Back Over The Hill

Yup. I've been out walking again. A storm is predicted overnight (thats not good news if you want to go cherry picking - which is what I was hoping to do tomorrow -not going to happen) Anyway the change in weather is beginning to show in the evening sky tonight although it remains very mild in temperature. I started my walk at 8.15pm this evening. Still enough light to take a few photos and the light is interesting as it throws a glow over the hill face.

Now I apologise for the number of sky shots tonight but every time I turned a corner the light had changed with the landscape.

A warm glow throwing orange light onto drying seed heads

A succession of shots and drawing in focus

And back to visit the thistles. Dont they look different in the softened lights of the evening sky, a little more orange with the purple. Already the heads have changed

This one is a favourite.. I love the veil of browny pink of the grasses and the iridescent purple in this light

fuzzy seed heads

All of that in half an hour

Still time to join in the GIVEAWAY closes 10th December comment  HERE

Designing a new stamp

I really love the shape of the fan and am partial to circular shapes. I nearly always doodle in circles and add leaves and vine as I doodle. I do this particularly whilst listening to handover at work, you will find my hand stray to the edges of my sheet and fill in the white voids with pattern. Just amusing my hand whilst my mind focuses on the job at hand!

Today, whilst waiting for Jordana to complete her Maui board training with her surf life saving group, I sat down at the club coffee shop with my sketch book, pens and pencils and my Kaffe Fassett quilt book - Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts.(and ordered a large ice coffee).

1.sea urchin by monique'smess 2.3.4. Kaffe Fassett patterrn  5. Water & Sewage man hole 6.Kaffe Fassett inspiration 7.working on my pattern 8.Kaffe Fassett inspiration 9. linoprint by me

 I'm sure I must provide some amusement to all the beach goers as I spread myself out at the table underneath the umbrella and draw, rub and cut out shapes trying to find the perfect curve, adjusting a line and experimenting with pattern.
I was trying to design a shape that could be layered one on top of another to form  multiple fan shapes and then in another pattern fit in a square with leaves and form a circle.

I have also been out walking in the OHallaran Hill Reserve and photographed the golden light and colour.
The light was very sun drenched as the sun prepared to tuck away for the night bouncing the last rays for the day giving a spectacular display. Don't you just love thistles? Purple or dried they are spectacular plants, strong and bold limbs and  leaves but soft and gentle looking crowns. They make a statement wherever you find them.

Orange bugs on threaded pompoms!

 Even the greys spoke loudly in these gumnuts..

Walkabout

Today I had quite an eventful day in the fact that I made it into town so that my daughter could busk playing violin and then returned home to go for a walk in the nature reserve not far from home.

 Jordy looked up on the internet the opening hours of the Adelaide City Council and assured me they would be open so that she could purchase a busking permit to play in the city mall. As it turns out they were not open and we wandered around town for a little while. We bought lunch at the central market (if I didn't have so many bags and cases to carry I might have taken some photos, it really is jam packed full of colour and activity) Then we took our lunch and sat in Victoria square to watch the traffic whizz by whilst  sitting on the green. I took these panoramic photos showing 2/3rds of the way round the square

After lunch I returned home and decided it was such a nice day that I would head up to the reserve to go for a walk and pick fennel leaves to make a dye bath. Dyeing has really captured my imagination but as usual I want every thing to happen now. Whilst out and about I took lots of photos, some quite interesting I think.

 Dried Fennel heads

Love the vibrancy of the eucalyptus gum below - leuchoxylon rosea (I think)

Dried thistle plants

 Big grubs getting bigger, love the colour of the caterpillar!

Same bush but orange bugs

 Dried gumnuts

Thistle mania

Salvation Jane, only a salvation in times of drought. The farmers used to allow their cattle to feed on this otherwise pesty weed. I've picked the flowers to do some solar dyeing.

 Look carefully at the picture below

This weed is rampant with those orange bugs I photgraphed before. Bugs having a picnic on the seed heads.

Salvation Jane on the path home

 Seed heads in the glowing rays of the sun.

Now to heat the cauldron and put on a brew of fennel for dyeing...

Insect Infestation

It has been a month of insect infestation with renegade termites deciding to make my house their home . One day the toilet door frame was intact and the next the kids tell me there is a gaping hole where the frame used to be. The little pests had eaten clear through the frame and left the paint work intact.

Education can be an expensive thing. I am now educated in the likes of termites, favouring damp dark spaces below the bathroom where a slow leak has left a damp area under the house perfect for a mud mound to house these fascinating creatures. These photo phobic creatures craftily chew away at door jambs and floor boards, remarkably maintaining the structural integrity of what they chew until some heavy weight breaks the surface structure.

Our friendly neighbourhood builder informs me he has walked on roofs that have flexed under their weight and upon further investigation has found the ceiling supports to be totally undermined.

We were lucky to to only suffer minor damage and Danny The Bugger, a very apt name, made short work of chemical eradication our pest problem.

Following the theme of bugs and slugs I appear to have a high attraction to all things creepy crawly. My recent walks at dusk in the OHallaran Hill Reserve or Yurrebilla as known by the Aboriginals of the Greater Mount Lofty Parkland, has exposed me to some unusual variety of insect which I had not seen before. Whilst photographing a particularly pretty purple plant, a native wisteria, I came across what I now know to be Spitfire caterpillars. These unusual bugs collect on mass or in clumps and upon approach will rear up to deter invading marauders.

I went back to video them two days later and found the group had move the length of the bush from the top to the bottom.

I also came across this centipede  that was crossing the open path in the reserve.

I must say it has been a very mild winter in Adelaide and aside from a few very cold nights in July we haven't had to suffer the icy artic winds that we sometimes experience.

Stalks of fennel plants growing wild

This weeks walk with Matilda the family mutt have been warmly pleasant and lovely glowing rays of light have played across the land scape. I particularly like the golden hues and glistening greys seen in some of the flora of the park. Who would think these tired old thistles, standing on their last legs would look so pretty basking in the last rays of the day..

thistle plants

A view from Yurrebilla - OHallaran Hill Reserve looking back to the city of Adelaide

gum nuts of varying eucalyptus plants

a weedy view

weeds no less but very pretty!

warratah linoprint by monique smith 2010

blue emperor dragonfly linoprint by monique smith 2010

I hope you have enjoyed my walk with me and trust you will enjoy the day. Monique.