Monday 25 January 2021

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.😊💗








 





17 comments:

  1. Your veggie garden looks great! And the quilts are beautiful... I just hit publish on my blog post... finally!!! xx

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    1. Thanks Joy and I've just read your post. We've now picked 24kgs of the blueberries & I've just loaded a small quilt onto Bubs. Talk soon, possibly Thursday 🤗

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  2. A very interesting post Susan, you and your hubby certainly do keep busy. Your quilts are lovely and those muffins look scrumptious. We have snow here today, not much just a light dusting. Take care x

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    1. Thanks Eileen & yes we do keep busy,but we do have age on our side & you've had so much to deal with lately that you need to get your strength back before being in busy mode. No snow here, just flipping HOT!!

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  3. Oh, I love patty pan squash, I haven't grown any since we had the allotment. Your garden is looking great with plenty of interest. It looks like you're both keeping busy with your hobbies as always, it amazes me how much you both get done.

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    1. Thanks Jo. I'm a bit disappointed with our veg garden this year, but I suppose it's been a year like no other, even weather wise. I'm looking forward to the tomatoes ripening. Staying busy is a Virgo trait.

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  4. Those quilts are stunning. Especially the first one. We currently have a thick crust of frost on the workshop roof and I will know the temperature has lifted a bit when I see that star to disappear as the sun melts it. Roll on Spring

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    1. Thanks Cherie. No frost....a bit cooler after a very muggy night, but it is pouring down here at 7am whilst checking my blog. We need the rain so I won't complain.

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  5. Gosh you have both been busy with craft work and the garden. The New Sealand Christmas bush is lovely both fluffy flowers and seed pods and your muffins look delicious, how wonderful to have so many blueberries. Take care:)

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    1. Thanks Rosie and although we've been busy, it's a sort of weird busy at the moment, as though we are waiting for more bad news all the time & not settling. I wish I could get a photo of the lorikeets in the tree, but you just can't quite see them most of the time. I'd give you some berries if we were closer(giggle), but my friend Joy (top comment) gets some when we get to Ballarat.

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  6. I love the first quilt, the design and colours are gorgeous :-)

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  7. Oh 35 would be lovely right about now lol though that is even too hot for heat-loving moi! So neat to see more about your blueberries especially when I made blueberry crumble just last night with frozen ones from the summer. Yum. Love that Christmas bush and what a gorgeous quilt gift for such a cool numbers of a birthday!

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    1. Thanks Sandra. It was somewhat cooler yesterday around 22deg, & with much needed rain, more to my liking. Do you grow your own blueberries?

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  8. So nice seeing all of your photographs.
    Your garden is looking great with some lovely planting.

    Enjoy these last few days of January, this month seems to have whizzed by so quickly.

    All the best Jan

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    1. Thanks Jan. Sure is whizzing by here & cool & wet today.

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  9. I enjoy catching glimpses of your projects. I’m especially interested in how you are going to do the embroidery. Will you follow the lines or fill in the spaces?

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