:: 120 days of making a drawing Day 7 ::

...hmmmm...we had a big day today...it began with a breakfast out at House of Gabriel, on the Tweed River, at Tumbulgum (I just love the sound of that little town - sounds like it ought to be in a fairy story...about mischievious gnomes, or gum-nut babies...?). Very entertaining breakfast - as all and sundry of the surrounding male gender were all out on show on the river in and on their various 'toys' - parading it up and down, using their very clean and flash automotive toys to deliver and receive back again said aquatic toys...very entertaining...all boys...and their toys...no - I'm not jealous! At all.
We'd thought we were achieving clever geographic-planning by choosing this little gem of a cafe for our special breakfast out, as we were then heading to the Tweed River Aquatic Centre for a fun birthday party involving waterslides!
Alas, technology let the day down and our festivities were relocated to...Ballina...only about 80km's SOUTH of where we'd so...cleverly (as we'd thought!) placed ourselves...with plenty of time to reach our party...we thought!
We hoofed it back down the highway and...would you believe...driving at the speed limit or less...were the first to arrive for the relocated party.

Big day on the water slides, which ended very dramatically as Ballina was literally bombed by a seriously heavy hailstorm which arrived after about an hour's ominous thunder and lightening grumbling foreplay...truly looked like it had snowed in Ballina this afternoon.
So today's drawing comes in the form of a fantasy sketch/doodle done in the car... : )

:: ordinary yellow things ::

for some this may be a little odd, ok, maybe a little more than a little odd...and yet it is significant for me today.  Today I was struck by this little grouping of ordinary 'things with yellow'. For me, I love to see beauty, colour, patterns, texture, rhythms and to notice the beauty and colour of ordinary everyday stuff is a satisfying thing for me.  Fulfilling, even.  Small stuff and it is satisfying - I'm easy to please, really.
And, lately, I haven't been noticing these things...life has had a few challenges, a few worries, concerns and doubts...downs, plus...it's rained here for weeks (it seems - or maybe I'm playing the Eeyore card, here?!) and I think we've been in a faster and faster groove - hurry is not love, they say.  + I've been living inside my head a little too much -  getting stuck in conversations with myself - you know those ones - the ones where there is no instant answer - and around they go again and again....
...so today was a turning point - small, ordinary yellow things, by the front door - and smiling again - the happiness of discovering this little grouping.

Phoebe's kite flies HIGH!

the beach at Brunswick Heads...

one of those absolute thrill moments... and, of course, 'touch and go' just before the successful lift-off!  While Phoebe had been given her kite at Christmas time last year, we'd not managed to have a really good, proper go with it until now.  So, on a very dull, wet and windy [Father's!] day recently and we could be contained no more - out we tripped to a local beach for some fresh air and a gasp at nature.  So good for our souls, thoroughly feeling the elements, paddling in the surf and all taking turns, finally - after we claimed it from the Father (aka biggest kid!). And here is Phoebe's own-all-by-herself-inaugural kite-flying moment - such a 'swell' moment for a parent.  Oh - and what was with all the rainbow colours?  Well, a dull day does call for colour!!!

:: red + green ::

just because...I love RED + GREEN...I love what our Permaculture Mandala Garden grows...I love the abundance, especially that which comes from a luscious slurp of that free wet stuff...RAIN...this is the best broccoli we've grown - and I think I've even managed to get a variety-timing correct for our situation - WOOHOO! So no guesses to what I'll be doing tonight...! (mmm...plum jam..!)

A Very Pretty Experiment...

We love putting bursts of colour around our home. One of Phoebe's favourite past-times is wandering around the garden, cane flower basket over her arm, carefully holding her scissors by the blades, looking for just the right flowers for all of her arrangements. Little smiles pop up all over the house.
We had these 'surprise' Calla Lillies shoot up along the eastern side of our house, after re-locating a huge patch of Rhubarb, lest the painter trample it all, whilst painting our house. [we've finally decided on colours and have gone with a charcoal grey for the main timbers, a dirty white for all the window surrounds and other trims and a Brick Red roof - so still with that country solid strong colour and white demarcation - just not the verdant green I'd originally had in mind!!] Ok - so I digress...so the Calla Lillies artfully placed in the retro milk bottles and holder were looking pretty cool (well, we thought!).
And then an idea... 'cos they were kinda plain...let's add colour to the water!
SO the food colouring came out - with suitable protections in place for clothes, precious ancient terrazzo surface on kitchen bench, etc - and the experiment began.
What we did was create the 3 Primary colours straight and then the 3 Secondary colours from proportions of drops. Very simple, very effective - and a neat home school lesson for Phoebe where she made colour using particular numbers of drops. So we counted as she droppered the colours. Since the instructions on the food colouring packaging for how to create the secondary colours were in different proportions, I worked them out so we would get the same dilution. And then I thought of the extra lessons in the future - adding in the concept of proportion and eventually teach Phoebe how to do this herself. And then another time we could work the tonal concept of colour - with less and less number of drops for a weaker dilution, etc... We love home schooling - and it is still, technically, the school holidays - why oh why do we need a holiday from learning ;-) ?? It doesn't stop in our home!

Beyond the Giant Picket Fence...

...here I'm sharing with you something special for me about our vegetable gardens and indeed the view from the kitchen sink, even... often I just stop and look across at the surrounding hills and my eye ALWAYS rests on the little dips that create the gentle focal point in the centre of this skyline. Yes - there are layers of hills creating this scene and I never tire of it's softness and all the different colours, tones, shadows, seasonal effects and moods...another aaaah!

dinner bounty in a basket!

really a 'just because' kind of photo and a little bit because I'm in a green and red vibe...and that's not just because we are choosing exterior house colours at the moment in green and red or because Phoebe (and our neighbour, Pete) is already into the Christmas music...I just have a strong affinity with these two contrasting colours in any way they present. And it is just so luscious being able to pluck one's own organic strawberries fresh from their plot - although Phoebe is a little apprehensive now that her Father has just fertilised them with a highly potent, flowformed cow poo tea! (full of potassium for voluptous fruiting! mmmm!)

thinking about house colours...what do you think?

there's something so happy and honest about simple colours singing out. And living in the countryside echoes of barns and hardworking farm buildings feels like a comfortable colour fit.