Pencils today

Went on another bush walk and talk this morning and took some not very colourful shots of bush and stream. Some good basis for paintings though.

Got home and continued working on Garden Rocks on darfting film and my pencil sharper jammed with a broken lead. Can't seem to get it started again. This is the start of the picture, 8x11".

Here is my holder made with cut-down cardboard rolls - such as toilet paper - stuck with acrylic gel medium to a board.

I Have just finished making this and glad I did. These are pencils I'm using. The rest of my pencils are in a box and its lid - about 16" by 8". I have lined it with bubble wrap and transport my pencils if going elsewhere with them.

I love seeing all the colouras in the rainbow laid out side by side and until I got too many and had to make the holder I worked from the box. Tricky to balance on my messy desk though.

As I got more pencils, some kept getting nuried and the ones on top seemed likely to roll off.

That's one good thing about working in a carpetted room.

catch up

Aaah. It's been a while since I logged an update.

Starting with the future. Never very organised.

I am booking in to 2 pastel classes at the mairangi arts centre one in Septamber and one in November - Didn't that back-pay I haven't told Alan about come in handy?

The classes are two days each and with Larry Blovits and Tony Allain. The first Landscapes and the second colour and light.

And what I have been doing?

I did a portrait of Darren (son-inLaw)- my first in CP and my first drawing on drafting film. I did this for our Sandra's birthday 3rd August. It is 8x11inches.

I have been doing some bush walks for two hours on the past 3 Saturdays - this is part of the local colleges community education programme and is called Bush Walk nad Talk. It is terrific. I am finally learning the names of the trees and I have learnt how to tell the differences between manuka and Kanuka. I knew the Kanuka were bigger but the also have softer leaves. Manuka - well they're prickly. They also flower at any time during the year and Kanuka only in summer. Manuka have woody seed pods, much bigger than kanuka.

Well. Another lady and I like taking photos of fungi. She and I are generally at the tail end of the group of 7 and crouching in the undergrowth. Here is a photo of two lots of fungi - Earth star and parasol. Also a small hodded orchid - this is 6 inches high so the flower head is barely an inch.

Little Xavier - our grandson, had a sore ear. When I called around he was all grizzly and hanging on to Sandra. I aske dhim wha twas the matter and he came over, holding his ear.

"Gamma. I've got a big ear!" After telling me all about it he was happy enough and we played together.

All for now.

kendalls bay

Saturday's I usually do Mum's shopping. This morning was such a lovely morning I picked up her shopping list and decided to go for a walk before I did her shopping.
I went to a bush reserve on the hills above the harbour, bush where we used to roam as kids.

The roads around there now have houses both sides and the bush has marked tracks. The bush was still the same in essence, the umbrella ferns, the tea tree, punga, pines, the steep slopes. I can remember Bruce and Frank on one foray discussing the merits (demerits) of possum stew. They'd just been on a camp with their scout group. The bad points of the stew seemed to match the marshy ground used to have to plough through if it had been wet. Now there is a bridge of sorts. A plank is better than nothing.

Photos of Kendalls Bay and the bush and the track.




Colleen and Bruce were trimming a tree at Mum's when i arrived with the shopping and they were pulling out some older plants in the garden and just of fto but more plants.

Mum does love seeing lots of colour in the garden.

When I finally got home late morning, Sandra and Xavier had arrived. Alan had gone out so they were playing on the lawn but about to leave. They stayed for lunch.

I arrived late at the meeting for the writers group I belong to - The Wilderness Writers' Group, named after the translation of the Maori name of the street where the originator of the group lives.

Had a good chat and discussed the writings others had submitted but I left early as I've done no swot today. Assignment due in just over a week and exam in just over three weeks.

Gulp.

just today

best news is my head cold has mostly leaked away. Work today wasn't as bad as it could have been had i still had my cold.

We're doing the 10,000 steps programme in teams at work. Except for the last three days I've been averaging about 11,000 a day. I still did 68,000 for the week.

I'm also making sure I have an apple a day. Luckily it's the season for royal gala - my favourite. I eat it when I go for a walk at afternoon tea time. I do 20 mionutes before work, 15 at morning tea and 25 at lunchtime. A good thing about going fo ra wal at lunchtime is I've got to have a lunch I can carry and not make a pig of myself with the cafe lunches. They always put too much on my plate and I don't need that much.

Surprising how many extra steps I can do if I walk to the other end of the building and back a few times to get stationery, get a coffee, take up some paperwork to someone instead of using the internal mail. I use the excuse that it is urgent.

I've noticed an improvement in my skin, weight (slight), less cellulose - or am I kidding myself? I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm not going to taichi tonight. I don't want to push myself before this cold has fully gone from my throat and head.

on my easel, off my easel

I have an office at work and the walls were rather bare so I took a couple of my paintings and hung them up. My manager said did I have another one but a little bigger for the end office. I said I had one but didn't know whether it would be OK. I offered to paint one but she said whe wanted it in this years budget ending June. I took in this one of Waitonga Falls on Mt Ruapehu and she paid me for it. There is now a large bare spot on our lunge room wall. I'm not complaining :)

This is a commission I'm working on. I've just recently starting working in coloured pencils and someone saw the picture i had done of my cat and wanted two of theirs done. The other one I haven't started yet. I'll update as I go but it tales a while in CP.

I like to go for a walk, get out of the building, during my breaks. Thoughts this morning :-.....

sun light bright in cloud patches on the harbour North Head and Rangitoto sihouetted

council workers mowing long grass on the berm - spiced with the smell of onion weed

leaves raked in a pile - not for scuffling through while the council worker's still there

Leaves flittering down in filtered sun scuttling along the ground my shoes

hibiscus fragile beauty fallen on the asphalt - how the pink and paricot are offset better by grey than their green leaves

beginning

Well. Not getting very far very fast. Tried uploading a photo but can't see it!Fogot to tick the box. Duh.

Autumn here. Unusually dry and the days still warm but crisp around the edges and in the shade. You can tell winter is waiting in line but autumn is still revealing its colours and surprises such as these small fungi growing beneath oak trees in the domain. They are almost transparent and about 2 inches - 5 cm - high.