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!

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.

Moment Sketchers - Final for the year

THIS WEEKEND is the final Moment Sketchers, previously known as Moment Catchers, of 2017.

I didn't get a chance to sketch yesterday but today we put up our only Christmas tree...a cute little table top tree. I just had to sketch it! 

Here is the first Prismacolor pencil layer after a light graphite sketch. 

I laid in the highlights first with a Prismacolour white pencil.

Then I started placing the greenery around the highlights going from light to dark.

The end result. 

More Prismacolour pencil work. 

Then I used a Posca paint marker in white to brighten some of the highlights.
The Christmas tree was sketched in a Strathmore sketchbook with tan-toned paper.

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I REMEMBERED that I didn't do a blog post showing my Moment Sketchers efforts for last month so here 'tis.  Bradley and I had watched the documentary titled - A Street Cat named Bob. I had read the book before and the documentary was great too.  It's about a street cat in England who bonds with a young homeless man who then turns his life around.

We also tried out the vegan doughnuts from the new Doughnut Time shop which recently opened in our area. The Rocky Road doughnuts were delicious!

First the pen sketch

Then a layer of watercolour 

The end result. 

I used some Prismacolor pencils to give the watercolour more depth.

The completed page spread in my sketchbook 

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THIS AFTERNOON we had a storm move in which thankfully turned out to be a bit of a fizzer, however, it left behind this very eerie, bright yellow glow to the atmosphere around us. It was very hard to capture on camera as it was so much more intense and golden than what you see in the image. Last time we had something like that happen was just before a severe dust storm moved in but that is not on the cards this time...as far as I know.

I hope you're all enjoying a beautiful weekend!