Dusting off the Cobwebs

Where to even begin this post? It certainly has been a while with my last post being back in October 2019.

I hope it's not too late to say HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

For Australia, it was a horrific end to 2019 and horrific start to 2020 with apocalyptic fires burning across the nation. Many were out of control forcing people to evacuate. Some people even ended up fleeing for their lives into the ocean to escape the mega fires. The sheer numbers of wildlife lost is staggering — it is well over a a billion which breaks my heart. 2,400 homes were levelled by the fires and that was just in New South Wales...the number will be a lot higher when all the other States are taken into account. This truly was an event like no other in Australia's history. Climate change is definitely having an impact. I do worry how the destroyed ecosystems will recover. So much of our precious and unique wildlife gone. It hurts my heart to even think about it. Tribute video below - For the direct link to YouTube, click HERE.

We were so grateful to all the International help offered, 157 firefighters and personnel were sent from New Zealand. We were also very grateful to the American firefighters who came to help but so deeply saddened that three of those brave souls lost their lives fighting our mega-fires. See their welcome arrival in the video below (after selecting play, click on the symbol in the bottom right corner to view in full screen). For the direct link to YouTube, click HERE. As of January 14th, 34 people have lost their lives to the fires, including Australian firefighters.

 

I can't stress enough how grateful we are for the selfless work of the firefighters and the emergency service crews who put themselves on the front line. They are true heroes! 

It was bittersweet New Year's celebrations for us with so much devastation happening around the country but we did manage to have a lovely evening at my sister's and brother-in-law's home. We brought in the New Year there, then Brad and I headed home around 2am and stayed up to greet the first dawn of 2020 as is a tradition of ours...a whole, new decade awaits!

The start of the first sunrise of 2020.  It wasn't very spectacular as we did have a smoke haze hanging over us from all the fires...not noticeable in the pic. And yes, the smoke haze did flare up my asthma so I wasn't feeling 100% through November and December.

I lost my mojo in 2019 as losing our two fur-kids really hit hard. When my emotions are hit, it effects my creative output. There were quite a few hardships in 2019 including a major surgery for me and a surgery for Bradley (son). About all I could do well was read my Kindle books and I'm happy to say I did achieve my Goodreads Reading Challenge of just over 80 books for 2019.

I do have creative plans for this year but won't state them here in case they fall to the wayside which seems to happen a lot for varying reasons.

I have been doing a little sketching though. Just some simple pen sketches to help me get back into the creative flow.

We've been having a heatwave which means sauna-like conditions without the luxury of air-con in this household. Thankfully, this week is set to be a little cooler with some rain on the forecast.

I'll leave you with a pic of frangipani flowers which were blooming on the tree in our back garden.

Love, light and peace to all ~

Scribble Picnic - Double

Hi fellow scribblers!

We had a choice of prompts this week with either JOLT or DOUBLE.

I chose double but it took me a while to decide what I actually wanted to do hence just a scribble for you this week.

We came to Australia when I was only four but, at fourteen years old, my Mum and we five kids went back to England for a three month holiday to see family. Dad remained behind as there was another motive for the trip — to decide if we would move back to England permanently. If we chose 'yes', Dad would sell up and follow us over.

While in England, I remember how entranced we kids were by the double decker buses there. We had never seen them here in Australia and it was such a huge treat when our Uncle took us on one for the very first time. Of course, we just had to ride on the top deck, didn't we?!  Needless to say, my 'Londoner' Uncle was more than a little embarrassed when we 'Aussie kids' kept screaming with delight while the other passengers behaved like they were in a library. My Uncle even apologised to the driver and nearby passengers as we exited the bus adding, "They're from Australia.". haha I'm sure the passengers were all greatly relieved to see the back side of those noisy Aussies. However, it still remains a very happy memory for me.

So here is my very loose graphite sketch and that's as far as I've managed so far...

To see what everyone else did for the prompt this week, click HERE.
To find out how to join us each fortnight, click HERE.

