FRIDAY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT - ORNAMENT.

 OK, I'm running very late due to life getting in the way, but here goes.

As we have hot Christmases here in Oz, I don't go to town on decorations, but do have a few favourites that come out each year & I'm still debating as to having a tree up or not.

Atop the wood burner a small tree DH fashioned for me a couple of years ago & I painted.  The little figurine is also timber & I've had it for a long time.  The lovely candle arch was purchased in an arcade in  Skipton, Yorkshire back in 2016 & always has pride of place somewhere prominent.

Many moons ago I purchased the gold filigree sleigh & popped this bundle of goodies into it and it comes out each year to grace the diningroom table and of course on a table mat I made from Christmas fabric.

My lovely Madonna vase that I've probably had since the early 80's and definitely needs a nicer arrangement to brighten her up a little.  If we are able to find somewhere local with bits'n'bobs I'll attempt something prettier.

Nothing wonderful for the front door in the way of fresh greenery as if we have "very" hot days, they completely wither & wilt, so a little something I made to be a bit festive.  A closeup below.

Now Jak prompted me to take a photo of my printers' tray with a lovely handmade Christmas card sitting on top and even though the printers' tray has been on before, I thought it looks good with the 3D card and it's small items.

My lot done hurriedly I'm afraid and hope I can still link this up.  Thanks to Astrid for hosting these and I'm already trying to work on this Fridays.

Take care all and hugs from down under.

Susan.

FRIDAY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT - Something we see everyday......

 Linking up with Astrid for the hunt this week and although I know what I see most days, was it going to be of any interest to others? So once again I've probably been a bit wayward.  Well, here goes...........

Looking from our side entrance, across the road to the farm that is basically in the middle of suburbia.  I often refer to this as "Middle Farm" and  realise that one day it will be cut up for housing, but at least I can see the cows grazing and a tractor working for now.

SKIES.

Looking at the sky at different times of day can be absolutely fascinating with different cloud formations and colours, so here is a selection from my archives.

The next one was taken last week about mid morning and this has been very much the weather we've had for most of November so far, though not always with the rainbow.  Each of the sky photos has been taken from home.

Must admit to the garden being messy at the moment due to the incessant inclement weather, though the blueberries are netted now.

DAILY WALKING.

Not as much of this has been done lately either, but a few things we see on our close to home walks are of course trees and a couple of quaint boardwalks across marshy areas.

A beautiful white bark gum in someones front yard.  I do have lots more tree photos, so only one more with a bit of a story to go with it.

This is now a vacant block which once had a beautiful 2 story art deco type house on it and I'd always admired it from when we moved to this town in 2004.  We live closer  now and one day as we turned the corner to come home, they were tearing it down and it has been like this for the last 3-4 years with a small sign that claims to a child care centre being built on it.  As the Pandemic hit, all was put on hold, but is now about to go ahead soon.  In the centre of those trees is a beautiful old lamp,  that I'm going to inquire about, as it would make a lovely garden ornament.  

One last photo which some will know as I used to often talk about out resident magpies and they still come and at this time of year with bubs in tow, can make an awful racket hoping I'll put out a few breadcrumbs for them.  They only get a tiny bit as bread isn't good for them, but I can't help spoiling these amusingly friendly birds.  I do love all our birdlife, but these are special.

Taken late last year with my Butcher bird sitting on the fence too.

OK, that's enough for me today and although it's cloudy, we've a few things to attend to this morning and I'll link up now and read all the other hunter posts tonight.

Take care all, have a great weekend and huge hugs from down under.

FRIDAY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT - APPLE

 First and foremost, I'd like to apologise for being so absent.  Basically I've had troubles with my old laptop, which I use each morning to check my email & catch up on blogs, then to make matters worse, Google updated something or other and more troubles have ensued with all our devices.  What with Covid lockdowns going on for so long, nothing much has been happening here and although we still have some tough restrictions, things have eased for now.  Weather has been horrendous and we have the fire lit today and it's supposed to be nearly summer and everywhere seems waterlogged with so much rain lately.  It's not too windy, though it is predicted over the weekend and the cleanup from the last two big storms is still underway, so we'll keep our fingers crossed that it stays away.  I suppose from all the above, you may realise, that I've been a bit down of late, but I'll try and ease myself back into blogging slowly, catch up on a bit of blog reading, use  my camera more and just generally try and relax a little.  Here we go for this week's word......................

