Blog

I am back from the Leisurefest with photos and ideas to share.

Firstly, I want to show the one caravan that I am voting the BEST new caravan on the block.

This caravan is not for everyone but it services the need of a large section of the population. I am talking about, the ->

Accessavan. Wheelchair accessible caravans.

It is about time too.

The Accessible Caravans have been designed for people in wheelchairs by people in wheelchairs. I hope to see quite a few of these on the road, on our next Australian tour.

I’m very happy to ‘plug’ this product as I admire good design and fulfilment of need.

The accessavan has a fully accessible, wheel –in toilet/shower.

Their brochure says

ACCESS & EQUITY = INDEPENDENCE & DIGNITY

There is a range of options including slide out ramps, hydrolic ramps and lifts.

Custom bed heights, custom made mattress.

Overbed ceiling hoists and hooks

Wide wheelchair turning area.

Folding tables and seats,

Handrails fitted everywhere.

Low bench heights.

Caravans built to your individual needs.

Phone (03)9407 1230

Visit the website for all the latest news, photo gallery, show and events where you can see this innovative well designed special needs caravan. www.accessavan.com.au

This was NOT a paid add or review by accessavan, I was genuinely impressed by the design and love helping get the information ‘out there’, that the nomad way f life is now accessible to even more people.

Near the Accessavan display is a caravan insurance advice van. Reg and I found it pays to shop around rather than just insuring your caravan with the firm recommended by the caravan salespeople. I like to find out as much as I can before speaking directly, face to face with insurance representatives.

We had a dream drive from Hervey Bay to Marlborough, Queensland, Australia today.

Here I am adding to the graffiti mural at the invitation of the Marlborough Hotel tonight. I'm adding my name to the internal walls of this country pub which has become my office for the evening.

Travellers can camp overnight in the hotel carpark for a modest cost.

I travel extensively to draw inspiration for my paintings and writing from life experience.
You will discover my Australian rural-lit novels at www.rural-lit.com

Time to Smell the Roses, paint, write novels, blog and create video art demonstrations and non-fiction books to teach what I know following a sixty-year successful creative life. But, I'm not done doing as yet, and even though I'm a septuagenarian who no longer needs to work, I never plan on retiring. Another floral masterpiece and a historical fiction novel set in the Third French Empire are both taking shape in my studio. That is why I need to stay connected with others and maintain my life in balance by stopping to smell the roses.

If you check out my art prints, you will see that I paint roses from nature. I grow them in my studio garden. Gardening gives me exercise and is an excellent balance for the many hours a day that I spend writing novels. Today, I am striving to enjoy a balanced life by taking time out to smell the roses.

I love living close to nature.

I surround our home with blooming and edible plants and use plants to climate control, large spreading deciduous trees and creepers cool us in summer and allow the sun to stream in through the windows during the winter months.

I trust my intuitiveness, and while I practice time management principles that have helped me through a busy and productive life, I go with the flow and my feelings wherever possible. I relax and enjoy life. and my spirit is fulfilled through creative endeavour.

Enjoy this pictures of my garden with me. If you know how I could add additional photographs and also a video link to improve this, and my future blogs, I'd be most appreciative if you would let me know.

If you wish to see some of my more developed blogs, check out http://www.inkpour.com which I work along with guest bloggers. It won the Michelle Bridges best blog award. My travel and lifestyle blog is http://www.gray-nomad.com

As you can see by those blogs, I have been blogging for a decade. Problogger has been my adviser during that time. I completed the Thirty Days to a Better Blog initial training a decade ago. I have continued my training in blogging. I'm a novelist, but each aspect of writing is unique, the same as you need different training for each medium of art.

If you wish to be more knowledgeable about blogging, I'd highly recommend https://problogger.com as a starting point. I'm always happy to pass along my knowledge to others, With a sixty-year career as a professional artist and published author behind me, it's time for me to share. If I could add videos to this blog, I would add in some art demonstrations.

There are many ways that you can write blogs. There are few right ways and wrong ways, just blogger preference. I have a love for nature and travel and an interest in country life, and as you can see, my cottage garden. All of these things will spill over into my blog for I'm not striving to write with formality, or as an authoritarian expert on a subject here. I save the tutoring for non-fiction books I write in a pet name, Here is where I can invite my reader into my surroundings and online studio to share the experiences with me. So for those who are wondering what to expect of me, I'll take this relaxed, chatty style on these blogs.

Today, I come here to share the rose blooms on my arbor, and with my mind racing with excitement at the prospect of painting them, and sharing the video of that painting on blogs that allow a video uplift. Unlike with my novels which are heavily edited, I write my blogs, fresh in first draft thoughts. Feel welcome to comment. I'll strive to reply to all friendly comments. I'm not going to reply again to someone suggesting that I should only blog once a month. ;-) One does wonder about the intentions of another wishing you would go and hide. True artists and authors aren't like that, we are all generous by nature and encourage creativity.

Best wishes, and happy creativity to you.:-)

My Australian rural-lit books are available at http://www.rural-lit.com
cheers, Ryn.

