Not much to see yet, folks.......

........just some dirt, and some stones which used to be the edge of the garden against the fence.

 More dirt, hard-packed where pavers (now edging the new path) used to be.  You can see the feral geraniums in the corner bed.

  The new path will be curved, and won't be grassed.

The back yard in its entirety - as you can see, it's not very big.

But on the other side of the fence is a hill with trees, and kangaroos, and kookaburras and parrots and other birds.....so who needs a big yard?  The path will be gravel and the curved sections will enclose garden beds with native plants.  Some plants already in the garden will stay and there will be some lovely new ones.  The posts (one in this pic, the other in front of the small green shed in the first pic) are supports for the wash line; like many Aussies I don't own - have never owned - a drier.  Sunshine and wind for drying washing are free.

This week a ukulele group had its first meeting at the local music school, and great fun it was too.  There were 12 or 14 of us who turned up, but I am wondering how many will stick with it.  The folks who didn't have their own instrument (although the school owns some which can be borrowed), have never played an instrument before, and can't read music, seemed to find it a bit hard.  We'll see how many make the trek up that steep staircase again on Tuesday night.

On our last visit to Canada I managed to fall and break my arm which duly healed, and is pretty much right now.  But that fall also damaged my left shoulder, and scans and tests a few months later showed a torn tendon....no wonder it was hurting......so it was treated with physiotherapy and a cortisone injection, and was fine until recently.  However for several weeks now the shoulder has been painful so my doctor suggested an ultrasound, which shows that the tear has deepened.  No wonder it's hurting again.....so back to physiotherapy this week......words were said about an operation to fix the tear, but that's a last resort as far as I am concerned.  The doctor and I decided to treat it with PT and exercise, have another ultrasound in a year, and if the tear is worse then I will have the operation - the idea of Going Under The Knife fills me with dread, as does a hospital stay; it's the loss of dignity, privacy and personal space that is hard to cope with.

In 43 days we will start our holiday.

Quilting of the challenge quilt is proceeding slowly.  Very slowly........it has to be well and truly finished before we go away.......perhaps if I sat at the sewing machine rather than the computer, that might be a good start.......

"Etiquette of card playing.

Never urge any one who seems to be unwilling to play a game of cards.  They may have conscientious scruples in the matter, which must be respected.

If you have no scruples of conscience, it is not courteous to refuse, when a game cannot be made up without you."

Supposing one just does not know the card game being played, scruples or not?

Enjoy your days!

Now you see it.....

....and soon you won't.  This is a corner of our little back yard, all of which will be re-modelled this week.  The palm tree in the corner has been gone for a while and the corner bed is now home to feral geraniums.  Grass doesn't grow well in the yard because it's shaded, but there is a thriving crop of assorted weeds which do grow.  I was going to take a few pics to show you the ordinariness of it but didn't....however, you will see the new yard when it's done.  We will having things removed, and things added, and the grass will go, and there will be some new garden beds and lots of lovely native plants and a new gravel path.

We had thoughts of doing the work ourselves but decided against that, as some of it will be hard work and we are Olde Phartes.  Paving stones will be dug out and re-used, and concrete edgings will go, and the stones edging the current beds will be moved.  Some of those stones are granite probably from the hills just north of here, and even though they are not huge they are fairly heavy.  We are looking at making life easier for ourselves as we get older so making the garden low-maintenance is a good place to start.  A local horticulturalist looked at our yard and came up with a plan which we like; this week the heavy work will be done and new garden beds laid out, then next week the new plants will go in.  There will be two beds closer to the house than at present, which will make for kitty television once birds start visiting......mind you, I'm not sure that either of our cats would know what to do with a bird.  Binky was a good mouser in her younger days but as far as we know never caught a bird, while Bianca has been an indoor cat since a very young age.   They don't take much notice of birds, but a leaf blowing in the wind sends Bianca into spasms of excitement.