APPLE.

We live in an area with many different farms, including apple orchards and although I had high hopes of getting out this week to take some better photos, this will have to do.  Most of the orchards are covered in hail netting.

Let's see what I had fun finding and photographing today.  It is all plain nonsense really............😊

My favourite Apple & Ginger juice along with 2 lovely timber turned apples that I was gifted with many moons ago.  The fabric shows lovely green cooking apples.

My glass apple bowls which I used on regular basis for stewed apple or apple snow while the kids were growing up at home and the apple sauce dish which still gets used occasionally if we have roast pork or maybe grilled pork chops.  Above them is a page in a cookbook showing some apple recipes on my book stand.

A quilt of my own design using apple fabric.  Taking good photos today has been hard due to the inclement weather.

And lastly, my old business card showing apples beside my business name, when I was quilting for others a few years back.  Of course, most will recognise the name as my blog title too.

I did a little looking back in old photo albums for a couple of photos from years gone by, but alas mustn't have taken as many snaps when our children were small, but from 1980 to 1986 we lived in a small town called Batlow which had a plethora of orchards and a cannery which canned vegetables and fruit and made the best sparkling apple juice.  We also spent many years living in Tasmania, which is known as the Apple Isle, and again as a full time working Mum, time was short for much photography.  Oh well, that will have to be my lot for this week.  I'll look forward to seeing what everyone else has come up with.

I'll link now with Astrid.

Take care all and hugs from down under.

Susan.

FRIDAY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT - SCHOOL

 Linking with Astrid for the Hunt and this week's word is "School", which I really struggled with, but here goes.  

A lovely old school in the south east corner of Victoria.  I took this photo last year when we had our 4 day break away in an unlockdown period and was greatly appreciated.

A new school being built on the new estate near to us last year and it is now in operation.  What a contrast to the one above which was built in 1877.  

Now for a couple of photos from the 60's.

The non digital age of listening to radio programmes broadcast across Australia for schools, especially vital for children in remote areas who did all their learning via School of the Air.  I did have all 4 from my Primary School years 1958-1961, but I can  only find these two.  Once in High school it was all very different.

My two younger brothers and myself at the beginning of the school year in 1964.  G (on the far left), in his uniform ready to start High school for his first year and it was to be my last year at school.  My youngest brother (middle), not in uniform always went to a Special school due to being intellectually disabled.  Look at the daggy uniform I have on.  You ought to have seen our summer hat & winter beret!  Oh...........and black stockings in winter too.

OK, my lot for this week and found I didn't have the photos I thought would be good.  Remembered that I lost a lot of my schooling years memorabilia in my parent's basement flood a long time ago.

Not sure I'm going to be in for next week's hunt as DH doesn't like Pizza, so never on the menu.  We'll see if I can think outside the box..................

Take care all, stay safe and hugs.

Susan.

PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT - FRIENDS.

 Well here I am for the first time in a while.........what with poor internet connections due to storm damage, feeling unlike my true self with all the world in chaos & such bleak winter weather, I've not really felt like blogging.  Now I do admit that I've been keeping myself amused with a lot of sewing and that is down to blogging "FRIENDS".

I've participated in a few quiltalongs and have a mystery QAL coming up this month.  I did post my 2 quilts done for the QAL run by Sandra at mmm.quilts in Canada and my friend Joy in Ballarat who blogs at Days filled with Joy has also been running a few too.

Over a 4 week period we were given the patterns for 4 blocks and challenged to make them and put them into our own setting.  This is mine finished and I've been waiting to take some good photos, but the weather just hasn't played nicely.

The next quilt is one of my own designs and came about during a conversation when I saw Joy last year as the pandemic took hold and she decided we should do a joint QAL with the title "Let's Stay Home".

