FRIDAY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT - MY OWN CHOICE.

 Just a little different today with our own choice instead of a chosen word, which although it's what comes as a last item on our monthly hunts, this has thrown me a bit.  I finally came up with an idea yesterday, but have added a little extra to the end.  Linking with the lovely Kate at I live, I love, I craft, I am me.

Men at work.

DH & R at work on the kitchen at our club rooms.  The kitchen was part grant & a thank you from our local hardware store who were able to use the rooms for teaching before opening the BIG new store in the middle of the pandemic.  As the virus hit and lockdowns were happening it all came to a standstill, so our boys took over the finishing touches in December.  All that needed doing was installing the upper cupboards, putting the splashbacks in place & attaching the kickboards.  All finished now & so much nicer to use.

I know............I felt like I spent most of our Christmas picnic lunch day at the sink.

Ruby taking it easy from her job as supervisor.  This lovely lady belongs to our friends R (above) & V. who are members with the lovely burgundy model A Ford that came with them from Zimbabwe.  She's a lovely girl, but her tail is like a whip, which you must be aware of, as I've had a bruise on my leg from so much wagging.  Ouch!

Today has been grey, gloomy & wet, so I spent some time in the kitchen this morning. What did I make?

A small batch of blueberry jam in the breadmaker.  The half filled jar may be popped into some stewed apples to make a crumble over the weekend.  

A strange lot from me, but I decided not to make it too long.  I do have an idea for a post next week, taking in something we did last year which may be of interest to a few.  Nonsense really!!  Well it was a strange year & I think most of us are holding our breath a little, waiting to see what 2021 will bring. 😖

Please take care all, stay safe & huggles.

Susan.

JANUARY.................................NEARLY OVER.

 My goodness!!!!!  Where has this month disappeared to & I've realised the only blog posts I've done are the Scavenger Hunt ones on Friday.  This one will be a bit long, but catching up for both myself & followers.

Early on in the month I was able to pick this little lot from the garden.......

Not much, but we have had more since, although the carrots still aren't big enough to harvest.  I just wanted to see if they were actually growing underneath.😉

As well as the above, we've picked MANY kilos of these.............................

They are frozen, distributed to neighbours & friends, bought by members of our car club, eaten on my porridge and baked into cakes or muffins.

This lot were baked late on Thursday afternoon and taken to DD's on Friday.

A few more garden photos.

The two veg beds which we were going to renew & move last year, but alas it didn't seem to happen.

I have these tomatoes ready to ripen along with tiny yellow plum ones & some cherry tomatoes.  Taking their time as the weather had been quite cool & cloudy till mid January.

I've a few bean plants that didn't get "got" by the snails & we've had a very small amount so far.

This is looking down the yard toward the olive tree.

In the back corner beside K's shed we have a New Zealand Christmas Bush & the following photos are of it in flower and then with it's seed pods forming.

The red flowered tree in the photo.

A close-up of the flowers in all their fluffy glory. These flower in late November, early December.

The rainbow Lorikeets love the nectar of these.

With its seed pods.

A closeup of them.

Just a couple more what has been happening in the garden, although I feel I've neglected it somewhat last year due to the vagaries of the weather & the virus's impact on our lives in general.

Our very wayward Banksia rose, which I will need to cut back soon.  Not today as it's way too hot.

They hydrangea hasn't done too bad with lots of flowers, though it's not one of the big blowsy variety.

Can you see the magnolia flower just peaking through the leaves.  We've had 3 flowers this month.

                                                              Why?  I suppose, just because it can!

Crafting fun...............

Hubby has been very busy, building a desktop for Master L for his new computer setup.

The top ready to go.  This is made from pallet timber & looks pretty spectacular & large.

The logo which got a great big smile of approval from the 15 year old.  It is now in place on a very fancy set of legs which go up and down, so he can stand or sit when using the computer.

And what have I been up to?  I've had some very down days lately, but finally got this quilt off the machine after loading it on 29th November & unpinning it on 20th January.  I don't think I've ever done that before and definitely won't let it slip like that again.  

