QUICK MIDWEEK CATCHUP.

A short post to show a couple of finishes.
The quilt for my nephew has it's binding finished and only needs a label.  I'll be posting it off once I've  done a little "cat" mat from the leftovers.

Quilt, that I've not named yet.  Any ideas?

I've also finished my granddaughter's scarf, but need to sew in the ends.

I think the colours are so pretty.

PRODUCE!!!!!!!!!!!

Not a lot from our tiny veg patch, but this is the fourth little lot of beans and I picked 5 tomatoes on Saturday, so not doing too bad for such late planting.

Not much to tell about this week so far, but will show a few photos taken some years ago (2011 actually)   I loved this garden we visited and wonder if anyone will know where it is.

Part of the garden.

View from the garden.

Creatures that live in the garden.

OK, this really is short and sweet, but I've a big day tomorrow, with an early Skype session and a few gifts, I must really get stuck into, or otherwise I'll be stressing about not getting them done.  Must get back into my challenges too.  Think I've forgotten what some of them were?
Hope everyone's having a great week and take care.
Huggles Susan.

HOW HARD IS IT?

Jo from Through the Keyhole nominated me for an award and I've decided to take it one step at a time.  I will start by answering the questions she asked of me.  That should be the easy part, but no, I'm really struggling with some, but here goes anyway.

1)  If your house was on fire, what one thing other than family members and pets, would you save?
A.  Probably photos and my computer (photos on this as well), but my fabric, quilts and books would have to come a close second.

2)  What other than your children, is your greatest achievement?
A.  Nothing I can think of!

3)  What would be your dream job and is it a job you do or have done?
A.  My dream job was to be an architect, but I've certainly never done that.  Just at the moment I fancy thinking up the challenges for "A Great British Quilting Challenge" and being a co-host or something.  Please don't laugh at that, but if Mary Berry can do it at her age, I'm sure there'd be hope for me as I am a tad younger and have so many ideas.

4)  What is your dream holiday destination?
A.  Yorkshire and there abouts of course.

5)  If you won the lottery, what would be the first thing you bought.
A.  That is a hard one, but maybe a house in Yorkshire with stunning views!

6)  Name your top three films of all  time?
A.  I wasn't sure I'd be able to answer this one as I don't watch many films or go to the movies, but three just popped straight into my head.
     (a)  Dirty Dancing.  (b)  Calendar Girls.  (c)  Mama Mia.

7)  If you could have a conversation with a famous person, dead or alive, who would it be?
A.  I couldn't make up my mind as I thought of so many, so alive, can I talk to both Monty Don and Alan Titchmarsh, and dead, it would have to be Leonardo de Vinci.

8)  What is your earliest childhood memory?
A.  Staying with my great aunt, whilst my Mum had my brother.

9)  What is your favourite season and why?
A,  Sorry, but I'm going to have give my least favourite as the others are neck and neck, and that is summer, as I just don't like the heat and dry.

10) What made you start a blog?
A.  A certain person made a suggestion about when was I starting one, after I began to take part in a Xmas Quiltalong and my photos had to be put on someone else's blog.  Hmmm!, what a journey that has been.  Wonderful actually.

11) What would you like the future to hold for you.
A.   Health and happiness, for both hubby and I, family and friends.

I will endeavor to think of 11 random things about myself for my next post and the rest will come later.

Just a few photos from our trip that I want to share.

Not sure whether these were oast houses or maybe for chicory.

Colourful foliage on these trees where we ate lunch one day.

We had to slow down to let this goanna cross the road, then we stopped to take a pic as he ran up the tree.  Click on the photo to enlarge and see him better.

The old trestle bridge over The Snowy River at Orbost, which I've shown before from another angle,  This definitely shows how it is deteriorating with all its lumps and bumps now. 

The Information Centre at Orbost is housed in this old slab hut.

Now that I'm feeling more at home with my camera, I'm starting to see a lot of "textures" around me.
Here are two photos and it's made me want to take more.  Our world is such a fascinating place, both natural and man-made.

I hope to be able to post a couple of "finishes" this week, and if it's not too hot, get some others done too.
Enough of my waffling and hope everyone has had a great weekend.
Huggles Susan.

SNAKES ALIVE!!!!

First I want to thank all who left messages on my last post. I'd also like to thank Jo from Through the Keyhole for nominating me for an award, which I will gladly accept.  It might take me some time to get it all together, but I had know idea how to go about the last one I was given, so will definitely give this a go.  Alas, no internet whilst away, but now we are back, I'll start with a scary moment I had yesterday.

