Galah 

Tawny Frogmouth

and this one is actually a..........COW!

Frizzled Fabric Flowers

You will need: material that can be melted, thread, needle, material scissors, a button or beads, a candle and a circle pattern (I used the bottom of a cup for the larger ones and the top of a small container for the smaller ones.)

First you must choose your material; you will need to be able to melt it. I used some thin, gauzy material I picked up at an Op Shop. Note: Op Shops are so useful for getting lots of cool material from and too much if you are not careful....like someone I know............. but too much of a good, useful thing is not that bad......

Then cut out about seven circles from the material. You can do more of them or less it doesn’t really matter. But they need to be different sizes the biggest should have a diameter of about 6 ½ cm, again it doesn’t particularly matter. The others should each be smaller than the one underneath. It also doesn’t mater if they are not exactly a circle either, a few of mine certainly weren’t. Cut five snips around the circles to make separate petals, or if you like you can do fewer petals on the smaller ones. Try not to cut too far in.

 

Now it is time to light the candle. Then frizzle/melt the edges of each layer of the flower one at a time. Try and get all the ‘petals’ to curl up a bit. Don’t get the material right in the flame or-as one of my sisters found out-the material might catch on fire...... Also try and not burn your fingers on the candle or on the newly melted edges, they are both hot.

Once they are all nicely melted, stack them from biggest to smallest. Choose some beads or a button to put in the middle of the flower. One button or bead or three beads looks best.  Then start to sew the layers together and once your thread is secure, start to sew the button or beads on. Put the thread through them a few times to make them more secure.

Now you have a flower. You can sew it onto a clip, headband, or make a few and put them in a bowl, make stalks and put them in a vase or do anything you like. 

The Puzzle of Life

Each intricate piece a choice

Fit it where you dare.

In the end they should interlock

To make a perfect square

The edges are the character

They make its name a square

Is the border straight or rough?

Some seem to fit where they don’t

To find each its place can be very tough

There is one who can help too

He is Jesus, he will straighten it

Jesus who died for you.

Will the colours match?

What picture will you create?

You cannot see the box

Will the edge be straight?

Or did you mess with the perfect plan?

Make your choices carefully

Could there have been a better way?

For it will be presented to the Lord

On the very last day.

Inspired by the puzzle I am trying to do.

Wednesday 5^th June

We washed up in the bathroom sink again and dried up with a towel because there were no unused face washers. I drove first. I went out and along the road and out of town then did a u turn and went back to get petrol. Got petrol, them went back out of town and further. We were traveling through emu and goat country, by the end of the day we had counted 43 emus and 1000 goats; I’m serious there was really that many!

goats and sheep

The goats were quite interesting, there were so many different colours, sizes, shapes and horns. We sang silly songs like; “the Bear” and “Found a Peanut.” Then Daddy drove and we listened to an audio book of “Pilgrims Progress.” We crossed the time zone and played I spy. We saw lots of things that started with SH, had four legs, is white, woolly, lives in paddocks (at least they are meant to, we saw quite a few that weren’t), goes mmmmmaaaah, has cute babies and is very Stupid!

an emu

goats

We had lunch on a cold windy hill. Then I drove past more goats and a few very strange trees, the first was dead but covered in shoe flowers. The second was full of bottles; the third was covered in hats.  The last had about five camp chairs hanging upside down in it............. really strange. Daddy typed stuff up on the laptop while I drove so he wouldn’t fall asleep this time and he didn’t.  After two hours we swapped drivers, I wasn’t tired but I was very stiff. I haven’t slept in the car for years, but my fingers, hands, ankles, elbows, shoulders, legs and neck all start getting sore and stiff after a while.

The dirt is red and the road is straight. We saw a sign saying ‘watch out for kangaroos for the next 172 km. We never saw a single live one, only emus and GOATS. I did once think there were some kangaroos but they were only three grey, dead bushes, standing next to the road.  They need signs saying look out for goats, not kangaroos. Maybe they don’t though; goats seem a lot smarter than kangaroos or sheep. Kangaroos and sheep run out in front of cars or right along next to them, whereas goats normally run directly away or just ignore you like the emus do.

