New! Now with sound at no extra cost!

Thanks to Helen, I've now sussed out how to bring to you sounds. Unfortunately the source for the MP3 of 'Minor Swing' is not longer available so here is the YouTube version instead.

A little pleasant listening...

Enjoy, Jay! (Visit Jay.)

Happy skies are coming!

One month after Halloween, Venus, the Moon, and Jupiter will converge on a tiny patch of sky no bigger than the end of your thumb held at arm's length.  December 1st is the best night to look, in the early evening, in the west. They should together look like a smiley face, as the moon will be a crescent. 

I found the picture at this Southern Hemisphere astroevents diary here.

More dog

Shelly is a Pekinese crossed with a Japanese Chin.  Very funny, affectionate, loyal, kind, and a little insecure. 

My Walking Friend

Fireworks night.

We were in the middle of our usual Friday movie night qv, and a series of explosions shook the house - no, not John Key celebrating early, it was during a lull in the rain, and being near enough to Guy Fawkes'  night, someone nearby was letting off those really expensive big fireworks.  We pressed the pause button and exited out the front door and there it all was!  We had a grandstand view from the verandah, and I snapped these pics in literally the last twenty seconds of the display, not expecting them to turn out at all and not having the time to check them until it was all over.  I'm quite chuffed with them!  Much credit due to my camera - a Canon EOS 400D.  Ta dah!  Here they are for your viewing pleasure.  They should be clickable.

Painting: Sheep in morning mist DONE

The sheep are done.  More detailed but bluer in the foreground, and just indicated with warm cream blobs in the distance.  A  few highlights of ochre and burnt siena for textures on the edges of the hills here and there, a dab of richer prussian blue in the shadows and slap a bit of appropriately-hued paint on the edges of the boxed canvas, signature, and Bob's your uncle.

Painting: Sheep in morning mist 3

I've warmed up the hills and done the mist... I think it will stay like this; the atmosphere is coming along nicely.  Next the sheep.  However before I tackle them I'm off to vote.