Sketching in groups

One of the things I'm noticing is how different it is to draw in groups, rather than on my own which I've always done up until now. I tend to do things quickly but badly, and being with other people who do things slowly but well has reduced my pace, which is good. It's useful to get other people's feedback and see the way they've tackled a similar scene. It's also a very good vibe, everyone happily doing their own thing together. Sometimes with biscuits, or wine.

I went to urban sketchers on Sunday in Canberra where we went to the Kingston Foreshore, which is a fairly ugly collection of apartment buildings, canals off the lake and restaurants. Lots of lines and people, so I went a bit impressionistic. The bridge at least was curved. And I even went to lunch with them afterwards! Such socialising bravery.

On Saturday I went to drawing group where we did still life. I got out the pastels again - they are fun! mucky but fun - and did a fairly literal rendition of bottles and oranges. 

There were a few arrangements set up and I had some time at the end, so did a quick pastel of another table which had a flower and a coffee pot ... it's meant to be "free" i.e. a bit blurry. 

And at the art classes I finished the sunset which is OK. I don't like the headland but bits of the sea are acceptable. This is a technique where you do an underpainting of pastel then wash it out with a wet brush. The results are kind of similar to a watercolour underpainting but not the same, and you can't do wet into wet or anything like that. Then you go back in with more pastels for detail - you can add lights which is a different way of attacking it - and pastel pencils too. 

It's a fun technique so I used it again for this landscape, which I am much more pleased with. It doesn't look a lot like the reference photo (artistic license!) but I have put it in a cheap frame and it will be hung in the kitchen, where bad art belongs.

Yet more flowers

The garden is looking amazing at the moment with so many flowers out ... we are enjoying seeing what is blooming where, although I don't know if we'll be remembering any of it for next year. I'm attacking a few more beds rather than wait for winter. I know it's not good form to do severe pruning in spring but I know I need to do it while the enthusiasm is there. At least the camellias are meant to be pruned back after flowering. Here is the before.

And the after.

It has made a huge difference to the amount of light that gets into that bedroom! It's east facing but we've never thought of it as particularly sunny. Nor has the cat, but she figured it out pretty quickly. Nearly makes up for the lack of a constant fire (but not quite, she loves the fire).

About a quarter of the roses are blooming with more coming out every day. They are all sorts and shapes and sizes and - generally - pretty healthy. I gave them another fungicide spray because we weren't expecting rain and then it rained for 24 hours, which is typical gardener's luck. 

In the instruction folder for the house there is a collection of rose labels, and we might try and match them up to the plants. I'm not sure how accurate it will be. A rose is a rose is a rose, after all.

And here are the different rhododendrons, to go with the bright pink one that flowered first. The purple is particularly lovely, it's not a colour I associate with rhodos.

Busy time

We've had a lovely couple of weeks with various things including visitors from NZ - my brother and sister-in-law came over to stay and see our new little town and big garden. They were very happy to chill and enjoy the garden ... although we did put them to work with a spade and (in my brother's case) a chainsaw. He is quite a bit taller than my husband and I, so various trees got a surprise in their lower branches.

We went into Canberra one day to move some things out of the old house (see "extra tall", very helpful) and do a bit of light shopping ... otherwise such tourist delights as a pub lunch, took my sister in law to quilters, poke around the shops, all very lovely. I picked them up and dropped them off from the tiny train station at Tarago which is an adventure in itself. The weather was extremely up and down - they had 38 degrees in Sydney then 2 overnight here (we had the fire on most days). Spring! The flowers are gorgeous but the temperatures are crazy.

More art

 Here's an action shot of me at art classes last week - the teacher took it, I'm not sure why, and sent it to me. I am pondering the deep deficiencies in the pastel work in front of me ... I used water to brush in the under painting - interesting to do with pastels - but it's hardly the glorious sunset I'm trying to recreate. I'll keep picking at it and see.

The class before I'd finished my shed picture so picked up some charcoal and the folder of nudes .. apparently it's what you do between times, a bit of life drawing. I was thoroughly intimidated because my people have always been shocking but the teacher broke it down for me, showed me how to look at it, and away I went.

I am quite pleased with these. They look like people. The faces aren't good but faces are a different thing altogether. 

Generally it seems that looking at the shapes in front of you and re-creating them on a piece of paper is something that, broadly, it is possible to do. Huh. 

