An Afternoon in the City

Today many people were off and businesses closed because of the observance of Australia Day. The actual date was this past Saturday, but of course when something falls on a weekend it would be a shame to deprive yourself of a day off. Although I'm not working yet, I was momentarily relieved of my volunteer duties at Lyell McEwin. Chad and I went into the city to visit the Botanic Gardens and grab some lunch. 

Initially it seemed that we didn't pick the best day to go out as it was windy and rainy when we arrived in town. As a compromise, instead of going straight to the Gardens we headed to Piatto for lunch in lieu of Kishi Sushi, which seemed to be waiting for a later time to open. I'm never inspired to order much more than pizza at an Italian restaurant so we shared a Little Italy pizza. Since we had to wait quite awhile for our order (due to mishap with someone not putting it in the system), I had time to sketch, something which I haven't been doing recently. 

Diners at Piatto

The sun came out by the time we were finished. The Botanic Gardens were nice. I brought my colored pencils with me as well but there wasn't a color that represented the pink of these lotus flowers, the first and favorite of the species displayed. There were quite a few dusky moorhens in the area as well taking advantage of the marshy conditions. 

With this blog I try to post things that I've drawn on location but this past Saturday I also had the chance to march in the Australia Day parade they had in the city. I took some less than quality photos with my phone but they may do with some artistic rendering, if so I'll post them here. 

I hope all is well with everyone's 2013 so far. One month is practically gone! 

A Conference of Birds

The other day I had a chance to finally see a bit of Adelaide proper. Although Adelaide is a decent size, about 1.2 million, a lot of the population seems to be spread out, which makes it more difficult to visualize.  The definition of what's considered the metropolitan area is a bit liberal, with its suburbs covering a lot of area.  However, the downtown area is understandably denser.  We arrived around lunch and everyone was out doing their shopping or other errands during their break.

After taking a little tour, my excitement elevated slightly from exposure to more urban living, Chad and I ended up having at sit at one of the parks near the University of Adelaide. A small group of people camped out some distance away started feeding some of the ducks nearby.  I was surprised by the response that happened shortly thereafter.  Seagulls swooped in, moorhens crossed the bank, noisy miners fought with the magpies, crested pigeons waddled by, a pair of black swans floated downstream, and a number of other birds gathered, waiting to see if they would be a lucky recipient of the bread.  The sketch I did make doesn't quite illustrate how many were there but trust me, there were plenty.

Once it seemed like there was no more food coming their way, they came our direction, hopeful that we too would be generous.  Didn't have anything to offer but took photos instead.  My favourites usually are the ones with either long legs or big feet in proportion with their body. Here are just a few of our guests.

Black swan

Dusky moorhen

Australian magpie

Eurasian coot