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| Waratahs and Apples |
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| Still Life with Pottery |
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
PAINTINGS CONTINUED
Two more paintings for my collection.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
TWO MORE PAINTINGS
A couple more for the collection:
This is a mixed bunch with Australian pottery and one of my koobaburra jugs from my collections (see earlier posts.
Snap dragons, Irises and stocks.
This is a mixed bunch with Australian pottery and one of my koobaburra jugs from my collections (see earlier posts.
Snap dragons, Irises and stocks.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
MORE PAINTINGS OF STILL LIFE
I continue to paint my favourite subject. Lovely vases, objects and flowers.
This is a small painting 30cm x 30cm
This painting is 35cm x 45cm.
This painting is 40cm x 50cm.
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| Nasturtiums, pokerwork napkin rings and Kookaburra Jug |
This is a small painting 30cm x 30cm
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| Grevillia and Banksia |
This painting is 35cm x 45cm.
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| Zinnias and Frog |
This painting is 40cm x 50cm.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
STILL LIFE - PAINTINGS
I have started painting again. I guess when you paint or make any sort of art you never really stop you just have breaks from working.
Well I dont need to talk about making art I would rather just show you what I have been doing of late.
These are two small paintings 12" x 16".
Larger painting 20" x 24".
This painting is 14" x 18".
All these paintings are painted in acrylics.
Well I dont need to talk about making art I would rather just show you what I have been doing of late.
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| Gum blossoms and gum nuts |
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| Banksia in glass vases |
These are two small paintings 12" x 16".
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| Still life arrangement with dried flora and shells |
Larger painting 20" x 24".
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| Purple ginger, limes and kookaburra jug |
This painting is 14" x 18".
All these paintings are painted in acrylics.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
SPRING GARDEN
I really wish it would rain. It has been weeks of dry weather and the rain tanks are getting low and the soil is very dry. Watering by hand only does so much - a good soaking from a sustained rainfall really does the trick to provide the deep moisture necessary to growth.
I have planted Scarlet runner beans, two types of cucumbers - a small lebanese cucumber and a cucumber called Mexican Sour Gherkin. The later is supposed to be a climber so I have planted it where the snow peas were. I am preparing another bed for a small pickling cucumber called Parisian.
I have also started raising my own lettuce - a baby cos and another called Crisp Mint. I bought a commercial seed raising mixture and let me tell you it is a total dud. No wonder I had so much trouble with my Alpine Strawberry seeds. I succeeded with these against the odds.
With the lettuce I planted out a tray with the commercial mixture and another tray with my home made seed raising mixture. The home made seed raising mixture is made of:
The above is the commercial seed raising mixture. The lettuce have remained this size for weeks. I will try planting them out but dont hold much hope for them.
The above seedlings were planted on the 4th of September. They are practically ready for the garden. If you click on the image you will see the difference in the texture etc of the home made seed raising mixture. The middle two rows contains seedlings of Blue Pimpernell as we all need some colour in the garden.
I have planted chives in a pot and they are just starting to show through the soil.
In the rock garden I have also planted a little daisy type flower. It spreads so I hope it will look good amongst the other plants.
I will let you know the progress of the garden as it evolves - please rain.
I have planted Scarlet runner beans, two types of cucumbers - a small lebanese cucumber and a cucumber called Mexican Sour Gherkin. The later is supposed to be a climber so I have planted it where the snow peas were. I am preparing another bed for a small pickling cucumber called Parisian.
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| Scarlet runner seedlings |
I have also started raising my own lettuce - a baby cos and another called Crisp Mint. I bought a commercial seed raising mixture and let me tell you it is a total dud. No wonder I had so much trouble with my Alpine Strawberry seeds. I succeeded with these against the odds.
With the lettuce I planted out a tray with the commercial mixture and another tray with my home made seed raising mixture. The home made seed raising mixture is made of:
- A small block of coir peat especially designed for seeds (available from Bunnings)
- Half a bag of perlite
- Commercial compost
The above is the commercial seed raising mixture. The lettuce have remained this size for weeks. I will try planting them out but dont hold much hope for them.