On Friday we arrived home at lunchtime after starting out early to beat the heat.  The car actually told us at one stage that it was 36 outside and by the time we got here, we were really feeling it.  I washed the sheets and towels (which dried in about an hour or two on the line) and then around teatime, we had an almighty thunderstorm with torrential rain.  The gutter on the front verandah in front of our bedroom window overflowed and hubby found we had "one" blocked downpipe.  Pulled out the leaves and it was OK.  Sunday when all was much drier, I cleaned up on the verandah and went around to the side gate to grab the weed trug and saw something move out of the corner of my eye.  First thought was a blue tongue lizard, but "oh no", it was a snake sitting behind one of my pots in the little courtyard.  I was already walking past it by this time, so shot through as quick as I could and called for hubby, and lucky for me it stayed (I thought he might think I was mad if it had gone), and then slithered off out the gate and under the hedge.  I'd run to get my camera, but he was too quick slithering off, so no pics.  Our snakes are poisonous, but they are part of our natural world and best leave them to go there way.

SOME HOLIDAY PICS.

We had a lovely time although it was very hot.

MALLACOOTA INLET.

Part of the inlet.

Looking toward the ocean beach and sea.

The boardwalk around part of the lakes.

Jetties, boats, water and hills.

I did take many more photos, but we'll go onto another day and show something I learnt whilst out.

BETKA RIVER AND BEACH.

This is just south of Mallacoota and very pretty.  Notice that wonderfully shaped tree.

On the way to the small aerodrome in the area, you pass a sign to a WW11  bunker, which I had no knowledge of at all.  I'd never realised how close the war had come to Australia except what I had learnt at school, which was the bombing of Darwin and the Japanese submarines in Sydney Harbour.  Our life is a never ending journey of discovery, eh?

The bunker.

Late in the afternoon as a cool sea breeze came in, we went back to Betka beach and had a walk.

I took my shoes off and felt the warmth of the sand on my soles and between my toes.  Does anyone else love making that squeaking sound on the dry, soft sand?  I do and then we paddled in the water, which was just a bit cooler than I thought.  Loved it and must do it more often.

I'll post a few more pics on Wednesday of another day out, but I'll end on these two.

Whilst staying in Warragul, the young family in the caravan beside us had accents that I couldn't mistake.  I met the young mother over at the clotheslines and asked if she were from Yorkshire and she said yes and we got talking.  She had noticed that I was sewing the night before, asked how long we were staying and if I could show her how to hem this little dress.  She'd bought if for her little girl and the hem had been "glued up" and the first wash brought it apart.  As we were there only one more night, I did it for her.  Parts were tough going because of the glue residue, but I got it done.

Last night as the sun was setting after another extremely hot day, the sky had darkened, but there must have been a peachy glow from the sunset, which was being cast onto the trees behind the house over the road.  The trees were full of white corellas, but they had also taken on the peach coloured glow.  Click on the photo to enlarge and you should see how fascinating it looks.

OK, I'll leave it at that and although a wonky sort of post, I am still here and catching up on reading my bloglist.  Not much crafting going on due to the heat, but as it's a bit cooler today, so I'll clean the van this afternoon and hope to do some handsewing or knitting tonight.  I've finished reading The Yorkshire Shepherdess (great book) and have just started Allotted Time, so haven't been idle, along with the usual things we all do.

Take care all and  have a good week.
Huggles Susan.

BLOGIVERSARY WINNER-------------------------

And the name pulled from the bowl---is   HAWTHORN.
I'll be in touch as soon as we get back from our holiday. I've something in mind now that I know who it is and I will show it at a later date.

Now to some catching up with what we've been doing and where we are heading to on Friday.
I've not been doing any of my big star challenge quilt, but once we are back home, that is definitely coming out as I want to enter it in a show in October.
I've been designing (and stressing) over the two baby quilts, but have finally made up my mind to what I'm doing with them both.  These two quilts are for my nieces (in UK) and they are sisters and both first babies, due within a couple of months of each other.  For some reason I found it tough, but I think I'm happy with what I've come up with.  I'll show both lots of fabric I've chosen.

I've also made a finish with something that has waited for many years.  I photograph quite a few things on the box that you see above.  Hubby made the "ottawoman" for me many years ago and I always wanted to line the lid and use it for patterns I use for crochet or knitting.  It's finally done with a lot of help from him.  I tried to put the upholstery tacks in and they just kept bending, but clever clogs got longer ones and used a hold-it thingy and they were in.  Finished result.

