First Saturday in December

I am having a meditative / contemplative sort of day today before driving to Griffith tomorrow for work.

Here's 2 of Steve's prints in the outside gallery that I particularly like.  I've got a bit of a thing for our brickwork at the moment.

Dirty Linen

Well, not quite.  It's raining again here but the garden beckoned and it was wonderful out in the gentle rain.

But muddy, of course.  Enroute to the bathroom, it crossed my mind to take a cuppla unusual views of our house.

Here's the view from the bathroom landing.

And here's the bathroom.

I know what you're thinking:  she should clean out the gutters and clean the bath...

Tomorrow.

I'm easily distracted.  Here's the view of the Long Gallery between our house and Royce's.

I'll try to remember to take a photo when Steve is using it as exhibition space.

Steve's birthday

is today - it's 21st November in Australia.  He has produced a shadow man print which he's very pleased with.

While I was away in England and Wales, I realised that I always feel at home when there's a blackbird around.  We have one at River Bank - during the week he flew into my bedroom which gave us both a few anxious moments.  Today he is happy in the jacaranda (if you look very carefully).

Rainy Saturday

I had to go out in the rain to take this photo of my Schwarzkopf (or similar) dripping with diamonds.

Here it is in situ.

This is the wettest, rainiest day we've had for eons.

Note the hollyhocks and jacaranda just coming in to flower.

Here's the back of the house and the moon a cuppla nights ago.

Truly magic.

Billy Can Do

The weekends have been perfect here lately and I've been happy to spend just about all the time in the garden.  I noticed this billycan on the path one day.

I used to keep the pegs in it but they strangely disappeared while I was away on holiday...  I hadn't thought of it for years, but I remembered that when I got married the first time, we bought a camping cooking set and this was the innermost billy.  We used these as our saucepans for years.

And what's in it now?

Stones from the fountain Tue and Lanna gave Steve and me for a wedding present.

Cans within cans.  Wheels within wheels.

Country Music Style

This is the week of the Country Music Festival.  So I was inspired to do a few things around the house while outside echoed to various country styles.  Georgia's blog made me think to show you the linen cupboard on the first landing, its doors currently sporting felted acorns.

Because the weather is still coolish, I've decided on splashes of red in my room.  Doesn't my framed Tarentella (painted and created by Spanish Rose Norte) look fabulous!!!

I'd read in The Big Issue during the week that The Simpsons has turned 21, so couldn't resist showing you the plate collection in the kitchen.

And since the door is open, and becomingly draped in rubbish bags, let's peak outside.

That little nesting box is my souvenir from Kangaroo Island at Easter time.  I'm not saying it's going to stay on that verandah post for ever, I'm just waiting for the right place to make itself known.

Home Truths: Spring, and a garden in waiting...

Noticed that our ornamental vine is coming to life as I came in through the garage door tonight.

Of course, it's not all good news

This is the north side of our house - actually in the yard of the fish and chip shop next door.  Much as I love living in an old building, there are maintenance issues.  Fortunately we have some good builders around - mostly retired but happy to do the odd job.

Travel broadens the ... stairs

I noticed 2 things when I got home from The Big Trip:  the 28 stairs from the bottom to the top of our house are generously wide with a shallow rise in comparison with UK houses, and the tattooist 4 doors down was offering Friday 13th Specials - sadly I currently have no pictures of either to show you.

Steve said
A strange sort of day...now we have a lady queen, (I suppose that is fair enough) a lady gov gen and a lady and now a lady prime minister who was born in Wales,grew up in Adelaide and went to Adelaide University...what is Australia coming to, the sort of people they let run the place... and I don't find out my Uni results until tomorrow morning, not today....so the trip into uni was only important for listening to the ABC describe the events of the day.
And we had a great walk below the lock, photos hopefully later.
love

