A day outing and some doodles

So! We had dreadful heat and drought conditions, then mega bushfires, then rain...LOTS of rain! I'm talking torrential rain causing flooding in areas. It feels like we've gone from one extreme to another in a very short time — talk about crazy weather Down-Under! I am relieved that the rain helped with the bushfires and also brought a drop in temperatures. Walking across my lawn now feels like walking on a sopping, wet sponge unlike weeks ago, when it felt like walking on dry, spiky straw instead. Extremes, I tell ya.

Anywhoo, before the rains came, Brad (son) and I went for a visit to Forest Lake. It was disheartening to see that they are still battling the toxic blue-green algae and it was sad to see wildlife numbers down.

This poor duck was surrounded by it

There were some bird groups on the rocks but there are usually many more

I loved seeing these small birds on the railings. Sparrows or swallows? 

Always great to see the Little Pied Cormorants. Sadly, we didn't see any of the black swan families which usually live there.

We did have a lovely time out all the same.

And we bought a yummy Zambrero's Vegan Burrito bowl each to take home for dinner. Double rice and beans for vegans — delicious! We love the extra heat from the jalapenos and Verde sauce.

A quick pen sketch of Kya lying on some butterflies, thankfully, not real ones. hehe More on the real Kya in a later post.

And some rough doodles of cartoon-like me...just for fun

And that wraps up this post for today. Hope to be more regular with posting from here on. I hope you enjoy the rest of your week.

Love, light and peace ~

Sunday musings....albeit a day late

It seems I'm always running late of late and I don't really have a good excuse except to say I've been feeling down with this chronic pain thing. That said, there are so many people worse off than me so I try not to complain.

It's been a rainy few days and the rain is forecast to continue into next week. Don't get me wrong — I love the rain! We sure do need it and the gardens are loving it! The grass is finally greening up again, whereas last week, the grass/lawn was a dry yellow-brown.

And look, we even have toadstools popping up.

I'm sure there is a fair bit of water building up in the creek that runs through the bushland at the end of the street too. All needed, of course.

That said, I must admit that any more than three days of constant heavy rain starts to feel all gloomy to me, especially indoors. It IS perfect weather for reading books, watching movies, and Netflix though! We watched the whole set of the Harry Potter movies again.  I've also been binge-watching the new Netflix series — The Haunting of Hill House. It IS good! As timing would have it, I recently finished the book before I even knew the series existed. I will be talking about the book in tomorrow's Reviews post so be sure to check that out. In case you're wondering — yes — the series has strayed from the book.

I've also been watching some online art classes since my last post. I absolutely loved Ian Sidaway's klass via Sketchbook Skool! I sketched him in ballpoint and fountain pen while I watched his Q&A video with Koosje Koene.  Click HERE if you're interested in checking out his blog.

I decided against participating in INKtober this year. I just wasn't in the right head space to put more pressure on myself. I have been getting a little sketching done here and there though.
This is a VW Beetle that I've been planning on sketching for a while now.  It's still a work in progress.

I do plan on adding colour, just not sure which colour yet.

This wet weather is making me crave soup. I made this delicious split pea and veggie soup the other week so may make up another pot. It lasts Brad and me three dinners. I LOVE soup with buttered bread or bread rolls!  Vegan butter, of course.

I'll leave you with a snap of my ever faithful companion — Cody doing what he does best — sleeping.

Don't forget to check out my Book Reviews tomorrow....

Sunrises, carrot cake and an imposter

It's been over three weeks since I last posted on my poor old blog. What can I say — not much has been happening of late apart from bad pain days, rest, and lots of reading. Sadly, not much sketching.

OH, and I've been doing some baking — banana cakes, ginger cakes with lemon icing, and even a carrot cake — the latter being my latest triumph in veganised recipes right down to the vegan 'cream-cheese' icing.  They were all delicious! I only managed to get a pic of the carrot cake because, when it comes to home-made treats in this house, I can tell you they have a habit of disappearing very quickly.

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Yesterday did not get off to a good start when Bradley alerted me to the fact that someone was impersonating me on Instagram. This unscrupulous person had created a fake profile using my own profile pic with a similar username. They then Followed all the people who were Following MY own Instagram feed as, more often than not, especially if people think it's you, they will Follow you back. Well, some did follow the impostor back as they thought it was just me starting a new account. The impostor then sent out Direct Messages in the hope that people, thinking it was me, would click on a malicious link within the message.

Luckily, we got onto the issue quickly. I alerted my Followers via a post on Instagram. A few of my followers blocked and reported the offender to Instagram, as did I.  To Instagram's credit, they promptly removed the account before any real damage could be inflicted on my friends. It pays to be alert to how these impostors work.

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Yesterday also happened to be Father's Day here in Australia. It's hard to believe it's been over three years since my Dad passed away at 82 years old. Father's Day just isn't the same without him here. I still miss him terribly. Here he is with Mum back in 2010.

We've had a few foggy mornings of late —

Taken on August 29th at 6am

An hour later with the sun making an appearance through the fog. I love the eerie feeling that comes with fogs.

This lovely pink sunrise was taken at the end of July

I love a cloudy sky too — especially a cotton ball sky. These were taken early August.

Some rain has been forecast until Friday which we do need. The gardens and lawns will love it! 

I hope you all have a beautiful and blessed week. 

