UK TRIP (Part One)

After arriving safely early on Monday morning (29/7), we picked up our hire car and made for our pre-booked self catering unit in Christchurch,  Dorset.  We were very fortunate that we'd found somewhere so nice to stay.  Over the next 2 days we did what we had planned and some.
Our first day was a visit to The National Motor Museum at Beaulieu.  On the way we stopped in  the small village of Sway, where I picked up an interesting brochure about some of attractions of the area, but alas, time restraints meant we didn't see any.

BEAULIEU.

Not the best pic, but this is the only one we have (taken on DH's phone), as I'd misplaced the small lens for my camera and only had the lens cap on my big camera.  I was cranky with myself.  We did have a great day, saw the museum, house and abbey ruins.

BUCKLER'S HARD.
On arriving back at the car, I did find my lens, which I'd left in my ordinary handbag when I changed over to my little backpack.  On the way home we saw a sign for Buckler's Hard and decided to pay a visit.  What a gorgeous place.

This is on the Beaulieu River and ever so lovely & interesting.

I'm not going to bombard everyone with too many snaps, but just sort of catching up on where we went whilst away.

CHRISTCHURCH,
Again not too many pics as I'd not taken my camera into town, when we went in for a few provisions.
DH once again used his phone for me.

 A few photos of where we walked around the town.  It was well worth taking the time to see a little of the south which I've not been to before.
Next morning it was time to start travelling towards Northampton for our next few nights.  On the way we planned to go to Kingston Lacey, a National Trust property and it certainly didn't disappoint.

WIMBORNE MINSTER.
We passed through this lovely town & had a walk to find a coffee.  Another that captured me.

                                                     A stroll down one of the streets.

                                                         This sign "tickled" my fancy.

                  Sounded very interesting and if time had allowed would have been fun to see.

KINGSTON LACY.

                                                                  The house front.

                                                                   An amazing tree.
      Of course I can't go past a spectacular or strangely shaped tree without wanting to take a photo.
                                                    I'm sure I could do a book on trees.😊

                                         Oh, and this owl couldn't escape the camera either.

                                                 Espaliered trees against a beautiful wall.

   I also love the sumptuous hanging baskets you see in so many places.  Just a bit envious of these.

After leaving this wonderful place, we headed on to our next destination.  We were staying in Northampton for a few nights, so I could go to this..............................

I met up with another blogger & her friend & had a lovely day at the show. They took me to meet another friend who was actually working on a stand and to my amazement I knew this company very well as they are always at the Australian shows.  It happens they hail from New Zealand.  After wandering around & thinking about leaving to catch our train back to Northampton, we stopped off to say goodbye to the friend, when I suddenly went rushing up to a lady, whom had just noticed me too & as we gave each other a big hug, said in unison,"OMG, what are you doing here".  M just happens to live in the next suburb to us and used to have her own Quilt Shop, but runs it on line now, as well as doing the shows in Melbourne.......how amazing was that?

OK, enough of my rambling for today.  I'll be back on Friday with my photo hunt & hopefully next week a few more posts about UK, before getting back into some "ordinary" blogging stuff.
Thanks to those for taking the time to pop in after my few techy mishaps.
Take care all & huggles.
Susan.

WHERE TO START?

What with internet issues, (emails bouncing, blog comments on other blogs disappearing into thin air,
stuffing my own blog looking for a way of fixing being a "no-reply blogger" ), feeling low still, weather being absolutely crazy in as far as 2° one morning & only 10° during the day and now a couple of days later it is sunny, hot & 33°  (3.30pm Thursday).  I'm just a little perplexed or maybe just old & silly!!!!  I've so much to catch up on, I don't where to start.
A few quick photos, then over the next few weeks will try to sort all out and do several posts of trip to UK & a week spent away here in Oz during the grandies school holidays.

Craft.

This little quilt & baby jacket will be winging their way to UK next week for friends of my nephew who are expecting their first little bundle.  I showed the quilt a while back & the wool/pattern I bought at Morley Markets whilst away.

Garden.
A few snaps from the garden here in our variable Spring weather 😖.

Our many freesias which come up all over.

The Wonga Vine which has suddenly taken off & flowered.
Amazing.

