City to Bay Fun Run

Went into Adelaide for the annual 12 km Fun Run to the bay this morning. Jude my son in law, had entered it also so we decided to run together as neither of us had trained for the run .I thought my walking would hold me in good stead for the event as I have done plenty of miles but very few consistent running training.
The weather was cool and overcast which was great for the run.
The organizers had a record 31,000 entries so there was lots of people doing it.
Jude was great to run with as he set a reasonable pace and kept it going for the whole event and although I was feeling a little tired toward the end , we finished it together, taking 80 minutes to run the 12 kms
I was hoping I would be between a 6 to7 minute per kilometre pace and we achieved it so I was quite happy with the results, but next year I intend to train for the race and try to get my time closer to the 6 min pace if I am able to.
Thanks Jude for running my pace as he could have ran a faster race but chose to help me keep my pace instead.
The Kirrabilla Trail Event is a fortnight away so we still have to keep our walking going.

I have been scheduled to talk about the sculpture of Mary MacKillop, to a local Catholic Primary school next week and have also been invited to take part in the celebrations at the Catholic Cathedral in Adelaide on the day of Mary's Cannonization in October and they will be changing the sculpture plaque from "Blessed" to "Saint".
Hope every one was satisfied with their event times, I know a lot of people were doing it including Ang, Karen and her husband, the "Step into Life Modbury mob"and Nigel.
Will have to post a photo when I get one from some one else's camera.

Photos I meant to post

This is the view of Kangaroo Creek Dam with water flowing down river after the wonderful rains South Australia have had.

One of the obliging kangaroos that waited for me to get my phone out and take a photo, before he moved off into the bush whilst walking Black Hill.

This is a view of First Falls at Morialta Conservation Park, taken while walking with Cathy last Wednesday on our 42km trail walk.

A photo of me above First Falls.

Second Falls in Morialta Conservation Park, South Australia.

Fired head before painting with casein paint.

I quickly downloaded 5 photos before I went to bed and found that I had clicked on some earlier photos that I has not meant to post, but as they are now up I will leave them, and give an explanation.

The first 2 are modelled from a photo of my daughter.



The next one is a shot of part way through modelling Shaun, my son.
He almost looks like he just needs pointy ears and he would make a good "Pan".
I kept modelling until I had a much better likeness .
Just shows how the face can change when details are not quite right. I'll have to post the finished pieces to show the difference.

This photo is a head that I had fun with one weekend,
I quite enjoyed working on the details of it . I eventually will colour it with casein paint and try some of the techniques that Judy Fox uses.


This is one of the photos I meant to post , of my friend Cathy whilst out walking on Wednesday.

More Trailwalking

Since last post, Cathy, a regular training friend, and I, set out on a training walk from a lookout called "Eagle on the Hill" to on the southern slopes of the Mt Lofty Ranges to Ambers Gully on the northern side, a distance of 42 km which took us 8 hours 5 minutes to complete. Although it did not rain, the track was still rather wet with all the rain we have had over the last several weeks.The creeks were full and swollen and the waterfalls were lovely with water spilling over them.

It is actually quite wonderful to have all the heavy rain as our state has been in drought for about 10 years. and the state has had to build a desalination plant to ensure that we do not run out of water.
The walk took in three quarters of the Yurrebilla Trail which traverses Cleland Conservation Park, just below Mt Lofty (our tallest mountain at 711m) through to the very steep Horsnell Gully Conservation Park on to Norton Summit where we stopped for a coffee at lunch time. We then headed down the steep trail into Morialta Conservation park where I couldn't resist taking a couple of photos of the waterfalls and where we met a visitor to Australia from Switzerland.
We then carried on out of Morialta across to Black Hill Conservation Park where we climb straight up to the summit at 467m and cross back down to Ambers Gully.
We were happy with our effort but also glad to be finished for the day.

John and I went up to Kangaroo creek dam to see the spillway open for the first time in nine years and drove back through Cuddly Creek where we had a lovely lunch at Babette's cafe( one of the girls from our group of trailwalkers) .I was impressed to see her two certificates from walking (running)100km in 23hrs and 24hrs.
I hope I might be able to try a 100km event next year, if I keep the training up.

Monday I took myself for a mixture of walking and jogging up our local hill reserve. The wildflowers are out and are beautiful. I did roughly5km in an hour and today I went to Fitness Tone session and last night did my regular yoga weekly session.
I have also entered the City to Bay Fun Run, only hope the steep bush tracks have hardened me up for the 12 km event on Sunday.

I have been also working on a design commission for a life size bronze sculpture for the last three months. I fired the maquette in the kiln along with another piece which I want to paint with Casein paints. So the design piece should be finished by the end of the week and mailed off.

Trail walking

Thought I might blog about the trail walking we have been doing lately. We walked as a group of 4 on Monday up Anstey's Hill for a 2 hour walk.
The weather was reasonable after the very heavy rain since Friday and all over the weekend. We were going to do one of the more difficult walks over Black Hill on Saturday but the rain was quite heavy all day with very strong winds, not the sort of weather to go bush in, so we cancelled the walk.
Monday , we saw a huge male kangaroo on the track, quite the biggest I've seen walking.
We have also spotted koalas high in the gums and also seen 2 wild hives with lots of honeycomb.
Tomorrow, I am walking with Karen and Thursday there will be 3 of us so we should clock up a few kilometres this week.
I tried to enter Sea to Summitt , a 30 km trail being held on Sunday but the entries closed before I was able to enter, but I have entered for the City to Bay Funrun being held in 2 week's time, I just hope the trail walking and running will see me fit enough to do it.

A short post .

This is a bronze cast of the torso I was working on earlier this year. The stand was also made commercially especially for the piece. Silvio Opponyi helped me with the patina, it looks so good.

This is a stoneware bust "Dreaming", I have used casein paint to colour the bust.
"Shaun", a stoneware bust coloured with a bronze patina.


I am touching base with the blog as it is ages since I posted news.
Our group exhibition went well and has now finished at Artistic License on Melbourne Street, Adelaide but my 4 pieces can still be seen there for another couple of weeks as they did not have any sculptures on display so mine have remained till the start of the following exhibition.
I was a little suprised at the opening, that the artists weren't introduced to the good crowd of people that attended.
I hoped that people seeing my work might consider having a bust made or having a bronze head commissioned.
I am currently working on a commission for a sculpture design, and if all goes well, am hoping it will lead to another life size bronze in the near future.

I have been doing a lot of trail walking and jogging over the last few months so I am relatively leaner and fitter than I have been.
I walk with a group of women who are very fit and we walk the local hill trails usually for 2 to 8 hours and we last walked part of the yurrabilla trail from Norton Summit to Black Hill on Saturday, 22kms in 3 hours 33 minutes, whilst the rest of the girls were attempting the Oxfam Sydney 100 kms trail. Karen pulled out after going 60 km at 1 am and Babette also pulled out with injury, but Tracy and Sue finished the 100km in 27 hours which was wonderful news.
We are training to finish the Yurrabilla Trail, 56km across the face of the Adelaide hills in 11 hours. Only 4 weeks to go, as it is being held on Sunday October 3 2010.