The next prompt is FOREST and due on the 14th. Hope to see you at there!

Scribble Picnic - Explore

Hello dear friends!

The theme for this week is EXPLORE/EXPLORATION.

I really lived up to the Scribble Picnic title this week as all I have so far is a SCRIBBLE! haha My main problem was that I was overwhelmed with so many different ideas in my mind that I had trouble settling on one. I ended up going with a teddybear pilot ready to explore the skies in his plane — scribbled last night just before lights out.

Here is my very, VERY rough pencil scribble for now. I may make some minor changes as I go along.

To check out what my fellow Picnickers have done for this week, click HERE.

I will either add more pics to this post later today or I will show you all the end result next week. I have a busy day ahead with doggy-sitting among other things.

I hope you are all enjoying a beautiful week!

Life and death at the lake

On Sunday, we took a short trip to Forest Lake which is one of our favourite destinations.

Pic below - Aaron walking Bobby, Beau's dog — we are doggy-sitting while Beau (my son) and his partner, David, are taking a short holiday in Singapore.

 We spotted some Australian Water Dragons on our walk around the lake. They are quite large.

I was thrilled to see pelicans at the lake! They haven't always been there so word must have got around. There was like twenty of them, at least. I LOVE pelicans!

An Eastern Great Egret on the prowl.

Ducks.

Ibis. You can't see them in the pic but the family of four black swans were on the little island in the middle of the lake just across from the Ibis.

Lots of birds on the water. You can see blue-green algae in the foreground of this pic.

A Purple Swamp Hen. When the light hits their feathers in certain ways they glisten a purple blue colour — not apparent in this pic.

Now to a sad part —
We were last at the lake in early May for Mother's Day and, back then, we noticed a lot of algae forming in areas around the lake edges. This time, it was worse and I'm very sad to say that there was so many dead fish floating in the water. There would easily have been over a hundred — carp, cat fish and no doubt, other species too. The smell hit us before we saw them.

The white blobs are more dead fish....broke my heart. This was just a small section. This sight was everywhere around the edges of the lake.

There were signs warning visitors that blue-green algae is toxic and to avoid contact with the water. The smell of death was horrible and naturally I'm concerned for how this will effect the bird and animal life at the lake too, including the turtles. I pray the local council will get out there and do something sooner than later.

Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides. 

— Lao Tzu

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To end on a more pleasant note, I thought I would share a quick ballpoint pen sketch I did of one of the Australian Water Dragons we saw. It is not finished — just the rough outline for now. I sketched this big guy for the Moment Sketchers challenge held on the first full weekend of every month.

Yes, my hip and back did flare up in pain after our big day out but it was worth it. I do love getting out in nature but I'm still very saddened by the death we witnessed at the lake.

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Okay — so where am I going to sleep tonight?!  Ahhh...the joys of doggy-sitting. hehe Maybe I can squeeze into the narrow spot beside Bobby's head?

Wishing you all a beautiful week!

Scribble Picnic - Stars

Time ran away from me again this week so it will be a quick post and run for now.

This week's prompt for Scribble Picnic is STARS. 

I was thinking of the Don McLean song 'Vincent' where part of the lyrics are 

Starry, starry night, 

Paint your palette blue and grey 

SO, a starry night sky was in order. I will admit that this was my third attempt as I've never done a night sky in watercolours before. I have done a few in acrylics with reasonable results but that's it.

To see what my fellow Scribblers have done for the prompt this week, click HERE. 

To find out how to join us each week, click HERE.

In keeping with my thought process for the prompt this week, I've included the music video clip of the song - Vincent. Enjoy!

See you next week at the picnic!

Moment Sketchers weekend - Foxtail Palm

Hi everyone, 

Due to varying reasons at the time, I've missed a few Moment Sketchers weekends this year. The last one I participated in was back in February and I can't recall if I posted it to my blog or not. However, I did post it to Instagram so, for those of you who don't follow my Instagram feed, here it is - 

Aaron, Bradley and I had taken a trip up to Mount Tamborine and went to a lovely Japanese-themed Gardens while we were there. I sat and sketched this little bridge.

