I have not been wasting my time as you can see. One Acrylic, one pastel and one water colour.

The day I was due to go into hospital for surgery I fancied doing a water colour - something I haven't done for about 40 years or so. After I returned home the urge to do watercolour is still there, so I have completed another one and working on a new one. My acrylics have been set aside for the time being. By the way the surgery went well and I was home in a week. All tests come back negative for cancer so it's a big weight off my mind.

Painting

I am enjoying spending more time at my easle painting. The lessons have been most helpfull. I have to give them up for a short while because life has become too busy - away when the lessons are scheduled, and it looks like I will have to have a little surgery soon. If you view Secher's blog (one of the blogs I follow) then you will be able to see how I have been keeping myself busy and some of the paintings I have created with the help of my tutor.

Taking Lessons

I've decided to take some painting lessons and feel that after just one lesson I am already moving ahead a little. This is my rendition of my header page of a sunset in my local area. Hope the teacher is happy with it when I go back later this week. I feel the lessons are just what I need to put me in the right frame to do a little more than I have been doing of late. I didn't make any New Years resolutions but as well as taking some painting lessons, I have joined a choir. We, the GD and I have also informed our families, that for about the 2nd time in our married life we will not be hosting Christmas this year as we have booked a cruise so that we can be waited on for a change. I think the children and their attachments have got the message that we are getting older and more stressed about taking care of everything at that time of year. We've already received offers that the following year they will do their bit. I think they all took it in tahe manner it was intended. It's been a busy health month what with "skin Scan", "breast scan", "lung capacity test" - thank God the colonoscopy wasn't due this month. Not really complaining - all these things halp keep us on this precious earth a little longer than we might have. I went to the funeral of a card playing friend this week. Seems like only yesterday she was having a good laugh during our 500 game just before Christmas and now she's gone. Even though she was quite a few years older than me it make one realize their vulnerability.
Ain't it a buggar gettin' old?
We're flying south in a couple of weeks for a happy celebration when my son and his partner tie the knot. We'll be pleased to have her as a welcome member to our family.
Thank goodness we have had a little relief from the heat and dry conditions with a couple of wet days, though some areas near by have had a little more than they wanted with some local flooding.
Well, back to the paintbrush - gotta keep this momentum goint.

Our Christmas Day was a quiet day with just the one of my sons up from NSW, the GD and me. The GD prepared a delicious dinner of roast duck. The three of us had no trouble at all comsuming the lot. It was however a very busy holiday weekend. My son returned to his home, leaving in the early hours of Boxing Day. Off with the linen, in the WM and back on the bed for the arrival of our house guests. One couple in the guest bedroom and another couple in the studio. It was a stinking hot day so before lunch (table all prepared in the above photo) we spent a little while in the pool. Lunch was a typical Danish Smorgasboard (spelling?). We have catered for up to about 20 friends on some of our traditional Boxing Day lunches but it was only a small gathering this year. Some of our friends who are usually with us were away for the Christmas/New Year Holiday period this year so were unable to be with us. We are also getting just that little bit older and just don't feel we can survive a big gathering any more. It was a most enjoyable day with the usual Danish Schnapps with the pickled herrings and then other cold cuts with everyones favourite tipple. After a long lunch it was time for a nap to recharge, then another dip in the pool followed by sundowners, before we settled down outside for a BBQ. The rain looked like it was going to send us indoors but it held off long enough for us to enjoy our sausage and salads and a few more drinks. The weather looked like it might get serious so we adjourned to the living room for a fun evening of Trivial Persuits. GB from the farm was the winner. The GD cooked us all bacon and eggs and toast for breaky. Then our guests hit the road and all made it home safely.
Since then the GD has been busy in his garden when the weather is not too hot and I have almost finished another painting.
Prayers for rain have been answered and we have had some good falls over the last week. It's been enough to top up the pool and fill our fresh water tanks. We've actually switched over from town water to using the tank water throughout the house as it looks like there is more rain to come.
We had a very quiet New Years Eve, staying awake till midnight to watch the fireworks from Sydney on the TV.
I took down the Christmas tree yesterday and packed it away. It's back to business as usual.

Hope everyone has a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2010.

Another hot dry day in our neighbourhood. Just had our Nana nap and feeling at a loose end. I usually go and play cards on Thursday and my body clock says I shouldn't be at home today. We had the family gathering last night for Xmas Eve. We've had it early this year to fit in with having the most family able to be here together at any given time close to Christmas. 9 our of 23 of immediate family was the best we could manage. It's a shame so many of the family live so far away. It was a great evening with all the trimmings you might find on a Scandinavian table for Christmas eve. All cooked by the GD. As usual the almond in the Ricecream ensured that all the desert was eaten before the almond was revealed by one of the family, who with great difficulty had managed to conceal it in her mouth till everyone had their fill. The GD then donned the Santa hat and handed out the presents from under the tree. It will now be a very quiet Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with one of our sons visiting from down south, the GD and I. The son will leave on Boxing day and four friends will arrive to spend Boxing day and overnight with us. A couple more people will also join us for Boxing day lunch. One of the nicest things I like about Christmas is receiving Christmas cards and Christmas letters from friends describing their year's activities, many of these from all around the world, we only hear from at Christmas. At our age it's nice to know they are still with us. It's always sad though to receive a card that tells of the loss of a loved one.