I didn't join in with mine, though I am participating in hers which is a year long one with stitcheries and pieced blocks.  Eventually did mine, but have no pattern writing skills, so haven't put it up on my blog as a QAL.

LET'S STAY HOME.

A big thank you to quilting bloggers who run these QAL's and mysteries to keep us motivated.

MY FEATHERED FRIENDS.

A couple of recent photos of visitors to our garden.

One of the magpies who visit on a regular basis, helping herself to the coir from a hanging basket which I'd intended to plant up, but hadn't got around to, due to the cold weather.

Two sulphur-crested cockatoos above the blueberry bushes.  We don't see many here but they have such big characters which I enjoy.

AN OLD FRIEND (my BFF).

My friend Sue and myself taken some years ago now and alas we've not seen each other now for a few years due to the pandemic, but hopefully next year will settle down & we can meet up again.

This very old school photo shows the year we met at school.  This was a new school for me since we'd moved house and Sue was asked to look after me and although we didn't go right through our school years together, we've managed to stay in touch all this time.  I'm sitting on the far left in the front row & Sue is third from the right, also front row.

FURRY FRIENDS.

I know I've posted this photo before, but here are my 2 late cats curled up on the armchair with me.  Most evenings after work they would be up there with me.  Fluffy on the left was Tabitha's daughter & made it through to 14 and her Mum was nearly 18 when we lost her.  I do miss them.  This photo would have been taken in the late 90's.

OK, my lot for this week's photo hunt and I know it is a little disjointed and I've waffled on a lot, but thank you if you read this and I'll hopefully pull myself out of this slump and blog a little more in the future.  BTW, we are in Lockdown #6 & things don't look like improving soon, nor the weather.  Bring on some sunshine please!

Take care all, stay safe & hugs from down under.

Susan.

FRIDAY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT - BERRY

 A few hiccups over the last few days, but here we are linking with Astrid for the Scavenger Hunt.

Today's word is BERRY & although I'd thought about getting out to take a few photos, the weather has not played ball at all.  Thank heavens for our archives, so here we go & I know my loyal followers will know me well enough to that they'll see the inevitable from our garden.

Our blueberry bushes with new berries before they ripen.

My trug with ripe berries.  Last seasons haul was around 30kgs overall.

And what do they become at times?  Why, blueberry muffins among other things.

Pyracantha berries (I think) that grow in a small reserve near our local railway crossing.

And lastly, an arrangement I made whilst living in Ballarat from both my garden & some foraged roadside bits.

Not even going to try and identify these, though we do have inky black berries in there.

OK, quick and easy for me today after forgetting all about it.  We've had computer  problems, along with so much storm damage here in south eastern Australia.  There are so many trees down in Gippsland and floods in some areas with more rain forecast over coming days.  As we still can't have visitors to our house or go visiting, it is a matter of staying at home & keeping busy, warm & dry and trying not to stress or worry.  I've been appliqueing flowers on my next row of the Bedding Plants QAL, which is quite time consuming as I've not done any raw edge applique for a while.  I'll do a show & tell later next week.

Take care all, stay safe & huggles from a very soggy down under.

Susan.

FRIDAY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT. - GLASS

 Once again Friday has come & gone with me not posting, but I am here with a titbit of "glass" and linking with Astrid.  A couple from my archives & 2 I took today after a baking session.  Very cold and even though we have a "little" freedom, I'm not going anywhere yet for safety's sake.

NOTRE DAME ROSE WINDOW.

As you can see from the date it is well before the terrible fire.  We did a quick tour of a portion of Europe as a side trip when we visited UK that year for a wedding of one of our nephews.

GLASSHOUSE.

This is the glasshouse at RHS Rosemoor which are lovely gardens in Devon.  Taken in 2011 on another trip for a niece's wedding.

BAKING.

My very old Pyrex glass loaf dish which has seen a lot of use over the years for ginger cake, lemon drizzle cake and even meatloaves.  The cake above is a Maori Loaf & ever so quick & easy.  The recipe was given to me by a friend in the 80s, who had a sister-in-law in New Zealand & she made it quite often.

