Getting Ready

One week to go before bump in for the Art Melbourne exhibition. Above is the last oil finished. All they need is wire and hangers, and a final spray coat when they're a bit drier. I am really pleased with them all. This one I really love.

Now I am doing three small watercolours on the same theme. I'm halfway into the second one, and having a great time!

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Harvest Time............
We have actually beaten the birds to our nut harvest this year, and have a bucket of chestnuts,

and an ice cream container of almonds from our two year old tree

The parrots had already begun to harvest the chestnuts, and there were a lot snapped off the branches and dropped on the ground. Chestnuts have a seemingly impervious coating of prickles, which cannot be handled by hand, no matter how careful you are. The birds don't seem to mind and crack through it easily to eat the soft nut inside.

I was having a huge cut back in the studio garden, and looked up to see all the almonds from our newish tree, pods popped open, and no birds had touched them.

The nuts are soft and super delicious, but I am going to dry them a bit before we use them.

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My man was coming up the driveway last night to see me with the watering can, damping down some mushrooms in the front paddock. After the recent rain, the ground is again drying out and our autumn mushrooms popping through the ground are starting to struggle. I thought I might keep them growing long enough to harvest.

The last few autumns have produced an enormous number of mushrooms, more than I can be bothered processing. Our neighboring paddock that usually produces so many has far too much grass cover, so they'll probably never see light.

There's always next year.