. We love the shapes of the branches , some have even joined together to form a 'necklace'. It doesn't have as many flowers as one that is pruned but that doesn't matter to us.
The iPad drawing is one done by George, our grandson who,is staying here for Easter, in collaboration with his Pa.
And the dinner....it looked good enough to eat when I was in Melbourne...all the colours!
Have a happy Easter

PAINTING AGAIN

I've been at work today...or is it play?!
In the garden and also with paint.

A BIRTHDAY CAKE

We have a grandson who turned 14 yesterday, as well as one who turned 17 last week in Perth. Well, we have come to Melbourne again today to celebrate the 14 year old's day. A cake was called for so out came the chocolate cake recipe that I have used for years, the 2,4,6,8 cake. You can see it has been around for a while, before decimal currency which began in Australia in 1966.
The cake..
2 eggs
4 oz butter
6 oz sugar
8oz SR flour minus about 2 level tbsp
About two large tbsp cocoa
About 1/2 cup milk...just enough to make the mixture pourable.
I whizz butter and sugar, then add eggs and give it a good whizz. Then add flour, cocoa and milk and whizz again until well mixed.
Moderate oven, 180 deg. Cook for 35- 40 mins.
Birthday cakes have been traditionally in our family chocolate covered with lots of chocolate icing and smothered with Smarties. Last night I didn't have the Smarties so put about 1 1/2 cups of chocolate buttons into the mixture after I had put the mixture in the tin. This morning I iced and then scooped out a C with a knife....for Charlie... And then poured hundreds and thousands into the sculptured C from a jug! It worked so well. The hundreds and thousands stayed where they were meant to and looked quite cool! The secret stash of chocolate buttons was a success as well....

VISITING MELBOURNE...AGAIN

Yesterday the big one had to visit the dentist unexpectedly as a tooth needed to come out. I went as well,just in case he didn't feel like driving home. His appointment was late,in the day, Friday afternoon. Not the best time to be in the city. I could think of a millions of things I could be doing but we are a team so off we went...as you do...! I took my iPad with me, why O don't know as I don't get connection in the car. I could always play scrabble couldn't I? Then I remembered the camera...

MY HEXAGON RUG...A WIP.

I had been very covetous of Kate's hexagon rug when I was in NZ maybe two or three years ago so decided I would have to make one for myself. Well, time slips away and other projects have appeared, some finished, others becoming WIPS too, sitting beside me in various containers...bags and a copper preserving pan. The copper pan hasn't been used for a long time in its original role but it is such a good size in which to pile all the WIPS. I rather think it must drive my orderly big man nuts but he is very long suffering and accepting of my mess.
Back to the hexies..of course the pattern is from Lucy at Attic24...thankyou yet again Lucy for your amazing help and inspiration! I began crocheting the hexies together as I went but then decided I couldn't plan my colours well enough that way. I had quite a goodly amount crocheted together but decided to undo the joining together...which of course meant extra rows had to come out as well. But,one must be brave, I thought to myself, took out my little nippers and nipped.. the wool. I have only just added the slatey blue hexies as I felt it needed something besides all the other wools I was using. A colour to hag it all together. I do try to do two or three hexies most nights but often it is just the one, not very much at all. When I knit at night time I can get quite a lot done but my crocheting is much slower as I need to watch what I am doing. As you can imagine if there is something decent on TV, I don't get much done at all.dinner time is looming so I must go....then after dinner it will be back to my hexies!

A HODGE PODGE

The rain two or three weeks ago have made such a difference ...the roses have all come again and the lawn is green again. 

We have a new baby in the family, another little boy. Girls are very few and far between...ten boys and four girls! They are all so precious and as we all say, so long as they have all their bits and are well, that is all that matters. One of the really lovely things in life is to cuddle a new born, have them just snuggle in, pure delight. And I did on Sunday...delicious!

A friend collects teapots but I don't know whether she is to get this one from the op shop. I always look out for her but this is my first one and I want to keep it!!

A FEW SNIPPETS FROM THE GARDEN AND SOME MEMORIES

As I have previously said this summer has been incredibly hot and unrelenting but we have survived!

March is normally beautiful where we are, warm days with cool nights, with a slight chill creeping in with the morning light. We have day light saving until the end of the month and even with this when we wake the mornings are slowly becoming darker. 

Through all the heat the flowers have kept appearing, often with sizzled leaves but still bravely poking their petals out of their buds.

When we went out with the dogs last thing one night, the moon was out, a slight breeze bringing the warm summer grass scent, which I adore, this magnolia, a Little Gem was literally glowing in the dark.

This velvety dark red rose is so scented that when we walk past we get the deliciousness of it wafting past us. However hard I try though I can never get the colour of it quite right with my camera. It is more like these petals below, a lovely snippet of the streaks of white left as the petals drop. In fact something in between I think.

