Bits of this n that

Hello!

It's raining here today and so to pass the time, I had a little rummage around my recent photos to come up with a post.

Some alley-way art by school children in Lakes Entrance, Victoria, which we thought was lovely and imaginative. They'd have had a lot of fun painting it too:

Some birds in our backyard...
Here's a freshly bathed baby bird - not sure what breed - who really enjoyed getting wet:

more alley-way art:

The Bronzewing Pigeons hold this pose while sun-baking... I'm thinking it's to help photographers to see the full gloriousness of their colours ;D)

and more art looking down the other side of the alley-way:

This baby Blackbird also enjoyed a bath.  We love how the Blackbirds thoroughly enjoy a soak and then a hearty scrub (!), flicking water here and there and then come back for a second turn at it...

that youngster certainly learnt well!

and, finally, the rain... so nice after the heat:

Thanks for joining me today... all the best, Sue xx

Needle Felting 'Painting' ~ Happy PPF!

Hello!

I'm a bit late-ish, but here's my entry for this week's Paint Party Friday. 

At our Monday painting group, one of the ladies,  very kindly taught us how to needle felt.  She'd been telling us for a few years now, just how easy it was... and she was right. 
This is my first piece:

"Old Bush Woman" 

A closeup of the little nesting bird in her hair.  The feather is one I'd saved, it's from the head plumage of a Gang-Gang Cockatoo:

For anyone who doesn't know about flat needle felting,  a special barbed felting needle is used to stab into small pieces of wool which causes it to interlock into the felt.  A backing sponge is used so that the needle has somewhere to go.  Every so often, the felt is lifted free of the sponge.  Simple as that! 
Here's a shot of when I was making my old bush woman:

I'll include some links at the end of this post, of some tutorials I also found helpful.  There are many other types of felting that can be done too.

Here's some more pieces that I've made recently:

"Lollipop Flowers"

Being able to randomly place the wool and needle it in place really appeals to me.  It's just like painting... only with wool!
A closeup of the previous photo:

I made my own hangers from wire that hubby had bought for me.  It's nice and pliable to use:

... so I played around and came up with a few hanger designs, then painted them with gold acrylic paint.  It was purely an experiment, I wasn't sure whether the paint would dry properly on the wire but it did. 
Here they are drying on a sheet of plastic, no sticking either:

I'd recently made a gift of this for a dear one... choosing the hanger:

Here's how it turned out:

"Daisies with Hearts of Gold"

because I'm not all that keen on stitching, I popped some gold acrylic paint on the felted wool... that worked too!

Thanks very much for visiting, and if you love art of any kind, you're welcome to join in or just have a browse through all the exciting work shared on Eva and Kristin's PPF blogspot.  Just click on the button below:

Here's some links regarding needle felting, I hope you give it a go... it's fun:
kaystir.blogspot - Flat Needle Felting Tutorial
tamsyng - How to needle felt a bird brooch

What a Stinker!!

Hello!

Well, Friday just gone was one out of the box weather-wise. 

Here, in our South East corner of Gippsland (Victoria, Australia), we copped a share of those hot northerlies which blew heat from central Australia.  Our  stinker of a day peaked at 43degC (109.4F).

We were pretty lucky really because those poor folk who live in the centre of Australia (Alice Springs) have endured temperatures exceeding 40degC every day since Christmas Day, including 9 consecutive days above 43degC!

So I'm not really complaining because we had just that one hot day and then woke up to cooling rain.

The reason for my post is to share how distressing even one day of that high a temperature can be for wildlife... in our case, the King Parrots. 

I checked the waterbowl fairly early in the day and saw they had gathered and a couple were showing signs of heat discomfort already:

Topped it up with ice cubes and had a look out a few minutes later and a Wattlebird had just flown in for a drink...

Wattlebirds don't like sharing... so Hubby quickly decided it was time for more bowls of water to avoid fights, so he found these:

aww, our hearts went out to her

Every so often, we'd gently hose them and they just stayed where they were and thoroughly enjoyed the shower. 
Some though, seemed confused and would fly off - but not too far away, they came back as soon as we went inside.
We also showered the trees and shrubs around the pond where a lot of other birds could be heard... they'd kind of rustle around and fly up into the spray.

I took most of these photos through the window so as to not distress them any further.

A bit of humour throughout the day though... seems sit/standing on the plastic chair was the prized position.  Hunching backwards, tail up allowed a bit better cooling to the nether regions!  Clever birds :D)

As a bynote, underneath the oval china dish (in the second photo down) is where a little frog has lived for ages.   I did a quick check and he/she was still there, bearing the heat bravely.

Here's a photo I'd happened to take earlier last week.

   

It's funny, since it's been cooler, a Blackbird has been singing its heart out all day yesterday and today.  We both noticed that its more than usual.  Seems as though it's so relieved that the heat has gone! 

Cheers now and stay cool (or warm for the Northern Hemisphere blogfriends ;D)), Sue xx

Flowers, of course! ~ Happy PPF~ a garden walk, raining lilly pillies and poppy seeds

Hello! 

First off, I'd like to show my entry in this week's Paint Party Friday.

I thought I'd try a simple cut and paste using a card I'd painted previously but wasn't quite happy with ... turns out it made great vase shapes lol!

A few abstracty flowers in inkpen, a dab of watercolour here and there and, my goodness, I was quite happy with the result and it kept me happily occupied for a while.

A card for a loved one that I'm happy to send.

I'm joining a very happy bunch of artists over at the Paint Party Friday blog and if you click on this PPF button below you'll be taken there to see such lovely creativity!

As we're expecting a hot day today... 40deg celcius plus (104F) - I decided to make sure that last night's watering hadn't dried out.  Took a few snaps around the garden as I strolled:

What a surprise when I reached the Lilly Pilly tree!  It was if it was snowing ... all the little tendrils were actually falling to the ground.  The bees were going bananas!!  

It was such an unusual sight and the first time in the ten years we've had this tree that I've actually noticed this action:

The bromeliad is flowering:

... and so is the grevillea:

Here's a shot of our Poppies as they were in November 2018:

I took a closeup of a spent poppy pod, there's always loveliness in the various stages of plants aren't there:

This morning I broke open one pod and look how many seeds came out!:

Well, I hope you each have (or have had) a really lovely day.  

Cheerio for now and thanks so kindly for joining me here, Sue xx

A wish for the new year

Hello!

Well, that year just flew by didn't it!

My wish is that each of us are able to pack as much happiness and kindness into this new year of 2019 as is possible.

Currently, some flowers just outside our back door are being so pretty - here they are:

A zinnia about to open

WA daisies 

Flowers in one of our windowboxes

 ~ thank you for visiting, 

see you soon at yours!  

Sue xx ~