Crystal clear!

Quilting stitches are being taken on my Maritime Beauty topper, isn't that great?  A couple of shells are being quilted at a time, then my shoulder is given a rest as it hasn't quite forgiven me for that almost-tumble in the garden last week.  These are the designs being used, they were found at colouring pages online.

 

 The bottom shell has my pencil marks to show me a path to take while quilting.  The top design will only use the centre shell, not the interesting scroll border, which will however be kept for future reference......because I like it.

While on things I like, here's another bird at the wildlife park, a yellow-tailed black cockatoo engaged in a favourite pastime - stripping a tree in its aviary.  They have very sharp beaks, as you can see by  its progress so far!  Cockies are very handsome birds, and this one was being chased by a mischievous young magpie half its size; every time it turned its back the magpie lunged for cocky's tail, and with a "gotcha!" look in its beady little eyes it finally succeeded in pulling out one of cocky's beautiful yellow tail feathers.

I was laughing so much that I couldn't take a picture as magpie stalked away with a "see me, I'm so clever" look.  Poor cocky was a bit disgruntled at losing some of his magnificence, though.

Recently an antique fair was held here in town, and like many other locals I took myself along because the trinkets on sale each year are really drool-worthy - some gorgeous antique jewellery, and furniture, and all manner of lovely goodies to buy if one is into spending money and amassing stuff.  A pretty bracelet did come home with me, natural pale yellow-green stones (could be jasper or agate, but I'm not an expert) with sparkly crystal beads in turquoise and lavender.......an odd combination of colours, but it works for me and will spark up my wardrobe in spring when we can let our bare arms see the light of day again.  My best buy was a book about coal mining in New South Wales which has a lot of information on the incident in which my mother's cousin was killed in 1929, including many historic photos I had never seen.  On entering the hall we paid our admission fee, and bought a raffle ticket - I had a few coins in my purse so I lashed out and bought two tickets.  Imagine my surprise last Sunday on receiving a phone call to say I had won a prize!  I now own a lovely crystal-glass bowl which will be used rather than hidden in a cupboard and forgotten, because I really like glass.

Our uke gig on Sunday went really well, people have said lovely things to us and about us, and the feedback we have received has been wonderful.  We performed two songs, "I am Australian" and "Walking after midnight".  Except for our two young tutors, we are a group of older folk - probably the oldest group at the concert!  As our tutors Sam and Brooke said, we are an example to others, even younger people, who think they are too old to learn an instrument or take up music.

It's probably better to be a shining example than a dreadful warning, yes?

"During the performance complete quiet should be preserved, that the audience may not be prevented from seeing or hearing.  Between the acts it is perfectly proper to converse, but it should be done in a low tone, so as not to attract attention.  Neither should one whisper.  There should be no loud talking, boisterous laughter, violent gestures, lover-like demonstrations or anything in manners or speech to attract the attention of others."

The audience was quiet when we performed, and even applauded - which made our practice worthwhile.

Enjoy your days!