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Travel through and camping on and under bits of Western Australia with two of my offspring and painting with the six kilos of paints I flew across the country with made for a fascinating and beautiful Christmas. Western Australia is HUGE!!!!

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Somebody is eating my vegetable garden as quickly as I grow it...I had one red apple coming on and one green but whoever it is began to eat the red one as it began to colour, bit by bit. By the time it was red it was gone. Then the green one simply disappeared in one fell swoop. I’m happy to share with nature to a degree, but I can’t help feeling like somebody’s employee.



I have been madly painting - yesterday I sent off two entries for possible inclusion in an annual exhibition/prize which I visited last year in Evandale, Tasmania. I discovered a huge thrill painting for a particular end; the work has to depict Tasmanian landscape and I LOVED taking up the challenge and making the paintings. I haven’t put them in the online gallery (www.kerrymillardsgallery.com) because they’re not meant to have been displayed...but other bits and pieces as I begin to experiment with painting from life with acrylics are there. And I can for the first time see why a painter might want to do the same scene over and over- each time you know what you’re looking at more intimately, and new things happen in each rendering.

I didn’t get the grant I applied for to go to London this year. Instead I’ll make opportunities to travel about (and stay with the odd friend) to get the hang of painting from life. The first trip is coming up - to the Tamworth district. It will be hot!

So...today my shopping trolley was full and I approached the checkouts at my local supermarket. I REFUSE to use the new do-it-yourself checkout kiosks - I hate seeing people lose jobs. But I digress. Earlier, when filling my trolley, I’d spotted a woman I haven’t seen for years and who I REALLY don’t like. I really REALLY don’t like her. Can’t remember why. Very loud, very confident, a bit pushy, kind of fake...but it was probably the day she made a comment about how disgusting it is when babysitting (we were in the same babysitting club) and people have tins of dog food in their fridge. How awful. Of course, I WAS those people. Anyway, I digress again. I didn’t want to catch her eye so ducked past a couple of times like when she had her back turned getting ice. Then with trolley full, there were two checkouts with a queue of customers waiting, and one checkout with one customer. Yes, the one customer was she. Um....I paused and debated and debated and debated...then decided to pretend I needed something else so did an about turn and melted up aisle 8 to wait until she was gone.

In my mind I started running over what might have happened had I stood in line behind her and had she noticed me and what she would have said and what I would have said...

She: “Kerry! I haven’t seen you in years!!! How ARE you??” [Gush, gush, insincerity, insincerity][roots showing]

Me: [sincerity, humility, truth, strength][natural hair colour] “Great! REALLY fantastic, in fact...” [What the heck is her name] “...in fact I’ve been experiencing some huge personal growth lately...” [go me!] “...I’ve undergoing a huge internal evolution...” [that ought to show her] “...I feel really grounded, really strong, ready to take on the world...”

This dialogue would have felt far more impressive if I hadn’t just then remembered that I was crouching between the snacks and fizzy drinks hiding from her.