Icy blast

There was a brief sniff of spring in the air but it's been blown away by an arctic blast - snow in the hills and sleety winds in Canberra. We went out for a cocktail and dinner like grown-ups on Saturday night, then a decent walk on Sunday. I explored a bit further round the western edges of the lake, which was a mistake because of the westerly winds whipping off the snow and across the lake water for a bit of extra damp. But some bits were pretty.

My husband is diligently going through the boxes in the shed. At the moment it seems to be from various jobs - when you leave you just shove everything in a box and say 'I'll sort that out later' and then put it in the shed ... ready for a time capsule delight a few years (decades!) later. 

One of them had a Woman's Day from March 2002. Why? Neither of us would ever buy this type of magazine. I looked through it but there's nothing in there that means anything, no article on a distant cousin or similar. My best guess is I was eight months pregnant at the time and this was about my mental level, although how it made it to the shed who would know? I had a flick through and a bit of a laugh and chucked it away!

This wasn't in a box but look at this tiny little phone! It wasn't the absolutely first one I ever got but maybe the second ... and it actually took photos. Not sure how, and they weren't very good, but it definitely did. You couldn't send them to anyone, you had to download via cable, but photos nonetheless.

Sewing room re-do

Not my sewing room in Canberra - still called a sewing room despite no sewing since 2021 - but my dressmaking shambles down the coast. My go-to set up has been to make a tremendous mess on Friday evening, getting out all the patterns and fabrics, setting the machines up on the dining table, putting the ironing board nearby, using the kitchen benches to cut out etc ... having a lovely sew time then tidying up on Sunday afternoon. This works well when it's just me down there but is quite anti-social when there are two of us. Which is happening more and more now I am married to a Retired Gentleman. So - given that the kids aren't coming down either - I have colonised part of the new room (2017, but still new to us) and that will be sewing space. 

It took me most of the weekend because I went through everything and actually chucked out a few bits. Not much, but something, which is better than nothing. There are some patterns that I know I won't make, and some fabric I know I won't use ... but it's hard. I have a chest of drawers which is full, and I think that a full set of drawers is more than enough fabric for anyone, so from now on it will be 'nothing comes in until something goes out'. That is the plan.

I went for a couple of lovely walks and did some painting. All nice and quiet after the family togetherness of the past few couple of weeks. Number two got an early morning flight back to Melbourne on Friday - no-one was super thrilled at a 7 am flight BUT best decision ever to avoid the tech meltdown of Friday afternoon. Airport chaos in Australia (and everywhere else by the sounds of it). 

On my Saturday walk there was a big pod of dolphins frolicking offshore! leaping out of the water, full body nose-stands, splashing and playing. I took a heap of photos that all look like the one below. You might have to take it on trust.

Back on the good lessons

I've talked before about the 'good' lessons that I started with in watercolour back in August 2021 - from Jenny at Northern Beaches Watercolour - absolutely brilliant teacher and such a useful foundation. I wandered off from the lessons in mid-2022 to do all sorts of random stuff but I have just gone back, and they really are good courses. I finished off the few remaining lessons in Level 3. We did some pen and wash of a rock pool. 

And a gum tree. Who knew that a yellow and purple trunk would give you a gum tree at sunset? It seems so unlikely, and yet here it is.

Practising wet into wet with a fallen down shack in the bush. Other people's shacks were not quite so fallen down, but this is how mine ended up.

This is what Jenny calls a 'park tree' i.e. when you need a tree to go into a painting, without worrying too much about what kind of tree it might be, or giving it too much detail. Nice.

As I think I've said before, these lessons are about doing things The Right Way which will give you the Proper Result ... quite different from the random internet videos I usually watch! Much much better.

Moving house in Melbourne

Last week we went to Melbourne for a few days to help number two child move flats. Number one child came too - so a jolly family adventure wrestling with furniture and traffic. Number two doesn't have an enormous amount of stuff but more than can fit in our car, so we hired a van for the moving day itself. 

The new place is nicer than the old one, in a very cute block of flats built in 1940. It's a bit further out from the city (although still very central), a bit quieter, and with acquaintances rather than friends. All very positive at this stage so I hope it works out! The unpacking happened in record time and the new room is very cosy and warm and even looks out on some trees. 

