Pink Pigs and Brown Noses

The bloody bunnies have eaten all the tips off my roses, and I'm soooo disappointed. I thought it was the woolly jumbuks when they wandered unasked through the top garden, but no, they're also nibbled down below in the studio garden. After having a good sook about them, I got all the dog poo I could find, mixed it up in the pooper scooper with some hot water....... so it made a lovely smelly porridge (are you gagging yet?), then poured the whole horrid lot around the base of the roses. Let them eat THAT! At least they'll get muddy paws and 'brown noses'!

Also today, I photographed the Pink Pig letterbox, which was next door to the lovely cow boxes shown on the last post..

We went to the local Rokeby market on the most perfect of days, where my friend Glynnis had her first market there for the season. Glynnis makes the most glorious goat milk soaps which we are totally addicted to, and use all the time. (see her web site: www.udderlydelightful.com.au ). She was flat out selling soap to all her faithful customers, so we wished her happy birthday and continued cruising the stalls.

We also saw an artist friend Laurie Collins, who makes the quirkiest metal animals out of scraps, and sells them all over the place. He was full of wonderful tales about a recent trip to the Chinese sister city of our Warragul. He and five other artists carted their work over for an exhibition; though his never got out of customs, which was a disappointment. But he really enjoyed the interchange, and said the Chinese were planning a reciprocal visit next year.

He sported a stylish new Chinese style waistcoat, which was made especially for his very tall body.

We have two of his funny animals at home, which we enjoy enormously.

One of Laurie's creations for sale at the market

"Humor is a reminder that no matter how high the throne one sits on, one sits on one's bottom."
....Taki

Local Humour

I was offered a commission to do a painting yesterday. She asked for a large gallery wrapped canvas to be sectioned into six, and on each section, could I do something intrinsically 'countryfied'? It sounded like great fun, and we discussed old clotheslines with washing hung up, our old Pope hand mower, a campfire with a billy on it, and a wagon wheel. So, I had a bit of a root around in my photo files and found a few treasures.

I had to go do a food shop in town, then came round the long way to see if I could find some old letterboxes. I did find these......
Maybe a bit silly for my country painting, but how cute are they? The one next door was a beautiful pink pig, and for the life of me, I don't know why I didn't photograph that as well. Next time. I'll put it in when I do.

My vegetable garden is now all planted up, with every bit of space taken. A while ago, I spotted a method of gluing carrot seeds onto strips of paper, then laying them on the dirt and lightly covering them. So, on a day when I felt like wasting time (maybe not!), I cut out long strips of toilet paper, mixed up some flour glue,and dabbed a row of seeds an inch apart on each strip. Then I promptly forgot them, as I'm prone to do, and they languished unplanted up on the top of the spice shelf.

So, in a wakeful moment in the dark of the night last week, I remembered them (no, I don't dust there often enough!), and got them down today and planted them in neat rows. All I have to hope now is they take off.

"A good gardener always plants 3 seeds - one for the bugs, one for the weather and one for himself."
... Leo Aikman

Birthday Present for Glynnis

'Fergus' ~ 8" X 10" Oil on canvas board.

I can't wait until Saturday to give this to Glynnis for her birthday. This is also one of my 'small paintings' and I did it this morning.

I guess she'll spot this on my blog, so an early Happy Birthday dear! You can have it when it's dry.

This painting is done from some photos I took of her proud 'cavoodle' daddy, Fergus', whose three babies were born a week ago.

"A true friend is one who thinks you are a good egg even if you are half-cracked".
... Author Unknown

Coal Creek Historical Village - more

Coal Creek is perhaps 25 kms from us at Korumburra. It has had a difficult recent history, with management disputes and lack of money being the most damaging.

It nestles into the hillside on the outskirts of town, and carries many refurbished old buildings, including 100 plus year old houses, a school, church, and shops. Most have been moved from elsewhere and rebuilt. Sadly, the lack of money is now showing in the peeling paint, and rusting machinery.



Finally, a decision has been made to clear out a lot of the more unproductive collection, and restore what is left. I'm not sure where these items will go, and it seems a shame to lose all that history, but letting it rot is just as bad.

In its heyday, there were demonstrations of farriers, spinners, wood lathers, and numerous other dying skills. The day we were there for my photography, there were still children in costume in the class rooms, and having a great time in the gardens looking the old trains, etc. There was an old geezer giving an historic talk on his days at the old coal mine. Periodically, there would be a staged gas explosion from deep in the mine, giving us all a fright.

When I heard it might close down totally, we rushed there to document how it was, hence my painting subjects, and we are relieved that now the decision has been made to re-open in 2008.

I will possibly time my solo to coincide with the re-opening, We'll see............