The biscuits above are from a very old Women's Weekly recipe book, which I've been making since I first got married.  Our eldest granddaughter, now 24 loved them.  The glass dish I displayed them in is one I've also had for a long time.  They are now in the tin & we may have one for afternoon tea.........or maybe a piece of cake.  

OK, my lot done & dusted and hope everyone is having a great weekend.  I'll link this, then later will pop in to have a peek at the other hunters' photos.

Take care all, stay safe & hugs from down under.

Susan.

PS:  I may have a little post about some quilting tomorrow.😏

FRIDAY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT - MUSIC

 Today, the last of Mays' photo hunt words' is MUSIC, so joining in and linking up with Astrid.

Photos are varied aspects from my own enjoyment of music, which I inherited from my Dad.  Growing up in the 50s meant we didn't have TV till I was around 11 years old, so our radio & record player were big parts of my childhood.

The music notes Keith fashioned for me some years ago & I finally framed & now have hanging on the wall.

My beloved Cottage piano which I bought in the late 80's whilst living in Tasmania.

I can tinkle away on the piano, but not well as DH will attest to, so it doesn't get much use now that he is retired and it doesn't live in this position anymore since we had the woodburner installed on this wall.  I learnt to play when I was 5 for about 9 months till we found out the 2nd hand piano we had needed a large amount of work on it, which my parents couldn't afford. Luckily I was able to read music & our public schools always had singing & bands as part of our education. In my teen years I bought one cheap from a Scout Hall, only to find it also need fixing, then we moved & I had to get rid of it as it wouldn't fit in the new house my parents purchased.  Fast forward to a few years in Batlow, & I was given an old one, which definitely had seen better days, so that was left at our rented house we were living in while we built our new house.  The move to Tassie, then saw me purchase a "brand new" one, shown above.

My little table harp, which I actually purchased at Saltaire Mill Music shop in UK.
About all I really know how to play on it is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but I do love it.

Music fabrics, above and below.
I've collected them over the years and do have an idea, but just haven't got around to it yet.

And for the last is this.................................

Andre Rieu in concert at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne in 2009.
I actually took this photo myself so probably not the best.

This wasn't the first of his concert's we'd been to in Melbourne, having attended the one on his first tour of Australia a few years earlier.  The first one was absolutely huge and amazing and the night we were there was the one they recorded for his Australian DVD.

During my teen years I went to very few concerts and then a wonderful experience whilst living in Tassie was seeing Cliff Richard at the Entertainment Centre in Hobart.  One of my pop idols.  Keith and I've also been to some great musicals, so treasure those times very much in these difficult times.

OK, enough twaddle from me about my love of MUSIC & will link this up now.

Thanks to other Hunt bloggers who were way ahead of me.  Take care all, stay safe & hugs from down under.

Susan. 

FRIDAY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT - MIRROR

 Friday again already...........where is the month going.  Today we will link with Astrid for the word........ ..MIRROR.

I've found a few odd things along with the rather obvious mirrors.

My dressing table which I have posted before.  
I purchased this in Tasmania in the mid 80's and it is made from Tasmanian Blackwood and is around circa 1910, we think.

The window frame, again which I've used recently.  DH made it and we placed mirror tiles behind to reflect the light.

A beautiful curved window mirror which I photographed in the sales section of the Visitor Information Centre at Fountains Abbey, back in 2014 when on holiday in UK.

Thinking of other options, I remembered the mirror like reflections in the dam at Gulf Station, a National Trust property in the Dandenong Ranges, here in Victoria.

Lastly, I snapped this about 10 minutes ago, when a silly idea popped into my head as I was about to do this post.

I have used this little mirror several times over the years to see how a section of fabric might look by fussy cutting in different shapes to form a hidden image.  Not as complicated as I've put it, but very hard to explain here.  

Well that's my lot for this week and now I'm off to link up and later see what the other hunters have come up with.

Freezing here today with cloud, wind, rain and the possibility of snow down to very low levels, though we very, very rarely get actual snow, but a little bit of sleet for a few minutes when it's cold enough.

Have a great weekend all, take care, stay safe & hugs from down under.

Susan.