I have met another one of me!

Just after moving here last year I took this picture of autumn gold in our small back yard - the unidentified tree shed its leaves and made a lovely carpet, until it went mushy and was cleared away. We have noticed the occasional leaf fluttering down lately to show us that seasons are changing. The back yard looks different now; the palm fronds drooping in the background are gone (the palm tree has been removed) and the shrubby thing at the foot of the tree is also gone. The wash line is still in the same place.

A couple of days ago I went for a Nice Sunday Drive to a town 110kms or so away (that's 70 or so miles) for a quilt show. When we moved away from the city I knew there wouldn't be so many things like quilt shows to see, but am determined to attend as many as I can. Seeing what other people make can be inspirational and I don't want to give up being inspired.

While there I met a local quilter who shares my name! Same first name - Jennifer, although she calls herself Jenny - same last name too. Different middle name. While I knew that I wasn't the only one with this name, it's the first time I have met someone who shares it. Have you ever googled your name to see how many more of you there are? There are lots of me. But if I google my maiden name I am the only one to appear, that is on a family history site so it's definitely me.

A question for the quilters among you: what is the smallest size piece of fabric you keep for future use? I decided on 2in square. Several years ago I used 2in squares to make this quilt. At present I am cutting larger 2-1/2in squares for the child's quilt I am being tardy about, and also cutting 2in squares if a small piece of fabric isn't big enough for 2-1/2in. Anything smaller is being thrown out. But there are some 1-1/2in strips of varying lengths, and I am wondering if they should be kept or if that is getting too narrow to be useful. Decisions, decisions........before anyone mentions 'crumb quilts' let me say I'm not interested. Have you ever felt the weight of one of those? With all those little seams they use a huge amount of fabric, much more than one would think, so even handling it to layer and quilt it would be difficult. I don't do much applique so there's not much point in keeping an applique stash of small pieces - if I wanted a small piece I could use what is in the 2in square box.

Last week I had occasion to be in a local medical centre while waiting to see a doctor and was forced to listen to the choice of music of the young women working in the office, very poppy stuff that I don't listen to voluntarily. It irritated me to the extent that when I was finally admitted to the doctor's inner sanctum (after waiting for 40 minutes or so....just as well I had taken my hand-piecing) I complained. He told them to turn it off, and said to me he had already asked several times. They didn't turn it off, so he yelled at them. I felt bad about that, and now I am probably on their Hit List for causing the yell. Studies have shown that selected gentle classical music - I'm not talking Wagner opera here - calms people down and even lowers blood pressure. Mine was much higher than it should have been when it was taken by the doctor, because I could feel myself seething more and more the longer I was forced to sit and listen. In future I shall take along my almost historic Walkman clone (remember them? mine still works so I haven't succumbed to an ipod) and listen to my own choice of music. Next visit is on Friday for a flu shot and believe me, I am not looking forward to that visit.

"If anyone should assume a disagreeable tone of voice or offensive manner toward you, never return it in company, and, above all, do not adopt the same style of conversation with him. Appear not to notice it, and generally it will be discontinued, as it will be seen that it has failed in its object."

Let's hope the medical centre office staff are not disagreeable on Friday.

Enjoy your days!

Green lusciousness

Are these not truly beautiful and gorgeous and green? Yesterday was our 35th wedding anniversary, and Kevin surprised me with these lovely jade earrings. It seems that coral and jade are the symbols for 35 years of wedded bliss, and he knows me well enough by now to know that I would much prefer green jade to pink/red coral. It was a complete surprise as I had no idea he had anything planned, let alone ordered these to be specially made! So I wore them last night when we went out to a restaurant to celebrate.

Yes folks, our small town has a French restaurant, and very good it is too. Home made bread......roast chicken with scallops in an interesting sauce (me).......lamb done three ways (Kevin).........a trio of different fruit desserts, all small but perfectly formed, rhubarb cream brulee, poached tiny pear on chocolate (yum) and passionfruit marshmallow (me)......butterscotch pudding with honeycomb ice cream (Kevin). Add wines and coffee, and you can see we really enjoyed our meal.

Now back to home cooking Chez Jennifer. Tonight's meal won't be anywhere near as interesting as last night's, I can tell you. Or served as beautifully.

Today I have been busy preparing notes to teach a technique at one of my quilt groups next Saturday, the notes and illustrations are ready, now to make a few demonstration pieces showing the various steps. It's not as though I have no fabric with which to do that.........who knows, perhaps it might even be the start of another new quilt.....now that is a scary thought.

We have had rain over the past few days and more is forecast. The garden is probably very thankful as things have been a bit dry lately. Using a hose doesn't have the same effect, does it? Rain washes everything sparkling clean and fresh again.

Apparently today, 20th March 2011, is the autumn equinox so summer has now ended. That means shorter days (especially when daylight saving finishes in a couple of weeks thank goodness, it's been very dark in the mornings lately) and cooler nights, so much better for sleeping. Have noticed leaves definitely changing and dropping, although it will be a while until trees are bare. Some people see autumn as an ending but I see it as a time for rest.

The news from Japan about the earthquake and tsunami last week is very sad, so many lives lost, so many families disrupted, and now there are problems with nuclear power stations as a result. Whose idea was it to have nuclear power plants on earthquake faults? Did it not occur to someone that perhaps that was not the best idea the world has ever seen? It's been known for a long time that Japan is somewhat prone to earthquakes. We'll all be glowing in the dark soon.