We stopped at a park and looked at and climbed on some rusty old mining machinery. We also saw a fenced off and filled in gold miming shaft and a not quite so old digger that the boys had heaps of fun playing on.  We got to where we were staying that night at 6:30.

Later on, we went out to the car to read more of “The Return of the King,” because this place only had a bathroom and one other room. We also took our box of yummy things.  So we ate chips and caramel chocolates and found comfortable spots to sit. 

Warning SPOILER

SPOILER Warning

We read the part of “The Return of the King,” where Aragorn heals Faramir Eowyn and Merry.

When the black breath blows

And deaths shadow grows

And all lights pass,

Come athelas! Come athelas!

Life to the dying

In the kings hands lying

And everyone realizes that Strider, Aragorn, heir of Isildur, Elessar, was the King. The hands of the king are the hands of a healer.

Thursday 6^th June

I drove first again, the road was fairly straight. After driving (straight ahead) for over an hour we realized that we had left the two pillows that we had brought with us behind. We decided they weren’t worth going back to get. We stopped at a park and played tips on the equipment, and then I filled up the car with petrol, Daddy drove. I sat next to my brothers and we looked at a book of road maps of Australia. I got asked; where are we? Where is our place? Where is that? Where are we going next? How far away it that? And especially, where is this? I tried to answer but it got rather annoying. Luckily they got sick of it just about one question before it nearly killed me.

I have found that since I have been driving, I find it annoying not to be able to see what is going on behind us (when I’m not driving). It never bothered me before but now it really does, I noticed it today and a few days ago too.

Family photo I took (with the help of a tripod)

It was 4:30 when we arrived back home. Yay tis sooooo good to be home.

Monday 3^rd June

We went to Adelaide zoo. We saw the Giant pandas, which are the only pandas in Australia, penguins, both of which were Mummies favourites, otters, a bilby which were my sister’s favourites, monkeys and the goats where what my brothers liked. Daddy liked some of the birds. We also say foxes, tigers, lions, flamingos, hippos and heaps of other animals. I liked the birds and the giraffes. I think the giraffes are so amazing and beautiful, intricate patterns, striding around gracefully, with their silky black tails contrasting to their gold-brown patterns. 

 We had eight minutes left of our four hour parking when we got back to the car, it was still overcast but we all had a fun day at the zoo. Then we went back to our cousins (we didn’t want to have to survive at our house for any longer than necessary).  I went out into their chook pen and found a nest of ten eggs behind the dog house, they only have three chooks. I then washed the eggs and they all sank meaning they were ok.

So they must have been flamingo eggs.........

Tuesday 4^th June

Last night we cooked pasta for tonight’s tea; as we are leaving Adelaide today. After it was cooked we laid out strips of cling wrap and poured the pasta onto them and wrapped them up, in two big squishy, squashy packages. I drove second and drove through the valley of Clare and in the town of Clare I drove past Farrell road. Where we stopped at a rest area to swap drivers there was a little garden but it was full of orange fungi (and a few plants). I wonder if the fungus was edible or poisonous. On the way to Broken Hill we stopped at a friend’s place. I had seen her only once before, six years ago, but we had kept in contact by writing letters regularly.  We had lunch together and saw her goats and chickens and talked and played in her shed. Then after taking some photos of each other we had to go, it seemed so short a time.

I drove past lots of dead kangaroos and a few cars and trucks. Mummy was sleeping and daddy was tired......then he was sleeping too, I knew for sure when one of my bothers asked him a question and he said nothing.  I kept driving the road was straight and wide, he didn’t notice when I wandered a little, because I was looking at the pretty green birds. I was being extra careful though. I thought I really should try wake him, then I noticed that those white noisy/bumpy strips had just started on the edge of the road, perfect! So I carefully drove onto it and off again. Daddy sat straight up and looked around. I was laughing and I told him he had been asleep.