".... if you didn't know history, you didn't know anything. You were a leaf that didn't know it was part of a tree. "
...........Michael Crichton, Timeline

Today's Work

Work out in the studio today was very productive, and I have pretty much broken the back of my 5th painting for my Coal Creek Solo. I love the colours and most of the brushwork is pretty pleasing.

When I did the photo shoot for this body of work, I wanted to use the abstract shapes of the machinery, etc, and not be able to identify what each group of objects are. My male friends are happy to describe what they they think they are but I don't listen. I am essentially a realist, but wanted subjects that had a more contemporary feel. Plus, I love any kind of machinery, and walking round the historic village of Coal Creek and looking at all the 'junk' sent me weak in the knees. Beautiful!

I regard my photography as an important part of my creative process, as I suffer from PTSD, which involves a serious undermining of the concentration process. Sadly that leaves me pretty much 'PD' (photo-dependent!), but I am so lucky to be able to still operate on a professional level where three years ago I couldn't have.

Once I get into my emerging painting, nothing else matters, so what more could I ask? So, painting number 6, bring it on!

First I might do a couple of small ones, as I have some ideas............

"Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures."
.....Henry Ward Beecher

A Man's Shed is his 'Cave'?

A man's shed is sacrosanct. He meditates, cogitates, solves his life issues, rests from the outside world, and repairs, renovates and creates.

My man's shed is a marvel of masculinity. His tools are organised into places only he can find, and mostly have been painted with some kind of sticky oily substance to make them last longer. So completely gucky, you have to wash your hands afterwards, or wear gloves. Perhaps that is so I won't want to touch them.

My tools, that I had when I moved up to 'his place' many moons ago, have since been set aside in a box labelled 'Robyn's Tools', but I can't find them!


His tools have been collected from his teen years on, and often there are many more than one of each. There are strange, rusting pieces of metal and wood that have no apparent use, and are kept 'just in case'. There are old rabbit traps, possum cages, cross cut saws, rotting bridles and harness pieces. Any interesting signs and nick nacks from our Harley Davidson life end up nailed on the door that leads to 'the 'bikes'. Other stuff is collected to go up on the wall of our promised barby area, when it arrives.

The Hallowed Harley Portal

His idea of heaven recently lay in 'moving his jars of nails, etc, 'from one side of the shed to the other', in a major clean up, which exposed parts of floor we hadn't seen for some time. This stretch of floor is inexorably shrinking as the new projects get going.

He has been hankering after a new compressor, so he 'can blow up the tyre on his wheelbarrow', and after a year has just got one. It's a fabulous four horsepower something or other, and is not nearly as loud as the last one, which could be heard roaring from the house. I am sure that it contributed to his rapidly advancing hearing loss, along with the chainsaw, lawn mower, and footy turned up loud on a Saturday afternoon.


But this weekend, he has repaired a beehive for our girls to expand into, and painted our new pine veranda chairs in fetching stripes, so I musn't complain. Many good things emerge from that shed door, including him..............

Happy Father's Day!

If the world were a logical place, men would ride side saddle.
...Rita Mae Brown

Planting for Spring

It's hard to believe that Thursday was a glorious 25 degrees C, Friday was zero and diabolical, and today is clear and sunny again. They say rude things about Victoria's weather, 'where you can get three seasons in one day'. Actually, it can be pretty true.

The vegetable garden has been cleaned out and some of it planted up. It's not a big one, maybe 4 X 5 metres, but I sure try to pack heaps in together. We built it onto the side of the house, for ease of watering and nicking out at dinner time for a quick pick. Broccoli and lettuce, etc, can be 15 minutes from garden to table, or less! Just long enough to wash the dirt off.

You can sure taste the difference..............

This is our second year in this spot. I mulched it well last year to keep the weeds down, and that worked a treat, plus it kept the soil cool and moist.

Now it has rotted down, it has been turned into the soil as compost, and a new layer will be put on top once everything is planted.

If you don't produce, you're out!

I still have broccoli, silver beet, cos lettuce and rocket (seeded from last year), chives, parsley, asparagus, leeks and some slow growing brussell sprouts which are taking forever!

New additions are eggplant, cucumber, tomatoes, capsicum. There's more to plant, but now I have to get clever to fit it all in!

The Berry Run, just starting to shoot.

At the end, we have a 'berry run', with raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, gooseberries and black currants, all fighting for space. I have two boysenberries elsewhere which I might bring closer to the easy watering spaces nearby.

The blackbirds love the berries, but will have to find their way through the bird nets when they start to mature.

I also put rubber snakes in to deter them from digging the soil of the plants, but found one almost almost chatting to one last year! So much for that idea.

We fenced it all with mesh to keep the crazy teenager out. She's such a busy girl, and loves to roar through the gardens. Nothing is sacred!

"If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat?"
......Author Unknown