Grocery Shopping and Some More Pics...

My life is slowly getting back into its normal rhythm after being in Sydney. I haven't been in the studio yet as I had to catch up on some chores. Today was market day. Although grocery shopping can be a drag the sites and smells of the market always inspires me. It brings out the hunter gatherer instincts. I recently acquired a stack of food magazines. I loved so many of the recipes that I decided to cook a new recipe every day next week. This made shopping a whole lot more interesting as I had to source the different ingredients. A lot of them from the Asian Grocery Store. Now the only problem is deciding what to cook first. I don't mind cooking for special occasions but I don't like cooking the everyday meals so this should make it a whole lot more interesting.

As you can see there are more shots from the Sydney trip. The good thing is you don't need to look. This means I don't have to feel like that boring person that forces their boring holiday snaps on you.

Touching the Sydney Opera House (yes those big white arches are all tiles).

The view from the steps of the opera house.

My girls with the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background.

Me and Z.

One of the ferries in Sydney Harbour. A great way to get around Sydney.

Pumpkin Soup

Its coming up to pumpkin soup weather. Well, soon I hope as its still been quite warm and muggy the last couple of days. If you are going to buy a pumpkin to make soup why not use it for a painting first. This one is a Queensland Blue pumpkin and its my favourite type for soup. Funny thing is you do get to know the object of your painting so well that you feel rather remorseful when its time to cut it up :(. There is of course a story behind my painting. Many years ago Bob and I lived in the country. The locals put together a cookbook of their favourite recipes. The simple but extremely delicious pumpkin soup recipe in the top right hand corner of the painting is Barbara Pym's recipe and I think of her whenever I make it. She still cooked and baked amazing food on a wood burning stove even in the middle of summer, and took out a lot of prizes in the cooking section of the local show. Of course that's not the only pumpkin story I have. I remember endless drawings in art school with a pumpkin as a model. Tonal drawings, contour drawings, drawing on coloured paper adding the highlights rather than the shadows. Yeah well they do have interesting shapes don't they?

Pumpkin

mixed media on canvas

50.8x60.9cm (20"x24")

The Willow Tree

I had a lovely time with my sister and my mum yesterday. We spent most of our day in Ilka's garden. Ilka and her partner Herman moved about 3 months ago. They have settled in now and look like they have lived there for years. They have a big willow tree in the back yard. The tree looks like it had twin trunks at one time. One of the trunks has been cut down and Ilka has placed a cushion on the stump. Its a great place to sit with your back on the remaining trunk surrounded by the dangling branches and leaves. It was a perfect day with lovely weather and good company.

Julia is stressing at the moment hehehe. She put an application in to be part of the show 'Master Chef'. There were 7500 applications in South Australia and only 100 of these get a chance to audition. Julia was one of them. She only got notified on Friday and has to front up at 7.30 Monday morning with a prepared dish. The dish has to be a cold as there are no heating facilities at this stage of the competition. If the audition goes well you go into the next stage which means cooking a dish in front of the cameras on Tuesday. Julia asked me to go with her as her support person. With such short notice I hope I am able to make it.