JUNE PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT.

Time again to link with Kate over at I live, I love, I craft, I am me, for the photo hunt.
Our words were a good mix & I found it hard to stick to one, so have doubled up on a few.

1.  NOTICE.

I took this photo many years ago at a Museum in Broken Hill, thinking how my Dad was a proficient morse code operator in his youth.  He started work at 14 as a telegram boy, then was promoted to learn the above.  As time went on he saw much technology come & go.

Now this sign (taken last year in Queensland), tickled my sense of humour.  Again I thought of Dad in his latter years with dementia & wondered how many of us can relate to these circumstances with family or friends as we age.
2.  SPOTTED.

Last Thursday, DH & I had a lovely small walk & spotted a lady out with her young pups in the park.
They are Pointer pups & have ....SPOTS......  There were 3 in this group & another 6 curled up together too.  Now that makes 9...whew, a lot of puppies, but the Mum actually had 12 & three had already gone to their long term homes.  I'd not had my spotted photo, so as well as being able to cuddle one of the pups, having my camera with me meant I had my last photo too.

3.  STARTS WITH A K.....

This photo & the one below were taken many years ago at No.4, our previous home in this suburb.
                      The kookaburra shown in our Maple, visited regularly for a number of years.

4.  COBWEB.

                                          Cobwebs on a misty morn on our small Magnolia.

5.  STEP.
Another 2 for 1 moment.

Stone steps jutting from a beautiful stone wall, to make climbing over easier.  I remember this was in a village called Sawley, Lancashire, where we had a wander through such pretty scenery.

Not being able to make up my mind, I had to show this old trolley bus at the Ballarat Tram Museum, which we visited earlier this year.  The steps on the outside to the open top are interesting.  I remember trolley buses in Sydney when I was a child & always found them fascinating.  There were very few places where they ran in the 50's, but we were lucky to be able to catch one to a great aunt's place.  Not quite the same as this one.

6.  MY OWN CHOICE.
Sunday & Monday mornings this week just gone.

Around 10am on Sunday, after eating a crumbly biscuit, I went outside to shake off the crumbs, heard a most unusual sound & looked up to the sky.  What did I see, but this hot air balloon drifting right above my head.  It was amazing & I've never seen one here before.  They fly over Melbourne & the Yarra Valley, but not this far east.  I ran inside, got my camera & took a few photos & this was my favourite with the moon.  It was even in our local free paper on Friday, so must have been a real "one off."

4 good frosts in a row, have made for very cold mornings with our pond freezing over, as in the photo above.   Brrrr!!!!!
Well, I know I'm running a bit late, but do hope you enjoy.
I'm off to link up & hopefully see what the other hunter's have come up with.
Take care all, huggles Susan.

FEBRUARY SCAVENGER PHOTO HUNT. (2018)

Joining in with the lovely Kate from "I live, I love, I craft, I am me", with a set of words & accompanying photos.

1.  WHITE.

The white kangaroos in the reserve at Bordertown.  I know I've shown them before, but couldn't resist for the colour white.

2.  METAL/METALLIC.

Metal relics at the freeway services in Gundagai (NSW), where you can stop for a cuppa to break a long journey.  This was taken in January on our way to Canberra.  Here you can also see the famous "Dog on a Tuckerbox".

3.  CAMOUFLAGE.

I struggled with this one.  Hope I'm not showing too many that have been on my blog before.  These silos are in the Western Districts of Victoria, where there are quite a few painted silos.  I am very much in awe of these, as the mind boggles as to how they are so accurate at such a huge size.  Not sure I've made sense with that.  This photo taken on our way home from Bordertown last July.

4.  BEGINS WITH A...............J

JALOPY.

The dictionary describes 'jalopy' as a dilapidated old vehicle & I think it suits this well.  Taken again on the above trip, but on hubby's phone when he spent a day at the Warracknabeal Agricultural Museum, doing his thing, whilst I was sewing with friends.

5.  BUD.

I love this photo of the magnolia buds, taken just as darkness was falling in late Autumn, many years ago at No. 4.  We'd had the magnolia for about 5 years & it had not flowered, but suddenly, at the wrong time of year, it was in full bud & flowered again that Spring.

6.  MY OWN CHOICE.

CONTORTIONIST????

