June 30th Saturday
Fine morning, odd shower, cooler at night, worked on fixing Natalias bird, then first panel of Vicki’s pieces, started second but plasma cutter “broke”. Lunch, m off at Mid Valley with Kathleen, did outline of cow for Frances, finished book ( the brass verdict),worked on website.Abba live fish for tea watched death in Paradise. And the body farm, 3 pool games I lost all

June 29th Friday
Cool but not cold..talked to M about phamplets re art/winerys/ band bs, and art/restaurant/coffee/band Bs, then loaded car with stuff to go to T and C and Janine Riches, couldn’t find Janines, went to Helen’s and talked about stuff, then back to Janines, swapped sculpture of dress for painting of girl in dress, then to T and C , swapped over tables and dropped off 2 birds, talked to Jo about stuff, then home for lunch, talked to Jeff about stuff, then puzzle and down shed to do 2 dogs and 2 birds, watched 1 24, then tea ( rissoles) M home 7.30, watched last big bang and Tower Heist. Email stuff.

June 28th Thursday
Fine day. But cold and cooling,did. drawing at Yarragon with Jessie and Barb,did 2 building pieces, did a bit of shopping, went to, opening of Mosaic seats at Warragul with Jessie, Venecia, Helen,Karen and anita. Home for nap and puzzle, shower and cook tea..2 dogs and 2 birds, watched spicks and specks, Dr who , drunk racist and dumb

June 27th Wednesday
Cool/frosty but fine…taking Marian to work then shopping, getting metal,( 244) visiting Helen to discuss flyer for sculpture garden,got indicator fixed, working on.ringing origin… took nearly an hour to get through, Did a half walk, Worked on 4 dogs and 1 bird, rang roads.going to Liberty Inn for tea,Greek food and Pizza then Lois’s for film night.( The First grader) with Sue, Robyn, Lyn, Brian, Lois,George and us.

June 26th Tuesday
Cool not showery, worked on Canada expenses, then worked in shed on dogs(2) and birds(6), people came and bought bits, and then Kate Jackson came to pick up her sign( and bird).showered, nap, then picked up M and went to gourmet Tourism meeting at Wild dog winery.. talked to Jo, angela, Gary Surman, a few b and B ladies a, Peter Kulich and Jean. Home to watch 2 big bang and do emails

June 25th Monday
Cool and showery, windy in morning, 2 loads of washing, Vicki gardened,I readjusted Mans arms,finished ladder girl welding, painted girl and ladder, did 6 flowers, 1 bird,lunch shopping, called in on Helen,home to light fire, nap, cook tea, sausages and tomato dish with Polenta.nap and book read.Pilates.( last for this term) 3 big bang theory 1Pool game( still reading come ashore and we will kill and eat you all)

June 24th Sunday
Windy possibly showery,worked on website,then we went to Tarra warra for the Archibalds, home for lunch, nap, reading books, watched conspiracy theory, sporting nation and Wallander. 3 pool games

June 23rd Saturday
Cool, showery, worked on arms for Johns man piece..might need to change aspects, Shane and kerrie dropped in to look for a present for Shanes Mum, took stuff to T and C( 410) off to Liz Stringer and Van Walker album launch at Meeniyan. Tea at Trafalgar Pub

June 22nd Friday
Showery, fining up a bit,M has day off doing bills,I worked on new figure for John, touched up and assembled seat and stand for Tand C, did 2 birds,lunch, went to pick up stuff at Yarragon but its next Friday, picked up expulsion machine from WGAC, stuff for pizza for tea.Saw Kate Wildes, about to go off to Nepal Nursing. Watched Dr who and The darkest hour, 3 pool I lost 2

June 21st Thursday
Showery/rainy day. M has time off unil 4 due to working so much last night. I worked on making concrete pieces for Grounded piece. All together and painted, started seat for T and C .. all welded and painted, did shelf unit for T and C. needs another coat, Alan Matthews dropped in for lunch.. good to catch up. M not home to 7, watched 1 24 and 1 bangles. Pies for tea. Watched Dr who and 2 big bang, Stephen rang up.