George Carlin on age 102.
(Absolutely Brilliant)

Do you realise that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about ageing that you think in fractions.

'How old are you?' 'I'm four and a half!' You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back... You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

'How old are you?' 'I'm gonna be 16!' You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life .... . You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony. YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40......... Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30 ; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there Into the 90s, you start going backwards; 'I Was JUST 92.'

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. 'I'm 100 and a half!'
May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them... That is why you pay 'them'

2. Keep only cheerful friends...... The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, and hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

~~~

I travel extensively to draw inspiration for my paintings and writing from life experience.
You will discover my Australian rural-lit novels at www.rural-lit.com

​Ryn Shell.

There is blogging potential in every day. Photo is Reg and Valentine assembling the watercolour painting table.

Valentine and tabby kitten can sit up there and watch me paint—and hopefully not come and paint with me.

~~~

I travel extensively to draw inspiration for my paintings and writing from life experience.
You will discover my Australian rural-lit novels at www.rural-lit.com

​Ryn Shell.

I plan to watercolour paint, once I've completed my day's writing. Any requests?

​This is Lake Wondouree near Ballarat.

I am giving myself quite a challenge for 2017 as I'll strive to both paint and write,
As both are labour intensive, and I have fitness and life goals, this will be a challenge.

​Today is my first day at having done a full day's writing, some exercise, and then turning to art in the evening. I'm keen to make this routine work.

Lake Wendouree
Lake in Victoria, Australia
Lake Wendouree is an artificially-created and maintained shallow urban lake located adjacent to the suburb of the same name in the city of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. Wikipedia
Area: 238 ha
Length: 2 km
Surface elevation: 450 m
Shore length: 6 km
Shore length1: 6 km (3.7 mi)
Cities: Ballarat

~~~

I travel extensively to draw inspiration for my paintings and writing from life experience.
You will discover my Australian rural-lit novels at www.rural-lit.com

​Ryn Shell.

I painted a tonal impressionist, Alla Prima rose tonight, with two cats keeping me company.

Valentine watching me on my right and Tabby kitten watching on my left. I must have taken at least thirty progress photos to put together a film clip, to show the progress—while I wait for video equipment to arrive. But, the iPhone hasn't sent the photos. It I seems that either the phone is not working properly or our internet isn't powerful enough.

As I cannot show the oil painting that I painted tonight, this is Just Joey, painted in watercolour pencils created one lazy afternoon while sitting chatting in the garden with a friend.

~~~

I travel extensively to draw inspiration for my paintings and writing from life experience.
You will discover my Australian rural-lit novels at www.rural-lit.com

​Ryn Shell.

"Is it laying or lying?

The variation in US, UK and AU English has me using both a US and a UK editor for my Australian novels, to ensure everything is understood in context.
Anyhow, this Aussie lady is laying back with feet up watching the other half work at setting up my studio.

~~~

I travel extensively to draw inspiration for my paintings and writing from life experience.
You will discover my Australian rural-lit novels at www.rural-lit.com

​Ryn Shell.

I love horses in artworks, so I have a few in my print on demand gallery. Some of the originals are on my walls, and some are in storage ready for my four grandchildren to select from when they have their homes. I do occasionally sell originals.

This painting was a three foot by four foot, and it is oil on stretched Belgian linen canvas, the museum-quality prints are available to order.

“The horses by the dam” by Ryn Shell. This work was painted in the year I was invited to exhibit in Sydney with other artists, who like me had been chosen as Australia’s top ten artists. I think this was in my late, forties and early in my years as owner, artist of Buninyong Gallery.

~~~~

I travel extensively to draw inspiration for my paintings and writing from life experience.
You will discover my Australian rural-lit novels at www.rural-lit.com

​Ryn Shell.

I am sitting beside a riverbank completing one of the most significant painting projects of my life.
I am writing a novel; painting with words.
This had been a goal of mine since I was thirteen-years-old. It is what I wish to do now.


Samuel Ullman (April 13, 1840 – March 21, 1924) was an American businessman, poet, humanitarian. He is best known today for his poem Youth

Youth is not a time of life - it is a state of mind.
It is a temper of the will; a quality of the imagination;
a vigor of the emotions;
it is a freshness of the deep springs of life.

Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity,
of the appetite for adventure over a life of ease...
Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years;
people grow old by deserting their ideals."

~Samuel Ullman

~~~I travel extensively to draw inspiration for my paintings and writing from life experience.
You will discover my Australian rural-lit novels at www.rural-lit.com

​Ryn Shell.

While teaching today, I pulled out my on location painted oil work of Nanga Bay in Western Australia and hazed the distance, increasing the feeling of aerial perspective and finishing the artwork. On the left is a close up on the right the work photographed by night light.

I returned to Western Australia the paint regularly.

~~~

I travel extensively to draw inspiration for my paintings and writing from life experience.
You will discover my Australian rural-lit novels at www.rural-lit.com

​Ryn Shell.