AEDM - Day 23 - Puffin - Work In Progress

Hi everyone, 

It's been a crazy busy day and I'm feeling totally exhausted so, for today, I have only managed a very rough graphite sketch of a Puffin. I plan to finish him up for tomorrow. 

Most mornings we go for a walk around the neighbourhood 

so thought I'd share a few pics of things we've seen along the way.

A local flock of corellas like to play in the park as we pass by.

Corellas are a sub-genus of the Australian White Cockatoo. 

Corellas look very similar — are smaller — and are missing the yellow crest.

The local council have already replaced the street lampshade once 

as the corellas seem to be fascinated with pulling the cover off. 

They unhinge it and then sit inside the light shade, 

until it ends up falling to the ground.

Below is part of our walking path which runs alongside a creek. 

Aaron is in front with his miniature poodle, Scarlett. 

Brad following behind.

A wallaby took great interest in watching us cross the bridge. 

A fallen nest possibly from a storm that had passed through 

days earlier

And the beauty below was actually discovered in my sister's garden shed a couple of months back. My sons, Beau and Aaron, came to the rescue and removed the carpet snake and released it in bushland nearby.  He/she was a fairly decent size — you can compare it to part of the garden hose seen in the lower left side of the pic. Snakes are a protected species here in Australia and, while we have some of the most venomous snakes in the world here, carpet snakes are fairly harmless.

To see what other participants have share for today, click HERE.

I will catch up again with fellow participants in the morning. 

This tired old lady is off to bed. 

Love, Light, and Peace to All.

some dragonfly inspiration

despite feeling out of sorts this past week or so, i still managed some sketching time

i dragged out one of my older sketchbooks for a dragonfly reference

and set about creating a new page in my sketchbook

ink pen & watercolour in A5 sketchbook - pencil free

i have felt so inspired to sketch more since taking Alisa's class

a few days after this sketch, i was outside taking photos of my Bird of Paradise flowers when i noticed this beautiful dragonfly resting on one of them. i strengthened the colours a little in Paintshop Photo Pro for this image.  he was truly spectacular!

he was so cooperative too as he allowed me to get quite close

Dragonfly medicine teaches us to pierce through our self-created illusions and reminds us to let our colours shine by using the light within.

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now....if you have a fear of snakes (Janet, pay heed).... 

DON'T READ ANY FURTHER!

we had a morning visitor at our back fence a couple of days ago

thankfully, he was a Common Tree Snake so non-venomous

it was sunning itself which is typical during snake season and we think this one may have been shedding too. Beau, my son, took these photos as he had the longer zoom lens on his camera although still a little blurry because of the distance.  the snake would have fled if we had tried to get close.

just last month, i nearly walked upon a red-bellied black snake which IS venomous.  Michelle and i were walking the back path to collect Aaron from school one afternoon when, suddenly, Michelle grabbed my arm and pulled me back.  a red-bellied black snake lay just up ahead on the path sunning itself.  of all days for me to leave my camera at home!  i think it was more afraid of us than we were of it though as it quickly fled into the long grass the moment it spotted us. red-bellied black snakes are non-aggressive and will always try to flee....they will only bite if they feel cornered with no way out.  their bites can be deadly if untreated.  sadly, my sister lost one of her small dogs to a red-bellied black snake which had found its way into their backyard last year.  Angel and their other small dog would have naturally been curious and protective of their yard against the intruder but, unfortunately, Angel paid for it with her life. the snake had bitten both dogs and they rushed them to the vet but, while the vet managed to save one, the venom had advanced too far for them to save Angel.   i remember crying for days just thinking about it....Angel was such a beautiful, little dog.
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on a brighter note, i made this carrot cake with cream cheese icing last weekend for Michelle's birthday.

it was DELICIOUS!

it's time for me to go get Aaron up for school so i'll finish off here.

i'll be back over the coming days with more inspiration

~ love, light and peace~