The above seedlings were planted on the 4th of September. They are practically ready for the garden. If you click on the image you will see the difference in the texture etc of the home made seed raising mixture. The middle two rows contains seedlings of Blue Pimpernell as we all need some colour in the garden.
I have planted chives in a pot and they are just starting to show through the soil.
In the rock garden I have also planted a little daisy type flower. It spreads so I hope it will look good amongst the other plants.
I will let you know the progress of the garden as it evolves - please rain.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
MY COLLECTIONS
Collecting things is a terrible disease. You start off with a few things and then you buy more and more until it starts to get out of hand. You know you are not the only person with this disease when you try and buy something you like on ebay and are met with a competitive fury which outdoes the polititicans of the land. The "others", as I will refer to them use all sorts of devices to outdo you when it comes to bidding. The experts use sniping devices - hanging around to the last second to bid - or buying software to snipe for them when they aren't around.
I can't be bothered anymore with this. I just put my maximum bid in near the end and leave it at that. If it works it works if not then I have saved myself some money.
I do love my little objects but that is all they are. They sit there and and I look at them and remark how lovely they are to myself and then walk away. I am getting to the point that I will only buy something if I really, really want it, which is now rarely. Anyway, here they are.
Here is one of my cabinets. It has 4 shelves jam packed with stuff. I will highlight my collection of kookaburra and other jugs. These are made by my favourite post war Japanese manufacturer, Marutomoware. Not all of them are made by Marutomoware but the majority are.
My absolute favourite Marutomoware are the ones with little kookaburras and gum nuts on them. These are just gorgeous but totally impractical. I once put water in one jug to put flowers in and it leaked. As they used to say in the 60's - if it is made in Japan then it was cheap and nasty. Of course Japanese manufacture has come a long way since then to be taken over by the Chinese. I haven't come across any Chinese kitsch that I like yet but I am sure the next generation of collectors will find it.
This is another lovely little cabinet. It is all lead light and totally impractical - just the way I like them. This cabinet has my little vintage childrens tea sets and Marutomoware juicers and juicers by others that I love.
The blue tea set is by Nell McCredie - Australian potter (1901-1968).
The next picture showcases my favourite Marutomoware pieces with the little kookaburras and gum leaves.
I haven't taken a picture of the whole cabinet just that one shelf. On top of this particular cabinet are examples of my frog jug collection.
Next is my latest (and hopefully) last glass cabinet which actually contains predominantly glass objects. A lot of this stuff belonged to my Mother and I am very fond of them.
It also has (on the left) more Marutomoware this time honey jars with gorgeous little bees on them, plus a frog and other cruet sets. The bottom shelf are my Mother's pieces I inherited.
I just had to show you the mirror with the sailing ship on the wall with the sailing ship I got from a $2 shop - I think this was probably made in China, so there goes I do have some modern Chinese kitsch.
I can't be bothered anymore with this. I just put my maximum bid in near the end and leave it at that. If it works it works if not then I have saved myself some money.
I do love my little objects but that is all they are. They sit there and and I look at them and remark how lovely they are to myself and then walk away. I am getting to the point that I will only buy something if I really, really want it, which is now rarely. Anyway, here they are.
 |
| Click once to enlarge photo |
Here is one of my cabinets. It has 4 shelves jam packed with stuff. I will highlight my collection of kookaburra and other jugs. These are made by my favourite post war Japanese manufacturer, Marutomoware. Not all of them are made by Marutomoware but the majority are.
My absolute favourite Marutomoware are the ones with little kookaburras and gum nuts on them. These are just gorgeous but totally impractical. I once put water in one jug to put flowers in and it leaked. As they used to say in the 60's - if it is made in Japan then it was cheap and nasty. Of course Japanese manufacture has come a long way since then to be taken over by the Chinese. I haven't come across any Chinese kitsch that I like yet but I am sure the next generation of collectors will find it.