Our time away in both UK and here has made me realise that I need to appreciate where I live & where I can visit.
As a child of the 50s & 60s we quite often recited this poem & on the odd occasion it comes to mind.
You'll see why at the end.  This particular verse (No.2 of 6) is the one we always used.
                                                                 MY COUNTRY
                                                                               by Dorothea Mackellar.
                                  I love a sunburnt country,
                                     A land of sweeping plains,
                                  Of ragged mountain ranges,
                                     Of droughts and flooding rains.
                                  I love her far horizons,
                                      I lover her jewel sea,
                                  Her beauty and her terror ----
                                      The

                                                                                                   for me.
The above photo was taken at the Arboretum in Canberra.
Although I do love UK, I've got to make sure I love my own country too, so that is my lot for today,
but, I'll be back now that I've sorted some of these technical & personal issues & hope to post lots of holiday snaps, crafty bits from both of us & join in the photo hunt next Friday.
Thanks to anyone who does pop in for a look, take care all and huggles.
Susan.

SEPTEMBER PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT.

The end of September already & joining in with I live, I love, I craft for the "Hunt".
I wasn't going to participate, but the weather here is dark, overcast, blowing a hooley & looks like rain, so I came inside to hunker down & got thinking about photos & feeling so low at the moment.
I think I know what's wrong, so I'll leave it at that & throw myself into getting this done.
Kate's words were a little more geared to Autumn, so I really had to think outside the box & I had looked  at some snaps just after she posted the list & was a bit perplexed.  Well,  hear goes with mine.

1.  COSY.

A display of tea cosies at Mont de Lancy an old house & garden that are open to the public by way of a local council not far from Melbourne.

2.  CHANGING FOLIAGE.

The tree in the back corner of our yard, just displaying it's Spring finery & leaf buds.  I love calling it's flowers, tassels.😊

3.  SCARF.

A scarf I knitted some years ago for our eldest granddaughter, which she loved.  I wonder if it is still used now that she is an adult?

4.  BAKING.

Not my baking!!!  Although I do cook, it doesn't really ever look as good as this.  A cuppa we had at the David Austen Rose Nursery, which I took a photo of because of the beautiful china.  Believe it or not, but that catalogue was actually free!!!!

5.  COBWEB.

 This was my first choice, as I couldn't find anything other than the one I showed for our last cobweb.
I took this photo many years ago at Harlow Carr in Yorkshire, when visiting.

Then looking for something else DH & I had been talking about, I stumbled across this photo taken whilst in Canberra, out on a walk with our son & his family in a nature reserve.  I do remember it being an awfully cold morning, so maybe it has frost or dew on it.

6.  MY OWN CHOICE.

Bolton Abbey.

The cause of my woes at the moment.  Not being able to walk in the Dales or on the Moors.  This photo was taken at the beginning of August & although it was very busy, it was still very peaceful.
I'll try and get myself together to do some catch up posts of our holiday.  Really.............
OK, enough from me & a big thank you to Kate for hosting this.
Take care all and huggles.
Susan.

AUGUST PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT....................LATE!!!

Better than never, as the saying goes.  I took some of these pics whilst in UK, but couldn't download them onto my tablet, then we also had so many issues with internet services.  Thanks to Kate from,
 I live, I love, I craft blog for hosting this, but I'm not in the link-up this time. Feeling very flat since we got back & even pondering whether to keep on blogging or not.  Maybe just this one?
Now for the words & photos.

1.  MARK.

Bookmarks I made from paint colour chips for Xmas presents to put into greeting cards.

The beautiful gum leaf bookmark DH fashioned for me, that I have shown before.

2.  DUCK/S.

                  Found hiding in the foliage of a park, beside the stream that flows through
                                                    Thornton-le-dale in North Yorkshire.

3.  WINDOW.

Ancient stone window surround.

This was also taken on our trip.  A lovely few hours spent walking through countryside to & around Wharram Percy Medieval Village, which I found absolutely fascinating.

4.  ARM.

Not very exciting, but here is my long "arm" quilting machine.  Sorry for the lousy photo, I should have found another one.

