So endeth winter, 2019!

I know, I know ... I'm neglecting this blog horrifically! I manage to post just in time to say "Hi there, bye there" to the seasons as they race by. Fact? I'm still not well, and often blogging is something I can't get my head around. I didn't mark the dates this year for the fifth anniversary of Bagheera's passing or the second anniversary of Mom's, because I wasn't up to the sadness of the task. So let's look at pretty things, instead.

Dave and I took an overnight break at Cape Jervis back at the beginning of July (almost two months ago! Time sure flies), which was the dead of winter. It was very cold ... very beautiful. These are my best shots from that expedition! Dave is "out there in the elements" much more than I am, of course -- on his bike.

So I'll hand over to Dave and his camera phone here:

Am always astounded by the quality of image returned by the camera on his phone. These are copied over from his facebook page, alas ... the phone's flash card died with a year's worth of photos on board. All the large-size images are utterly gone, so what we have left is the selection he uploaded on the fly to facebook! Ah well --

Another year is starting, and we'll just have to go places again, and take more pictures! Back to the Grampians in five weeks, for a start. We're booked. And for the moment ... I'm just blogging to say farewell to winter 2019. Spring officially comes in, in ten days. In fact, the truth is, it's been feeling like spring for weeks now. The birds certainly agree: the magpies have been dive-bombing for a month, the mimosa is in full bloom (two months early), and so forth. Ack. Don't want to start talking about climate change! I think I've beaten that subject to death in the last couple of years. Let's thing about pleasant things instead...

Dave is waiting for the delivery of his new bike, and that'll open the doors to new adventures.

Autumn colors 2019 ... and the empty space under the desk

Every year you wait for it, wait for it ... go "chasing fall colors" and mostly find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time. This year we were lucky -- a sunny day at Belair NP, just coinciding with the best of the colors quite by chance. I hadn't even been thinking about this when we packed a picnic and headed for the park. Talk about luck.

There really isn't any need to write a lot: the pictures speak for themselves. So ...

In other notes, the PC has gone into the workshop for a long-overdue upgrade. There's a large empty space where it used to be, and ... and ... space to put my feet under the desk, LOL. I should get it back on Saturday or Sunday. Cheers to IT Warehouse, who built it as a "special" for Christmas, 2012: Dave told them to "build something powerful" for me, and seven years later it's still so fast, so powerful, it'll run virtually anything out there. This upgrade will extend its life for another 3-5 years. I'm getting a humongous solid state boot drive, seven new USB 3 ports, super-fast wifi adapter and so forth. Can't wait to get my teeth into a new generation of artwork next week. {Rubs hands together in gnomish glee. My precioussssss....}

Answered prayers: it's raining in South Australia!

This is what we were waiting for: the pictures tell all. With any luck the drought has broken. From being warm and dry last week, it's now strikingly cold in the hills, foggy, misty ... and RAINING! Now, if it'll just keep this up for the next month, we'll be fine.

Dave and I just took a drive in the hills, and I grabbed these shots through the windscreen ... rolled down the window once or twice to get something to the side. What you see is exactly what it was like on Mount Bonython, and at Piccadilly. Nice!

Driving conditions weren't actually as bad as the photos make them seem. Sure, the roads are twisty-turny enough to worry folks who're not used to places like the Adelaide Hills (couldn't believe the way the Grampians are signed! Road hazard? What road hazard? Where?), but visibility was at least 100 meters almost everywhere, even in places where you could see the mist blowing in surf-like waves across the road.

Now, ye weather gods: more of same, please! It's technically still autumn, but feels like winter...

May Day. No, not an SOS, just May 1, and art is on my mind...

Rain is pattering as I write this, and the sky is low, heavy, gray. The drought might be in the process of breaking ... one can hope!
Most of what I'm doing right now is art, so art is on my mind (also photography, I admit). If I want to touch base with my personal blog here, I'd do best to upload a fair sampling of what I'm doing art-wise at the moment. I do want to touch base here, but there's nothing (else) to write about without delving into dental work and the occasional cafe break! So -- art it is. If a blog is intended to chronicle what's on one's mind, and what one is doing, well, this is where I am right now:

...I'm in DAZ Studio, Bryce, Terragen, Photoshop, and the images here are often done in all four. (A couple of those images are carrying 2015 etc. dates ... true: but these are rebalanced and refreshed versions of the older work, which is very contemporary.)

Everyone needs a hobby, and this is mine. It's a lot of fun ... and this is where my head is right now. A blog should reflect one's thoughts and state of mind, right? So -- there you are!