I took this photo last Friday, whilst we were away in Geelong for a tiny break.  We spent a lovely day in our beloved Ballarat at the Botanic Gardens (& may I say a good half hour at Eureka Patchwork),
and wandered to our hearts content through the gardens, glass house and around the lake.  I captured this swan scratching away, with no regard to how it got it's head to where it wanted it to be.  A hoot to watch.

Well, that's my lot for this hunt & I've been a bit naughty with hunting through the archives.
I did manage to take some photos whilst away, but they will be for another post, along with some crafty finishes for another catch-up post.
Take care all & happy hunting to the other scavengers.
Huggles, Susan.

WHOOPS!!!!

Where has April gone?
 I 'd not realised that it has been 2 weeks since I posted.
This month has been ever so busy, what with all the holidays, ie.  Easter & for us here in Oz, also Anzac day, which is actually today.  I've had all sorts of appointments with doctor, physio, podiatrist, dietitian and X-rays, which are just all sorts of fiddly bits that happen from time to time, but not necessarily on a regular basis.  We've also had a little bit of grandie minding, which makes a change for us, car club meetings & an outing, ferrying a friend to hospital for a cataract removal, then home again, and a couple of other days out. I'm also dealing with the new Disability Scheme interviews, etc., they are bringing in over here, for my brother.  So much to take in.   All in all, I don't feel that I've been home much either. .  Need to catch up with photos for the Scavenger Hunt, plus general type bits of house/garden stuff & my sewing, which is terribly behind on what I set out to achieve recently.
After that bit of twaddle, let's see some photos to go with above blurb.

We'll start with a second day out to McCraes Homestead on the Mornington Peninsular which belongs to the National Trust.  This time I took photos.  Above is the house, which was built in 1844.
Now for a few pics I took inside & in the  garden.

The main room above, where they ate, relaxed & entertained.  There is a central hall with 4 rooms leading off, this being one of them, with 2 bedrooms, plus another smaller bedroom, which has a storeroom behind.  The kitchen was in a separate building a short distance from the house, in case of fire.

In the main bedroom, the bed is sporting a very old quilt, with the papers still in tact.  There is also a lovely timber cradle and another single bed.

This is the storeroom, where they kept valuable items, so they weren't stolen by bushrangers or strangers.  This was in the very early days of settlement, with not a lot widely available, so everything was important.

An assortment of lovely old household items, toys & games.

 The outdoor bread oven, behind the house.

And what else did I find outside, but a beautiful bed of Arisaema.  I didn't even know you could grow these in Australia. I saw them in the glasshoue at Harlow Carr once & thought they were so pretty. They are a native of northern USA, I've discovered & I came home with a small bulblet, which I've planted in a pot.  We'll see what happens and 'yes', I had permission to take one.

Another day out was with Master L & Missy Moo over Easter when we looked after them for a day.
We went to Werribee Open Range Zoo & took a ride on the Safari Train, then wandered at our own pace for the rest of the afternoon.
Before we did go out, DD had baked some fancy biscuits for Missy & I to decorate.

A  little icing, squeezy stuff & few decorations, we ended up with 2 trays of pretty biscuits.

The Safari Train.

Camels

A medley of African animals.

Sleeping Hippos.

And what can we see here?  A Meerkat.
They are very hard to photograph, as they run round like mad if they catch a glimpse of movement. 

I had so much to tell & have had a hard time trying to fit it all in.  I know I had a photo of the quilt on the big machine, but for the life of me can't find where I saved it.😒

Now we knew we had frogs in our pond, but can never see them.  But, to hubby's surprise yesterday morning, he found one in a bowl that we keep to soak pots in occasionally.  Poor little mite couldn't get out because of the straight plastic sides, so we took him up & put him back in the pond.

Enough from me, as I will be back on Friday with the Scavenger Photo Hunt & hopefully be a little more organised.  Too much has happened this month & I'm exhausted.
Take care all and huggles from Susan.

DREARY SUNDAY

Hope all mothers here in Oz, have had a lovely Mother's day.  The weather has been wet, cool and overcast here in Victoria.

The bare branches against a grey sky with a few sparrows resting.

Last Saturday, I heard a car in our driveway and went out to investigate and what did I find on my doorstep, but this ---------

A  parcel.

The contents.

This parcel came all the way from The Wool Warehouse in the UK and was my mother's day present from DD.  It is the Cupcake Pack for a crochet rug by Lucy from Attic 24.  I will be starting this during the long winter nights whilst watching TV.  I hope to finish this below before I start on the rug.