We swapped drivers at the next town and mummy drove the rest of the way. She says sitting next to me is more tiring than actually driving or at least it was last time she did. We got to Broken Hill and had tea. There were three rooms where we were staying a main room, a bathroom and one which we three girls were sleeping in. I don’t think I mentioned that we had brought a box it was big and plastic and was full of yummy things like chips and chocolate. So while Daddy read us some more of “The Return of The King” we partied and ate chocolate, and chips in bed.

Jane was the keeper of the malteser packet and pelted them across the room at me. She also pelted them at Alice who was beside her and Alice chucked one back, which Jane popped in her mouth and then taking it out asked Alice if she wanted it. Later Alice stole a bit of Janes white chocolate and then Jane put the rest of the white chocolate in her mouth and took it out and asked Alice if she wanted it now. This sent them both into a giggling fit.  

At 9:40 we went one at a time to brush our teeth and while I was gone Jane and Daddy hid some maltesers in my bed, which I ate in the morning. But Jane gave Alice a face washer and three bars of soap (individually wrapped) in her side of the bed. Then we threw soap around the room until 10:00. 

Saturday 1^st June

First we went to an art gallery, getting soaked on the way from the car park. It was interesting but I don’t like most (nearly all) of the ‘modern art’, it looks to me like a kid did it or a waste of paint or just ugly. Sorry to anyone who does like it, but this is my point of view and I have yet to meet someone who does like it. I did like the paintings of Australian scenery, if back at the beginning of Australian history people painted scenery using ‘modern art’ we would have no record of what it actually looked like then. I mostly remember two paintings; one was of a soldier standing in front of his horse. They both looked alive, noble and proud in a beautiful way. The other was done I think by aboriginals but not typical aboriginal art.  From close up it looked like a mess of yuck colours but from the other side of the room it looks like gumtrees, that were standing amongst green grass on the edge of a creek with reflections in it. Next we went to a museum. I liked the photo display and the draws of butterflies, shells and bugs and the display of opalized shells.

Then we went back through the sprinkling rain, to our cousins and had homemade pizza for tea. We played yahtzee, I came third, Daddy won.

Sunday 2^nd June

Today we went to the “Holy Trinity Adelaide Church” the sermon was on ‘Joy despite circumstances’. Daddy talked to a few people after church but luckily we were getting cold standing there in the wind so Daddy decided we should go. We were going to go to our cousins ‘baptism’ now we were running late. So we took a turn too early and got lost. We did two u turns one of which was more of a three point turn and right where there was a sign saying no u turning....... and we saw a guy in a car coming out of a nearby driveway shaking his head at us. I can just imagine him wondering if most people from NSW (as our number plate says) are crazy drivers like that. 

We were five minutes late and Daddy was only just in time to do the reading he was meant to do. I was the official photographer which was cool. People photography is not my best point but I took over one hundred photos and everyone seemed to really like them, especially a few of the shots.

Afterwards we walked to our cousin’s place and had fish, chips and some leftover pizza for tea. During tea Daddy asked for the salt, he took it quickly and the top of it, which was loose, flew off and landed with a splash in his orange juice. Daddy was now looking at the salt shaker and trying to figure out how it worked and wondering who threw the olive at him which was bobbing up and down in his juice......everyone at our end of the table was dying with laughter and one of my sisters and I were trying not to choke on the mouthfuls of food we were trying to eat. Not that we succeeded very well. 

Thursday 30^th May

The day started with Daddy driving to a garage to get the car battery changed at 6:30. We washed up our breakfast things in the bathroom –there was no kitchen-and filled up our drink bottles from the bath. Then I dried everything with a face-washer. It was raining when we left the Motor Inn with me driving, the road was fairly calm, and I got good experience using the windscreen wipers on all their settings.

washing up in the bathroom

We listened to audio books and lost phone reception as well as Grandma and Grandpa. They had been ahead of us and we couldn’t see how we could have got in front of them. So we did a few laps of the town, got petrol and decided that they must have gone on to the next town so we would follow them. Then there they were! They had stopped for a while in the town before and then thought they were still in front of us so had waited just outside the town for us. Luckily we had both got sick of waiting at the same time and met each other. We got phone reception and got a message from them saying “Where are you?” so we said “Here.”

