MISERABLE......WEATHER & MOI!

The sky today from our front garden.

Yes, our weather has been dull, dreary, cold & damp, not necessarily pouring with rain, but just so bleak & wet underfoot.  Not much happening in the garden & trying to stay focused & motivated on anything is somewhat hard to do at the moment.  I'm way behind on both my own blog & reading others, so finally sitting here doing this one. 

Finding & finishing a few bits'n'bobs.

A child' jumper.

A summer cardi & I no longer have the dress I was going to wear it with.

PARTICIPATING IN A MYSTERY QUILTALONG.

            The quilt is now waiting till I can get some backing to put it on the big machine & quilt it.

I fussy cut some of the 2 1/2" squares.  This QAL was hosted by my friend Joy in Ballarat who blogs at Days Filled With Joy.
Another crafty thing is slowly coming together too.  I bought & showed an old picture frame I purchased at a vintage market earlier this year & it has now become the frame for these, but still needs a fixing for hanging it.

DH made these musical cutouts after finding them photocopied (by me) and thought I'd done them for him.  Anyway, I loved them & I just fancied them in a frame.  I've quite a bit of blank wall space, so once done & hung I'll show them on a blogpost.
IN THE GARDEN.

                                                                Pottering about.

Some waiting for repotting & others for the garden.

A bit of colour on the plant stand & retaining wall.

The first fully open flower on my camellia - Volunteer.

One of my dark hellebores with the darker one on the right, which always flowers last.

One of my white/green ones.

My Garrya, after not flowering for the first four years has "ONE" flower & going by it's length, it's the male variety..
Yeah!!!!!

Lastly, a bit of nonsense.

Can we call this "snail mail".  How I got it from our letterbox and only about an hour after the postie had left it.

Well, that's about it from me and with Melbourne now being in lockdown once more, we have limited access, so can't venture far.
Oh for some sun and to feel somewhat normal, rather than being on edge all the time.  Hopefully I'll post a little more often and show what we've been busy with during this next half of "weird" 2020.
Everybody please take care and stay safe.
Huggles from Susan.

JUNE PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT - 2020

That time again!

Linking with  the lovely Kate at I live, I love, I craft, I am me, to find photos to go with her list of words provided each month.  I am ever so grateful to her for keeping us blogging & focused on the beauty around us, even in these difficult times.  THANK YOU...😊😊😊

1.  MY GARDEN.

OK, this is my old garden at No.4 which was looking very pretty one Spring.  Ours at the moment is quite bare, so popped into the archives.
2.  FLOWERS.

I picked this bunch from the garden yesterday.  My first hellebore flowers & snowflakes, along with ti-tree & diosma.  I find that diosma, although not a pleasant smell, seems to be in flower nearly all year.  And where did I place these.

                                                       On the chest in my sewing room.
3.  INSECTS.

Witchetty grubs

DH found these two lurking in the wood he'd been chopping for our fire & called me out to rescue them.  I picked them up & put them in the garden amongst some leaves.  I took the info* below from the web & they had named a few of the moths, so I was surprised to see that one of them was the Emporer Gum moth, which I'd taken a photo of at one of our Car Club outings & shown on the blog last year.
*The witchetty grub (also spelled witchety grub or witjuti grub[1]) is a term used in Australia for the large, white, wood-eating larvae of several moths

Emporer Gum Moth.

4.  SUNRISE/SUNSET.

                              A photo taken back in 2017 from our driveway & not edited at all.  It was                                                                                               amazing.
5.  SOMETHING WILD.

Butcherbird on the left, Rosellas bottom right & King Parrot top right.

Last weekend whilst sweeping the verandah, I could hear my Butcherbird's call & looked up to see him sitting in the leafless tree behind the shed, along with to my amazement, 3 Eastern Rosellas & a King Parrot.  Flew inside to grab the camera, put on my big lens, hoping they'd still be there & voila, a photo.  Please click to see it full size.  I didn't dare go any closer as they'd have flown off.
6.  MY OWN CHOICE.

A nursery at 4 Elms in Kent, UK.

I just loved this nursery with both plants & old ephemera plus a cafe.  I could see so much of this being used in a gorgeous garden.  Wasn't sure what to put for my own choice this time & kept tossing thoughts around, then thinking about gardens & what I'd like to do in one with odd bits & pieces.  Not going to happen any time soon, as we  may be in lockdown again soon with a spike in cases happening again. 😣

OK, my lot for this month & hopefully July will bring a slow down in this virus & we can slowly find a new normal, but of course never the same as we've known most of our lives.

Take care, stay safe all & huggles from down under.

Susan.

FEELING BLUE.

I've gone quiet according to someone I blog with and yes, I've been feeling rather low.  What with this damn virus lurking around, cold & murky weather which doesn't help & my woefully painful, swollen fingers due to persistent chillblains, I think perhaps I should pull my head in & try to be more cheerful.  We have been out (keeping our distance), just the two of us & been keeping busy about the home.
A little of what has been happening, though the garden has taken a back seat because of my hands & the dampness underfoot.
My friend Jayne at The View from Bagend posted a photo of her fire lit one night in the middle of summer in UK & asked who else had done the same.  Well, we had.

Looking cosy.

Last Thursday we took ourselves for a drive to the water's edge with picnic basket, thermos & camera.  Ate lunch in the car looking at this view & also had a quick walk along the beach, which was quite deserted.

Looking south.

Looking north.

There is a headland with parking area between the 2 beaches at Mornington, overlooking Port Phillip Bay.
We've also done some local walks & luckily have taken my camera a couple of times.
I noticed some weird cloud formations the other day.