June 20th Wednesday
Fine day becoming windy..Worked on Grounded, took table and deer to owners, basic shopping, saw Sylvia, home, morning tea with digger man,who tidied driveway, worked on drain and bit of front drain., worked on Grounded Lunch, worked on Grounded…one side done, wings done and most of grinding. 2 loads of washing.did fish for tea then 2 big bang, Dr who abit of Nice, a bit of Randling, Rang Grant, watched a short life, and dumb drunk and racist. Caught up on emails..M at work.( on call!)

June 19th Tuesday
Cool and showery, worked on email entry, Grounded piece all welded together, then helping tidy Marie Gabriels shed.brought home a trailer of stuff.. took a while to load and a while longer to unload.Had lunch then worked on the dress piece.. all filled and welded and mostly painted. Nap, shower, chicken skewers for tea, watched spicks and specks, Dr who and 2 big bangs. Earthquake at about 9.00…5.2, centre near Traf, quite dramatic with house very visibly shaking, a few books fell down but no damage.Foot was sore slept on floor ok in morning.

June 18th Monday
Cool but fine here in Jindi, showery elsewhere, M back at work, Garry here to finish paths, Vicki gardened, Sue came to get trailer fixed, I worked on dress piece adding mesh on one side and ready for second side, cut our base piece, started Grounded piece, Metal delivered, Lunch, went shoping Drouin, then Warragul for Mesh and flat steel, ( 105) dropped in on Helen, picked up Tanjil vallety chariot, home to cut up steel and rack it, lit fire, nap, Jeff dropped in , roast beef fritters for tea, watched one big bang, Pilates another big bang, worked on diary, email and entries 3 pool

June 17th Sunday
showery, cool, worked on ladder for ladder girl and also dress outline for the new dress. Kathleen and Biggles came for the afternoon, then I had a nap, watched 2 Big bang, Crimson Tide and Wallander. 3 games of pool.

June 16th Saturday
Up earlyish,fine day , late showers, emails then to Melbourne, heard Alan Saunders died.. I used to listen to his programs all the time… lovely presenter.. stopped at Em’s place to pick her up then off to Napoleon, good and varied exhibition.. not lots of ideas for me, went to the modern jewellery exhibition and came away with lots of ideas, to South bank for lunch, Thai for me, European for M and Mexican for Em, then to see Fred Williams exhibition.. nice.. visited Marians mum and left her with Napoleon Catalogue to look through, em home again and back home ourselves.watched 2 big bang from second series, and then death in Paradise and Bollywood movie.

June 15th Friday
Cooler day some showers fineing up,started on sorting out Canada costs, did sandy’s deer, then loaded car and took 1 seat and 6 birds to Town and Country, talked to John and Jo and Molly, bought welding rods( 156) and cut off wheels looked at K mart, bought a couple of DVD’s home to lunch, went to Drouin, posted off rental contract, bought extra shopping, visited metal man, home for nap, fish and chips for tea, watched Unstoppable and becoming Jane, played 3 pool games I lost 5 M lost 1.

June 14th Thursday
Fine day cooling, attached Davids Gates, went to Warragul for bolts for gates, also metal but none in stock, Dingo man redoing stones paths, visited Lyn Childe , home to fix big fish which had lost its eye, Ordered metal from Melsteel, Sue dropped in and had lunch with us,Back from Maningrida, nap, made pasta and sauce for tea, watched spicks and specs, Dr Who, Bill baileys guide to the orchestra and 3 pool games.

June 13th Wednesday

Fine day, sorted out last of tax stuff to take to tax agent( last years not his years) ..stall sorting out stuff in her office. Finished with basically a positive result. A bit of shopping for groceries, home to light fire( for M ) and I went down shed to work on more bits for Davids gates.. the plasma cutter is just wonderful and cuts so cleanly. Lunch then a bit of a mow in the top paddock until the belt came off( again!) back to gates. Two people visited from staying at Jindivick Gardens( Charles and Carol) . Finished gates. Shower Jeff and jeanette dropped over to see Marian. Spagheti for tea then a quick nap and Jindi business group tonight

.June 12th Tuesday
Fine and sunny day, did emails til 9.00,M home doing bills and papers, then hung out 3 loads of washing, in car to Jindivick to measure Davids other gates, back home to do both frames and one set of branches, tried plasma cutter but not working well, repaired mower( put belt back on and straightened front wheel, mowed 2/3 of front paddock, lunch, worked in shed Keith Lovell arrived and went through sculpture garden with Irish friends, Garry arrived to discuss next stages of digging, went to ARC Yinnar to pick up Gardener girl, bought new plasma cutting lead( 240) on way home, casserole for tea.Watched Spicks and specks, Dr Who and worked on website, emails etc.