Quilting on the challenge quilt has been started but has been grinding very slowly.  Hopefully it will pick up this week.  The first two pieced blocks don't look too bad with quilting on them, but I had a brain snap and thought that perhaps quilting on each of those 2-1/4in pinwheels would look good.....and it would, you know......but have decided to do the rest of the quilting first, then - perhaps - all 125 of those little pinwheels will get quilted too.  One at a time, because there isn't a lot of scope for continuous lines on them.  If I don't run out of quilting oomph first.  Just the thought of having to weave in all those thread ends is enough to bring me out in a severe case of hives.........but it would look so good.......

It's been a busy week!  Thursday night choir is back - we had several weeks off because our director had to have medical matters attended to - and a local woman is starting (re-starting actually, there used to be a branch here a few years ago apparently) a branch of the Australian Sewing Guild.  Its first meeting was held during the week and will, I think, be excellent.  I am so fed up with clothing choices available in shops, once one gets to A Certain Age many of the clothes are very uninspiring, and the boutique-style shops have prices that make me gasp and styles that look as though they are trying too hard to be different with floaty bits here and asymetrical panels there.  Fine if one is very tall and reed-thin, but when one is short (5 foot two inches on a good day) and not slim any more.....sigh.....one would look and feel as though one was making a spectacle of oneself.  While one doesn't mind standing out a little from the crowd, one doesn't wish to be a figure of fun.

"Showy dress.
The glaring colors and "loud" costumes, once so common, have given place to sober grays, and browns and olives; black predominating over all.  The light, showily-trimmed dresses, which were once displayed in the streets and fashionable promenades, are now only worn in carriages.  This display of showy dress and glaring colours is generally confined to those who love ostentation rather than comfort."

Well, now......comfort before ostentation, I always say.  But brown?  Having lived through the surfeit of brown in the 1970s I'm not so sure about wearing a brown dress ever again.

Enjoy your days!

My new quilting space

So far it working well.  My Lovely New Bernina (13 years old this month and still going strong) sits in its Sew-Ezi table; the darker table behind it is a typewriter table bought more years ago than I can remember in an office supply place, it has a shelf which slides out on which ever side you need (it's out on the left side here); and the lighter table in front was bought a very very long time ago, at the time it was the latest and greatest thing to hold one's sewing machine.  Usually my overlocker sits on the dark table and my Singer Featherweight on the light one, but when the tables are needed for quilting those machines have to sit elsewhere for a while.....like the floor.

 As you can see this set up works well - the tables to the back and left hand side support the weight of the quilt nicely.  The challenge quilt is finally being quilted, it posed for you so you can see how this works.

This is my suggested colourway for the Coronation block, for my quilt group tomorrow - what do you reckon?  Dark blue with brights.  If several blocks were being made there wouldn't be any repeated fabrics, this happens when you make only one.

The k-niddling is also coming along nicely after having to buy a longer circular needle, because more than 300 stitches is a lot when crammed onto a shorter needle.  It's now been divided for the fronts, back and sleeves with one sleeve currently being worked on - 72 stitches per row is an improvement on 300, let me tell you.

This week we have really been back in the depths of winter, with heavy frosts and a cold wind.  Towns barely an hour away had snow.  Today is sunny, and the wind isn't so strong or cold, for which we are thankful - but it's quite dry, some rain would be very welcome.  We have both noticed our skin is drier since moving here so I for one am making sure that vitamin E lotion is daily applied to lots of me, even the bits that never see daylight.

