My garden in spring

It has been a long time since I posted photos of my garden but decided now is the time as I have walked around in the last couple of weeks and taken lots of photos.  With a wetter than usual winter many are flowering well but of course the weeds are growing too and my mobility is so poor that I have had to have someone in to do some gardening for me.  There is still a lot to do.

Monty is near the rhododendrons in this photo.

New Year 2016 has begun

It has been a long time since I posted anything here so thought I had better think about what has been happening.  Summer has been too long and too hot for me with a few milder moments.  But today is 36 degrees again so I am inside with the aircon on.  My little Monty likes it too and is at my feet under the computer, his favourite spot.

Just before Christmas I finally decided it was time to replace my 14 year old Subaru Forester although it hadn't done a lot of kilometres.  The new Foresters were larger and I wanted a more compact AWD car still with the ability to take my art stuff easily from the trolley.  So I am very pleased with my Subaru XV which has the same high clearance as the Forester.  This photo is not great but shows the nice cerulean blue colour.

I also decided on an automatic rather than manual which I have always had. Driving in Sydney late last year was very tiring with so much traffic and gear changing - and I realise I am geting older!

These are a few photos I took in January, two when it was wet showing my ramp from the front door, and some hanging baskets on the back deck.  The snapdragons are cheerful.

My Chinese pistache trees, front and back, are being stripped of seeds and branches by the big white sulphur crested cockatoos.  They look nice but are a menace as the dog gets all the sticky stuff from the tree in his fur and brings it into the house.  And I'm not prepared to sweep it all up every day anymore.

I spent a lot of January watching tennis on TV, especially the Australian Open. It's the only sport I understand as I played it (badly) when young.  But this month my art groups have recommenced so I am busy mid week now.   I'll post some new work later.  Our Wednesday group called Different Strokes is having an exhibition soon.  Sixteen of us are entering.  We all use different mediums and have varied experience.  Here is our invitation, in case anyone local is reading this and would like to come.

My Garden this spring

I have not posted for a long time - largely because I have been away for several weeks on a trip in Central Asia.  I have yet to organise my pictures and make a photo book.  But my garden has been looking nice this spring so thought I would post some photos here.

My back deck - the hanging baskets were only just planted.

Late Spring in my Garden

I've recently been outside photographing my garden as so much is now looking gorgeous after the rain we had in the last year.  I thought I'd share some of it on my blog.  Summer is forecast as being hot and dry again so I will then be back to working on my art and craft with the airconditioning on.  Today is the hottest at 27 degrees since early this year but at least the nights are still cool.

Early spring in my garden

These are a few photos I made a week or so ago of my back garden as spring has finally decided to come after a severe winter.  I may add some more as flowers and leaves continue appearing. It is a somewhat rustic informal garden with no lawn and gravel paths but I love it.

By the way, I put some of my pastel paintings into the Artists Society's Spring Exhibition last weekend, and sold one - the shearing shed (see a recent post).  I'm adding the others into the Cranleigh Art Exhibition (supports the special school) on 19-21 October.  Finding space for storing framed paintings at home is a  problem.


 

Floriade - Canberra

Thought I'd put a few photos of this year's Floriade on this blog - after all the Queen visited Floriade today, although it officially ended last weekend!  This will be my last post for a while as tomorrow I leave on my big trip to Ethiopia, Egypt, Jordan, and Israel with a week in the south of Thailand on Phi Phi Island to recover from all the archaeology.  I'm going with my friends Gael and Donna and we'll  be away nearly 2 months.

For those interested in the trips we are on look up PhotoAdventours.com  for Ethiopia, and Peregrine for the middle east countries.

I've been busy getting the house and garden ready for my housesitter - the dogs know something is up and they are not happy.  Anyway here are some of the flowers - of course the daffodils and most of the tulips were finished as it's getting quite warm now (27 degrees tomorrow) but there was still plenty of colour when I went last week.  I'll try and post these as a slideshow from Flickr.

What I've been doing

Nearly a month has passed since my last post and the weather has changed from winter to spring. The daffodils have finished their flowering, the hellebores and polyanthus continue to flower and the bluebells are coming up. 

 The beautiful Floriade Festival has just begun in Canberra - I must make time to visit ... it has over a million blooms and is the only known free one in the world.

I've been busy trying to restore my front garden which was partly destroyed when the electricity authority dug a 10 metre trench to fix their high voltage cable which just happened to be under my driveway.  They were supposed to  restore it ..... but we all know how this never really is done to the standard we want.  I have planted some small native plants which I hope will be OK when I am overseas for 7 weeks soon.

I have been experimenting with abstract painting each fortnight when I paint with a group of artists who did courses with me in the last two years. This is much harder than I expected.  This is one which someone said looks a bit like a map of Europe! It is mainly acrylic but with some collaged paper and board.

I entered six paintings into the ASOC (Artists Society of Canberra) Spring Exhibition just over a week ago.  Some were my Greek ones and I also included a couple of watercolours I did some time ago but had never exhibited. Here they are here - I was just learning to paint with watercolours.