Art and Abart

My newest homewares-experiment is with an alternate type of oven, a glass oven called an 'Easy Cook'. People who use them seem to lo...

A spider with a view over Umina Beach on the NSW Central Coast.

Flying back to Oz after long enough in New Zealand to adapt to the 2 hours time difference has the advantage of effortless early mornings. W...

Granny would know the names of these roses, all of them photographed in her garden. Red rose Rust-red rose White 'iceberg...

Jug of flowers from Granny's garden.

"If you have a garden you are never lonely," says my mother. She spent a lifetime on an isolated farm, so she should know. At 84 ...

In Granny's back garden

In Wellington I bought a little pack of Anchor milk to drink on the bus. It tasted as milk used to taste, which is more than you can say for...

I know I am home when I see signposts like these. Rural Signpost near Taihape. Nowadays these signs remind me of the wonderful work of N...

Toilets, lavatories, the girls/boys room. Whatever you call them, they colour your feelings about places you visit. After a short trip to Ne...

The scout hall in Umina is a pleasant place with wooden floors and quiet surroundings. Just the place for watercolour classes. I am busy mak...

Patonga is such a quaint and unspoiled place, tucked away behind the hills, between a creek and the sea. I have been painting there fairly o...

The 'paint-out' this week was in Patonga. Painting at Patonga There were seven painters, most of them using oil, painting the be...

My posts for the past year seem to have gyrated between the sublime and the mundane : from art and music to house renovations and back. I gu...

The little bar fridge that I got from Aldi was almost big enough for me but I missed having a freezer so I sold it on eBay and looked for ...

Today is Australia Day and as I pour my glass of red the smell of frying sausages wafts over the fence. Good news is that actor Geoffrey Rus...

Patonga Creek runs up the valley behind the small fishing village of Patonga at the mouth of the Hawkesbury River.  Last weekend I sketched...

Yesterday evening I took out a pumpkin plant that was all leaves and no pumpkins and planted some parsley plants in its place. As I was push...

The Woman in White  was gripping but I read it reaaaaally slowly to savour the text. Eventually, however, I finished the book and had to fac...

The plumber came today and transformed my bathroom. The old vanity, bathroom taps, shower taps were replaced and I got a dual flush cistern....