Stay tuned for some upcoming book reviews...

A late Mother's Day post

May has turned out to be quite a busy month!

I hope all you Mums had a lovely Mother's Day — I sure did!

My sons, Bradley, Aaron, Beau, and Beau's partner, David, went to Forest Lake for a nice morning tea and a walk around the lake. Left to Right - Me, Aaron, Bradley, and David.

As David is also a keen sketcher, we looked for a nice spot to sit and sketch the view. This was Davids first time sketching on location.  He really enjoyed it and is keen to get out on more sketch outings. YAY — I have a sketching buddy!  The Groodle is Beau's dog, Bobby. He is so sweet and loves going on outings too. Bobby doesn't like Beau to get too far out of his sight.

I sketched directly with my Carbon Platinum fountain pen and added a splash of watercolour.
Here are my efforts -

It was great to be back out again on-location sketching — I think it's been a few months since I was last out and about sketching. This was as far as I got with it. I may do a little more to finish it off but, sometimes, it's just nice to leave things simple.

And that was my Mother's Day. I had a great day spent with loved ones. The weather was perfect and my hip even behaved itself although I did suffer later with pain — it was worth it.

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This month has been filled with doctors' appointments and tests either for myself or for Bradley.

As I'm still limping about after that fall back in October 2016, my doctor decided to order another X-ray and Ultrasound of my hip — previously done in early August 2017. Results showed that the partial tear in the Gluteus Medius tendon has still not healed. He is referring me to an Orthopaedic specialist.

Then I needed a procedure in the way of a Endoscopy and Colonoscopy on Monday just gone.  I will get the results in a week or so. My throat is still a little tender from the Endoscopy but that's normal after the procedure.

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I have been wanting to make Vegan Cauliflower Hot & Spicy Wings for ages and finally got around to doing them. They were delicious with Sweet Chilli Sauce and Veganaise (vegan mayo). 

I will definitely be making them again. YUM!

And that ends today's post. I'm hoping to get back into a regular post habit - at least three times a week.

So stay tuned...

Sketching and decluttering

We have been sweltering in high heat and humidity this past week. As we don't have the luxury of air-conditioning, it feels like we are living in a sauna. The nights have been hot and humid too so no relief there. Winter can't come soon enough for me.

I've been blending up some smoothies to help ease our discomfort from the heat. SO delicious!

Strawberry, banana with coconut milk

Berry, banana with soy milk

The daily sketching continues and these are the ones I have photographed so far. 

My tiny bag which is an ideal size for my mobile phone and keys. 

Ink and watercolour

My favourite character on Criminal Minds - Dr. Spencer Reid - played by Matthew Gray Gubler. 

Pen sketch with a wee touch of graphite for subtle shading

One of my Lamy Safari fountain pens which I had to soak and clean as it had dried up. 

Ink and watercolour

Refilled the Lamy Safari with Lamy water-soluble ink. 

Ink sketch

One of my small travel watercolour palettes. 

Ink and watercolour

It's been quite a while since I've been able to participate but I'm linking up with the Paint Party Friday group today. To see the work of other participants for this week, click HERE.

On top of sketching, I did more decluttering. I sorted through more of my books and donated quite a few. I have a lot of art magazines and instructional art books (some are pictured below) that I no longer want so I think I might put them up on Gumtree for sale. 

Tomorrow, I will be tackling my art studio/space. I organised it a while back but I have way too much stuff so I need to make some tough decisions. 

Sketching and lettering fun!

I finally finished the double page spread in my Moleskine A4 watercolour journal.  The full spread is 58.4cm/23" across both pages.  I have been working on it here and there between the Sketchbook Skool Creative Lettering class videos and the subsequent homework.  I'm still behind on homework but I love that the classes are available indefinitely so there is plenty of time to catch up.  The lettering class is amazing and I'm already implementing some of the ideas into my journal.

I adore pelicans!  

While I love ALL birds, the pelican would have to rate in my top five favourites. 

Linking up with Sunday Sketches again and I'm actually on time this week! 

To see the sketches from other participants, click HERE.

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Now, onto some of my Sketchbook Skool Creative Lettering homework from the past week. 

I can't tell you enough how much I'm enjoying the class. 

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The weather was lovely today so we went for a drive to Forest Lake.  We stopped along the way to pick up some lunch at Zambreros Mexican restaurant...my favourite dine-in or take-away!  Their vegan burrito bowls are SO yummy!  Jalapenos and lots of spicy Verde sauce for me...LOVE their Verde sauce! I took this photo of one a while back. 

Another reason I love Zambreros is that, for every burrito or bowl you buy, they donate a meal to someone in need.  How lovely is that?!  This was a photo I took of their wall earlier in the year  so the amount of meals given would be much more now. 

There was lots to see at the lake and I will share more pics in my next post but I just HAD to share a few of the cygnets with their parents!  It's the first time I have seen baby swans in person.  And look at that, I even caught an ibis coming in to land and didn't realise it until I looked back on the photo later. Cool!

These cygnets were a decent size but they still had a soft down instead of adult feathers.
They were SO darned cute!

I will post the rest of the Forest Lake photos in my next post.
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Today is Father's Day here in Australia and

 it's my second Father's Day since my Dad passed away.
I still hear his voice in my head a lot,
especially him singing songs.

I miss him every day.
Love you, Dad xo