Winter Solstice

So today is the Winter Solstice and this is hard to believe here where we live. Today the sky is blue and our garden is more colourful than at any other time of year. We have lots of hibiscus flowering as well as Bougainvillea and Allamanda, and this week the Wattle is also starting to flower. It has been wonderful weather for gardening and last week we bought Camellias at our local market. The weather still isn't really cold although tonight we will light our fire in honour of the Solstice.

This week I have been busy making my trading cards for the 2 swaps I am involved with. The swap for Digital Art Quirks is titled `Through the Doorway' and the other for the Art Society is simply `Hats'. I hope to post my International Cards this week. Also this week was the Frameworthy Challenge as usual and the Artist was Frank Melech and you can find some of his work here : http://www.stylishweb.org/dream-world-by-frank-melech_14/2/ All very surreal so I had fun with this one. I found the photo of the graveyard at Stock Exchange and ran a filter on it named `spooky'. The Bus came from a photo I took at our local Museum last year so I extracted the Bus and added it to the graveyard. I have titled this one `The Night Bus' - inspired by Harry Potter. Sadly my Camera which I received for my Birthday last year has recently died - or the Lens has. (Luckily it is still under Warranty so we are sending it to Canon) - wish me luck!!

Winter has Arrived

Some people seem to have decided that Winter begins officially on June 1 - others agree that it starts on June 21/22 or the Southern Winter Solstice - I on the other hand have decided that it begins on the day we light our slow combustion stove for the first time, and that was yesterday May 28 :) Here where we live it is cold and wet and windy and we are inside alternately reading, knitting, creating, cooking and later on this evening we will have a glass of red wine and sit and watch the flames. I love this time of year.

On another topic I have recently discovered an inspiring Blog all about living sustainably and economically. http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/ Rhonda Jean lives at Landsborough in the Sunny Coast Hinterland and she is about my age so a lot of her blog posts resonate with me. In these crazy times when prices of everything are rising I really enjoy reading a Blog which offers so many innovative and helpful ideas. Rhonda also has lots of links to some really inspiring Blogs on this same theme.

Man in Fishpond with Umbrella

Another week has flashed past and here is another Frameworthy Challenge. This week it is the Surrealist Magritte, so I was truly inspired and here it is :)

Inspired by Vincent

Our Frameworthy challenge this week was Van Gogh and he is a really interesting artist to research. Van Gogh is one of those artists who is so famous that we think we know all about him but I found out lots of things about him that I didn't know. For example he spent a number of years teaching himself to draw before he started painting. Drawing was something he practised every day. He also never made any money from his Art ( he sold only 1 painting for a very small amount) and in fact he died without knowing the critical acclaim which came later. For me the vibrant colours and the emotion in his work is what resonates. For the challenge I decided to use a couple of quotes from his letters.

I've Been Tagged

Donna aka Kygirl has tagged me - I have to come up with 7 random and or weird facts about myself. Hmmmmm....... So here goes

• I'm hopeless at any sport or activity that requires hand/eye co ordination, seems like I lucked out when this talent was being handed out.
• I can only listen to music if that's all I'm doing, otherwise I totally can't focus
• I read magazines and newspapers backwards - something to do with being left handed I think.
• I have lived in 29 different homes in my lifetime.
• my favourite food is banana - especially with oats and cinnamon.
• I have dimples in my shoulders - I have never met anyone else who has.
• My blood group is AB Positive - shared with only about 5% of the population one of whom is my sister. But luckily for us AB Possies we can accept Type O in an emergency - thankyou God :)

I don't really like tagging other Bloggers so if any of my Blog Readers who Blog want to tag along please feel free.

A Wonderful Holiday

We have just returned from 2 great weeks away in our caravan at Noosa. Munna Point is our favourite camping spot, right on the Noosa River so we took our boat. I also took my bicycle so I could ride down to Hastings Street with our friend Bev while the `boys' went fishing. It seemed that every day, (we had perfect weather), one of us was saying `How good is this'!! And it was. We caught fish, had lots of fish dinners, enjoyable evening drinks by the river watching the sunset, meals out, morning walks by the river, bike rides to Hastings Street and so it went on. These photos show Alan with our boat which we have named `Small Fry', a guy surfing on Laguna Bay at Noosa and me having lunch at `Cafe La Monde', the best value place to eat in Noosa :) So now we have to come back to earth although it is good to be home.

Harvest

Just before Dinner last night I went down to our kitchen garden to pick some lettuce and rocket leaves, while I was there I found a passionfruit, a capsicum some tomatoes and a yellow rose. We also have heaps of Rosemary, Lavender, Basil, Marjoram, Thyme, Mint and Rose Scented Geranium. Our chooks have been doing well too and most days we collect at least 2 eggs and the papayas are starting to ripen. I really love this time of year when our garden starts to repay us for our efforts.