The answer, my friends, is blowin' in the wind........

.....and it is certainly blowing today.  Last week's very welcome rain need not have bothered, as we have had very hot windy weather since then which has undone any good done by the rain.  Ah well, that's life here in the bush, isn't it.  Because of the strong winds there are bushfire warnings for all the state today.

Further to last week's pics of the view from our front verandah, here is the view from the hill behind us.  The tall spire in the middle below is a steeple at an aged care facility run by a religious order, further down the hill.  This is the back of our house, the small window (which isn't so small at all, really) is my sewing room.

The distant view, taken with a zoom lens.  Those buildings are a long way away, and the green grass in the foreground is a grass farm along the river.

Our house is not in the pic below, we are just off to the left of our neighbour's two-storey house.  The hills in the pic above are the ones in the far distance here.

When we moved here in May 2010 Kevin climbed the hill with his camera and had fun taking photos with some of the settings.  For my friends overseas, this is where we live - the "Welcome to our town" sign on the road coming from the north isn't far from us.  If we were much further north we would be right out of town.

You will be pleased to know that the sandals which died last week have been replaced by a similar style!  Slightly chunky black sandals with very comfortable soles are on my feet as we speak.  This is the brand, but mine aren't there as they are a style from last season - which doesn't bother me at all; I've never been one to feel my life is incomplete without the latest and greatest in something.  The same brand also had some shoes on clearance because they were discontinued styles, including a very nice pair of almost-flat sandals in dull metallic colours which are also now residing in my closet......The Very Thing for son's wedding in February.  Much as I love my sons I cannot wear high heels to any great occasions in their lives.

The morning walking is continuing even though it is deadly boring.  Days are getting longer now we are well and truly into spring, and the mornings are starting much too early for my liking.  If the walk is delayed then I am trudging home up the hill with the sun in my eyes, so to avoid that I am having to go out earlier and earlier.  I'm not, and have never been, a morning person.  Daylight saving will start at the end of next week so mornings will be a little darker again, for a while at least.

Everything has now been purchased to make the outfit for the said wedding right down to threads finally purchased yesterday.  The skirt fabric and lining have been pre-washed ready for cutting out.  First, though, I have cut out fabrics to make another purse using McCalls 4118; it's a very useful pattern which I have used four times, twice for View A and twice for View B.  The new one will also be View B.  Because there is very little choice locally in pre-quilted fabrics, quilting the large pieces of lining, thin batting and outer fabric together have to be done before the main bag pieces are cut out.  As it's just diagonal cross-hatching it's a bit tedious, but the quilt group is having an all-day meeting this Saturday so doing that quilting in company will make it less boring.  I will do as much as I can, then next week start working on the clothes for the wedding - the bag can wait, but at least it will be started.

Next Monday morning my shoulder will know its fate as I am taking it to see the specialist.  Fingers crossed for a good report, although I am suspecting he will say an operation will be necessary to fix it.  Ah well.......if that fixes it I should have it done......even though I am a coward.

"Corns.
It is tolerably safe to say that those who wear loose, easy-fitting shoes and boots will never be troubled by corns.  Some people are more liable to corns than others, and some will persist in the use of tightly-fitting shoes in spite of corns."

Not me.  My feet like to be comfortable, and if my feet are happy then all of me is happy.

Enjoy your days!

Blogger issues

For a week now I have been trying to post, and change my header pic and background, to very little avail.  Finally today managed to change the pic, and it seems to post, but as for changing the background, well, that seems to be a lost cause.  The problem seems to be with our computer rather than with blogger, so I shall keep persisting and try to beat it into submission.

It's been a fairly low key week here, some singing, some uke playing, some sewing.....a top that has been on the sewing room table was finally finished this afternoon, so now the outfit for the wedding can be started......a little waffling round the garden which is flowering beautifully, and the best news of all is that we had some rain.

This is the usual view from our front verandah and driveway - we can see a long way, we think those distant hills are over 40kms away which is about 25 miles in old money.

 Rain coming.......

 .....raining.......

 ......and the view has disappeared in the clouds.

These pics were taken at different times since we moved here, our view is dependent on the weather!

This coming Sunday the Monday night choir is putting on its spring concert, the next concert is the traditional Christmas one with carols and seasonal songs.  A few of us are getting more than a little disenchanted with how the choir is run and probably won't renew our membership next year - that could be four of the sopranos gone.  More and more soloists are being brought in, and some us feel that we have very little to do except be a backing group.  It's not sour grapes because I know I have a snowball's chance in hell of ever being chosen as a soloist, so I'm not worried about being done out of my turn in the spotlight.  For Sunday's concert the men are getting to do two songs as an ensemble, while the women have none, not one, nada, zilch.  Our one song is with our musical director - while she warbles a song and shows off her high soprano we will be singing dumpty-dum behind her.  Said director's 14 year old daughter is now a choir member and gets a few solos, who said nepotism is dead?  The director also gets to choose all our songs and as she is quite devout they lean toward the religious;  there is a not-so-subtle push that the choir should be religious too, helped along by the fact that one of the local ministers and his wife also belong.  If I wanted to sing nothing but religious songs I would have joined a church choir.  While the other singers are all nice people and I have learnt quite a bit since joining, I am feeling more and more that my time there is wasted.

