We will probably look back on those couple of weeks of hot days with fond recollection in days to come...
In my garden, the wind has flattened some of the more tender and taller plants, and this morning when I got up to make tea the temperature was only 7.6 degrees but feeling like a very chilly .6 degrees, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. I can attest it did too, even though it was only my nose I poked outside to check it out! One can always tell when snow is about, even though we rarely see it here, so close to the coast.
But, we do need the rain, so all is good. We didn't have too many plans for the weekend anyway, none if I am honest apart from picking the raspberries in my brother's garden. As I have always enjoyed cooler weather and rainy days, I am pretty happy.
I can work in my craft room all day in these conditions, catching up with all sorts of things like this blog post so I can have a clear morning tomorrow for the release of the new weeks uni programme and all the wild excitements it contains.
The other wild thing going on for this post is Wild Boar - the animal of the week over at EIM.
We do have bush pigs, or feral pigs throughout Australia, these are worse in some areas than others. Because of this, most states have them on their invasive species lists along with management plans and guidelines.
Here in Tasmania, they are a recognised pest only on Flinder's Island, off the NE coast of the State. Any "loose" pigs wandering around in the rest of the State are considered simply domestic stock that has wandered off on a day trip, apparently...I will need to think some more about that one...
Having no native pig species in Australia, our feral pigs were generally domestic stock introduced by early European settlers as a food source, or as in the case of Flinders Island, by sailors, back in the day.
According to the diary of Captain James Cook, when at Bruny Island in the south of the State, he released a sow and a boar into the bush back in 1777, but by 1802, when the Baudin expedition did a recce there was no indication of pigs on the island.
To get on with the inchie, I thought about all the wild boars that I have known (quite a limited number, if I am honest).
My daughter Sarah had a much admired party trick when she was young...she was able to make a very amusing sound..."Do your Bush Pig", we would prompt her, whenever we needed a laugh, and she never failed to oblige...but that was long ago in the dim and childish past and she would never forgive me for mentioning it, so I won't...
Back to the inchie...I got a little distracted just then...in thinking about boars, I was reminded of the wild boar in Asterix, a favourite read of the smalls aeon's ago. Maybe it was this pig that linked to Sarah's performance, I cannot recall now, whoops, did it again...
I Googled an image and used it as a prompt to (attempt) to draw a boar...I drew the inch square on my paper, scribbled in a vague shape with pencil, then used watercolours and pens to colour the result.
I was not too displeased with the animal until I tried to add his tusks at the end of the process...then I messed him up completely...as one does...then after I had photographed him and added him to this post, all the flaws and inadequacies were horribly enlarged...I could lie and say I was hoping for a comedic rather than realistic look here, but you would see through that one!
I had to just leave it in the end because the more I tried the worse things became. My fine white gel pen, which would have done the tusk task in a nanosecond, has finally dried up, and everything else I tried was too transparent, or thick, to colour in the tiny tusks
But hey...not to worry, he certainly has a wild look in his little eye and he is what he is, warts and all!
To do this I have worked out a formula which allows me to be able to make the boxes whatever size I want and for their lids to fit perfectly (almost) every time. It just needed some thought to get it right, as do most things.
I have also been playing with match box cards, these are such fun little projects...they also need a good sturdy box to make them work well, but these have a wrapped slider cover instead of a fitted lid, just like a match box, in fact ;).
Now I have perfected the box making process, I will be making a few more of these, in fact I have a couple finished, but as they are for birthdays just over the horizon, I won't post photographs of them just yet...
Some of the best things about these little treasures, they can be made for any occasion, any age group and they use up mostly scrap paper pieces and can be decorated in so many different ways, I particularly like the simple, naif style which I am playing about with at the moment...all good!
Tim has just arrived back from a quick inspection of his big garden at a friend's place at Orielton...the young broad bean plants have taken a battering but everything else seems to be surviving the wind OK, which is good to hear...the best thing is that the waterhole, the only water source available, which was almost empty two days ago, is now filling very nicely...so things are looking good for the vegies for the next few weeks anyway, even if we don't get much more rain. We might even have new Pinkeyes and fresh peas for Christmas!
Better trot, lunch is calling!