Some family history stuff: recently I found out that one could apply for divorce records online, so I applied for a copy of the record of my maternal grandmother's divorce from her first husband in 1923.  It must have been a deep scandal in those days.  The divorce was instigated by her husband on the grounds that she had been absent for at least three years, and the decree nisi was granted in April 1923 with the proviso sternly stated "If you marry before this decree is final you will be committing bigamy".  No beating about the bush there!  The decree absolute came through in 1928.  However in September 1923 she married my grandfather - no doubt my mother's birth seven months afterwards provided a reason - but I am now wondering, was that a bigamous marriage?  And if so, does that make my mother and her brother illegitimate?  Skeletons in the family cupboard!  Yesterday was open day at the local family history centre but the lovely folks there couldn't shed further light on the matter, except to agree with me that yes, her second marriage was probably bigamous.  Perhaps if I took the papers to the local court house, there might be someone more versed in legal matters than I am who could tell me.

57 days until we start our holiday.  Better get cracking on that sewing, hadn't I?

"Intruding on privacy.
Never enter a private room anywhere without knocking.  Sacredly respect the private property of others, and let no curiosity tempt you to pry into letters, desks, packets, trunks, or other belongings of another.  It is ill-mannered to read a written paper lying upon a table or desk; whatever it may be, it is certainly no business of yours.  No person should ever look over the shoulder of another who is reading or writing.  You must not question a servant or child upon family affairs.  Never betray an implied confidence, even if you have not been bound to secrecy."

Does digging into one's family history constitute an intrusion on privacy - bringing to light matters which have been hidden for years, or indeed never known at all?

Enjoy your days!

58 pieces in one 12inch block

They smallest piece is cut two inches square.

 When several blocks are joined together a secondary pattern of smaller stars emerges where the corners join.  Next week is my turn to provide a block of the month at quilt group, and I thought a challenging block would be more interesting to make than a block made entirely of squares.  My sample block (in progress as we speak) will use this same deep blue background with different coloured pieces for the various star points.  The block is called 'Coronation', and if you should fancy making one for yourself the instructions can be found here.  My block doesn't quite follow those directions but the result is the same.  This blue and gold block was made a while for our Canadian girl-in-law.

This morning a re-organisation took place in my sewing room.  When we moved here a large desk came with us, as it was a good surface for my sewing machine and overlocker - it wasn't ideal because it was a bit high for me (I'm fairly short, you know) but it had sufficed for quite a while.  Then one day I bought a Sew-Ezi table, and some months later a Horn extendable cutting table with storage cupboards, and that room was becoming crowded and getting difficult to work in.  This week the desk was given away and now there is so much more space in the room!  I can even open the cupboard without having to move something first.  The only time the desk may be missed is when I am machine quilting....it was handy behind the machine to take the weight of the quilt being worked on.....but that can be overcome.  So My Lovely New Bernina sits in its Sew-Ezi table, and my Bernina overlocker sits next to it on a table bought many years ago at an office supply shop - it's a typewriter table, remember when we used typewriters? - and my Singer Featherweight sits on a table bought nigh on 40 years ago.  These three small tables plus a four-drawer chest don't take up much more room than that one large desk did, and the space is used more efficiently.

We have had some more wintry weather this week - Thursday was the coldest August morning for goodness  knows how many years and the water in the bird bath froze again.  Days are sunny and pleasant but when one steps into the shade, or rounds a corner into the breeze, there is a distinct coolth in the air.  The actual temperature feels several degrees less than the numbers would have you think; for instance the latest temperature reading is 18.3 deg, but it only feels like 13.5 deg.  But spring won't be far away, and then summer, and we will be complaining about the heat.

The knitting is proceeding very well and the lace pattern is giving no trouble at all; I wonder why it wouldn't go right during the first/second/third/whatever attempt?  Mind you, it takes forever to knit one row as there are now over 300 stitches on the needle......I had to buy a longer circular needle to take them all.  There aren't many rows left until it's divided up for the fronts, back, and sleeves.

It is 64 days until we start our Canadian holiday.

"Keep yourself quiet and composed under all circumstances.  Do not get fidgety.  If you feel that time drags heavily, do not let this be apparent to others by any visible sign of uneasiness."

I shall keep myself quiet but busy in the meantime, even if I am quietly panicking when I think of what I want to achieve in that time.

Enjoy your days!