Walk 8 and 9 to the park

The last two weekends I've been for a walk to the park. The lure of the beach is that there's always a breeze! The lure of the park is that I don't have to drive anywhere, just walk out the gate and down the hill. It's getting to the end of the wet season, still hot and humid but the odd morning has a cooler feel and a few dragonflies are about which is always a good sign!

Approaching the park

The little red bridge fading to pink!

Community gardens where I always have a peep through the fence to see what's growing.

Black Wattle in flower.

Some kind of bottle brush in flower.

Me!

This post is part of the 48 walks project, find out more at Alison's blog Chino House.

Books by my bed

I wonder what you're reading? I never have just one book on the go but a whole pile. To read at work I need something light - to fit in my bag, and easy to pick up and put down in my lunch break. At the moment it's one of the No 1 ladies detective agency books, 'The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party' by Alexander McCall Smith. 

At  the weekends I'm dipping into the 2nd volume of the biography of Matisse - 'Matisse the Master' by Hilary Spurling. I just read a few pages at a time and am savoring being in Paris and Morocco in the early years of the 20th century and looking over Matisse's shoulder as he paints!

I'm also reading 'The Poetry Home Repair Manual' by Ted Kooser, a book about writing poetry which I'm hoping will reignite my passion. 11 years ago when my twins were babies and there was no time to paint I fell in love with poetry, something that could be squeezed into tiny breaks in the day. In the last few years it's been very neglected and I'd like to get back to reading poetry if nothing else. Look it's working already ...you know how I'm inspired by glimpses of birds in every day life... come and read this great bird poem 'Hardware Sparrows' by R T Smith.

I'm also reading the latest Dumbo Feather magazine, this edition is all interviews with refugees and asylum seeker advocates - while I choose not to debate politics in this blog, I think it's important reading for Australians, a different viewpoint from the one you'll see in the mainstream media, a call for compassion. (Darwinites - let me know if you want to borrow my copy when I'm finished with it)

Well I can't do a post without any pictures, so here are some new monoprint collage cards.

walk 6 and 7 at the beach again

Last weekend I did a couple of walks on my familiar path by the beach. My walks are not really about exercise, I don't push myself to go further or faster, they're more about a breathing space, time to think away from the 'to do' list and the demands of work, home, art, kids. I've read about a Buddhist practice called walking meditation and I think the best walks might be close to that - just appreciating the breeze on my skin, the shape of clouds, flowers that are suddenly here... I usually come home in a better frame of mind, ready to tackle the next job (after a cup of tea!)

Here are a couple of photos from the beach walk, a tree clinging on after the storms,

and the boat ramp.

Hope you're having a great weekend!

The sad tale of last Monday's painting!

It started off as a tiny sketch

Then I sketched out the idea on canvas

The more I worked on it the worse it got!

I waited to show my daughter when she got home from school - she's 11 and is my honest critic! - then I painted it out, and now it's a blank canvas but with history...ready to start again.