Day 153
Another day gone. Baked a cake for Grandad, found a great upside down fridge/freezer for Finnian at a deceased estate sale, did the marketing, helped Finnian hang her curtains, cooked dinner, had bath, and it's drawing time again! This house must have red curtains - they have a lovely warm glow and I have eyed them for a while but they weren't very interesting until today. This wisteria has the longest racemes I have ever seen. 4 km walk

Day 152
I cycled to the Botanic Gardens to meet with Robin. We talked mostly of daughters, mothers and sisters. I thought this bearded dragon (about 18" long) would be an ideal subject as it was sitting so still but as soon as I drew the first line it moved and continued to jiggle. I should do them at 9.00am when they start sunning themselves but haven't absorbed enough heat to frustrate me. 14 km cycle

Day 151
Sunset over the Brindabellas. I went for a bike ride and as I returned home I came around the corner and there is this lovely view - I just love to see the mountains. 5 km cycle

Day 150
Still not half way through this challenge! I cycled to Manuka to get money from the bank and then sat down to sketch this old fellow. I seem to have forgotten to draw the legs of the bench - it must have had some. 6 km cycle

Day 149
I walked the loop again - I really should walk it the other way around as I know everything would look different - but I never do. Amidst an avalanche of Spring I spied a lovely branch. Death can be beautiful too. 6 km walk

Day 148
I cycled into town against a fierce wind. I hoped to find some good value curtain fabric but now the shop sells mostly made-to-order curtains or ready-mades - I suppose too few people sew any more to support this line. Also, they were putting out mountains of yuckky Christmas junk AND blaring out nasty announcements about products - internet shopping gets ever more attractive! I sat on a bench to have a sandwhich and wondered what I could draw. Lots of architecture and a few people? a hungry magpie? then I saw this pavement plaque right at my feet - I think it rather lacks literary merit but I like the fact that a 'nobody's nothing' can nevertheless get immortilized on a plaque. 12 km ride

Day 147
It's the end of what seems like a very long weekend - well really, I have just been so busy since we got back from Melbourne with no time for blogging. Finnian had afternoon tea with scones and cake and all the family visited her in her new home. Hopefully tomorrow things will be slow. Tonight I went for a lovely, cold, windy walk. I saw an amazingly regular and delicate pattern of fern fronds against a window. Five more weeks 'til daylight saving. 4 km.

Day 146
Another quick walk while Ralph cooks dinner. Finnian is tidying (note, not emptying) her room - well, she won't finish today - how can it be that she has filled her new bedroom and the old one still seems full? It was windy and threatening rain so I concentrated on moving and found this leaf with startling red eggs? of something. The leaf is about 1 inch across and the eggs have a diameter of about 1/16th of an inch. Perhaps I will keep it and see if anything hatches. 4 km walk

Day 145
Finnian leaves home! A very busy day helping move her stuff to her new house, including scavenging at my father's for things saved for 'when they might be useful'. Haven't made much of an impression on his heap, though. So no proper walk though I haven't sat down all day - here's a collage made from today's newspaper.

Day 144
A beautiful day so I had a go at catching the crisp blue edge of the Brindabellas against the sky - but when I looked more closely, I saw the mountains weren't just blue but had quite a golden undertone as well as whole areas catching the sun. 4 km walk

Day 143
Very busy today, catching up from being away and doing errands to do with Finnian leaving home on Friday. So it was just a quick run around the suburb. It's school holidays - perhaps that explains why there was an armchair billy cart ready to set off down the pavement. I think the owner was probably fetching a hamper for sustenance along the way. I did think of plopping down into it and pushing off - a la Mr Bean, maybe :) 4 km walk

Day 142
We spent the day driving home - very uneventful - it's a long way. There were some hills in the distance with a row of trees along the top which looked like a strip of lace. I only walked about the garden, catching up on watering - today it was a sudden jump to 28 degrees.

Day 141
An evening walk along the local High Street with my brother and Ralph, although Ralph and I had already walked miles of more street exploring. I just had a fleeting glimpse of this 'bag lady'. She looked so cold and worn but nevertheless her hair was carefully put up in a bun.

Day 140
Julia, Ralph and I did a long loop walk through city streets, looking at shops, architecture, people and graffiti - lots to see but we only sat down once for a coffee, near the Perseverence hotel which I had a go at sketching.

Day 139
We did loads of walking, first to the Art Gallery in the city where we saw an enormous exhibition about the relationship between Picasso and Dora of the Weeping Woman. Then we walked into town to see The Inconvenient Truth - OK but no more informative than a New Scientist article. After the film we went home for a pizza dinner and then I wandered out to find a drawing and saw this man all in black who looked like Elvis Presley.

Day 138
We drove the 7 1/2 hour trip to Melbourne, stopping firstly for a leg stretch and a cuppa at the Dog on the Tuckerbox '5 miles from Gundagai', as the song goes. There was only a little green the whole distance - it's going to be a horrid summer, especially for the farmers, I think.