This is my husband in the old flat, which lasted for 18 months (the landlord wants it back to live in apparently) which is much longer than I ever spent in a share-house. I think my maximum in one place was twelve months, and even then the people I was sharing with changed over completely (twice) in that time. 

We didn't do much in Melbourne other than moving-related activities. There was some light shopping (with stops for coffee in cool laneway cafes, yay Melbourne) and we went went to the Pharaoh exhibition at the NGV. 

Lots of very cool stuff but almost too much - quite overwhelming - and school holidays so very crowded. They also had this strange commissioned music to 'evoke ancient Egypt' which just went 'woooo woooo eeeeeee' at the edge of my hearing the whole time. In the end I snuck out and spent a very happy half hour with a small but impressive couture embroidery exhibition. 

I had to work on Monday so flew back on Sunday and the others drove back on Monday, including number two for a few days, which is lovely. 

Double walk

One of my husband's retirement projects is to complete the centenary trail, which is 145 km around Canberra, but you do it in bits. He started with the kids while they could still be encouraged on walks and now wants to finish it before we leave Canberra. Some of the sections are one way and need two cars so on Saturday we did one of them. It was a lovely day and a pleasant walk but not super exciting landscape. We started in the pines.

And ended by a lake. Another 10 km for him to mark off on his map.

Sunday I went for another walk, not as sparkling, but still nice. Absolutely completely still and wintry with just a few ducks. That house in the distance is where the Governor General lives (site of the infamous SINGING, no, I can't let it go).

In other exciting news, I did the Marie Kondo on my undie drawer. Amazing. We'll see how long it lasts but, as we all know, my cardigan drawer is still a glory of rolled up knitwear after 11 years. Yes, here is a picture of my underwear drawer, on the internet, so sue me.

We also made gyoza for the first time, which we are not very good at, but man it was DELICIOUS. Obviously still some practice needed to make them look good but they tasted incredible. Chicken and cabbage filling.

Brian Huntress

I was getting sick of pretty things and flowers and soft watercolours ... so I spent a happy few days imitating Brian Huntress. Who is an artist and singer with a weirdly catchy tune that goes "scribble scribble scribble on the page, don't worry about details at this stage, scribble scribble scribble let out your rage" ... and that probably tells you all you need to know about his aesthetic. I had a LOVELY time with this, broke out the crayons and the charcoal sticks and the paint pens and the glue. 

I did a lot of faces, and probably like this one the best, although he looks a bit scary. This is them en masse - an interesting bunch! Some are based on Brian's work and some are just god only knows.

Very good to do, although my faces still don't look much like faces. The proportions are all wrong. They look like the year 7 self-portrait wall.

More 'tiktok made me do it'

Other random paintings from stuff I see on the internet. This landscape was satisfying to do because the paints granulated beautifully in this very textured paper. I like the sky, although the ground is nothing to write home about.

A softer wet-into-wet urban sketch.

These are from Christopher Maxwell tutorials - he illustrates children's books and says the key to animals is personality, not accuracy :) I think my rooster has more personality than my parakeet, which looks worried.

And this guy is a graphic designer who does wonderful things with ink and markers. He makes it look so simple! It isn't. 

Busy busy week

It's the last sitting fortnight before the long winter break so work is busy and the mornings are COLD. We've had a couple of minus fives, with thick frost ... it is not getting any easier to leave a warm house with a happy husband. And very happy cat. 

It was a bleak walk on Saturday. I teed up with a friend to go for another walk on Sunday morning but it was drizzling and miserable so we went to the Handmade Markets instead ... much more fun, if not as healthy. I bought some soap and some sourdough. Much better than what these lunatics were doing with their weekend - kayak polo! It was so cold and the wind was whipping across the water in bursts and bringing up freezing (and disgusting) lake water in bursts. Eurgh.

A new Governor-General was sworn in yesterday, which is exciting for some but just means traffic chaos and extra security for us worker bees. Ants. The new GG seems nice, although so did the old one. It was his wife that gave us all the massive ick for her insistence that people SING ridiculous songs at completely inappropriate times. The first time I thought it was a personal vendetta against the particular group I was with but it is documented and certainly the reddit thread is worth a laugh. You have not seen a cringe as massive as a group of fifty public servants with a canape in one hand having to sing 'you are my sunshine' WHILE LOOKING IN EACH OTHERS EYES.  Nuttier than peanut brittle rolled in nuts.