I found out that polite drivers still exist. I was yes about to have to merge again and there were two cars about to pass me.  I was waiting for the second to pass and the lane was running out (again). Then I realized the second car was waiting for me! So I merged. Thanks nice person whoever you were.

Grandpa bought us more ice-creams, which we ate while watching a ferry. We had crossed into Victoria and then into South Australia and the time changed. When we got to the house we were going to stay in for the next few days, Daddy forgot the code of the alarm and it went off. That alarm was so noisy! We stood around while he tried to remember it, with our fingers in our ears and people walking past staring at us.

We only had a few problems with the house: the floor squeaked like crazy at every step in most of the house, it was right next to a highway that had trucks and cars braking and accelerating on it all the time. This meant that everyone had to talk that little bit louder to be heard and the bathroom did not have a drain hole in the floor, which meant when any of the water in the shower hit the walls of the room ran out onto the floor and made a huge at least 1 cm deep pool. If your clothes happened to be lying on the floor they got totally drenched along with any bags that might be there too!

When my brothers were put to bed one of them was missing his toy “Dogger.” So we spent ages looking for it, everywhere (except where it was of course). Until finally I remembered that earlier they had told me their toys were sleeping in the pillows.......... “Dogger” was inside his pillow.  

Friday 31^st May

Bad sleep. O lovely trucks and cars....... Out we go to brave the Adelaide traffic, which as we have seen is crazy! One thing is that here people don’t keep left unless overtaking; the slow people drive wherever they feel like driving. It also seems that using indicators when merging or turning is not fashionable. From our window we counted 4 out of 8 and then 13 out of 43 that did not put their indicators on, when turning off the highway across the traffic!!!!

We drove to our cousin’s place. I watched the rain falling, sending thousands of round ripples across the black roads surface and watched droplets racing down the window. There is something pretty about the reflections of all the car headlights, making golden-silver trails on the road that grow fainter as they lengthen. Then there are also the pinky-red rays that trail along behind the cars. We spent the day chatting, reading and looking at stuff on Grandpa’s iPhone, or at least I did. We played a game of ‘Pass the Pig’ and I actually won! Probably the fact that Daddy stopped playing in the middle of the game helped, as he has won nearly all -or maybe all- the games of Pass the Pig that I can remember.

We drove back through the dark, in the rain. When we got back to the noisy house that night we hung out the load of washing we had put on that morning and started another which took two hours to finish! We creaked around the house and to bed and talked in bed for ages and made up silly lyrics for songs, well we changed a few words of some songs to make them silly and then sung them.  

Tuesday 28th May

Spent today doing, well, nothing, I have written some stuff (mostly random) and read a book – Perelandra (Voyage to Venus) by C.S. Lewis- which I really enjoyed, I have eaten food and walked around the garden reading because I had had enough of sitting down! I only walked into two things and only tripped over once, though I hit my foot into lots of things. I sat in the billy cart and used my legs to push myself around while reading. My legs were so sore from sitting in the car all the day before. Also my sisters and I listened to Daddy reading part of “The Return of the King” from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Wednesday 29th May

Today we drove to Tooleybuc. I was driving when someone first saw the wild emus. We were all pretty excited about seeing wild ones. They were more scraggily looking but it was fascinating seeing them wild.  Note: do not look at emus while driving car. Another time when I was driving we came upon a flock of around two thousand sheep, right in the middle of the road of course! I was driving slowly, very slowly. Sheep are definitely stupid, they run along next to the car, then all cross over in front of it then do the same again. One tiny, baby lamb got left behind by its mother and walked along the road right in the middle in front of me. Note: lambs walk very slowly. I stopped and finally it got off the road and I proceeded SLOWLY through the sheep.

