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Happy Australia Day everyone! I'm so happy to have my 4th birthday as an Aussie. Even though the weather's not being particularly cooperative today it's still 20 degrees warmer than Vancouver. What a great country. And it gives me a chance to update my blog before heading to New Zealand next week.

Since I last posted I've been to Queensland and back, and done some more painting. My great Urunga friend Di and I drove up to the Gold Coast with her niece and grand niece (who were doing 2 of the "Worlds"--Dream World & SeaWorld adventure parks--as a Christmas present). We didn't have the greatest weather but enjoyed every minute of it

This was from a walk we did on a jetty going out to the sea. The wind was blowing, there were bluebottles and other little blue jellyfish washed up on the beach, and the temperature was a fabulous 28 degrees. Very invigorating!

After that we took a drive up to Tambourine Mountain in the rain & mist--it was lovely although apparently there are usually spectacular views from there over the Gold Coast which we missed.

Coming back to the Coffs Harbour area we spent more time in the beautiful town of Bellingen, where I had attended Camp Creative.

This is a view from the bridge over the Bellinger River that runs through the town. A very idyllic spot, you can see the grass running down, kids swimming in the river, all peaceful & clear. This photo was taken from the bridge which is 2 lane + sidewalk, about 10 feet above the river with a 4 foot railing along it.

Maybe I'll paint this one someday?

Two days later, when we went back to pick up the print that Di had chosen to get framed, this was the view of the bridge area.

You can see the road ramp leading down to the bridge about the middle of the left side of the photo--the bridge would have run diagonally from there at the left to lower right hand side of the image!

There was a lot of rain and the TV news people were there photographing for the evening news. They quickly left and I wondered what that was about. We took a few minutes longer getting onto the road leading back to the Pacific Highway, downstream from there.

By the time we got halfway back there was a spot where the water was starting to spread across the road and the men were out setting up barricades--so we just escaped! The road was closed for the rest of the day, and everyone was keeping an eye on the situation. Luckily the weather cleared for a while so we headed for Nambucca Heads and walked the V-Wall there. It's one of my favourite spots in Australia and you can often see dolphins there, heading into the river or across the rivermouth. Not that day, though--there was a lot of dirt and debris in the water so I don't think they'd find it any more appealing to swim in it than we would!

I've got one more painting partway done to show you:

One of the participants in my print-making class at Camp Creative was an experienced artist who did a lot of figure work named Phyllis. She inspired me to think about doing more figures in my body of work. So I started on this lovely image of a friend, from a photo.

It's not finished yet--but it could be fodder for further uses--including mermaids maybe??

And now I'll close this posting--the rain has stopped and it's time for a walk on the beach here. I've got to get training for the Grand Traverse hike in NZ on February 20. With the weather I've been confined to swimming and treadmill work--so a chance to get outside and walk briskly for an hour is very welcome!

Next posting will be from somewhere in New Zealand--hoping for some great weather & photos from there to paint as the year goes on!

Happy days!