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This weekend, I have been stuck indoors due to a bout of asthma.   We've had rain for a few days and the cold winter air always goes straight for my lungs — the moisture in the air from the rain made it worse. 

SO, I didn't want to miss another Moment Sketchers so I opted to sketch the Foxtail Palm — botanical name is Wodyetia bifurcata — in our back garden. 

Sketched directly with watercolours first 

Then added some ink using an XS Faber-Castell PITT pen

I felt like it needed something else so I penciled in the back fence. I think I will leave it at that.

Moment Sketchers is a worldwide online art challenge that happens during the first full weekend of every month. This wonderful co-op is hosted by Candace Rardon. To find out more about the Moment Sketchers group, click HERE. It is open to all so do think about joining us each month. Candace is an amazing artist and storyteller — you can check out her blog HERE.

Hope to see you there in August.

Scribble Picnic - Plump

Hi everyone!

I'm so sorry that I've been absent for the past two Scribble Picnics. Two weeks ago I was in quite a lot of pain after having an upper molar extracted.  The tooth put up one heck of a fight so my gums were very tender and bruised for longer than usual. In fact, I'm still not fully recovered. I'm not a fan of getting dental work done at the best of times but that had to be the worst tooth extraction I've ever experienced! I thought they had broken my jaw at one point after there was a heap of pressure and force, then a loud CRACK! They assured me it was just the tooth coming away from the bone but I'd never had that happen with previous extractions.

I had intended to do last week's THREE colour option for the picnic but it turned out to be an extra busy week and time got away from me. Such a shame because I was really keen to try that one — I hope Michael will consider giving it another go-round or I may just do it anyways and slip it into a future post.

This week's prompt was 'PLUMP' and I couldn't get past thinking about the row of five Money Plants (aka Crassula Ovata or Jade Plants) lined up along the front entrance to our home.  They are quite mature now with thick tree like shapes.

Their leaves are thick and 'plump'.

I sketched it directly with watercolours and a paintbrush

Some pen detailing and more shadow work to add some depth

And the finished page in my sketchbook

To see what my fellow Scribblers have done for this week, click HERE.
To find out how to join in on the fun each week, click HERE.
Next week's prompt is CRUNCHY — see you at the picnic!

Scribble Picnic - Storm

Hi everyone,

This week's prompt for Scribble Picnic is STORM.

I had a few ideas but couldn't get past the 'Storm in a Teacup' phrase so I decided to attempt a quick ink and watercolour interpretation. I wonder if anyone else was on the same wavelength this week?

To check out the other STORM interpretations, click HERE.
To find out how to join in on the fun each week, click HERE.

Our humble leader has given us the next two weeks off but we will be picnicking again on June 6th with the prompt being CLASSIC!  See you there — if I'm not in too much discomfort that is because I have a molar extraction on June 6th, possibly a wisdom tooth too. Wish me luck.

Scribble Picnic - Strawberry

Hi everyone,

This week's Scribble Picnic prompt is STRAWBERRY. 

I was feeling very drained yesterday — maybe the wisdom tooth extraction and a busy week caught up with me — so I very nearly was going to opt out of this week's picnic. I woke up just after 4am this morning and thought — NO! It's not too late to do something — so I quickly got this underway before getting ready to head off for an appointment. 

I was thinking Strawberry Farm as what child doesn't love to go strawberry-picking, right? I've been to the Strawberry Farm a few times with my Granddaughters and they were always so excited to pick their own strawberries. My sketch was inspired by one of the many photos taken from those times.

Yes, it's another work-in-progress but I did at least slap some colour down. 

A quick pencil sketch to start me off -

And the first pass with watercolours - 

Stay tuned for the end result, hopefully later today — that is if I don't botch it up. 