This is another lovely little cabinet. It is all lead light and totally impractical - just the way I like them. This cabinet has my little vintage childrens tea sets and Marutomoware juicers and juicers by others that I love.
 |
| Top shelf children sea sets middle shelf Nell McCredie tea set |
The blue tea set is by Nell McCredie - Australian potter (1901-1968).
The next picture showcases my favourite Marutomoware pieces with the little kookaburras and gum leaves.
I haven't taken a picture of the whole cabinet just that one shelf. On top of this particular cabinet are examples of my frog jug collection.
Next is my latest (and hopefully) last glass cabinet which actually contains predominantly glass objects. A lot of this stuff belonged to my Mother and I am very fond of them.
It also has (on the left) more Marutomoware this time honey jars with gorgeous little bees on them, plus a frog and other cruet sets. The bottom shelf are my Mother's pieces I inherited.
I just had to show you the mirror with the sailing ship on the wall with the sailing ship I got from a $2 shop - I think this was probably made in China, so there goes I do have some modern Chinese kitsch.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
MYTHS of GARDENING
There are two myths of gardening. First myth that gardening is easy. The second myth that you save money growing your own.
Gardening is not easy. It is not too difficult either but like all skills it takes time to develop enough knowledge to become a truly good gardener. If it was so easy why would there be thousands of books written on the subject. There are many specialties relating to gardening. Different people and groups specialise in different types of plantings. For example, some people are vegetable enthusiasts and others camellias or gardenia's.
The most important thing in gardening is getting to know how to have good soil. With the right soil you can grow anything. So people starting out should concentrate on the plot or raised bed that they intend to grow plants in and prepare the soil. It should be fed with manures and dolomite (if an alkaline soil is necessary), blood and bone, dynamic lifter and one or two manures. Water this bed well and then mulch the soil using either lucerne or sugar cane mulch. I use both but not at the same time. The mulch then should be well watered otherwise it will soak up all the water in the soil. Leave this a couple of weeks and then grow plants or vegetables which are easy.
Easy plants are lettuce, silverbeet, beetroot and herbs. Germinating your own seeds requires a fair bit of attention so I would advise buying seedlings, at first, of lettuce. Buy the pick and come varieties eg. Baby Cos. Beetroot have very large seeds so you can sow these where you want them to grow. Beetroot are great and very generous. Every seed producers two or three plants so when they are at a size where they are easy to handle you can separate them. Silverbeet seedlings are good too. You can keep picking the outside leaves and they seem to deliver forever.
You separate the mulch and pop the seedling in and and draw the mulch back close to the seedling. Then water well. The same with herbs. Some herbs are easy to grow from seed others not. Rocket grows from seed very easily and once established in the garden will be there forever. The bees also love the Rocket flowers. It is good to encourage bees into the garden and to this end poisons should be forbidden. Continental parsley is also good to grow. Buy a punnet of seedlings and you will have heaps of little plants. Once this plant is in the garden it also will self seed if allowed to flower and you will have parsley continually. I wait for the flower heads to dry and I pull away the seeds and scatter them every where. Basil, coriander and spring onions grow easily from seed.
Once you have some success you will become more willing to experiment further. Don't forget to fertilise your plants with a seaweed extract to keep them in top condition. This is just touching on a few things you need to know but probably enough to get you going.
Myth number two that growing your own is cheaper than buying vegetables. As you can see from above that it is not cheap to make the soil good. Fertilisers and mulches all cost money as does the buying of receptacles to make raised beds. A cheap raised bed is an old plastic bath tub. I found one of these in a street cleanup and it is a terrific bed. I dont know how much they are in second hand material places. I have heavy clay soil so I had to buy soil to fill the raised beds - this isn't cheap either but once you have it you can just keep topping it up with manures.
Punnets of seedlings are an added cost. Lettuces cost about 45cents a seedling. This is cheaper than buying one in the supermarket and you dont have to pull the whole thing up to have a salad. Just pick the outside leaves. Packets of lettuce seed are cheaper and with a packet of 150 - 250 seeds you can plan succession plantings. That is growing new seedlings before the lettuces in your garden mature and go to seed.
