Christmas Wishes

🎄 Thanks so much for all the lovely chats and visits we've shared through our blogs over this past year.  

I wish you good health and much happiness, and look forward to catching up once more in the New Year.   

Cheers!

By the Mekong River - Christmas 2011 memories

Hello!

The other day, one of my old posts of when we were in Thailand in 2011 caught my eye so I had a read.

Isn't it lovely how photos can instantly transport you to a place, feelings and thoughts.

It was the last photo in the post which did that.  Here it is:

It was Day 41 of our trip, Saturday 17th December 2011.

We'd left Thailand and had flown to Vietnam a couple of days previously and had stayed for 2 days at My Tho beside the Mekong River in Vietnam.

Because Christmas is celebrated widely in Vietnam, we were suddenly seeing decorations everywhere and it felt good.  I remember being thrilled to see all the tinsel and glitter because it brought back memories of lovely family times.

An early morning photo of the Mekong River from our balcony.  I remember thinking how this river is so important to so many people.  There was a hive of activity on it at this early hour.


We'd checked out of our room and decided to have our brekkie in the outdoor eating section:

It was such a nice spot and, oh my goodness, more memories came back... food memories.  I absolutely loved those Vietnamese Rolls.  They were always so fresh and tasted so good.  Together with the omelette and strong, strong coffee.  Delicious!

Sitting there beside the river feeling the slight breeze as we ate was a beautiful experience.

We were ready for our next stage of the trip... catching the high speed ferry from Saigon to Vung Tau.

A Saigon Santa greeted us at the high speed ferry terminal !

~ Thanks for your visit.  I hope you enjoyed a brief trip to Vietnam for brekky! ~

Sue xx

Staying loose ~ Happy PPF!

Hello!

Here's my entry in this week's Paint Party Friday which is hosted by Eva and Kristin.
You're welcome to join in also.

Sometimes I focus on a lot of detail, other times I try to stay loose and see what happens as with this painting:

Watercolour, acrylic, white pen and ink pen on paper

~ Thanks for taking the time to visit ~

Click on this PPF Button below and you'll be taken to see what a lovely gathering of happy people have created when they play with paint and other mediums:

Happy Sunday ~

Hello!
Have a nice Sunday ...

From our garden ... a couple of bees enjoying the poppies recently.

Sue xx

Favourite Vase ~ Happy PPF !

Hello!

Here's my entry in this week's Paint Party Friday - where the happiest of artists gather, and everyone's welcome.

I'd picked some Native Rosemary from the garden, popped it into my favourite vase and enjoyed it so much I thought I'd have a go at painting it:

Titled: "My Favourite Vase"
Watercolour and inkpen on paper


~ Thanks for taking the time to visit ~

Click on this PPF Button below and you'll be taken to see a lovely gathering of gorgeous art:

Accidental Abstract ~ Happy PPF!

Hello!

Joining in with Eva and Kristin's Paint Party Friday ... a very friendly group.

My entry is an abstract that kind of just happened.
I was trying to paint a chrysanthemum as a focal point in a vase of flowers, but it wasn't working.

Having learnt never to throw out anything, I took to digital means and dragged down some colour from the flowers into the vase and then gave it a very gentle oil painting filter.

A bit of fun and that's what its all about!

Title" "Chrysanth"
Acrylic on canvas with oil painting filter added via Photoscape 

here's the painting prior to me playing around with it digitally:

Click on the PPF Button below and you'll be taken to see a lovely gathering of gorgeous art:

Monday's Windowsill

Patterns ~ Happy PPF!

Hello!

Here's my entry in this week's Paint Party Friday - where the happiest of artists gather, and everyone's welcome.

Making patterns, using the digital programme on my laptop/tablet is something I like to do now and then. 
It's a peaceful, no-pressure way of creating that I've enjoyed for a while... most often late at night.

Today I decided to add some fishies I'd painted,  for various cards, a while back, to one of my patterns (I'd 'cut' the fish using Gimp software). 

Under the Waves
from my Pattern Series

All the pieces are my own work except for the butterfly for which I've lost the source but it was from some kind person on the internet offering images on a transparent background for free. 

~ Thank you kindly for your visit ~ 

Click on this PPF Button below and you'll be taken to see a lovely gathering of gorgeous art:

A quick jaunt around the garden...

Hello!
When all other inspiration (for a post) has gone, the garden is always a lovely place to provide some.
Here's a quick walk around some of our lovelies:

Now, I'm hoping you'll close your eyes to the weeds etc that will pop up here and there.  If nothing else, the birds love to nibble on them!

So happy to see how my seeds of "Western Australian Daisies" are emerging.
A nice mix by the looks!

I always love it when those delicate little Begonia flowers start to peep out from the jungle.  Bringing up the rear are some Epis that are in bud... I forget what colour they are, so another nice surprise in store.