"If gentleman is walking with two ladies in a rain storm, and there is but one umbrella, he should give it to his companions and walk outside. Nothing can be more absurd than to see a gentleman walking between two ladies holding an umbrella which perfectly protects himself, but half deluges his companions with its dripping streams."

An umbrella wouldn't be much use in a tsunami, would it?

Now I am going to cut fabric.

Enjoy your days!

Back home in the Small Smoke

Oh my, we had forgotten how bad traffic in Sydney can be.....not forgotten exactly, just pushed it to the back of our minds. Never mind, we survived. We stayed a couple of nights in a peaceful place on a creek, just near where it flows into a larger river; lots of bird life (we were woken by cockatoos and kookaburras), and great coffee! It was much nicer than a large impersonal hotel would have been.

On our trip we noticed that leaves are starting to change, yay! That means summer is on its last gasp although it is still fairly warm and a bit humid. However this and the new header pictures were not taken last week, they were taken at Bluffer's Park in Scarborough, Ontario in October 2009 - I don't yet have any pictures of local autumn colour.

We managed to spend a short (very short - just long enough for a coffee) time with our older son before he headed off to his new job three hours further away from us. Never mind, we will see him next month when we make our annual trip to Canberra for the big folk festival.

Am still a bit short on energy since the recent lurgy, but slowly getting on top of things. It is my turn to have friendship blocks made in one of my quilt groups so yesterday I cut and overlocked fabric squares, today I prepared instructions. My block is an appliqued tea cup with just three pieces, cup, handle and saucer, and it needs to be ready for tomorrow. While in Sydney I managed a visit to a quilt shop where I found a lovely background fabric, a very pale soft creamy floral; one needs to be fairly close to see there is a design at all as it is quite subtle (only three colour registration dots on the selvedge), but it is much nicer than a plain fabric would be.

On the trip I started to knit a new scarf from yarn I bought in Canada, and all was well. On the way home again I spent more time un-knitting than I did knitting, so I gave up in the end. But I will persist, as it's an easy pattern and the colours are lovely, green and bronze. Very autumn-y. Have I ever told you that autumn is my favourite season? and that I am quite fond of green?

We took the long but scenic way home and drove through a lovely little village called Wollombi. The first time I ever went there I felt a connection but didn't know why.....then several years ago I found out that my family lived there from the early 1820s until fairly recent times, and for all I know I may still have rellies in the area. In 1870 my maternal great-grandparents were married there in a lovely old stone church, St John's Anglican Church, which dates from 1849; in fact my maternal grandfather's four grandparents all lie in the local cemetery. A few years ago I found out from old maps held at the local museum where the family farm used to be - I wish we still had it, as now the area is prime grape-growing country and the former Davis farm is probably now worth lots of money. But is considered vulgar to speak of money, is it not?

"A gentleman should avoid talking about his business or profession, unless such matters are drawn from him by the person with whom he is conversing. It is in bad taste, particularly, to employ technical or professional terms in general conversation."

Keep your own business to yourself, in other words.

Enjoy your days!

We're heading for the Big Smoke this week

These are pretty, aren't they? But it's a very untidy daisy bush, so it will be cut back severely or perhaps even removed completely. Hidden almost behind and to the left is a gardenia which we didn't discover for months, and I would rather have that than the daisies. Even though I really really love yellow.

Hard to believe that it is a year since we found this house, and ten months tomorrow since we moved in. We both enjoy living here.....it's difficult to remember living anywhere else! On Tuesday we will leave it for a few days and head back to the Big Smoke, aka Sydney, to conduct some business. While there we will meet up with our older son - just before he moves out of Sydney. With a bit of luck I may get to a couple of quilt shops, and a Large City Department Store (something we don't have here) to stock up on lipstick........at this stage that is my Cunning Plan........

The Dreaded Lurgy is slowly moving out and leaving me in peace. The nasty cough has almost gone, my voice is slowly coming back to normal so choir practice tomorrow night looks like being a goer, but I still can't talk for too long at a time. Had a treatment from the chiropractor a few days ago, and she mentioned that other of her clients had what she called "summer flu", which sounds like my ailment too.

Am working on a quilt for the local Ronald Macdonald House and is quite bright, hopefully its new small owner will like it. The blocks are sewn together, and I have pulled out yellow, orange and green fabrics for border and backing. One can never have too much colour in a child's quilt. But it will have to wait until we return from our trip.

This afternoon I noticed a couple of the potted plants in the beer garden looked a bit dry so I picked up the dark green watering can.......and something moved inside it........it was one of the resident frogs.......erk........so I flung it on the grass and waited until Kevin came home, because he is braver than I am when it comes to wildlife. He eventually coaxed it out of its hidey-hole and onto the edge of the new bird bath, where it surveyed the landscape for a while before jumping off into the scrub. I did manage to get a picture of it enjoying life on the edge but it's still in the camera. When I download it you can all see why I was taken aback.......as far as frogs go, it is not very pretty. One would have to be somewhat desperate to think of kissing it, even with the prospect of a handsome prince on the horizon.

"Avoid all coarseness and undue familiarity in addressing others. A person who makes himself offensively familiar will have few friends."

Does this mean I should refer to our amphibious friend as Mr, Mrs or Miss Frog, rather than "Froggy"? I would not wish to offend our wildlife.

Enjoy your days!