I also got my pastels out of their raggedy little boxes and tins and put them in my Wormproof Tackle Box. My memory is that my dad gave me this while I was at uni to keep my sewing threads in. My memory is also that I thought (possibly said?) "why the hell did you give me a Wormproof Tackle Box [which is what it had written in big letters on the label] I'm not about to go fishing" ... it was then explained to me it was good for reels of cotton and needles, and of course it is one of the most useful gifts I've ever received and been in constant use for nearly 40 years. I now keep my cotton reels in see through containers so I can see the colours, and the Wormproof Tackle Box has a new life to store pastels. Yay.

Berry

We went with the garden club to visit some open gardens at Berry - a little town on the coast about a two hour drive away. The garden club took a bus but I am too motion sick to think about that so we drove separately ... good decision as the road is quite windy. All sealed (except for about 5 km) but still not something I'd be happy doing in a big bus.

The gardens were all lovely although Berry is a very different climate - higher rainfall, higher temperatures and not the deep frosts. It was stinking hot when we were there; only 32 degrees but humid enough to make the shade very welcome.

The gardens were all different but not really anything we felt we wanted to re-create at home, and not just for the climate differences. They were all very manicured - although, in fairness, if I was having several thousand people traipse through my garden I would have it quite manicured as well - and very designed. We did think that having a bit of garden art might be a good idea though. This ballerina framed a view and looked super cool.

Some of the broader views were just amazing. So lush.

This photo was taken in an old turpentine  plantation where they'd kept the big trees and underplanted entirely with shade loving plants. And lots of seats (we need to put in more seats). It was really charming, and not just because it was out of the sun. 

Summer weather

We've had some hot and windy days here - hotter than usual for this time of year and things are starting to dry off quite quickly. It is still flowery and green but I'm not sure for how much longer - although we are meant to have storms tomorrow. The changeability of spring...

I took advantage of a hot dry day to scrub the wool rug that was in front of the fire and showing signs of  soot ... as suggested by absolutely no-one (including Ikea who made it) I hosed it off, scrubbed it with hand soap and laid it out on the grass to dry. It worked surprisingly well, and was a very good task to spray the hose about after getting super hot from weeding.

I did the little rug too. Friends brought it back from Esfahan in Iran when they went on holiday there about 20 years ago ... other friends were there on posting and we would have liked to go and visit, but it's not really feasible with two very small children. And I don't know if I'd go now, the age window for adventurous travel might have closed. Not that Iran is particularly adventurous, you can do it quite luxuriously I think. Anyway they make a nice rug and it's held up well to constant wear.

So here is something completely different on the needlework front - a crazy quilted pillow! We had a lesson at quilters with one of the ladies who is an amazingly accomplished crazy quilter and has absolute buckets of glorious laces and beads and braids and fabric to do it with. The piecing is quite straightforward but then you spend ages and ages embellishing ... shiny things and fancy things and pretty things and all the embroidery stitches (well, not from me, I only know three stitches but I did them in different colours). 

I very much enjoyed doing one block but that was about my limit, so I made it into a pillow and it sits looking very old-fashioned in our very old-fashioned front room. Good to do something entirely different. 

Yet more flowers

The flowers keep popping up and looking pretty. We are still working our way around the beds, with a LOT of mowing, and a big project to fix the dodgy footbridge over the creek. The roses are gratifyingly healthy despite my massive prunes. The pompom tree is out and we can see it from the dining table.

The clematis is a very pretty pink and just about to explode in blossom.

Most of the irises are purply but this is a lovely pink ruffly one.

Here is purple iris with purple lavender and purple sweet peas. And many happy bees.

And in non-flower gardening news we put to use our new incinerator ... tractor guy asked if we wanted a 44 gallon drum (only possible answer 'of course' even though we had no idea what to use it for) ... he put some holes in the bottom so we can burn rubbish that's too bitsy to chip, too twiggy to compost, too small to use in the fireplace and not enough to take to the tip. Not 100% sure it's legal but we figure on a nice calm day what harm could we do.

We started with the personal documents we forgot to take into work for shredding before we retired. Very satisfying.

And finally an after shot of the buddleia bed - the buddleia was higher than the garage roof but appears to have survived its hacking. We're not sure what the long term planting will be - it's a rare north-facing bed along the shed wall so we might need the micro-climate for something more delicate. But in the meantime, it's (largely) under control.

Arty things

I'm still going along to the weekly art classes and enjoying my adventure into pastels. The next project was a drawing of our shed. It was a learning experience and I'm not super thrilled with the result ... but I definitely learned something.

This is the photo I drew from. 

I also went along to the art group drawing sessions on Saturday (bar open) where we drew with non-traditional materials this time; sticks, blossoms, bark, feathers... it was actually heaps of fun but I'm not sure if the end result is any good. Drawing with sticks is hard!!!