I had some hanks of wool from many years ago that I'd stashed away and some old knitting magazines, and decided to make myself another jumper.  The above is what is on the go.  The magazine is actually dated October 1986 and is a publication called SANDRA and the pattern only has charted instructions, which I've never attempted before.  It's all going OK, so now know that I can follow a chart.

This morning I put the second customer quilt on the machine.

Dog panels with sashing.

Closeup of quilting.

Done by 3pm.

It didn't take long as it was an easy Edge to Edge pattern she wanted on it, with bones.  I will deliver this tomorrow morning to our local quilt shop.

Whilst out one day in March, at an Antique & Collectables place, I discovered this little footstool and just couldn't resist, although it does need recovering.  Being on the extremely short side, I need something to rest my feet on and so far I'm wondering how I go along without it.  I hope to recover it sometime in the future, but you just can't hurry these things.(lol)

Footstool.

Another find has been given the treatment it needed  and is now hanging on the wall above my desk in the study.  This print was purchased in Ambleside in 2014 and has sat rolled in a postal tube.  I took it to the framers and they quoted me $150 to have a simple mat and frame and I just couldn't justify it.  On our little forays into A & C's (see above), I kept a lookout for a suitable frame and found this one with an old print in it, which only cost $15, and the thick cardboard for around the edge $4, was cut by hubby and we think it looks great for a lot less expense.

Aerial Map of The Lake District.

OK, enough of my ramblings today, but it made a dismal and misty afternoon go by quickly whilst posting this.  It is a jumble of bits I've been going to blog about and just haven't got around to.
Hope your weekend has been a good one and all take care.
Susan.

A TAH DAH MOMENT.

Yes!  It is finished.

Now,, what am I going to call it?  I don't want the same name as in the magazine, as it has some of their alternate blocks and a very different colourway.

The magazine picture.  A publication no longer in print, which was QUILTS with style and started in  Jan/Feb 2006 and continued over 6 issues.  I started mine sometime in 2008 with a lot of life's happenings along the way.

Sorry I've been so quiet, but am still not 100% well and the awful heat (41 yesterday and 35 today), I've not had a lot of motivation except to get above finished for the flower and craft show on Sunday.

Since I last posted, I've hardly used the camera, but did find a few photos I'd taken over the last few weeks and also we did have a lovely day out to a town with lots of Antique and Old Wares dealers, so here we go.

Late afternoon sky with moon.

Coming on dusk.

These were taken from our backyard.

Our day to Tyabb was to look  for a small chest of drawers or similar for my cones of cotton (for Bubs) instead of being all muddled in a plastic tub.  No luck but did pick up a couple of bits (naughty!).

This is what came home with us.  A couple of bottles for my collection, which I use for simple flowers, a vintage ecclesiastical letter holder, (so it said), an art deco vase, of which I'd seen a similar square one and hadn't bought, so felt quite lucky to find this one. and, drum roll............a beautiful, delicate water colour of Ashness Bridge, a place I loved.  I feel quite honoured to have found this, as it signed by the artist and is not a print.  I even got $5 off the ticket price.

Another item is this lovely old book,, which is a teeny shade younger than me.

This edition is from 1950.

One of pages of wonderful black and white images.

I did fall for this book, as it reminded me of photos I'd seen in my great grandmother's Country Life magazines, that she allowed me to look at.  They were passed on to her, by an older gentlemen who lived nearby. 

I was the lucky recipient of a large international envelope during last week.  What was inside?

Ahh this!

 I am not able to locate this magazine locally any more and happened to mention it to Sue at  Quilt Times, who's quilt appears on the cover and instruction inside, so to my surprise she sent me one.  A huge thanks.

A couple of photos to end.  These are closeups of some of the quilting on the star quilt, as I did try and custom quilt it.  Probably not the best, but so be it.

Hopefully our weather will cool down soon, and I'll be a bit more energetic and have a bit more to post about.  This weekend we have the show I've been talking about and on the 6th March we are going to an open day at "Harewood House".  No, not the one in Yorkshire, but here on the coast of South Gippsland.  It is an old homestead and I hope to get some good photos and be able to blog about it.  

Hope everyone is having a good week, take care and lots of huggles to you all.

Susan.