The Thursday night choir is much more fun!  So is the uke group, and the radio station, and sewing group, and quilting group.......it's not as though I will lack for something to do by leaving one choir.

A very sad thing happened today, a pair of sandals which I have had for many years finally gave up the ghost and had to be thrown out because the soles were breaking up.  I'd been wondering what those little bits of hard black stuff on the floor were.  They are nigh on ten years old so were getting tired anyway, but I shall still miss them!  Don't know if I can find something similar - they covered a fair bit of my feet with wide straps, and were good to wear when it's a bit too cool for dainty sandals but a bit too warm for shoes and socks.  Their passing will leave quite a gap in my (somewhat meagre) shoe wardrobe.

For some time now the carefully unshaven look seems to have been in fashion for blokes, and I for one don't care for it.  I don't mind a beard, and I don't mind a clean-shaven chin, but I do not like the unshaven look......it makes a face look dirty and unwashed.

"The beard.
Those who shave should be careful to do so every morning.  Nothing looks worse than a shabby beard.  Some persons whose beards are strong should shave twice a day, especially if they are going to a party in the evening."

That probably applies to women, too.......

Enjoy your days!

Summer is icumen in........

......so says the old song, and summer seems to have arrived here at La Chateau des Wombats with a vengeance considering that, as it's another two weeks to the spring equinox, it's still winter by the calendar.  When I was at school a thousand years ago we were taught that spring and autumn began on the equinox, but someone forgot to tell Mother Nature this year - she seems to have lost spring.

To make up for my moans about how hot it is and how much hotter the coming summer may be, here are some pics of our pretty garden flowers.....all Aussie native plants.

 Phebalium squamulosum argenteum.  (don't worry, I can't say it either)  Can grow up to two metres high.

 Philotheca 'Bournda Beauty', its maximum height should be one metre when fully grown......it will be gorgeous, and its lovely smell is related to citrus.

 Eremophila nivea , could grow up to two and a half metres and is well on the way already.  It is really pretty and we love it!  The leaves are very soft.

Eremophila 'Kalbarri Carpet', deep gold flowers with grey leaves.  If planted in the garden rather than a pot it could grow as high as two metres, but as we don't have a vacant spot in the garden it's in a pot for now.  When I saw it recently at the nursery I fell deeply in love with it and it had to come home with us.

Some people in Australia claim to not like our native plants, but how could you not love these?  They are all so different, and all so beautiful.  Just because a plant comes from overseas (every other country in the world is overseas from Australia, being as how we are an island) doesn't make it better or more desirable than something local.

Nothing much to report on the sewing front.  A shopping expedition will take place (probably the day after tomorrow, as tomorrow has taken on a life of its own) to buy the zipper for the wedding skirt, button moulds for covering as the blouse has five buttons up the back, and some el cheapo gingham to try out the sizing of the blouse pattern before cutting into that pretty green fabric.  Last week an invisible zipper foot was purchased for My Lovely New Bernina, and the video of how to use it has been watched, so I reckon I can do it.  I've been sewing in zippers since I was a teenager, even the very long ones that used to go in the fitted dresses we wore as teenagers, but have never inserted an invisible zipper before.......shows that even at my advanced age, learning a new skill is not impossible.

So far no joy on sandals to wear to the wedding either, although a local shoe shop looks promising; they have some lovely summer sandals but not in colours that would go with my fabrics.  Never mind, there are still several months to go.  In the meantime, every shoe shop I pass will have its summer stock checked out......somewhere, the right sandals will be waiting.......shoe shopping is always a fraught exercise for me.  I'm not a shoe girl.  I buy what I have to when I have to, and that's it.

My radio program is being moved again, probably to a weeknight, as programs are being shuffled round to take into account the fact that some of the announcers have resigned.  Some didn't like the changes being brought in so, rather than co-operate with the new management to find a mutually agreeable solution, they walked.  I have been told to continue as I have been so am doing just that, as there is no point in rocking a boat which is steady.

Yesterday a small group of singers including yours truly sang for our supper at an open day at the local Historical Society museum.  We enjoyed it, and our audience seemed to enjoy it too; nice things were said to us, and about us.  The recently-made long black skirt had its first wearing and was a great hit, as was the white linen shirt with smocked yoke and sleeve panels - an op shop purchase last week for the princely sum of $3.  (The label is still in business, and their new white linen shirts are priced at $279, so that makes my shirt A Very Good Bargain, don't you think?)  It was worn with a black bow in my hair and a wide-brimmed straw hat trimmed with black ribbons (which lad lain unworn in the wardrobe for some years), and I was complimented on my authentic late-19th century look......just goes to show how easily a different look can be put together.

"How to have shoes made.
The great fault with modern shoes is that their soles are made too narrow.  If one would secure perfect healthfulness of the feet, he should go to the shoemaker and step with his stockinged feet on a sheet of paper.  Let the shoemaker mark with a pencil upon the paper the exact size of his foot, and then make him a shoe whose sole shall be as broad as this outlined foot."

Would that I could.......

Enjoy your days!