Day 137
I walked to Hermione's bench and beyond in search of a good view to try the watercolour paper again - I'd sawn a brush off short so it would fit in my mobile kit and had a bit if practice on some spare scraps - but no view that I felt like tackling and I was too cold to sit for long. Then I spied a flowering, narrow-leafed ironbark and picked a sprig to tackle at home. The flowers really looks fluffier and a more shocking candy floss pink. My next few posts will be of Melbourne - see you Tuesday. 8 km walk

Day 136
I walked to the shops to buy fresh yeast - none at the supermarket but the bakery gave me some for free. I needed it to make bread like my Granny used to make so I could do a memory painting for the EDM 'bread challenge'. I made the bread and we ate one loaf but the other will have to go stale because I didn't have time to do a painting of it today. This evening, I rode to town where I met Ralph and we watched 7 Up - 49, which is just a year older than Ralph and I. Ralph always like to sit near the front, so it looks as if no one esle was there - in fact there were about 100 people. England looked so green. 2 km walk;7 km cycle

Day 135
This is my first effort in the French Grammar Precis book that I rebound with watercolour paper. I hate the feel of the paper - so harsh and rough and dry and it sucks up water so fast that my little travel brush is quite inadequate. Nor am I really into bush scenes - they are so easily cliches. However, I did want to record the fact that just a few hundred metres from the nation's parliament we have beautiful wild bushland. 6 km walk at sunset.

Day 134
I walked around the suburb and noted a couple of houses that are about to be demolished. I hope to sketch them before they go, but I was too cold to do it in the pleine freezing air today. I stopped off at the shops to find something for dinner (soup, again) and the whole time I was inside, could hear a dreadful wailing and moaning from some dog outside. No one could concentrate on their shopping. I went out to have a look and there was this little dog, distraught at being left on his own. So I sat sketching him and 'chatting' to him until his owner came out. 4 km

Day 133
Today Hashi and her daughter, Rhea, came to visit. Hashi's mum died peacefully early this morning. I showed them my quilts then we walked the loop with an extension to Hermione's bench, then back home for a cuppa and lemon cake made from the last of Hermione's lemons. I wish you other walking members and regular walking blog vistors could have been here. It was lovely - I didn't feel as if I'd just met Hashi at all. After they left, I sketched the remains of the cake, teapot and mugs. Hashi has put a photo of us on her blog. 8 km

Day 132
Can't get Blogger to upload picture - well, I walked to Hermione's bench - cold and windy. By the time I returned the street lights had come on and I found a tree beautifully lit from below by a small street lamp beneath it. 6km (ps. it wasn't Blogger -the scanner was set to making files too large) 6 km walk

Day 131
Out of the bath, into my jammies, on with my coat and shoes, out the door and away down the path - leaving the rest of them to barrack for the losing team in the semi-finals of the footy on TV and squabble over who's next in the bath. It's drizzling so I'll have to memorize something to draw - so often I wish I could draw the sounds. Tonight it was so still and quiet except for the dripping of the rain ... and the noisy crunch of snails underfoot. We have very large snails here - about 1" across. When we first came to Australia, Dad offered us 1 cent for every one we collected - he had no idea how common they are and had to pay us kids $70 (today, perhaps about $600/250 pounds) before he dropped the price.

Day 130
Pretty much a full moon tonight. I set off for a walk at 8.30pm in freezing cold and wind. I saw quite a few sketching possibilities but when I turned a corner and 'saw' the turqoise in this tree, the other ideas evaporated away. It seemed just magical. I wish I could depict the velvetiness of the night sky. 5 km walk

Day 129
I just walked to my parent's and back - in the rain, though we've only had a little. Someone must have loved this moggy as it had a lovely red collar. Hopefully, they will be informed of its demise as the ID tag had been removed. I will use this sketch as the basis for a memory painting, as soon as my rhubarb patch has recovered from the possums' winter feasting and can be used as a 'model'. 3 km walk

Day 128
I walked to Mum's and back and twice to the shops but had no time to draw. I've been a mother for twentyone years - it has gone fast - just yesterday - buckets of nappies...soon Finnian's leaving home so she was given kitchen stuff for her birthday. She already has a fine collection of workshop tools. Granny and Grandpa came for dinner and we had trifle instead of cake. She's going to have a combined housewarming/21st party in her new home!

Day 127
And here is another. It's about 8 feet long. I just walked round the corner to draw this while the weather is fine - I'll have to do a walk later, hopefully in the rain, when I get back from my altered books group. 6km in anticipation of Hermione's bench :)

Day 126
I walked the loop, then drew one of the delightful sculptures in front of the quirkiest house. It's about 6 feet long and made from various old rusting iron machine parts. 6 km walk

Day 125
Well, I just never can predict what I might find to draw - especially when I'm prowling the suburb at night - we all agreed it must be a zeppelin but it surely looked like a flying saucer, flashing lights and all. 3 km walk

Day 124
The quirkiest house in Yarralumla - I love it. I gardened all day today so just stepped around the corner to sketch this fun house. It began as a standard 50's weatherboard and has been extended with recycled delights. The red and the grey are painted corrugated iron sheets and the doors and windows are second-hand. At the rear, you walk out of the family room into a courtyard through an old red telephone box. There are old signs on the outside walls and lots of silly sculptures out the front - I'll sketch them another time - and inside they have a gallery of Asian erotica. Today, I met the owner who invited me to go and sketch the back view sometime.