5.  STRAW.
I've gone slightly overboard with this one.  Whilst driving in the beautiful English countryside, I kept spotting "straw" photos, in colour & texture.  Sometimes we just couldn't stop (which irked me), but here a few I thought would fit the bill, so 3 made the cut.

            Straw coloured grain waiting to be harvested, again on our visit to Wharram Percy.

Straw bales for sitting on, spreading on the garden as mulch or even feed for animals.  This photo                                                was taken in the large barns at Great Dixter.

                               A very large haystack which always makes me think...... STRAW.

6.  MY OWN CHOICE.

                 The beautifully laid out garden in front of the house at Kingston Lacey in Dorset.
My lot done and hopefully some one may notice & I've not posted for nothing.
Have a good week all, take care & huggles.
Susan.

JUST A TITBIT....

Without my usual way of doing blog posts, this is a quick one with some photos I've  taken this afternoon on my tablet.  It has been quite warm & sunny today & we had an enjoyable day out.  I met someone I' ve much admired for many years.  I feel privileged to have met her, enjoyed the short time we chatted & although my camera was used to take a snap, it didn't  come out.  Woe is me!
Stayng with in-laws who have a nice garden, I was allowed to take a couple of snaps.

One corner.

                                                                  Another corner.

And whilst out today, I was naughty & bought some yarn & pattern to knit this adorable baby jacket for young friends who are expecting their first baby (a girl).  

I'll also be sending over the flower fairy baby quilt I showed earlier this.  Funny how I was actually thinking of N & G whilst I was making it.  

Well as this is proving harder than I thought, I'll wrap it up now & hopefully get to grips with how this is done eventually.

Take care all & huggles, 

Susan.

STILL HERE

A few internet connection issues and only my tablet in use, so this is a little experiment to see what works with photos.  I have no idea how to download from my camera to this, but I've  a couple of snaps of hubby's latest woodworking bits.

Wow!!!  That worked, when I finally sorted out how to do it..........

Now for another one.

The one above,  2 beautifu tealightsl, that were a surprise for me and the top one are old fashioned toys for the craft co-operative where they are selling some of his pens.  Thesoldier on the horse moves up & down and the grasshopper's legs move as you pull it along.

Experiment done & dusted.

BTW, I've also lost my contacts list for email & can reply if someone sends an email, but have no way of contact any other way.  It's  being very painful, as I rely on my overseas friends connection this way.  

Take care all and huggles,

Susan.

JULY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT.

Wow, has anyone else thought this year has flown by?  It is time for another photo hunt, where I join with Kate at I live, I love, I craft, I am me, to use a set of words, to find photos for & think outside the box in the process.  Here we go...............

1.  CLUTTERED.

My garden at No.4 which was full, cluttered for most of the year and a joy for me to work in.

2.  PADDLE.

My tootsies getting wet on an outing to Wilson's Promontory the summer before last.

3.  PINK.

Again a photo from No. 4 of a beautiful sunrise which I could see from our  front verandah.  I found this accidentally while looking for my cluttered photo.😊

4.  STARTS WITH "E"
OK, I do have two for this.

Above is a small vase of Eucalyptus flowers which I could have had for 'pink' too.  We usually refer to these as gum blossom & after the flowers, they have huge gumnuts.

Another photo from our day out at Wilson's Promontory are these two Emus, blissfully unaware of me taking photos.

5.  ROOF.

Do you see it?  Ah, the roof of a derelict building now resting on the ground on a day out in South Gippsland one weekend earlier this year.

6.  MY OWN CHOICE.

I do have a 'thing' about trees & have many photos in my archives.  Taken in 2006 (not the date on the photo), whilst on a trip along the Great Alpine Road in the Victorian High Country.  I do think trees can be so amazing in form, where they grow at times & their timeless beauty.

My lot done for this month & all from my archives, except for the vase of gum blossom, which was picked & photographed early this month.  They last for a good 3 weeks.
I may be a little quiet for August with some family commitments coming up, but you never know, a blog post could pop up.
Thanks Kate for hosting these & it keeps my mind sharp when out & about or sometimes a quiet time on the computer looking through the archives.  Look forward to seeing what the other Hunters have chosen.
Take care all, have a great weekend & big huggles from down under.
Susan.