Pears drawing

Another completed drawing. I found a conte' crayon and did some studies first, to get the shading right and work out a composition. Just graphite on a Derwent stetch pad, suprisingly it holds up quite well to reworking for cheap student grade paper. I like my little A5 Strathmore pad but it's a bit small.

Getting a bit more confident and it's easy to see that I've improved on my first drawing of Amy.

What a great tree

I saw this tree while I was out walking over the Easter break. Its the biggest and oldest Camphor Laurel tree that I've ever seen. They are considered a pest but it lives because it's such a significant tree.

My first pastel

This just seemed to happen last Saturday. Found a great photo of some new varieties of echinacea.

Drawing Amy

When Amy died, I was so sad that I didn't know what to do. My thoughts were so muddled and I knew that I had to try and refocus. We both looked through the photos we had taken of her over the last 12 years. We had a huge collection from when she was only 18 months old, so little then to her plumb middle age.

I needed to think of  her in a different way, my partner is a web designer and created some drawings of her in Photoshop. I'd always wanted to drawn but on traditional paper and graphite. I did a few sketches of her from some of the photos we found. This is based on a picture I took of her in 2003, looking up at me from the kitchen floor. I would also like to try watercolours and pastels as well.

Frank - discovering my garden and the whole street

Frank tends to venture a bit further than Amy putting his head down, running and get very excited. Last Sunday we thought Frank had gone forever and were about the launch a search party. He appeared over someone's fence. So that was enough stress for one day, so we dragged him back inside. Short visits for now.

Fishing Kyeemagh - Botany Bay

I've not been fishing for about 15 years so I couldnt' wait. Getting around to the fishing spots in Sydney is a bit tricky at Christmas time so I choose to ride my bike. It also meant that if I didn't like one spot I could move on much more easily.

There are quite a few snags at Kyeemagh and there was a good strong southerly which made casting difficult. But I caught a little snapper, unfortuantley too small to keep. Will be back in a few days to have another go.

Food for cats

My new pussy cat, Franc arrived on 5 December. Unfortunately, Amy is no longer with us, after 13 year she passed away on 23 November. My very loved little girl.

I want Franc to be fit and healthy, I suspect diet was behind Amy's liver problems. Cats are particularly vulnerable if not fed a good diet, not too much fat and carbs, good quality protein and the correct calories every day.

Whiskers is the main canned cat food in Australia, 80% of cats get fed this brand. It contains artificial colours and flavours and wonder if there is something better.

I found that the premium supermarket brands are worse, containing ingredients cats simply don’t need. Cats are meat eaters, their bodies are not designed to eat grains or vegetables. The veges are there to make me feel that I'm giving him/her a healthy dinner.

Franc is a big boy, just over 6kg of confirmed muscle. His body feels firm, I can feel his ribs slightly and has strong back legs.

He’s currently eating Science Diet kibble, Whiskers chicken gravy and my home steamed chicken. He’s a bit lazy and doesn’t like chewing, he's probably swallowing it whole. I will conquer his kibble addiction, he will eat more cooked chicken and a good canned food. I don't feel bad about canned Whiskers, its a matter of reading labels.

Also kibble/dried cat foods can contain lots of carbs and fat as well as fillers, corn derivatives and not enough good quality meat based protein.

I want to keep him fit and healthy as possible and also like doing things for him.

Tomatoes

After all the fuss and failures of previous years I've just bunged them into large pots(deep to the first leaves) and they've grown beautifully.

Basically do nothing special but find the biggest pot possible and provide lots of light. I fertilise with Charlie Carp and worm wee each week. They seem a bit slow in ripening, that still bugs me. I'll put some extra potash on next weekend. They've been a bit crowded in by other tomatoes so will spread them out so light can get to the fruit.

My first tomato vine had tomato spot which is a virus, the plant should have been destroyed. I'll get rid of it next weekend. I have three seedlings and another in a small pot, flowers are dropping so stressed. These will be all potted on next weekend. We've been so poor lately due to vet bills.

We are having an excellant season, not so many bugs around, every thing looks healthier.

Welcome Frank

His full name is Francois and he is a completely beautiful cuddly boy. He's my new garden companion. I miss Amy desperately, I love her so much and think of her everyday. I feel that I now have three cats, Holly, Amy and Frank. But every garden must have a cat and we now have Franc. He's got a bit of a fetish for paper.


There will be lots of photos here soon as Frank discovers his new home and garden.

My planter box was stolen

Very much to my annoyance when I got up to go for my walk this morning, my planter box had been stolen. They must of been determined as it was almost 2 metres long and 1 metre wide, about 80 cm high.

I was angry with myself as it was almost complete and had promised myself to finish it for Christmas. I was looking forward to planting herbs and other plants that Amy liked to sniff.

Amy

Amy stopped eating last Tuesday. She had done this a few times before but this time she was very depressed Thursday morning. I had a very uneasy feeling going to work that day, I know now that I made a terrible mistake. I rushed her to the vet first thing Friday morning for tests. She had lost weight and was seriously dehydrated.

I was allowed to take her home for the rest of the day, just until her results became available. I stayed with her. My poor puppy was so sick and wouldn't eat or drink anything. The vet gave her a subcutaneous injection of saline solution to help with the dehydration which made her a bit more lively. However it didn't last long.

The results of the testing were difficult to interpret, as there were some many figures and enzymes so out of the norm. Hyperthyroidism seemed to be present but it didn't come close to explaining some of the other test results. I rushed poor puss back to hospital where she was placed on a drip with the hope that this would flush some of the toxins out of her system and give her little liver a chance to recover. The first blood test looked promising and she picked up and then spiralled back down. A final blood test Monday afternoon revealed some very sad news. It was highly likely that a tumor on her liver was blocking her bile duct. There was now no hope and in her terribly weakened state all we could do now was to stop.

On 23 November at approximately 7 PM I held my little puppy as she was sent to sleep. She was loved and adored every single day that she was part of my life (12 years) and I will never forget my happy little pussy cat. She now rests in my Mum's garden and has chickens to play with everyday.