Miss A's quilt called Hydrangea Galaxy & pieced some time in 2019 from FPP blocks I purchased from Alyce Blyth at Blossom Heart Quilts in Melbourne.  Made them and came up with my own setting.  Once the binding is finished I'll take some better photos.

I've also been sorting some old tubs of UFO's and other paraphernalia & found a project I was working on and hadn't enough of a couple of fabrics and gave up on it.  It was another QAL by Cheryl Brickey at Meadow Mist Design.  I'm resurrecting it into a small baby quilt for "someone"?

On the design wall so far.  A little more to unpick and resew to get it to a good "baby" size.

What it was supposed to be.  Win some, lose some.

 My messy way of working and I really need to do a rearrangement to get the best out of my space.

A couple of things on my to-do list.  

I drew this up the other day on my trusty lightbox and will be able to embroider some nights along with anything else that takes my fancy whilst watching mindless TV.

Macrame!  I've not done any of this for a "long" time so it will be a bit of an adventure for me.  I've still a hanging plant pot holder I made many moons ago and thought I'd try another one.

I'm still working on the labels and couldn't believe how many I've done over the last 9 months when I decided to get them done.  As I was working on them, I realised how many quilts I still have and some are earmarked for new homes, charity & babies.  The one below went to a neighbours daughter last week, who turned 21 on the 21st  in 2021.  How's that?  Not many of us can boast any of our birthdays having lots of numbers the same.

Mississippi Flyaway from a magazine pattern.

And this last photo is for my friend Kate at I live, I love, I craft, I am me.

Does this pattern look familiar?  It reminds me of your lovely frosty window a few posts ago.

OK.......enough waffling from me.  It's HOT💦💦 35℃ not quite what was forecast.  Thankful for that.

Thanks for reading if you've got this far.  Please take care, stay safe & either warm or cool depending on where you are.  Hugs to all.

Susan.😊💗

 

FRIDAY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT - MOON.

 

Running a bit late and also low on morale at the moment due to the ever threatening virus, I  nearly didn't link up with Kate at I live, I love, I craft I am me.  I had to dip into the archives for moon photos & found very few, so bear with me on this hunt.  I found 3, one of which has been on before.

Firstly two moon shots taken at night.  The dates may not be accurate, but approximate & I just know I must have fancied them when outside in the dark.

I think this was taken around March 2015 and must have been while we were living in Ballarat & possibly was when we had a " moon" event.

                              I loved the glow around this one which was taken last year in July.

My favourite is this one taken in June 2019 when a decidedly scary noise was coming from outside & to my amazement this balloon was overhead & I was lucky to capture it with the moon.  

All from me today and I'm off to link up & see what the others have found.

Take care all, stay safe & huggles.

Susan.

PS......it's very hot here and as we've had a very up and down summer of temperatures, I'm really feeling it and we are supposed to reach 41 degrees on Monday.  Way to hot!  I'll try and keep on blogging although it all seems too hard at the moment.😳

FRIDAY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT - NEW

 

Joining  with the lovely Kate from I live, I love, I craft, I am me, once again for our hunt.

Today's word is NEW..................thought this would be difficult, but a few things happened this week which made it more manageable, except for photography today.  We have a thunderstorm happening right this minute and it's been ridiculously cold for mid summer.  After 37deg during the week, it's a stark contrast today and also blowing a hooley, so my photos aren't the best.

Not quite "new", but a nice shiny new paint job for a project started many years ago.

The window frame Keith made while living at No. 4 before retirement & relegated to a corner after it's initial undercoat.  It went with us to Ballarat, then  followed here to No.5 & again got lost among other "stuff" in the garage, till I went searching for something & saw it languishing & thought, "It's now or never", so bought some purple paint & those pretend mirror squares & went to work with a little help from my other half.  Deciding soil may not be a good idea in the very narrow window box attached, I opted for some plastic type foliage.  It hasn't been put in place as yet, due to the windy conditions today, but should reflect our steps & the pergola with climbers.  Hopefully.  The old pink heart shape casserole has my new succulent planting, but isn't quite what I imagined.   Maybe it might need a makeover at some time.

