With a combination of extreme heat, computer problems and server hiccups I have been unable to post. Oh, of course there was a bit of ennui in there too. Maybe not ennui, more a lack of anything to say.

Have finished another drawing. I'm not that thrilled with it but am amazed at how a nice frame and a mat make even the most lacklustre drawing shine. The op shops often have pictures with frames and sometimes even mats for sale for next to nothing. I throw away the pictures and voila! I've got a cheap frame with glass and sometimes a mat for peanuts. One things I discovered with this last drawing is that I don't like working small. It's of a large cockatoo standing and a nude woman running. The cockatoo dwarfs the woman. It's a frame filler but not much more.

The previous drawing, the one I was working on the last time I wrote, turned out well. It is of a sleeping woman with her hand draped over a sleeping cat. I love the hand. Hands are beautiful, full of luscious curves and delicate lines. A hand in repose mirrors the person to whom it belongs. The lighting is different too, coming from beneath the woman a la a Degas painting of proscenium lights illuminating actors on a stage. The cat is not as satisfactory, strangely enough as I've drawn many cats and have done a decent job. But it's okay.

I am reading a Phil Rickman book, The Bones of Avalon. In it was this: 'Both feet above the ground looking down with a terrible pity, the white moon shining through him. The whiteness aglow in his eyes and so very very cold.' I made a sketch with pencil and charcoal last night trying to illustrate this image. It is intriguing enough to do again with more care and less mess. But it is a dark picture, figuratively as well as literally. Not my usual vein. But I have the twin frame and mat of the large cockatoo and woman to use and this might just work.

What I am really looking forward to is a picture using one of the early American mirrors from my childhood home. It is a convex mirror and so gives a distorted image. I've found a way I can secure it on a small easel. I want to do a self portrait with it. A self portrait in situ. I've only done one self portrait, 30+ years ago, in pastel. Have no idea what happened to it but it wasn't very good anyway. Seems self portraits always portray the artist as glowering, probably from the concentration they bring to the work. I can work big on this one (have a suitable op shop frame for it too).

Start yoga class tonight. Should have gone last week but the way through Grantham was still closed. I am looking forward to learning some new poses, a new way of doing yoga. This is vinyasa flow. I think I've been doing Hatha for I hold poses for 8 breaths. Admittedly it is sometimes hard to do yoga. Once I've started it's all right and I always feels better after but getting my butt on the mat can be difficult. I'm averaging 5 days out of 7.

Yesterday I walked all around J. C's property looking for a horse that wasn't missing. We thought we'd seen three horses in the yards the first day we walked up to his house on the hill to feed the chickens. They are away on holiday for 2 weeks. We couldn't raise him on the phone so while R took the dogs back home I walked up to the top two dams and through the bush and along and down fencelines. It was nice to walk through the land I've ridden through for many years. Sad too for he's cleared old trees and young trees, cut swathes through the bush and cleared the ridges of sapling trees. Compared to here, there is little bird life. Still, it was a nice hike with magnificent views of the surrounding hills and the big blue bowl of sky above me.

When my computer was still not connecting I rang Skymesh tech help. Spoke to a lad called Michael who said he could hear the birds in the background. We are very lucky to live with such richness. The dam is still full and there are at least four Australasian grebes there was well as two purple swamp hens with tiny fluff ball babies. There was no bird life on JC's dams.

Jack is targeting better. The other day he just stared at me when I offered him the stick. He usually does stare and then eventually deigns to mouth it to get the treat. This particular morning he just took forever so I walked out. Fed one of the other birds and then went and tried again. He bit the spoon so I gave him the seed and went out to get him his breakfast. As I was putting it on the spike he marched down the branch and tried to bite. I didn't say a word, just walked out with his breakfast. Fed all the other birds and then took his breakfast in again. He was good as gold.

Animal intelligence is amazing. The other day when we went to JC's, 4 or 5 cows broke away from the group at the bottom of the driveway and walked up to the house ahead of us (JC's driveway is probably a kilometre long and all uphill). When we got there we found two calves in the backyard. R let them out and they went to their mothers and had a drink. They could've been in there for 2 days as we only need to check the chooks every other day. How did those cows know we'd help them? They had friends go with them as only two of the cows had their calves trapped. The others must have gone along for moral support. It's like when Drifter is hurt he always come to the fence to let his know he needs help. So Jack, being a super intelligent cockatoo, has no problem working out what makes us tick. If he's nice, we're nice. If he's not he's either ignored or taken away from something he enjoys.

floods

The following was written after the floods.

It's 6:30am. I've been up for an hour in a world that is fresh and bright and very green. The birds are done, the horses out, cats fed, coffee made (but not drunk). R has just returned from his morning constitutional with the whippets. It feels as though what R and I call desert weather is approaching. This is based upon our short time in New Mexico where the air was so dry that the days were hot and the nights were cold as there was nothing to shield the earth from the sun's rays nor a particle blanket to prevent the earth from losing heat at night. For Queensland, in the summer, this is not usual and seems to presage desperate weather.

We had 55mm (over two inches) in an hour. The creek belted down, half flooded the paddock again, the peach paddock completely awash (should've taken a photo but didn't think of it til afterwards). Took a bike ride after the worst was over and had fun battling flooded DGR. So much debris that branches as thick as R's arm were washed up onto the high center of the road. Water 1/3 of the way up the bike wheels and currents so strong I had difficulty staying upright. But so much fun too! Pedaled like a mad woman as it was raining still and I needed to warm up but once warm I didn't feel the rain anymore. And this was just near dark so all the verges were singing with not only the sound of running water but frogs and crickets. Dusk has always been a magic time.

Karla's sister and kids fine although the kids are getting counseling. The house was lost. 20 dead, 12 still missing. There's a HUGE community response; everything from making and taking food to the, on Sunday 11,000 volunteers, who show up and clean houses, playing fields, businesses, to people fostering wild and domestic animals. Some guy in China is collecting $$ because we helped them during their floods. In town a salon was donating $10 from every colour or tint they did to the flood. People are donating heavy equipment (gov't pays for fuel), pumps, skills - plumbers, electricians, etc. You name it, someone's doing it for nothing. This is the first time the internet has played a part, a very large part in the recovery. Facebook and twitter are integral to the recovery. Someone started a site on FB for baked goods. Armed with mobile phones and ipads they find areas all over Brisbane that need food and send out agents with fresh baked goods, lunches or drinks. Mothers that can't get out and physically clean houses bake like women possessed, have their products picked up and delivered where it's needed. Our premier, Anna Bligh, who got alot of bad press prior to the disaster has been exemplary in her handling of it; the right amount of tough incisive decision making and emotion (she almost broke down twice during press conferences). During the height of the disaster she was giving information to the public every two hours, willing to delegate and receive information from those experienced in their fields, very human but a tower of strength. I was losing faith in her and probably will again as I don't agree with her policies, but as a leader during a disaster I can't think of anyone who could be better. She has been just amazing.