A lovely warm and sunny day here in Connelys Marsh. I know, I told you it was Dunalley where I’m staying. That is the postal address and closest town of any sort. Connelys Marsh is the actual place where Crhis and Di have their home. Not sure I’ve seen a marsh, yet.
Di and I dove into mud work right after breakfast. We had prepped some cloth last night and pulled out the muds that she had on hand. Two different reds, a yellow ochre, a grey and a rich black. Worked up until lunch on sample pieces including one that Di had dyed with eucalypt leaves previously – we’ll see how that tannin works in keeping the mud colors. We even had Chris add a bit of color to one of the pieces.
I thought I was going to do a drive around by myself, but….. turns out I must’ve put the lights on by accident, so we wound up charging the battery instead of driving. Oh, well. Got some bilum work done instead.
We did have a bit of excitement when Chris opened the boot (trunk) of the car and this big brown Huntsman spider (non-poisonous) sat there in the lock well staring at us. I think we must’ve injured it when Chris slammed the lid shut, but it did scurry off into the depths of the car’s body once we opened back up to have a peek. There was another large one on the covering to the veranda couch as I covered the couch back up. The size really gets to me. But I hear it is the little black ones I have to be careful with.
Earlier in the week I tore a hole in the sleeve of one of my shirts. An op shop shirt, it was made in Australia with all sorts of stitched circles and squares. I mudded some of the shapes during my Grampians Texture workshop to give it some color – worked well. Not having an iron-n patch, I opened the hole a bit bigger and button-hole stitched around the edge. Now I have a real hole that mimics the design on the cloth.
One of the neighbors, Steve, had come over early in the day for a bit of a photo shoot – he is planning on entering some photo categories in the local fair coming up and needed a portrait subject. A quick pose or two and he was off, leaving behind an invitation to dinner at his place tonight.
Drinks and cheeses/crackers/olives at 7ish, a gormand chicken dish with broccoli and roasted potatoes, yams and that white carroty thing (lost the word!). His chicken was smothered with two of his chutneys – pear and peach. Almost like eating dessert for dinner! And then we finished with a dessert of a very good vanilla and macadamia nut ice cream with fruit cocktail. YUM for all of it!
Steve is an interesting fellow and very friendly – he is sort of the neighborhood watch guy. He is recovering from an accident which damaged his neck so has lots of time on his hands. To keep from being bored, he is making all sorts of homemade jams, jellies and chutneys to enter into the fair – he has 30 of them ready to go. Zelda his dog only barks at possums and chooks (chickens). His goal is to rival the regular ladies who always take the ribbons.
We all will be hitting the road early tomorrow to see a bit of the eastern coastal area. Better get some sleep.