We were drawing a heap of branches/flowers so if you squint you can see pine needles and waratah flowers and dead agapanthus heads in there. Kind of. 

I knitted some socks

I'm not a knitter - I know the basic stitches but have never done anything more adventurous than dishcloths and scarves. But I have always wanted to knit socks, and I love all the pretty sock yarn, so I did some googling, found the most basic pattern that also had a real-time Youtube instructional video (Crazy Sock Lady's vanilla socks pattern, can 100% recommend) and I went and KNIT SOME SOCKS.

I am most unreasonably pleased with myself. The needles are smaller and the yarn finer than I'm used to, and it took ages. There are heaps of mistakes and I think I made them too big ... but still, I knit some socks. It has a slip stitch heel and a gusset and everything. Unbelievable.

I have cast on another pair already. Same pattern but I'm hoping it won't take three months this time.

First swim of the summer

We had the usual unseasonably hot week that happens sometime in October and surprises everyone every year ... it is usually a sitting week and was again this year but guess what? it doesn't matter! I can go to the beach for a few days anyway!!! Hahahahaha, the novelty has not yet worn off.

The sun was warm but the water was COLD. I wore a wetsuit and still did a lot of squealing. I was on my own so ate a lot of potatoes and made more library bags for the local school ... the quilt group has a mysterious stash of fabric that washes into the shed. Donations I guess but it's fun to dig through and make library bags from.

Yes Pam, 1830s is definitely considered deeply historic. Canberra heritage lists buildings from the 1930s for fun so anything European-built from the nineteenth century is like the middle ages round here. 

Bedervale

Another Arts Trail activity we did was go out to Bedervale, which is a historic homestead just out of town. It's interesting because it had seven generations of one family there from the 1830s - who never threw anything out - then passed to the current owners in the 1970s who sold the contents to the National Trust to raise some cash but kept everything in place. It's unusual in Australia to get something with original contents; often they buy them back in when they start opening it to the public. 

It has the most amazing setting just on the other side of the ridge line from town. It was a beautiful day with a very big sky ... they'd invited a plein air painting group out for the weekend so the gardens were dotted with happy people behind easels and wearing shady hats. We did a house tour too which was fun - the owners still live there but not in the older rooms, which were freezing. It must be impossible in winter. 

We continued to get ideas beyond our station in life ... and available gardening manpower. At one point is was 36 000 acres - mostly cattle - with 58 cottages on the property - mostly convicts - and self contained with everything from blacksmith to granary. Serious outbuildings and lovely old trees.

We'd met the current owner at gardening club, so were able to ask some more detailed questions about planting ... including a wonderful bunya pine. They take 100 years to grow but I think we're going to plant one anyway. 

the Arts Trail

This weekend the little town featured on the council's Art Trail - I think there are four towns that do it over successive weekends. It was also the long weekend - and lovely weather - so lots of Canberrans passing through on their way to the coast. We went to the antique / bric-a-brac / collectible fair, where we didn't buy anything, because nobody needs that stuff in their house. We had a look in at the quilts that they'd hung in the library, including one of mine, very exciting. All the shops were open for once so we wandered down the main street in the sunshine and popped into shops we haven't been into before. Normally you could shoot a cannon down the street with no risk of injury so it was fun to see everyone out and about. 

The garden continues to bloom and blossom. This tree (an apple? possibly?) is gloriously covered, along with the pom pom tree.

We think this is a Persian lilac. I pruned it not knowing anything about it in the winter, which turns out to be the right thing to do, and it's making very pretty flowers which smell lovely. 

The grass is sprouting slightly - it may die off in the late summer Dad, but it's got to be better to have something there than nothing? I will do more remediation in autumn and compare success rates. 

And here is another before and after; this one the bottom rose bed (we are calling it the 'agapanthus bed' even though there are agapanthus in every bed). It was impossible to weed in any normal sense so I had to mattock off the top layer of grass and soil with no respect for the agapanthus ... bulb chips flying everywhere. They will recover, and the roses seem happier to have some space even if their shallower roots did get a bit mattocked. The before shot isn't even proper before - I had pruned the roses - which were all well over ten feet tall. It was insane.

On Sunday I went to some more arts trail things while my husband went to pick up number one and girlfriend who came out to see us and stay the night. Which is very exciting, they are always super busy but it's so lovely to have them come and see us when everything is looking so pretty. Number one had been at an aerospace conference in Sydney so we heard all about that, sounds amazing (what we could understand, which wasn't much).