More fish..

Whenever I sit in the studio these days and don't know what to start on, I paint fish. They are addictive.

Some of our people

Binty (staffy X) and Jasper (whippet). We still call them 'the pups'. We love them a lot.

Road trips make me happy :-)

On the road again....

I adore a roadtrip. Today Danz and I took a trip to Berrima in the Southern Highlands. We had people to catch up with there (love you Hoz and Mills!) and things to buy (hello favourite porcelain mug) but mainly we love to travel along the road in the front row seats! The huge sky, wonderful view, quiet companionship of my best buddy, nothing to do but travel and knit; I love it all.

Marmalade days

We have had a lot of rain. It is wonderful for the garden at this time of year; our fig tree will love it. Last year we had lots of spring rain and the tree had it's best year since we have been here - I made fig jam with some of the fruit. In fact there are still a couple of jars in the fridge. I used a bit much sugar so it is a bit honeyish, but very tasty nevertheless and I am sure that if we are hit by famine it will be welcome! 

I made marmalade again today. My favourite recipe is one from Taste.com. I wonder if people in the future will bother with buying cookery books. There are so many fab recipes to try on the net. I have tried about three different marmalade recipes over the last couple of years, all off the net, and have found the perfect one. I adore marmalade and prefer to mix my citrus these days. Today I used three ruby grapefruit, two oranges (navels) and a lemon. The resultant jam is delicious and set to perfection, if I don't mind saying so myself. If you could eat sunshine I think it would smell and taste like marmalade. Actually I baked bread this week too, so am feel very domesticated. Does that make me a domestic goddess? Hmmm.

The days are suddenly much longer and the daphne is blooming and hanging out the washing (an activity I enjoy - outdoors, silent, clean) is a fragrant experience. I know the houses along the street that also have daphne bushes because I can smell them as I walk along. There must be some reason that daphne is so popular here in Canberra, I had never noticed them before moving here. Colleagues arriving at work with little bunches of daphne is one of the heralds of spring. I notice that the first lot of magpie younguns are already fledged and sitting under the trees in the morning waiting for their parents to return with breakfast. More heralds of spring.

Hanging Rock

I visited Hanging Rock in Victoria a few months ago - the place depicted in the film of the same name. It is a beautiful and quite awe inspiring place and not difficult to feel a bit creeped out when you get close.

I am using ink  here to try to convey the power of the 'rock'.

Botanic break

What a perfect day! Does a 21 degree day mean that spring has arrived early? I spent an hour of it in the botanic gardens - it is just so beautiful in there! There are many flowering plants and the fragrance of them in the warm, sunny air was uplifting. I sat for a while doing this quick sketch of the 'Pryor' tree. It is a very beautiful tree named after Lindsay Pryor, one of the founders of the gardens. The tree predates establishment of the park which was previously a pastoral property and  prior to that - part of the homelands of the Ngunnawal or Gamberri people perhaps?
I'll use this sketch and some photos I took to work up a studio picture