MY NEW TOY.

This wasn't planned for this post, but here we are............Not wanting to buy new things, I really got to the stage it was necessary.  I find it hard to not have music on all day and without being able to play my old LP records  and then the CD part failing as well, we lashed out yesterday and bought a new "my style" sound system.  Has anybody in my age group found it nearly impossible to get a record player,

3 stacker CD & tape deck with radio easy?  Nothing comes with a CD stacker, so it's one at a time, but I love my vinyl & CD collection & played one of my Dad's old records this morning.  Heavenly!!!!

Ready to go.

In action.

LASTLY..............A little surprise arrived yesterday morning via the parcel post man. who delivered this.

A garden wall calendar and tea towel accompanied by a card from my lovely blogging friend Rosie who lives in the UK.  I was quite overcome & thrilled to receive it.  Thanks Rosie, they'll be put to good use.

OK, my lot done for this week and thanks to Kate for keeping me motivated.  I've been so all over the place lately, that I need to sit back, make some lists and get organised for the year ahead, my quilting, gardening, blogging and just life in general.  Hopefully we'll see an improvement in the year ahead & at sometime get back to a new normal life.

Pleas take care, stay safe and hugs from down under.

Susan.

FRIDAY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT - GIFT/S

                                                    

Today I'm linking with my friend Kate at I live, I love, I craft, I am me, a single word each Friday for now and this week's is GIFT/S.

The most important gift I can think of would be my wonderful husband and our 4 children, a photo of all 4, the only we have shown below.  Due to distance we rarely get together and a few belated birthday wishes here for them too.  December is a busy month with our eldest son on 11th (44), my stepdaughter on 15th (48), my daughter 28th (48) and our youngest son on 4th January (43),  so all within 3 weeks & Christmas in the middle.  

A secondary type of gift was when I was 10 & given my first camera, a second hand box Brownie, which started my love affair with photography.  This has led over the years from good old black & white prints, through to colour, then the wonderful world of digital.  I've so enjoyed & this photo hunt run by Kate has given me even more incentive of late, so the wonderful gift of photography is my go-to today with a few photos of our amazing wildlife.  Hard to capture at times, but worth the effort.

Hope you're ready for this.................

The white Kangaroos in their enclosure in
Bordertown  S.A.

A Koala sitting in the middle of the road near 
Powelltown just north of where we live.
We did eventually shoo it off the road.

            

Above is a black Swan wandering along the path on Raymond Island on our east coast.

The photo on the left I snapped as we were coming down through a forested area on the eastern side of Victoria.  A large Goanna climbing a tree.  Even I was gob-smacked that I got him before he saw me & went too high.

These two photos were taken a few years ago on Wilson's Promontory & shows two Emus above and a mother Wombat & her baby just disappearing into their burrow.  Missed them face on.

Now closer to home and the wonderful bird life we get in our own backyard.

A beautiful male King Parrot sitting on the railing above the blueberry bushes, several years ago.

Our lovely Butcher bird who is visiting us quite regularly.  His mate is often around too.
This was taken very recently.

Now for my Magpies who make us laugh so often with their antics.  Both of these photos have been taken after Christmas.

Here a  mum and baby wondering if there are any breadcrumbs available.  They come right up to the door, but when I open it they move away to the side, so the photo was taken through the screen door & I should have cropped it, but there you have my messy bookcase to the left.

For some reason they occasionally fall in love with our bunched up netting and have a little snooze on it.  I find this rather amusing.

OK, my lot done and although I'm sure this post is not what Kate had in mind, I needed to think outside the box and hopefully bring a smile to everyone's face.  I'm struggling with the enormity of this horrendous time and will endeavour to keep blogging and keeping in touch with my blogpals.

Please take care all, stay safe and huge virtual hugs from down under.

Susan.😊💖

PS.......................Why won't my photos and text stay where I put them once it is published?

Can anyone help?