To see what my Picnic pals have been up to this week, click HERE. 

To find out how to join in on the fun each week, click HERE. 

Next week's prompt is STORM. It sounds like we will need to bring our raincoats or brollies to that one. hehe See you there.

P.S. - I'm so sorry I didn't get a chance to get around to comment on the entries for last week but I promise to check in on those when I comment at your blogs/Insta for this week's treasures.

Scribble Picnic - Quilt

Hi everyone,

Another busy week has passed which included getting an MRI of my brain among other tests after I had pressure inside my head and numbness on my face for over a week — all on the left side. Headaches and a sudden spike in blood pressure too. Results were all clear, thank goodness! The pressure and numbness have now eased. I'm a walking enigma or should I say — limping enigma? haha 

So, getting on with business, the prompt for this weeks Scribble Picnic is QUILT/S.

Many many moons ago, when I worked mainly with acrylic paints on MDF, I painted Baby Birth Plaques. Each plaque was unique in design featuring the birth details of baby.  I would often add a baby sleeping under a quilt so I went with that idea for the prompt.

First the pen sketch

Then a layer of watercolour

And finished up with some pen-work

As an afterthought, I thought you might like to see the one and only quilt I have ever designed and made by sewing machine. It was for my first Grandchild's cot — a girl.

To see what other picnic-goers have been up to this week, click HERE.
The prompt for next week will be PICKET FENCE.
See you there.

Scribble Picnic - Mushy

What a week it has been so far! We have had very hot, humid days which are typical of our summer but, as we don't have an air-conditioner, we suffer temps around 38°C/100.4°F.  We've had some very nasty super-cell storms move through the past few nights one of which caused widespread damage...over 100,000 homes in our region lost power for between 12 to 48 hours. Power-lines and trees were down all over the place...debris everywhere. It was scary and reminded me of a cyclone. I feel so grateful that we at least did not lose power.

I had to bring my Mum over to our place for a day as she'd lost power and phone which she needs for her Medic-alert. She was without both for 24 hours.

On top of that, the unbearable humidity caused sauna-like conditions and flared up my asthma...add to that my wisdom tooth which also decided I was due a painful infection at this time. Needless to say,  it has not been a pleasant week at all.  I am now on antibiotics. And yes, I'm still dealing with chronic back and hip pain....somebody, just recycle me, or shut me up now! haha

More dangerous storms are expected this evening so I'm getting this post in early...just in case we lose power.

After all that, I did manage this week's Scribble Picnic sketch, albeit a very quick one.

The prompt was 'MUSHY' and, for the life of me, I just couldn't get mushy peas out of my head. English-style mushy peas are a favourite of mine...best cooked from the dried whole peas. YUMMY!

Here is my take....

To see what my fellow Picnic pals have done this week, click HERE.
To find out how to join us each week, click HERE.
Next week, we have a 'Fill in the blank' prompt...can't wait to see what it is.

Scribble Picnic - Hot Chocolate

The Scribble Picnic prompt for this week is HOT CHOCOLATE.

I usually make quite a few hot chocolate drinks during our winter months. There's just something about that mug of hot sweetness that make me feel spoiled, cosy, and warm. I never have marshmallows in mine though. I hate the thought of hot, gooey marshmallow. Ewwww!  Definitely not for me. I've never had toasted marshmallows around a campfire either for the same reason.

Marshmallows have always been a favourite but I like them nice and firm....not hot and gooey. I used to make them and roll them in toasted coconut.  They even have vegan marshmallows now so I don't miss out but — back to hot chocolate. I make mine with Cadburys Drinking Chocolate powder, a dash of vanilla essence, and soy milk mixed together in a saucepan. When hot enough, I froth it up with the electric hand mixer. After pouring it into our mugs, I drizzle chocolate syrup over the froth. OH, so yummy!

My sketch today is done with ink, watercolour, and Prismacolor pencils using a copyright-free image which I altered somewhat...

To see what other participants have put up for this week, click HERE.
To find out how to join in each week, click HERE.