A leaf swinging on it's fine spider web rope.

The same pelagonia is the same as the above, but the first flower we had. The leaves are very pretty too. It was from a cutting from a pot outside a cafe in Shepparton some time ago. The cafe sits next to a lake and park and we go there occasionally  for the view rather than the food. so nice to sit outside in the fresh air and see water.

My tea cosy nestled into the hydrangea flowers. I do struggle with my love for hydrangeas, they dislike the heat as much as I do and we wilt at the same rate. Me with my very pink face and the hydrangeas' leaves almost melting. They bring back lots of memories. My mother always had them in shaded spots on her verandah, loved picking them and bringing them inside for the table decoration. So the distinctive scent brings her back very easily to me. I grew up further north than where we are now and the summers all seemed to be very long and hot, no different to now I'm sure. No air conditioning either but we were blessed to have a wide creek below the house and then a river half a mile away as our boundary so we swam at every opportunity and my mother had water for her vegetable garden that fed us as well as her flowers. The joy of water too meant sometimes when she watered the pots on the verandah she watered the weather boards of the house and the concrete verandah received a good hose as well. This always cooled us down...and I still love paddling around cool wet concrete as I did back then.
I must add this was only when the creek was running, sometimes it was so dry that the water was limited....meaning we all took turns in the bath...not so good being the last one in! Any spare water was carried outside for the precious vegetables and only at the last would some water be sparingly poured on to the flowers. How it must have broken my mother's heart to see her precious flowers withering.
This post wasn't meant to morph into these memories but that is often what life does to us.
So there you are!!

A SLIGHT .......? DISASTER !!

A slight disaster has just occurred! I feel like shedding tears and if it weren't for the big one I well might have! A mere slip of the finger and wham..... All my lists of beautiful bloggers has gone! And has to be replaced before I forget who they all are! 

Calamitous or what!

BUT no-one is sick, injured, died , just a few...lots of names, many of whom I just added last night!

The sun will come up tomorrow, and more importantly to me at the moment is that the sun will go down tonight! Then it will be cooler. Bliss!

Please be patient with me as I retrace my footsteps!

And thank God for a sense of humour!

AND I DID IT AGAIN!!
Can you believe it...just tapped 'remove' by mistake and all the ones I had added went for the second time!
And the favourites are meant to be underneath the profile and just won't go there today.
I will return another day!!

FUN WITH PAINTING AND BLOGS NEW TO ME

I have been adding some wonderful blogs to my sidebar, to add to the wonderful blogs already there! Since being inspired by Jacquie at  http://bunnymummy-jacquie.blogspot.com I have been doing some sort of drawing or painting several days a week, often only an odd half an hour or sometimes more. Maggie at http://maggielathamstudios.blogspot.com is really interesting and very generous with all her knowledge, she was a real discovery.

 

This was attempting to use her 'pour-on' wash method and then to play with Indian Ink, dropping it into the washes. the shapes appeared and then I added o them with a few lines. The horse is an imitation of the old rock paintings from centuries ago.

The squiggley drawing next to the butterfly comes from attempting the zentangling method, www.zentangle.com and tanglepatterns.com are worth looking at. I discovered these fun sites yesterday and will definitely play with it again. I watched a video which explained the method, drawing a squiggle with pencil and then repeating a particular pattern. I like doing things to 'loosen' me up, I need to become a loose woman when I am painting!

From this I went on to work on an acrylic painting I had begun a good twelve months or so ago.

I have decided it is quite good to take photos of anything you are doing as the photo highlights areas that are out of balance....as with the sky, this was the beginning from ages ago, the rest from yesterday. To me, I must have been in a lighter mood yesterday...or should I say I was in a heavier mood last time!

 

I wish I could say this was my work but it was given to me by Lou, a very old friend. This was from a photo she took on a trip to India, a group of women in their bright saris. She loves shapes and this is what she saw here. It is a hand coloured print. The photo sadly isn't the best but it does give  you the idea. a special friend indeed!

It is a holiday here in Victoria, Labour Day weekend. We had planned a trip to 'town' but remembered in time! I must do a couple of loads of washing and then I am going to play again....sorry, I mean paint!

See you soon I hope!

A LESSON FOR ME

I have been with daughter no 2 today, lunch and then a lesson in how to load photos from the iPad to my blog. It has been quite a process, not easy at all. I could never have worked it out myself. However the good thing is that my brain cells have had a real workout, been to the gym almost!
It seems to take a long time for this one photo to appear. No doubt it will become more clear as I go on.

A SURPRISE VISITOR

Just as we went to eat dinner last night the big one called me over, shuuushing me as I came...

He was just off our verandah, just a few feet away. he was very aware we were there and ready to flee....which he did!

Happy Birthday to Hugo, seven years old, I can't believe it!