Us oxo

Mr Mars here reporting on what is going on in Wentworth...
Two 17 year old Wentworth boys charged yesterday with the murder of a 58ish Sydney bloke at Buronga ( service station opposite your office) a couple of days ago...made national ABC  etc news...yes victim's car found burnt out at Nama.
Vegi Steve  beaten up outside Fishers while waiting to pick up his daughter after work...Steve's ok if a bit grumpy just king hit from behind, did not know the attacker, that was last Friday actually (not yesterday)
Town quiet today, this end of Darling Street anyway, have drawn what I think is probably one of my better Kalgoorlie drawings, will hopefully post later.
Big decision...which walk after gallery closes , one adult with her two <5 children in so far today ...a cold  if cloudless Saturday.
Steve

Dad seems grumpy today, I suspect it has got something to do with the fact that the quiche  (second quiche) he left out on the kitchen bench overnight was not there this morning, and given the dish was in the back yard we are blaming the possum...but Dad isn't.

Dad has put his portfolio out for display yesterday, so the uni term is sort of over, apart from the work being assessed on Friday, of course he will be going back in tomorrow to check all the bits are as he left them...that may be another reason he is grumpy in anticipation.

He is however enjoying drawing tractors and stuff, and another girl big machine driver from Singleton (not far from Max Watters territory) saw his machines in the gallery on Monday and now wants him to draw hers, and there are all the  others from Kalgoorlie waiting as well but not until he finishes Tess a lovely brown kelpie pup who has asked for her masterpiece , oh and he has also sort of been asked to do a painting of the Lock...so in between making quiches, searching for clues, worrying about uni etc he is keeping himself busy.

And he had better go to the butchers, either that or make some more quiches.

Rose and Pup

today in our dunes

smallest Ducklings on the Darling this morning

in our back yard at the moment

another fire, another gallery

the first Cat of the season (something not quite right with the front wheel)

just in case anybody does not know ( or remember) what a fire in the gallery can be

artist perusing a brick wall in another gallery, not too far from the other gallery

putting my portfolio together,
this one is called Steve's hands
the most important hand is that right hand with first finger raised

Nearly ready to put away

for anybody who may not have seen Lucky for a while, he was about this morning,
here is a rubber cut of him

a couple of drawings of our house

photos from the morning of the big trip

Autumn - the Monday before I leave for Wales...

Thought I'd better capture a bit of Autumn colour before I leave.

A tendril of Glory Vine and Steve's chillis in the back garden.  Note the ubiquitous galvanised fencing - every Australian back garden .

Now we are upstairs in my room.  It's actually raining today so I had the lamp on this morning.  Rosie was obviously loathe to get up!  You can see that I've started packing.  I also have a lot of wet clothes still on the line.  And you can see that I didn't bother tidying up for you.  Aren't mirrors tricky things?

This is looking back to where I took the previous photo.  I was trying to capture the golden leaves outside the window.  The space is a verandah which has been glassed in.  Rosie continues to snoozzzzzzzzze on...

It's afternoon now, so I had another go at the autumn leaves outside the window.

That's better.  Then thought I'd see what the tree looked like from downstairs:

Not quite so effective.  This photo is taken of the The Gallery space from the office / library.  The blue couch is from where I took the previous photo of the gallery.

The Back Garden

The idea of this blog was to have photos to give rellies O/S some idea of where we live.  It has, however, been commandeered by an artist.  In deference to his ability, I will post one  photo of  The Gallery.

This is not a crash-hot photo but I'm sure The Artist will oblige with more...  The Gallery is sometimes a living room.  It is open and airy, which I love, but difficult to heat in Winter so we use a different room then.  You can see the library / office through the doorway.  I love this space.
However, let's go out to the back garden.  There is no front garden because it is an old bank building and fronts on to the street.

It's only a small backyard.  And this is a few years ago - it changes a bit every year.  Let's go up the stairs

The gazebo is essential in summer.  It is too hot up here for pot plants. The jacaranda gives shade in the late afternoon.

This is the jacaranda in flower and a little possum.

A blurry possum bum...
Forget about the possum for a while and look back towards the house ie to the west.

It's a jumble.  I do love it.
Now walk to the edge of the deck and look out to the east.

This is what we call The Big Garden.  To the right you can see the Wentworth Wharf.  Further to the left

the bridge over the Darling River.
I don't know what time it is in blogland but it's 11.23pm here and I'm off to bed.

(To be continued...)