June 11th Monday

talked to Paddy and Lynne, frosty, went home via ring rd and Fountain gate. Barney glad to see us Apparently he had gone into a room yesterday and bumped a mattress leaning against the wall and it closed the door on him. Jeff and Jeanette and Zoe, all the leishouts and most of Jindivick were on the lookout for a lost/ dead dog as he made no noise in the room and obviously did not turn up for tea.Zoe eventually found him when she searched the house for the third time!

we unloaded the car, had showers, did emails, watched Marly and me( very sad ending) and had an early night.

June 10thSunday

Left Benalla, picked up by police and suggested we add numberplate to trailer. Sorted that out and then drove to Violet town and then across country toward Bendigo. We stopped at Murchison and Rushworth, both pretty little towns. We went to Bendigo to see the Grace Kelly exhibition so I left Marian at the Gallery and went to park the car. The gallery had timed ticketing and was sold out so it looked like we wouldn’t get in. However we ran into Caroline Ware/Hodge and a tribe of assorted girls who were goin to see the exhibition at 12.00 and they had a spare ticket.Hence Marian was able to go to the show which was very popular with the female population. I sat outside the gallery and sketched the people waiting.We had lunch and headed off to Trentham to see Paddy and Lynne. Callum had grown to bigger thane everyone but he is a lovely young man. He was doing exam prep for Vis com and other subjects.We stayed the night had a lovely meal of chicken and Pav and wine and watched Downton Abbey.

June 9th Saturday
Headed off from Cootamundra in the morning. We stopped at a variety of smaller towns along the way to both get out of the car for a break, take photos and I searched for odd bits of metals as souvenirs.We had breakfast at.Junee. I drew the characters in the restaurant and we enjoyed wandering around the town as it was a lovely sunny morning. We continued on our way and reached Albury. We had a look at the gallery were they had the NSW DT exhibition and also some other prints and paintings.We had lunch in a food mall and Marian bought a jumper and I went off and bought some cds and dvds at JB hi fi. We headed off again but only reached Benalla . I pulled in at the first motel available as I was worried everything might be booked out for the long weekend but we had lots of choice. We had a nap and then headed into town to look for a cinema… no luck so we had pizza back in the room and mainly read until bed time.

June 8th Friday
A frost in the morning. We had breakfast at the hotel with a fairly surly attendant. We then wandered into town looking for the gallery. It was not open so early so we walked around, bought books and magazines, tried to get some shoes for laurie( no luck). We got to the gallery where they had a show of 3-D metal wall sculptures( in 2-D) , some wonderful thorn drawings and sculptures and cloths dyed from the garden plants at Hill end.
It was a lovely day so we travelled on to Cowra and after a KFC lunch went to the Japanese gardens where we fed fish, watched birds and walked around,
We then headed off for Cootamundra and decided to stay the night as I was getting tired. We looked through the heritage museum and after finding a motel we had coffee , a sleep and went out to the RSL where I drew different characters. We played the pokies but didnt win and didnt lose. Home to bed

June 7th Thursday
Up and tidied house, Megan came and talked about lots of art ideas, we went and tidied up last bits of sculptures, again talked to Megan who was very enthusiastic about the pieces. I gave her the watercolour I had done from the cottage, then we loaded the car and headed off toBranxton, toward Singleton, then toward Dubbo, We stopped for lunch at Meewa and they were preparing for a busy long weekend with the running of red socked sheep!.The caravan park was signed as full even though at that time it only had one resident. Moving on from there we passed through more landscape then through Sofala and finally to Bathurst. Marian photographed the mines and the landscape and the changing light.all through the trip.. it was a very interesting landscape and changing all the time. We had tea at the motel and played three games of pool, then back to the room for reading and bed.. The bed was overused and sloped badly.. still we did sleep.