The photo is of too helpfull elves (two grandchildren) who visited a couple of weeks ago and helped to decorate the Christmas tree.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

At last, I feel like I'm getting somewhere with all things Christmas. It's been a mad rush this year and I still have a couple of gifts to get. The chore of wrapping, finding boxes to fit and posting presents is just about done. I'm sure it would be so much easier if the family were close by, but they are scattered all over this wide brown land. The tree is up and as we are expecting a couple of the younger grandchildren through the week for a visit, I thought I would leave the decoration of the tree till they were here. They liked having that job last christmas if I remember correctly. We might have one of the immediate family with us for Xmas but waiting for confirmation. We also look like having an early Christmas Eve celebration to fit in with some family who will be away visiting other members of their family before Christmas. Gee it gets complicated when there are split families to gather around. With some luck the GD might get some christmas lights up tomorrow but since we both have to go to skinscan tomorrow it might not happen. I have to have a sunspot cut out of my hand and one on my temple. Not looking forward to that. We spent the weekend before last up the coast for a surprise 70th birthday party and then had the guest of honour as our guest with his wife for a couple of days early last week. As usual the challange of the Rummykub took place along with a little of "the creature" (Yule Schnapps). I didn't win. We are feeding two Kookaburras now but only irregularly as we don't want them to become dependant on our feeding. We need rain badly in this part of paradise so if you are having more than your share please send some our way.

In addition to the PeeWee which spends most of it's time in the pool area admiring itself in it's reflection on the glass pool fence, we now appear to have a visitor to the back clothes drying area. This kookaburra spent a couple of hours in this area yesterday afternoon. I think the main attraction is that we have a small water feature under the tree and used to have a couple of gold fish in it. The kookaburra is quite happy to take a little bit of bacon rind from within about 3 feet of me. I guess if fish isn't on the menu then bacon rind will do. Looks like we will have to put some mesh over the water feature when we replace the fish. We have fish in it to keep the mosquitos from breeding in the water. There's also 2 pairs of crows nesting across in the park and they seem very busy at the moment. "Ain't nature wonderfull".
We have just spent a relaxing, enjoyable up at the farm - Bella Vista, with Lindy & GB. It's always nice to get away and even nice to get away and stay with good friends. The British Lass from Scotland (now from France) was visiting her friends at the farm also, and we enjoyed catching up on her life since we first met her about 5 years ago.
There has been a few bushfires filling the air with smoke lately. This hasn't been good for my poor lungs. We are getting pretty desperate for some rain in the South East but there doesn't seem to be anything significant on the way. I guess one of the pluses with the dry weather is that the wildlife come a little closer to find their food and water. Just hope we don't get ducks utilising the pool as the PeeWees leave enough droppings around to clean up.
We had the house spring cleaned last week, gee it's nice to look through clean windows. There was still the remains of the dust storms which passed through here several weeks ago which seemed to have found it's way into every nook and cranny. All gone now and the fly screens have lost their slightly pinkish look.
Today we are both off to the Skin Scan Clinic to have any sun spots frozen off. I'm not particularly looking forward to that as my skin is a perfect example of the effects of our harsh sun on the skin and I usually come out looking like a case of the pox with blisters in all sorts of places. No doubt, better than having them develope further though.
Catch you later.

Whilst on our cruise the auction on board was selling works by an artist called Patricia. Isn't her work fabulous. I've tried to find her on the web but there are so many artists called Patricia so I haven't been able to establish if she has a web site. I also saw a brief video of her working on one of her pastles (I think) - she made it look so simple. I love the vibrant colours but she also achieves such a relaxed feel to he works. I couldn't afford to splurge on one of her bigger works and missed out on the smaller ones on offer. Hope you like this example as much as I do.

One of the pretty beaches in Maui where we made a port of call on our cruise.

Did a bit of gardening yesterday - cutting back more of that prickly, spikey boganvillia over the back fence. The GD and I had a quiet BBQ outside were I have re-arranged the outdoor furniture after cleaning all the red dust off everthing from the dust storm while we were away.