We stopped at the next town (if it was big enough to be called a town) and Grandpa shouted us some chocolate coated, vanilla ice-creams.  We went for a short walk and then Daddy said I could keep driving, so I got in the car and turned the key. Nothing happened. We had a dead battery and no jumper-leads. Luckily for us the corner store Grandpa had just bought the ice-creams from, lent us some to start the car with. Later I swapped with Mummy (without turning the car off) and we kept going, but then we needed petrol and the petrol station had no jumper-leads...... So we filled up with the car still running. Apparently the reason you are meant to turn the car off, is not because an explosion may happen, but just so no one drives off without paying!

Monday 27th May

I drove from home for one (and nearly) a half hours.  Whenever I looked away from the road at those white birds circling or those pretty horses, trees or cows, I ended up wobbling all over the road. There are so many silly drivers on the road and some seem to despise L platers, it’s not our fault we can only go 80! Many times I was driving at the speed limit (in an 80 zone) and cars would speed up, pass me and roar away, obviously going way over the speed limit!

We had one big scare, imagine: the sun is blocked by dark rain clouds, tall gum trees are growing thickly next to the road. There are three lanes, two going your way and one the other; you are in the lane furthest left. You are driving at 80; the rest of the traffic is going 100. You see a sign “Left lane ends” you need to merge; a light spatter of rain has started. Indicator on, you look in the mirrors and see a truck coming, in the lane you need to merge into. “Don’t slow down otherwise you will not be able to get back into the traffic flow.” The truck goes past and you think it is ok to merge and you can see the end of the lane you are in so Quick! You are about to merge when something blasts its horn and keeps blasting, it is behind you. You think someone must be really close so you don’t merge, no one comes. Finally a red ute still blasting its horn at you shoots past and has to slow down behind the truck in front anyway. You are merging because you have to, you have no choice there is no more lane, and you hope none is in the way. All this happened very quickly, and was not at all nice! I would have had way enough room to merge in front of the ute but I thought it was closer! And he took advantage of me being an L plater, he should have given way, but didn’t. 

We came to a petrol station and filled up and swapped drivers, and then it bucketed rain as we drove along the freeway now going 110. I’m glad I wasn’t driving then. Eventually the rain stopped and we were driving over mountains. We were surrounded by still, green, tree clad slopes that rose high up into the clouds and dropped down into misty valleys. What stories, do those hills hide? What mysteries do those trees know? Billows of cloud lay, as if sleeping amongst the top most branches of the gums. Some mountain tops were shrouded entirely in fluffy white. Did the trees shiver at the touch of the cold cloud on their bark? Green, undulating, white, misty billows, resting, twining, falling asleep on the treetops, bedded down in green. In places there were gaps between treetops and there I could see the tall straight trunks of the great gums.

The view from a place we stopped

Later, there was sunshine and hardly a cloud in the blue-blue sky.  I drove for the next 55 minutes, a curve this way and a curve that way but mostly straight. Daddy was sitting next to me being a really good “supervising driver” by talking on the phone, looking at maps (not at the road) and generally not paying attention to what I was doing.  Once a car pulled out in front of us, but it was ok because obviously I was only going 80, which is as fast as I am “legally permitted” to drive. Another time the lane was ending and I had to merge (again) and I found it slightly unnerving -especially after what had happened that morning- merging with everyone else who were going 110.  Eventually we got to Grandma and Grandpa’s place.  

I opened up the box and then taking out the plastic bag I tipped its contents onto the puzzle board. Hmm this is strange. I thought to myself. This puzzle should have more pieces in it that have only one colour on them and some of the pieces should be completely white (when they are the right way up). It didn’t though. Most of the pieces looked more orange coloured.

Never the less I started flopping flipping over all the 1000 pieces, until there were no more white pieces.