The ottawoman.

Inside the lid. (and the mess).

Something I omitted the other day, was the idea for my rather bright star quilt, which is now quilted and awaiting binding.   I hate not telling if it was my own design  or if I used someone else's pattern.  I used a pattern called Robert's Bright Idea, from this book, which I bought a long time ago, in a discount shop.  They had a load of quilt/craft books from a wholesaler who had gone into liquidation, so a few of us had a good rummage and came out with quite a lot of books.

TIME OUT.
On Friday we are off in our van for a week.  Summer school holidays have finished here in Oz and we're heading to the east coast of Victoria to soak up some sun, sand, lakes and walking.  We'll go to Mallacoota for a few days and come back via the Gippsland Lakes and Warragul, where I'm booked in for a lovely relaxing massage.  I'll take both my laptop (running Vista which I can't post on, but can comment on other blogs and keep up), and my little one and hopefully maybe do a post with some photos.  Still not confident with the Windows 8 on it though.

Hope everyone is having a good week so far and take care.
Huggles Susan.

WEEKEND ROUNDUP ----- LATE!!

OK, I felt like I didn't really do much, but, yes I did.  Mostly the kind that is not too interesting.
SATURDAY.
Saturday morning saw me do some baking, as our bikkie tins need a top-up.  I made some peanut crinkle biscuits and a chocolate, rum and raisin slice,  This usually sees us through about just over a week, unless we get some visitors (rare).
After lunch the star quilt went on the machine and I managed to do a few rows before tea.

SUNDAY.
A bit of housework, then outside to try and rid the so-called front lawn of "dandelions", which seem to grow prolifically in these parts.  Down on hands and knees isn't so comfortable anymore, but at least it wasn't stinking hot although it is the middle of summer.  In fact, I came in and rang my granddaughter and found our weather station said it was only 12.3 deg outside.
After lunch, we decided to walk the next section of the rail trail, which we are doing bit by bit.  Off we went and the sky was looking slightly more overcast, and we set off, but didn't go as far as we hoped, because it started to drizzle.  Back where we'd started this part of our walk, was an information map of the Rainbow Bird Trail, so we decided to go for a drive instead.  We had our thermos and bikkies with us, so off we went.

Rainbow Bird Trail

We did the best we could with said information, but realised it was a very basic map and it did take some time to find it properly.  We stopped by a creek and had our cuppa, then carried on a way and found a sign to The Devils Kitchen, which is a strange geological formation causing a deep gully to cut through the countryside.  My photos aren't the best as the light was so poor.

We finally found the trail and followed the small green guide posts in all sorts of directions till I was scared we were lost in this very strange native tree forest.  The tracks were rough and I felt we were going round in circles.  We did see lots of rosellas flying about and quite a few kookaburras and frightened a few kangaroos too.

There have been many fires through this area, and this seems to have been one of the more recent ones.

You can see what I mean by it being a bit "spooky".  Finally as we really did think we'd never find our way back to a proper road, we came upon a small dam, then a parking area where there was another car.  Two ladies in said car were looking for mine workings as well and I suddenly pointed to a small rise and we all saw some brick pillar type things.  They were the base for some large water tanks that fed the cyanide plant.

Dam

Brick pillars

As it began to rain and was on its way to 5pm, we decided to go back another day to find the rest of the site.  I do find places like this fascinating and wonder who would work out here and how they coped.  It was called the  Historic Jubilee Mine Site.

Just a few more photos.

Hubby crafted a small key to hang his keys on, instead of them being on the laundry worktop.

Pattern leaflet for the scarf I'm knitting.  Wool and pattern were purchased from a lovely quilt shop in Tavistock in the UK, so both should be available easily for those in UK.

One last photo to show the sort of countryside we pass at times when we are walking the rail trail, which was line that ran from Ballarat to Skipton.  The next few sections should be quite interesting.

Open countryside.

Some calves for sale.

A wedge tailed eagle, a long way up by the time I grabbed the camera.  I'm a sucker for birds.

Not a productive weekend, but interesting all the same.
Hopefully by midweek, I'll have some craft to show, though I've been busy at night knitting or handsewing binding at the moment.  Also have one chapter left to read in The Yorkshire Shepherdess, which has been great.  I thoroughly recommend it, and found it written in a style where you feel you are being told the story without any editing, just as if Amanda was sitting beside you.
Take care all, have a great week.
Susan.