You also need gardening tools and watering cans and hoses. These only need to be bought once but the initial layout can be costly.
GROWING YOUR OWN though is not about saving money but about having the freshest vegetables when you need them. Nothing nicer than going out to the garden and picking lemons, herbs, lettuce, and parsley for dinner or lunch.
Gardening is not easy. It is not too difficult either but like all skills it takes time to develop enough knowledge to become a truly good gardener. If it was so easy why would there be thousands of books written on the subject. There are many specialties relating to gardening. Different people and groups specialise in different types of plantings. For example, some people are vegetable enthusiasts and others camellias or gardenia's.
The most important thing in gardening is getting to know how to have good soil. With the right soil you can grow anything. So people starting out should concentrate on the plot or raised bed that they intend to grow plants in and prepare the soil. It should be fed with manures and dolomite (if an alkaline soil is necessary), blood and bone, dynamic lifter and one or two manures. Water this bed well and then mulch the soil using either lucerne or sugar cane mulch. I use both but not at the same time. The mulch then should be well watered otherwise it will soak up all the water in the soil. Leave this a couple of weeks and then grow plants or vegetables which are easy.
Easy plants are lettuce, silverbeet, beetroot and herbs. Germinating your own seeds requires a fair bit of attention so I would advise buying seedlings, at first, of lettuce. Buy the pick and come varieties eg. Baby Cos. Beetroot have very large seeds so you can sow these where you want them to grow. Beetroot are great and very generous. Every seed producers two or three plants so when they are at a size where they are easy to handle you can separate them. Silverbeet seedlings are good too. You can keep picking the outside leaves and they seem to deliver forever.
You separate the mulch and pop the seedling in and and draw the mulch back close to the seedling. Then water well. The same with herbs. Some herbs are easy to grow from seed others not. Rocket grows from seed very easily and once established in the garden will be there forever. The bees also love the Rocket flowers. It is good to encourage bees into the garden and to this end poisons should be forbidden. Continental parsley is also good to grow. Buy a punnet of seedlings and you will have heaps of little plants. Once this plant is in the garden it also will self seed if allowed to flower and you will have parsley continually. I wait for the flower heads to dry and I pull away the seeds and scatter them every where. Basil, coriander and spring onions grow easily from seed.
 |
| Enlarge this photo to see the seed pods developing in the mature spring onions |
Once you have some success you will become more willing to experiment further. Don't forget to fertilise your plants with a seaweed extract to keep them in top condition. This is just touching on a few things you need to know but probably enough to get you going.
 |
| Rocket flowers and seed pods forming along the stem |
 |
| Spring onions grown from seed |
 | |
| Enlarge photo to see the lemon thyme plant which self seeded next to the tank bed |
Myth number two that growing your own is cheaper than buying vegetables. As you can see from above that it is not cheap to make the soil good. Fertilisers and mulches all cost money as does the buying of receptacles to make raised beds. A cheap raised bed is an old plastic bath tub. I found one of these in a street cleanup and it is a terrific bed. I dont know how much they are in second hand material places. I have heavy clay soil so I had to buy soil to fill the raised beds - this isn't cheap either but once you have it you can just keep topping it up with manures.
Punnets of seedlings are an added cost. Lettuces cost about 45cents a seedling. This is cheaper than buying one in the supermarket and you dont have to pull the whole thing up to have a salad. Just pick the outside leaves. Packets of lettuce seed are cheaper and with a packet of 150 - 250 seeds you can plan succession plantings. That is growing new seedlings before the lettuces in your garden mature and go to seed.
You also need gardening tools and watering cans and hoses. These only need to be bought once but the initial layout can be costly.
GROWING YOUR OWN though is not about saving money but about having the freshest vegetables when you need them. Nothing nicer than going out to the garden and picking lemons, herbs, lettuce, and parsley for dinner or lunch.
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