The drink was actually NOT the first HOT CHOCOLATE that came to mind but I didn't get time to sketch them. Who remembers the Hot Chocolate group in the late 70's and 80's?   Songs like You Sexy Thing, Every 1's a Winner, So You Win Again, Emma and....It Started with a Kiss....

Thought I'd end off this post with one of their video clips. Enjoy!


Next week's prompt is TABLE CLOTH...see you at the picnic!

Scribble Picnic - Gift wrap

It's already Thursday Down-Under so I'm running very late for Scribble Picnic. I had a very bad pain day with my back yesterday after doing some housework for house inspection.  We passed inspection with flying colours but my back grumbled and groaned for the rest of the day and evening.  I took painkillers and went off to bed even though I did have ideas for my take on the theme floating around in my head. I just couldn't focus on anything due to the pain.  Thankfully, it wasn't as bad when I woke this morning so I decided to quickly sketch something.

There is more to add...and I will definitely be adding watercolours so will post the results later. 

Finished the colour version in the afternoon

To see what my fellow Scribblers have been up to for this week, click HERE. 

To find out how to join our merry clan, click HERE.

Scribble Picnic - Cookie

Hi everyone,

Another busy week has passed by and it's Scribble Picnic time again. This week, Michael chose 'COOKIE' for the prompt.

I decided to create a cartoon-type skit done very quickly. I may redo it at some point and refine a few things.

These two little mice are carrying a large sultana cookie back to the mouse hole but they run into a problem when they get there...

YIKES!!! Me thinks that their Mum won't be too happy with them when she sees what they did.

The whole skit was done over two pages in my Moleskine sketchbook which doesn't take watercolour too well. Next time, I will use the Moleskine watercolour notebook.

To see what my fellow Picnickers have done for this week, click HERE.
Next week, the prompt is 'GIFT WRAP'....come along and join us. To find out how, click HERE.

On another note, I'd like to thank you all for the well wishes last week. I had the cortisone injection on Monday...yes, it hurt, but it was bearable. I was told to rest the hip for a few days and that the cortisone would kick in after three days. The pain seems to have eased somewhat....YAY!

I will post the rest of my INKtober sketches over the coming days. Time got away from me last week.

I hope you are all having a lovely week so far.

Scribble Picnic - BOO!

Hello friends,

I didn't realise Michael had put up the prompt for this week until an hour or so back so I quickly sketched out the following in my Moleskine A5 sketchbook.

Little Tommy is all set for Trick-orTreating on Halloween night

Click HERE to see what my fellow Picnickers have done for this week's prompt. 

To find out how to join us each week, click HERE.

Next week's prompt is TOY....time to get the thinking caps on.

More INKtober sketches

Hello friends,

I'm enjoying the INKtober challenge and managing to keep up with the sketching daily even though I am a day behind in posting them on Instagram.

For this one, I used the official INKtober prompt for Day 13/31 - TEEMING. As we were getting torrential rain that week, it was only fitting that I sketched it.  I used Strathmore Grey-toned paper with Sumi ink and a wee touch of gouache for highlights.

I did this next one on Strathmore Tan-toned paper using Bombay and Sumi inks with some gouache to highlight. The Cheetah was one of my favourite animals as a child....I loved that they could run a mile a minute. I guess this one suited the official INKtober prompt for the day too - FIERCE although I see them as quite a graceful animal - Day 14/31.

Day 15/31 - A Siamese Fighting fish A.K.A. Betta fish. This one is my son's fish which I took a photo of.  I love his colours...sketched with Platinum carbon fountain pen, PITT pen, plus Sumi and Bombay inks.

Day 16/31 - A rabbit. I took some process photos for this one...starting with a loose pen sketch on Strathmore tan-toned paper

First layer which is a mix of Bombay and Sumi inks

Second layer with inks

And the end result....more detail and layering. White gouache for highlights.

More INKtober sketches to follow soon...