tsk tsk

The river rises

And so it goes.

From the extreme dry heat and smell of bushfires in the valley to sweltering days of continuous flooding.

Two years ago we went through a 100 year flood....this last weekend we fought off flying branches and 300mls of rain in two days to watch the river rise again. Literally from our house you can see it swelling and you know it is a living thing.

So Close. Plenty of damage to many parts of the state, but we have faired well. 

Can't complain about losing the frangipani tree when you know people have lost so much.

But hey, my garden is green. green. green. green. It's the first day back at school and I am ready to roll.

Lots of ideas to investigate.

 

silver greys that reflect ash instead of rain

Nature is a wonderful thing.

Here is a mosaic of some photos I have taken over the years from my flickr page.

Today this winged creature (moth? butterfly?) just landed on my driveway. It's the kind of creautre I'd expect to find in a museum. I had to rescue it from the hounds before it did.

I've started to notice how this long, hot summer has started to cause stress on the wildlife.

Magpies are sitting closer to the house looking exhausted | Feathers are more visible on the pathways |Atleast the Noisy Miners are have been thankfully quieter.

The light and colours of the day are strong and vibrant. Musks, lemons, tangerines mixed with burnt olives and silver greys that reflect ash instead of rain.

 

illustration for annual report

Last year I created some illustrations for The Children's Hospital at Westmead in NSW. I received a copy in the mail yesterday. It's always tricky producing illustrations for an informative text publication, especially when you can't attend any of the meetings.

But seeing it printed and bound was satisfying. And what a great organisation this is.

The brief was centrered around the theme of hope and growth, so I illustrated flora based imagery.

inspire me

Inspiring me this week.

After a short pinterest break, I am back being inspired. It is such a time waster. But here are a few images that really sing to me. 

All the individual images can be seen on my pin boards where they are linked to the original source.

Top Left: Emma Walker

Top Right: Rachael Lee

Middle: Sarah Amos

Bottom Left: Sophie Morille

Bottom Right: Judy Ross Textiles

clearing the decks

one week done.

I am really keen to start work. But school holidays are still in full swing. 24 days until it is over.

We've had a week at the beach. Lazy days slapping on sunscream, washing away sand and dining out. We saw the new year in sitting on the beach with 40,000 other people. And although it was fun, I really wanted just to be creating in silence. Infact I've been craving a milder climate and open fires.

To end the week, I flew to Melbourne to surprise a friend for her 40th. I was there for less than 24 hrs, not a good thing when you know how much that city has to offer. But worth every moment seeing her face light up.

I've pocketed some of my visual memories from this week and hopefully will find a few spare hours to start experimenting on paper.

In the meantime, i'm packing Christmas away under the stairwell, and unsubscribing to emails that I never open. The amount of rubbish emails I get from companies that I never buy from or link to is time wasting and mind numbing.

It feels good to clear the decks and prepare for what will hopefully be a fullfilling year.