Just before Christmas....

We had planned to go out sketching in the Botanic Gardens. But in the days leading up to Christmas, the traffic in inner Sydney is horrific and we needed to cross the city to go to the Gardens. We decided to move on to Plan B.

We went to Iron Cove, just down behind the Leichhardt Pool where I used to swim. They used to tie the boats up on a wooden jetty, but they have them tied to a railing now. Not so picturesque, but still interesting with all the colours.

The sky was a bit cloudy and it was very hot. There was a strong wind, and we had to hold our sketchbooks firmly, and even so they occasionally did an inadvertent jiggle. That is why we drew in pencil and finished them at home. In fact the wind grew stronger and chased us away, so we went to Leichhardt (Italian area) for a coffee at the Locantro.

Boats at Iron Cove

I drove over to Iron Cove to draw the boats the other morning. It is on the inner harbour, west of the Bridge. I used to swim at Leichhardt Pool which is on a hill above this little park and boat jetty. It was a lovely spring morning, so I hopped in the car with my sketchbook. The light was a bit flat by the time I got there but I did my best and did some quick drawings of the boats. The pole with the sign is advice to fisherman not to eat fish from west of the harbour bridge because of levels of dioxin in the water.