“I have a strong feeling that this isn’t the same puzzle as is pictured on the box.” I said too no one in particular.

When the edge was done I was sure it was a different puzzle. It looks like a forest with a sunset and trees, but then I did more and the sunset was starting to look strange. Next I decided that the puzzle went the other way up.

“The picture must be of a path or river through a forest in autumn.” I said decidedly.

It is progressing excruciatingly very slowly, and sometimes I think that it does look more like a sunset that turns into autumn trees, but it probably is a path.

It is a very blue sky like path. Or maybe something else.........something out of this world, something that someone photoshopped!  I also searched the spider web for pictures that could be it, but I found none that were even similar. It was a brand new puzzle! In the wrong box! It is driving me crazy; it’s one of the hardest I have ever done, except I haven’t done it .......yet.

Maybe I need to use my magic-dust to put it together.  O that didn’t work! Is there such thing as a puzzle putting together app? Maybe I should invent one, each piece could have a thing inside it and then when...........Well that still won’t help me do this one!

Autumn 

Autumn means colour

Autumn means cold

The seasons are changing

Winter is taking hold 

But for now we still

Have warm days and sun

Because really the autumn 

Has only just begun

I just wrote that then! It just popped into my head, because I thought I'd write something for this post and now I have. The colours of the leaves on some trees are so pretty, though in Australia most trees just stay green, but that makes the few deciduous trees stand out in blazing colour.

Two more wallpapers I have made recently. Do I say that every time? Well I said it this time anyway. I took the first photo a few weeks ago and the second a few months back at the washpools near Scone. 

Writing it’s so hard. I sat for an hour and wrote a page. That’s all! One page...... I’m meant to write a chapter this week for my OYAN (One Year Adventure Novel) and I’ve only written two pages and I’m using font size 14. I’ve written nearly 700 words and well I’m not sure how the next sentence should go, let alone paragraph or page. I’ve been applying, seat of pants to seat of chair technique, but today I’ve only got one page out of it. One of the problems is that one can never do justice to the idea in one’s head, but then if it was only in one’s head and not out on paper/word doc its only there and no one else can share it. If only it was written out properly in my mind then I could just unscrew my head, take it out and then use my magic dust to put myself back together........My story is about Callie who lives on a dairy farm.....back to work.

I enjoy drawing, particularly horses as I think they are the most beautiful animal that God created.

The horse is God's gift to mankind.  ~Arabian Proverb

Horses - if God made anything more beautiful, he kept it for himself.  ~Author Unknown

People on horses look better than they are.  People in cars look worse than they are.  ~Marya Mannes

A dog may be man's best friend, but the horse wrote history.  ~Author Unknown

I think Shading is important in drawings it makes the drawing alive and more real not just a flat, black and white outline. Shading adds shape and depth. When I draw I like/need to look at a photo or the real thing to get all the proportions right. Photos are the easiest thing to use because they don’t walk away, though the computer sometimes goes to sleep, but it only takes a few clicks to get the picture back again.

If you look at the two photos you should be able to see how the first is ok but flat, whereas the second had depth and looks more alive. Sometimes the photo I’m using doesn’t have much shadow so I exaggerate it or if it is overcast I imagine where the shadow would be. When shading I also use a softer pencil than for the rest of the picture, and shade with the side of it, then I use my finger to blend from dark to light.

I went to do the vacuuming a few days ago but to my horror, upon opening the cupboard door, I found that someone had beheaded,  executed, decapitated, topped, guillotined, killed our vacuum cleaner by amputating it head off. leaving it dead, for who knows how long just sitting in the cupboard. It's neck hung upon a hook dangling, limply, lifelessly, droopily, motionlessly, unconsciously, insensibly,  it was totally and utterly unresponsive. Never again would our vacuum-cleaner faithfully serve us. So I decided to locate its murders.

In the end no one was interested in revenge on its murder. So I used my magic dust to bring it back to life and set off to conquer the floor fluff with it.

Spotted Pardalote