Our Loquat Tree has been inundated with flocks of Musk Lorikeets... they gorge and gorge.
We don't often see this type of Parrot, so it's been a real treat.

Poppies and Pansies (Johnny-Jump-Ups) are looking a bit worse for wear in the recent heat we've been having, but they're still beautiful.

Looking out from the verandah, this succulent came from my Mum's garden.  I haven't repotted it as she added other little tiny plants which show themselves during the year.
It continues to do well, albeit a bit gnarly in spots ... lol, kind of like us!

Here's the front view

... and the full view

Last, but by no means least, hanging in the verandah is the new addition of this gorgeous Fuchsia... a beautiful gift by some lovely friends.
I've filled the Header with other shots of this lovely.

~ Thanks for joining me, take care and have a great rest of the week ~ 

Shells and Memories

Hello!

Shells from the beach... I love to relocate just some of them to our backyard:

The two shells on the left I can remember collecting from Wonga Beach in Far North Queensland...
Memories... we were in our bus, pulled in to a caravan park intending to stay one night, ended up staying a month.
Fresh coconuts, porpoises coming up to us as we fished by moonlight, trading my breadmaker bread for freshly caught fish, Fish-a-Que nights, birdcalls - all different, beautiful and exotic.
These shells are sweet memories of that lovely month

Beautiful memories of the joy of collecting shells with the littlies too.

Treasures!

I still have some of those same shells...
they're my keepers of sweet memories!

🐚 Thank you for popping in... have a lovely week  🐚

🐚🐚🐚

From the verandah ~ Happy PPF!

Hello!

Here's my entry for this week's Paint Party Friday - where the happiest of artists gather, and everyone's welcome.

It's a little sketch I did while out on the verandah early the other morning, looking at the ferns and succulents growing below:

Titled: "Dragonfly Ornament"
Inkpen and watercolour pencils on paper

~ Thanks for taking the time to visit ~

Click on the PPF Button below and you'll be taken to see a lovely gathering of gorgeous art:

It's a Nasturtium Kind of Day!

Hello!

A little Tuesday painting... as you'll see further down, the nasturtiums are going full steam ahead at our place:

Titled "Nasturtiums from my Garden"
Watercolour and inkpen on paper

Here's where the latest batch sit... right outside our back door.

Can't wait until the flower seeds start to bloom! 

Indulge me, ha ha, I love them!

Pretties on the weekend

Hello!

Water droplets on a plant... they're like little jewels:

Have a lovely weekend!
Sue xx

Nature ~ Happy PPF !

Hello!

Here's my entry in this week's Paint Party Friday - where the happiest of artists gather, and everyone's welcome.

It's been a while since I entered and it's nice doing so once more:

Titled "We can never have enough nature"
Watercolour and inkpen on paper

~ Thanks for taking the time to visit ~

Click on this PPF Button below and you'll be taken to see a lovely gathering of gorgeous art:

Testing

Hello!

I'm probably quite behind the times, but I'm only now working out how to post from our android phone.

Sometimes, it will be more convenient.

This pic, which I took earlier today, is a little section on my rockwall garden as shown in the header. The flowers have opened up and are enjoying the sun. 

am having a bit of trouble with text  after a photo as phone is just a basic one and there's not enough room on the screen for the keyboard and the photo, so basically I can't see what  I'm typing, so will take that into account next time! thanks for your visit . Sue :D) xx 

Following the Bees...

Hello!

I do hope this finds everyone well and happy.

I'm sorry I missed your last post Jan of Welcome to My Thoughts blog.  I loved sharing with you over the past while.  I love your art and will enjoy visiting your silent blog, so I hope you see this.

Hubby keeps saying there's been no posts from me whenever he looks ... um, so I guess I better get myself into gear and do some!

Spring has surely sprung here in our neck of the woods. 
I've been enjoying following the bees and seeing what they get up to in our yard.
I got a real surprise when looking closely at the Pittosporum trees.  After years of having them, I'd never realised what pretty flowers they have and with such a delightful perfume.  Anyway, the bees obviously knew because they were in a feeding frenzy when I snapped some pics:

 ... and then there are our lavender pots.
I've had fun potting up new plants and the bees have really enjoyed each new flower as it opens.  They get a bit possessive and try to see me off with a few close "buzzes" but I told them quite firmly... my lavender - my rules...  which means I get to take photos in exchange for them getting lavender pollen!
So far the compromise seems to be working:

It always amazes me how much hard work goes into collecting pollen.
 

A final lavender pic:

... as can be seen in the background, the chooks aren't all that impressed with me snapping photos - it's food time for them, so I down camera and off into their yard.

Thanks kindly for visiting - see you at yours!