BACK AGAIN

I can't believe how long it has been since I joined in the blogging world. I can't even say I've been very busy but things just have a way of getting in the way of writing. I haven't been painting very much, no creative spark tickling at me to pick up a brush or a hook. And it is winter...the days have been pretty ordinary including the very welcome wet days. I often think of Billy Connelly who said once we don't have bad weather, we  just have bad clothes, in other words whatever the weather we do have is fine so long as we are wearing appropriate clothing. I think he is right.... but grey skies don't seem to motivate me, I would prefer just to hunker down in front of the fire with a good book, get lost in book world.

Some days have been pure gold...like the last of the summer roses.

And some days there have been shadows, lurking away and keeping me in my burrow!

I never think of winter gardens as being dull. the various wattles begin early, barely at the end of summer but when the Cootamundra wattle flowers I can feel my spirits lift!

There are so many delicious scents at this time of the year...daphne, my delicious wintersweet, daffodils and jonquils, sages, the winter buddleia and on and on. Winter scents to also inspire and warm the heart.

Snow flakes and violets, hellebores .

We have visitor staying with us...Gustav the daschund. He is quite elderly and very set in his ways but we are all getting used to each others' foibles! Our two big ones just seem to ignore him even though Im suspicious that he is sleeping on the old lab's bed rather than his own . By the way, these dogs are not in prison, just waiting at the fly-wire door to come in!

A painting may appear on my next blog...here's hoping! I have begun another chook one so will get back to it towards the end of the week.
I hope you all have a happy week, a contented week best of all!

A FEW SNIPPETS FROM NZ

It is nearly three weeks since I left the land of the long white cloud, one of the big one's sayings....his father was born in NZ! The here photos have been on our main computer and I have had to wait for the right time to show you.

From Kate's studio/my bedroom....upstairs.

 Creativity!

A line of gingko trees in town, past their best but the show of leaves under the trees was beautiful, golden butterflies' They are very slow growing trees but worthwhile when  you see them in their full autumn glory!

Another rooster!

About to dive off the upstairs balcony!  Such a good game!

A beautiful sunset.

My wintersweet, chimonanthus praecox. I love it!
Hopefully the next post might show some creativity here!

BLOGLOVIN BEJANGLES

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This might all be double Dutch as we used to say so hope it is clear. Thankyou to Kate for steering me through! Good luck to the rest of the blogging world!

SLOWLY BACK IN TO THE GROOVE OF HOME

I had a wonderful holiday with the NZ lot, was taken care of beautifully and had a productive time creatively...as you have seen. I do hate saying goodbye but it is also lovely coming home. I did find the day I came home very long, NZ is two hours ahead of Australia so that makes the day two hours longer for a start. Then two stops on the way home including a supermarket shop! Practical I know as we live nearly half an hour out of our shopping centre and I would have had to go back into town the next day. I was SO ready for sleep that night but it was quite elusive for some time!!
The weather is beautiful here at the moment...cold crisp nights with some frost, followed by the most beautiful days, bright sunshine, lovely. As we have just passed the shortest day I'm sure we are in for some cold and not so nice days ahead so...I'm enjoying what we have now.
I'm leaving you with the glorious last yellow roses for the season, only two flowers on the bush. Also a beanie I knitted for a dear friend and a mini hot water bottle cover, crocheted, for the same friend. And a couple of snaps I took on the way up to Auckland on my way home. Oh, and some Kate's chooks, about to fly off the balcony. Kate said I took heaps,of photos of her chooks...and roosters, and none of the boys! Sadly it was true! My only excuse is that,while the boys were near I just didn't think of cameras! Also, some wintersweet, chimonanthus praecox, for Kate! Lucy and Joe gave us the shrub some time ago and it has really taken off. If you don't know wintersweet it has the most beautiful scent, lovely waxy flowers. Quite delicious! Kate had some next to my bed when I arrived, Hiding in behind the books waiting for me.

A ROOSTER AGAIN, AN ELEPHANT AND AN ODE TO AUTUMN

It is my last day here in NZ so I'm finishing off some projects. I don't look forward to the goodbyes but I'm looking forward to the hellos on the other side of the Tasman Sea. I am very lucky to have had this time here with the family but home calls very strongly. Sometimes I think of the early days when Australia...and of course other countries...were first settled. Families left home and never saw their loved ones again. Letters were few and far between and so desperately longed for. My great grandmother was born just off Lands End as her parents left England to live in Australia, a three month voyage. I just cannot understand how my great great grandmother set out, fully pregnant as she boarded the ship. Now we are in touch with distant family all the time, phone, email, Skype, not that I use it much, and,easy visits between countries. We are pretty lucky for all sorts of reasons to live in the times we do! And of course I realise that we are the minority in the luck stakes...wars, famine, poverty, refugees, apart from those suffering ill health and on and on the list could go.
Yes!! I'm pretty lucky!
So next post HOME. Unless I have a dizzy bout and write another this afternoon.
By the way, the elephant has a wonky leg....not a wonky donkey but a wonky ele leg! Hopefully I can fix it when I go home, I don't think today I want to do it today.

ANOTHER ROOSTER....ON A WET AFTERNOON

Still pouring down outside! If only I could take all the rain home! The roosters aren't looking quite so amazing at the moment, tail feathers drooping and very wet.

A ROOSTER...OR TWO

Kate and Jonno have a glorious trio of roosters. These roosters, when small, were regarded as pets, along with the baby hens! But the roosters grew and grew, their tail feathers looking more and more colourful until one day Kate and Jonno realised the entire family had become very attached to these proud show-offs, these birds that tootle away from dawn or before. Sometimes I hear them in the middle of the night! Maybe they don't have an alarm clock that tells them they are only to announce morning when it actually is morning!
I love them, I love their arrogance as they display their beauty to the world, to their harem of white and coloured girls! While here with the family I sleep upstairs in Kate's studio, a large room, windows all along one wall and large doors along another, opening up to a deck with a slatted protective fence. The funniest thing is to see the roosters wander up the outside stairs, have a look around, jump on the fence, standing to their fullest height, crow away to make sure their girls are watching them and then with a flap of their wings they fly/glide down to their admiring audience!
So, what could I paint on this very wet....and wonderful...day but....ROOSTERS!!