... on agricultural shows.

You know, some weekends, you just can't go past a good poultry display. Chooks patiently wait out time in their show cages by scratching optimistically in their straw and poking their heads out between the bars to see what's going on down the aisle. I saw lots of handsome roosters I'd like to borrow for my pekin bantams at home, who I am sure would be wonderful mothers...

...and I saw an excellent duck. Happy Brisbane RNA Show!

... on little paintings for friends.

Aaah you Sunday morning! A cup of milky tea and a salty hard-boiled egg, a home-grown passionfruit and the sun making the curtains glow. A paintbrush among the toast crumbs... paintings for friends.

... on weekends of bliss.

Last weekend, it was my birthday. There was cake, and there were candles, and both were had in the very early morning.

Later, there was a long drive up into the mountains, car loaded up with C and woollens and wine and a wagyu roast, to this place. It was lovely to see dear family friends, Richard and Rosemary and Madeleine, and Madeleine's two girls, Millie and Sophie.

There were walks over dry-grass hills and through vineyards and olive groves, log balancing over the creek through the rainforest, a Very Special marshmallow roasting bonfire, and only one leech.

Thoroughly wonderful all round!

... on motivation.

I got a parcel in the mail this week. In it is a blank Moleskine notebook (the brown-cover sort) and some instructions. See, I've joined The Sketchbook Project, where I get to hold on to this Moleskine for a few months and fill it with stuff, which I then send back to America. It meets lots of other sketchbooks filled with stuff and tours the country. It's even themed - mine is 'The view from up here".

I'm not sure why I was attracted to do this - after all, you have to pay to do it, and I could have gone to the shop and bought the same Moleskine to fill and keep if I'd felt the urge. Maybe it's more about being sent a notebook and being expected to fill it - it's a motivating factor. I wouldn't be filling a notebook otherwise - and creatively speaking, it's promising!

How promising is a blank notebook? I can't resist!

...on green!

I'm starting to get into this.

... on a little more painting.

My box of paints has been sitting out on my table for a few weeks now. Every so often my Prussian Blue will call out to me, and I'll paint some more clouds.

Then I accidently dripped some water on a fresh pageful of blue, which made a nice cloudy thing all by itself. I added rain.

Clouds, rain, Prussian blue and my new favourite: an old tube of Oxide of Chromium gouache - all very good for the soul.

... on a little painting.

It's C's birthday today, and he's impossible to buy for. He'd prefer to pretend he's not having a birthday at all, and as he's a bit anti-'stuff' right now, I can't buy him 'stuff'. So the options become 'get him something he needs' or 'get him an experience' or 'get him membership to the Queensland Donkey Society' - which is what I did last year.

This year, we're going to go shopping for a new pair of jeans, so I pulled out my box of watercolours and some paper, and did a little painting to act as the Official Shopping Invite.

It's been a long time since I played with my watercolours, and I really really enjoyed it! I may need to do some more in the coming weeks.

There's a story that goes with that box of watercolours. I was living out of home for the first time, working only part time, so money was tight. For some reason I had a scratchie - it was a Trivial Pursuit scratchie, I think they cost $2. I won $100 on that scratchie, and I went down to the local art supplies shop and bought $100 worth of Winsor & Newton Artists' Water Colour paint - about 12 tubes at the time. Bliss!