June 6th Wednesday
We decided to drive around this area and see the sights. We drove up Wilderness Rd,took photos at the bridge then into town. The hunter zoo was closed so we went to the Pottery brewery.
This brewery had a number of very large pottery kilns sited around it. They seemed very old but beautifully made with multiple fire pits, large metal bands to prevent too much expansion and an entrance that could be walked in. We assume large scale pots or maybe pipes were once made here. Must find out! It seemed a shame they are no longer used. Sue Acheson and Kerry Warren would be in their element here.
We went to the shop of the Australian Woodworking Group shop and looked at wonderfully made and finished timber furniture. I bought a Christmas ornament made of wood with little Australian animals cut out. We thought this would be a good website for Jim in Canada to look at for ideas on how to develop his wood making business using Canadian motifs.
We crossed the road and Laurie looked in the second hand material shop as he had an empty trailer and could take some nice bits back if he found some. He came away emptyhanded. Marian went tothe plant and garden ormanent nursery to see if there was any inspiration for Laurie. She was impressed with the open roof affair with lots of little paths running through, but no inspiation. The garden ornaments were copies and cheap imports e.g. Buddha or a Hindu goddess and lots of water features. No originality or creativity.
We travelled along ? Broke Rd looking for the Hunter Valley Gardens. We passed many wineries with huge areas of parking, resturant complexes and accomadation.It was amazing to see the amount of investment each winery had put in. They really must get a huge number of clients and also a large number of high spenders. We wondered what you do when you have had your fill of lunch and wine. There did not seem to be much else except shopping for dust collectors.
We found the Hunter Valley Gardens after a short walk through an enormous motel complex which we though was the gardens. There was a group of people collected in a courtyard who were trying to see the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun with all sorts of expensive telescopes. Unfortunately at that time the sky was quite cloudy so the glimpses of the sun was quite intermittent.
We found the Gardens and spent a happy hour or so walking through them. Several areas were themed, including a Japanese, Chinese, Indian and formal gardens.There were large pools and a waterfall and lots of beautifully sculptured shrubs along paths and walkways. There was an army of gardeners beavering about all, wearing navy uniforms and navy beanies with the HVG logo on the front.
A favourite was the Children's garden with concrete nursery rhyme figures, shrubs cut into animal shapes, a gingerbread house containing toilets. and a speaker emitting lots of nursery rhymes. Marian is sure she heard Patsy Biscoe singing.
The gardens were the inspiration of a man who used his retirement to turn horse paddocks into a permanent garden starting in 1999. He must have been wealthy or has a good ability to acquire donations. They were lovely gardens but Marian told Laurie not to get any ideas.
We wondered on and looked at another shopping opportunity called a glass gallery, then into a shopping centre in the paddocks that was full of wine, beer, cheese, lollies and knicknacks.
We found a sculpture garden and spent some time looking at the outdoor sculptures of the Misty sculpture garden. An interesting one was a woman dressed in a long flowing dress made from flat pieces of metal but offset in such a way she became 3D. There were a pair of boxing kangeroos, a broken open seed pod and a flamboyant woman riding a tricycle. Lots of interesting pieces.
We left and drove on to Maitland. We stopped at Branxton where we got a hamburger for lunch from an odd cafe and ate near an oval and a RSL monument. We were amused to see a full sized metal sculpture of a lovely racehorse beside the bank in this tiny town. Just standing there. Not even in obvious view.
At Maitland, we found the art gallery and saw an exhibition of items associated with the electricity company, a homage to a passion for AC/DC and some lovely prints. We talked to the desk girl but she couldnt tell us much about Maitland so we headed off to the information centre. They weren't that much better. They did suggest we try Morpeth but it was too late in the day so we headed back to Emma's Cottages. via Kurri Kurri