It's a beautifull sunny day in this part of Qld and after watering the flower gardens I decided I'd better catch up on a bit of mending. I ruined one of the GD's shirts in the process. It's getting on a bit but the stitching was pulled on one side. After carefully unpicking the seam I thought I would iron it flat so then when I sewed it I would get a neat finish. I've been ironing this shirt for about 5 years and apart from the seam that needed attention, it was still as nice as the day he bought it. You guessed it, the iron burnt a hole in it. It's one of those synthetics which needs very little ironing. I'd just complained yesterday that he changes his gardening shirts far too often and they do need ironing. Well now he has one that doesn't.

This afternoon I'll take myself off to Bridge. I'm starting to get the hang of playing Auction Bridge but the scoring still has me confused.

Although we've had a couple of small showers over the weekend, we could do with a lot more.

Still missing Puschka - half expect him to walk in the door.

Catch you later, M

Our pet cat Puschka has gone to Pet Heaven.

No photo's today. Yesterday was one of those days when it starts off with everything going smoothly but doesn't end that way. I couldn't do anything wrong at cards and won both in the morning and in the afternoon. It was a lovely day, not too hot, a nice spring day. That all changed when I got home. The GD was working in the garden, the dog came to greet me and tell me it was his meal time but then I went looking for Puschka our 16 year old cat who hasn't been real well. I found him in one of his favourite areas and he looked like he was sunning himself but sorrowfully he was dead. When I went to touch his fur was sort of tacky - strange I thought with tears in my eyes. I went down to the garden to tell the other half that what we expected could happen, had come to pass. After he'd taken him down to the vege garden to prepare his last resting place I went back to the place I had found him. I heard a whimper nearby and discovered that the neighbours Fox Terrier dog was cowering in a corner and his mate from next door had his nose under the fence where the Foxie had dug his way into our yard. I think he knew he had done something terribly wrong. It became pretty obvious what had happened to poor puss. He would not have had the strength to defend himself. I went back down the garden to have another look at Puschka and yes there was blood on the other side of him and the tacky fur was because he'd been in the dogs mouth. Puschka was old and not too much time left for him anyway but he didn't deserve to die like that. Well I've got that off my chest but there's still a few tears left. He had been part of our family for a long time. The GD informed the neighbour but apart from her saying she was sorry her other half hasn't shown his face with the same commiserations. I don't know why some people have pets when they are never home through the day and sometimes late at night. The pets get up to mischief and they don't get the attention they deserve. We wont be replacing Puschka - we are getting old and it's too heartbreaking when a pet goes to pet heaven. Now it's just the GD Couch the dog and me. Today is another day.

Hi

Cool Dude (The GD) in Papeete

I think I have just about caught up on all the mundane things around the place. I've managed to edit about half of the photographs taken on our long voyage. I've trimmed most of the overgrown plants in the garden - them that didn't die on me. This afternoon I started to tackle the bouganvillia. This has to be done in stages to avoid nasty injuries from the thorns. So far so good.

I don't think I mentioned that the cat was just skin and bone and flea ridden when we got home so after a week we took him to the vet because he also wasn't eating. Well, they couldn't find anything wrong with him other than he's quite old and any further tests for things like bone cancer would be too invasive for him and we wouldn't be following on any treatment if he had it. He's not in any pain or miscomfort. The fleas are no longer a problem and he's still not eating much and fussier than ever about what he eats, when he does eat, so we think he's just a senile old cat and will live out the rest of his life in his garden as he sees fit. That all resulted in a pretty hefty vet bill. The dog didn't take long to fit back into our daily routine - looking for too many treats.

We received a little much need rain today but nothing like the rest of the area has had in the past couple of days.

After all my Contract bridge lessons on the ship I came back to find that my community centre played Auction Bridge. I think with a little practice I'll to able to adjust to the difference. I found Contract Bridge a little more challenging and interesting though.

Off to play cards again tomorrow, thursday - 500 and then Hand & Food Canasta.

I don't know when I'll get back to painting but I have a few ideas up my sleeve for when I do. I think I'll give pastles a go as I have seen some really great works using brilliant colours, which always appeal to me.

See you soon with a couple more shots from the cruise.

Home again

The Great Dane - Leaving Sydney 5th July (Bottom photo)
In Auckland ready to depart (top photo) We had an afternoon thunderstorm in Auckland and that was as about as cold as it got on the whole trip.

Hi Folks, We've been back from our looooong cruise about a week and a half now and after dealing with a sick cat and some credit card fraud we are just about back on track to normality, whatever that may be.

We've seen some wonderful places and some very dirty, unhealthy places. It's a pity but the latter seems to become more embedded on the mind. Home is the best place to live after taking a peek at how the rest of the world lives. The weather has stayed kind to us all the way around the world with the tragedies like sunamies, earth quakes and floods, either happening after leaving an area or sometime before we were in the vacinity. We have met some great people, had lots of laughs and been entertained by some excellent performers.