These clouds had formed over the LaTrobe Valley where there are a couple of power stations.

Today we took ourselves off on one of our usual walks down past the farm in the middle of suburbia & what did we see........the cows in the top paddock surrounded by hundreds of cattle egrets.

You may need to click on this to see the birds.

I've come to a bit of a slow patch on the sewing front.  I'd started a row by row quilt of my own design, but hit that low spot & then started another QAL with my friend Joy at Days filled with Joy.
A couple of photos  to show that I've not been completely idle.

What I've achieved for the QAL so far.  We have another update today for the next part.

My dahlia rug (Attic 24 project) now finished & some of the rows of my Row by Row design inspired by the colours of the rug.  All the fabrics were found in my stash, though there is one I've run out of & will have to find a replacement for my first border.  Oh dear!!

OK, that is all from me today.  Not much has been happening in the shed by DH either, but today he popped up to start a small project, so will have something to blog about on that front too soon.
At least I've actually made the effort to blog finally.  Nearly time for our evening meal & the fire has been lit.  Best go, take care all, stay safe & huggles from down under.
Susan.

CENTRED QAL LINKUP.

Joining in the link-up with Sandra from Musings of a Menopausal Melon (mmm.quilts) to show my finish of this Centred quilt.

FRONT.

BACK.

This quilt was made using fabric from my stash for front & back.  The quilting pattern is Arcade by Natalie Gorman.

Now for 2 hero photos.

This one taken on our day out to Braeside Park in my last post, along the path with all the tree carvings.  Being quite windy, I did have a lot of trouble trying to keep it one place, hence not the best photo.

And this one this morning & again not the best as we've no sunshine today, just leaden grey sky &lots of wind again.
Just a quickie today & now off to do the "linky" thing.
Take care all, stay safe & huggles from down under.

TUESDAY'S TRIVIA.

Tuesday started cold, frosty & foggy.

The grass covered in frost taken from the back verandah.

Along the top of the sleepers.

Ice on the pond.

After much debating & deliberation with our morning coffee, we came to the decision to head out to get some parts for our trailer, which needs a bit of TLC.  Made some lunch & thermos to take with us & headed off.  As we were going to be close to Braeside Park, we made that our destination for lunch & a walk.  Somewhere we've been before, but not for a proper walk.  Um... a lot of photos were taken, so join me as we potter along.
Starting with the tree sculptures, which I have posted before with one of my quilts, but there are several more than what I showed.

The view while eating lunch.

The pelicans.

Sugar Glider.

More of the Sugar Gliders.

                                                   The tree below has many animals.

A wombat peeking out.

A large lizard or maybe goanna.

A koala and kangaroo.

Pharlap and either trainer or jockey.
This was one of our famous race horses who was trained in this area.

Carrying on with the rest of the walk, we saw many interesting bits and pieces, so here are some I snapped.

One of several ponds & dams throughout the park.

A post for your camera, but it was at such an angle, all I could capture was sky or grass.
Due to being quite old, the climatic conditions etc., it had moved over the years.
Could be remedied if someone would do it.

Snake signs appear quite regularly on my blog...................😏

Teepees again, but this time not at the beach.

Bracken fern, all green & lush, but such a nuisance in a lot of places after being introduced in colonial days.

Now this was a lovely little surprise.  A painted stone, very like what I've seen on my friend Kate's blog in the UK.
I didn't see any more, but hopefully this pretty one will make many more people smile.

Reflections in more water we saw.

And for a few trees, very much favourites of mine, but I try not to overwhelm you with too many.

So sculptural.

Notice the beautiful markings on this log.

And eucalyptus leaves, so pretty in colour & shape.

After picking up some trailer parts, we headed for home.  Stopped in Tooradin to have a cup of take away tea and snapped these few pictures along the banks of Sawtell's Inlet.

A rather grotesque carved gargoyle.
I've never seen him before, but we usually go to the cafe on the other side of the highway.

The tide coming in from Westernport Bay & flowing down what I always think of as a river, though it's only a tidal inlet.

Looking further down the inlet.

That was our Tuesday and although freezing to start with, the rest of the day was lovely and sunny and made a difference as we actually had an "outing" with social distancing firmly in mind.  I'm still not game enough to venture anywhere there might be lots of people close to each other.  Luckily most of our outings are just us two & we don't need to gather as some people do.  We'll wait and see what the future holds for being out & about.
OH.......one last bit of trivia from the weekend.  We did make a very short trip up the highway to see this parked at the weigh-in station before it made it's way to one of the big power stations in the LaTrobe Valley.

This load was being pulled by 3 prime movers and being pushed by two more.  It was huge and could only travel during the night as the road needed to be closed, so it could use either side of the highway.
There were also many support vehicles and these loads always cause quite a stir & lots of people taking photos.  Whoops, just like me, who finds them fascinating.

OK, my lot for now.
Take care all, stay safe & huggles from down under.
Susan.

FAVOURITE FINISH FOR MAY.

Linking with Cheryl from Meadow Mist the the month linkup for our favourite finish.

These two quilts have been made, quilted, bound and given to their recipients during this strange and surreal time of this worldwide pandemic crisis.  They share the same pattern I created in 2008 when I first purchased my Quilt Wizard program.  Lacking motivation for doing much during the last few months, I'm actually pleased I did at least achieve 2 finishes.  The above went to a baby born in January and the one below to a baby born in mid March. 

Just a short post and off to do the linky thing.
Take care all, stay safe & hugs from down under.
Susan.