June 5th Tuesday
We set off at about 7.30 am hoping to miss the most of the early morning traffic but to our surprise it was already present although not jam packed or furious.We worked our way across Sydney for the next hour until we popped out on the Newcastle freeway. The freeway was now very buzy with lot of trucks.
We stopped for breakfast at a McDonalds service station that was very busy and Laurie inspected the trailer which has developed a worring squeak.He thought the left hand wheel bearing was too hot and bought some lubricant to spray on it.It was very hot!
We decided to try to get amechanic to look at it but had no idea where to go.We drove along the freeway and decided to take the next exit as it had a hospital listed there. Our theory was there would be a town and lots of people near a hospital so there would be a mechanic.
The first mechanic gave us directions to another mechanic but Laurie could not understand and we went the wrong way. We found the small hospital and a second mechanic who directed us again.
We found the trailer mechanic who took the wheel off and discovered the axle was bent and a washer had welded itself to the axle. They said we would not have got much further with it the way it was. They said the springs were nearly falling out of the trailer and the underneath part was coming apart. We decided to buy a new trailer and the men helped us by welding an extra bar at the front to hold the sculptures in. They helped Laurie lift the sculptures onto the new trailer and after a long wait we were off leaving a trailer carcase on blocks at the mechanics.
We drove on to Cessnock where we stopped for a look at the Cessnock Art gallery which had an exhibition of aboriginal works from Alice Springs. I wondered if the work was from near where Caitlin was ,which was where Sue Osborn is currently staying and wondered how she was going. Lauire thought the works were from a different area to caitlin.
We had a subway lunch and headed off to find Emma's cottages which turned out to only be a 10 minute drive from Cessnock.
No-one was home when we arrived so Laurie set the sculptures out on the grass and proceeded to weld the Mountain Sunrise together and Marian repainted some of the coloured bits which had been knocked about.
A grey kelpie who had Dynamite written on his tag came to supervise us and was quiet but wary of Laurie as he felt we hadn't been properly introduced.
When we were finished we has a cup of coffee in the car and waited for the owners. Alec turned up ,welcomed us and showed us around. We chatted about being in business a bit, looked at Megans's art works, the winery and Tilly's pizza resturant.Alex took us to our cottage and left to pick up his daughter. The night was closing in amid predictions of a rough night with a really high king tide and strong gale force winds.
We decided to go to Cessnock to buy some breakfast and tea things.We went to the shopping mall and then bought chinese takeway to take home. We came home and ate lovely chinese then watched some TV and went to bed. We were both really tired.

June 4th Monday
We set off after talking briefly to the motel owner who was interested to see Laurie's work and came down to see the contents of the trailer. The day was really misty with short patches of sun shine as we drove to Cooma. The radio was giving warnings about a severe storm that was crossing the lower part of Australia in the next 48 hours and asking people to not take their boats out and to shelter their sheep.
At Cooma we stopped for a visit to the Information centre for a map of NSW and a bacon and egg toasted sandwich for breakfast at a cafe. We could not have coffee as her coffee maker was broken and she had to wait for a repairman to come from Canberra several hours away. A snapshot of the difficulties of getting things repaired.
A compulsory visit to the newsagency for papers and art supplies then we were on our way to Canberra. The day had now become a lovely warm autumn day with no sign of the poor weather conditions that had been predicted.
The Tomtom gave us good directions to the National Gallery of Australia but we could not find a carpark. People were parked everywhere, even illegaly. We decided to try the underground carpark as a last resort as we were unsure if we can park with a trailer.
As we drove down the ramp we hit the 2 metre high restriction sign with a few of the prongs of the Mountain Sunrise sculpture. We then scraped every concrete overhead pylon we went under as they were all 2 metres high. This gave us the willies as the sound was so grating and we were worried we would get stuck so we drove straight out without stopping. No visit to the gallery today.
We drove onto Goulburn and visited Dimmies for socks and shirts for Laurie, and a themos flask and cups for coffee. We had a pie and cake lunch in a cafe then Marian walked up to the gallery taking photos of the historic streetscape of lawyers' chambers and a fire station while Laurie retrieved the car.
We looked at 3 large sculptures in the courtyard, one was bright red, another had 3 panels and the third was made of stainless steel. The Goulburn Gallery had an exhibition of Aboriginal art and a light exhibition.
We drove off from Goulburn as we were concerned about the deteriorating weather conditions. We originally had thought we would stay there for the night. We drove on to Liverpool and decided to stop at a motel there as we were getting too tired to manage the 5 pm traffic with a heavy trailer.
I rang Stephen who was at work but thought he could come to visit us. Laurie did not want to undo the trailer as it was too heavy to pick up again so we could not drive off to visit without the trailer.
Stephen arrived with Kristen and carted us off to Liverpool where we had dinner at Ranjays which had quite nice pub style meals but was a resturant chain. It was nice to see them and hear about some of their active life.They are going to a health resort for a week of pampering next week.
Stephen and Kristen dropped us back at the motel where Laurie went straight to sleep but Marian stayed up for ages finishing her book.