What is the chore I hate most since being home apart from keeping the place generally clean? It is changing the bed. The first day home I wandered around in a daze wondering what to do - no cards, no trivial persuites, no gym, no lectures, no deck to wander around on, nothing. Well that didn't last long did it. A load of washing, set the table for lunch, feed the cat, water the garden and so it goes. You know how it is.

I would love to have spent more time in many of the ports we visited and some I have not desire to return. I'm pleased to have been a first time visitor to the Pyrimids but wouldn't want to see Ciaro again. There were fresh water (if you could call it that) canals with rubbish piled up against the bridges across the canal which included dead carcases of water buffalo and other animals. Along the canal a short way there was children swimming in the water. Because of being misinformed by the cruise line representative we spoke to about Visas, we didn't get to go ashore in India and by all accounts it would rival Cairo for it's lack of hygiene.

Although the Mediterannean was physically a bit draining - a new port every day almost - I would be more than happy to see it all again. The whole cruise all seems to blend, one port with another and I am about to start sorting my photographs on the computer when I'm sure all the places will be refreshed in my memory. I'll just add a couple on the blog as I go along. Nice to be back.

This is a painting I did about 3 years ago - dawn at Kingscliff NSW.

Only 6 more sleeps and we will be on those very same Pacific high seas . I'm not excited - ha ha. I've zipped up my suitcase - can't fit anymore into it. It's probably just as well that we have to fly to Sydney to get on the ship or I'd probably find ways to fit more in.

Nothing much to put on my blog today but would like to thank those who left such nice comments on my previous inputs.
We had a couple of friends for a long lunch yesterday. We haven't seen them for about 9 months and had a lot to catch up on. Today our house sitter arives to get used to the routine with the animals and to learn to manage the pool and the garden and any other little routines one establishes around their home. The sitter will be staying till we return from our cruise mid October. For those of you who follow my blog just click on to my follower, The Great Dane, (That's the fellow in the viking helmet - Secher's Blog) who also happens to be my husband. We will be posting our journey on there whenever possible. We fly to Sydney and embark on the 5th July and we are already packed and excited. We will be heading east across the Pacific with the first port of call in New Zealand. Please feel free to join us in cyberspace.

The photo on my header was taken this afternoon as I walked along the foreshore where I live.

Another painting ready for the framers. It's a place in South Australia called Fleurieu Peninsular. I might do a series of beaches throughout Australia. The first one being the one I sold of Cable Beach Western Australia. I rather like doing the sky, sand and water element of the compositions. I have a big one on the go (1 x 1.2 meters) but am finding it a bit daunting but I think I know why I have become stuck so I will probably finish that off next - maybe after our trip. It's from a photo taken at Caloundra Queensland.

A few years ago, with the help of other Steley descendants we organised a family reunion and a cousin and I wrote their history for the occasion. This is a poem I wrote about my first Steley line descendant who came to Australia.

Abel was a humble soul
As was wife Leah too,
They must have felt a pressing need
To start their life anew.

They packed up all their chattels.
They said their sad goodbyes.
They did not know what lay ahead,
When they broke the family ties.

Their daughter kept a log book
To post to Eleanor.
It tells of many weary days
To bring them to our shore.

Alas! This great new country.
Held trials to overcome.
But they toiled and sweated and battled on
From dawn to setting sun.

They tried the "Rock" and "Mary"
But didn't settle there
They chose a little township
The "Burrum" a treasure rare.

There wasn't gold or diamonds
Or other gems to wear.
It was a bit of blackend rock
To the best of coal compare.

It looked as if the troubled times
Were finally at an end
But some folk, in whom they trusted
Turned out as - not a friend.

Abel to his maker went.
He's suffered, triumphed, stumbled, been down, but rose above.
Leah was there to support him
His one and only love.

He became a local Legend
His children spread afar
Leah's greatest wish
Was to follow Abel's star.

She was buried a child of Isreal
Beside him, her partner brave.
She too had joined her maker
A dedicated Christian slave.

Some of us still walk the streets
Where they placed their well-worn shoe'.
Some of us have left this land
Like them, to start anew.

Some of us have not gone far
A few miles or hours away,
But the memories of our forbears
Are with us to this day.

We are the descended children
Bound by family chains
The blood of Abel and Leah
Is forever in our veins.

Why do I love this part of the world (south east Queensland, Australia)? Our night temperatures get down to about 3 degrees C, enough to know it's winter, but the garden still produces an abundance of brilliant tropical colour. They get very little attention except a bit of water and occasionally the Great Dane tosses a bit of fertiliser at them.

These two beautiful Hibiscus bushes grow just inside our front gate.

This is my one and only attempt at a portrait painting.
It is of one of my four sons, when he was 10 years old, from his school photo. I started it in about 1987, the year after he was killed in a car accident when he was nearly 18 years of age. Each time I have come across it, I've told myself that I must finish it but it always felt a little painful to attempt to do so. Well, today I did it. Although it's no masterpiece I'm pretty happy with the result.