June 3rd Sunday
Coolish day, packing for trip
Left a sad Barney at home. He seemed to realise he was not going and did not even ask to go. Hopefully he will be safe. He is in the good care of Jeff and Jeanette and Kathleen and Biggles.
We drove off to Bairnsdale and stopped to visit Caleb who has grown a full ginger beard and is starting to go grey at the temples.It is hard to think of your youngest child growing older. He is happy to be growing grey (Collins side) not to have inherited the Collyer baldness. We shared doughnuts and coffee with Caleb and Ralph who was delighted to see us. Caleb is working on mid semester reports and is a bit bogged down. He is going to Warrnambool to play in the regional volleyball competition next weekend. Ralph loves going to school as the school dog.
At the service station in Bairnsdale Laurie was approached by Tina Hamblin (ex principal of Warragul High) and her husband, who recognised him and the trailer and came over to say hello and to inspect his works. She wished us good travelling after hearing our destination and our reasons.
We drove off down the freeway and travelled amongst misty trees, through a previous bushfire area and up and down hills.We stopped at a bakery for lunch at Orbost. As we parked the car a group of rosellas flew up from where they were eating nuts under the trees in the Main Street. A lovely sight. They were not fussed and returned the ground when we moved away.
We walked down the road to the Feastonus Gallery in Orbost which had a lovely exhibition of Australian waterolours which was travelling around regional Australia. There was also an exhibition of work in a pizza box. Each work had to fit in a family sized pizza box. We saw a set of three mixed works using found metal and string basketwork to form little sculptures.They were lovely.
We drove on through the bush, passing a car that had driven off the road (the police were present) and is a reminder of how easy it is to slip up on the roads. We stopped to tie down the load again, as it had slipped, at a lonely little road side rest beside a creek.
We stopped at Cann River for a rest and Laurie was approached by a man who was interested in the trailer contents. He talked us into going along the Monaro highway as it goes to Canberra without going along the coast and is shorter.
The road goes through the hills and up onto a plateau which was bathed in mist. A very isolated area of peaceful paddocks with hills in the background.We stopped ast odd places and took photos. When we crossed into NSW the road improved markedly.
We stopped at Bombala for the evening and had a fish and chips tea as the only customers at the Bombala RSL.
We crawled into bed by 8.30pm too tired to stay up any longer.

June 2nd Saturday
Coolish day fineing up..worked on doing table with drawer, Sandy and Joe called in for their seat,went to Warragul to get trailer plug( 22) then put it on and loaded trailer, did hand for sculpture,, added other hand and arms and it is mostly finished. Chicken stirfry for tea, saw Leishouts and Jeanette about Barney and cats. Trivia night at Longwarry.with Robyn, Abbey, Paul, Brian( minus end of finger) Jeanette and Sharon,saw lots of ex students,Alan Prout, Daniel Brown, Jaymie, Eliza,etc, lost by one point.

June 1st Friday
Lovely day with coolish patches,rewelded bit of unchain my heart, painted bits of flying duck, painted bits of climb, added neck head and hair to heart character, started table for order, visited Helen to drop off stuff for Tanjil Valley, went to warragul for extra paint for pieces and mesh( 200) for passionfruit, needed to extend it.. welded and put up,puzzle,tried to nap but toe kept me awake, chicken skewers for tea.watched program on Wales and Doubt