Where has this week gone?

I swear, it was only Monday when I last looked......

Stuff has been happening in the sewing room!  Not very exciting stuff, but stuff nonetheless.  Today I cut pieces for three blocks, all different.....fiddly diddly......I think I would rather cut fabric for a whole quilt than fabric for only one block, it's no more difficult.  The blocks are for my local group; one is for the quilt we make each year and donate to a local Worthy Cause (who can raffle it, donate it, whatever they wish), one is for last month's block of the month which we take turns 'winning' - there are so few of us that we just take turns anyway - and one for next month's block of the month, because it's my month to do so.  It has triangles.  Some other members complain mightily if they see triangles, so I feel it my bounden duty to provide some just to keep them on their toes.  Pics will be taken of that block because I designed it on EQ7 alone all by myself me alone, and you can all admire my cleverness.

This week has been busy, I was out almost every night to rehearse for Friday night's musical extravaganza tribute to Anzac Day, which was yesterday.  The show ended with massed choirs singing from the balcony of our lovely old War Memorial Town Hall much to the surprise of the packed audience, who thought all those people sitting together dressed in black were more members of the audience.  A little more about the Town Hall here if you are interested; it's a rare city, town or village in Australia that doesn't have a dedicated war memorial of some sort whether it is a building, a cenotaph, a statue, or a set of gates at a local park.

Here are some of the wildlife we met on our holiday, first some ducks by the Murrumbidgee River.

 Don't be fooled by that calm still water.....a short distance away it was a raging torrent, thanks to lots of rain earlier in the week.

It breaks my heart to show you this, but it's not real.....it was once, but now the poor thing is stuffed.  It was in the visitors' centre at Tidbinbilla.

 Quite a pale wombat, this one!  Some are nearly white, we once saw an ebony black wombat strolling along the road in front of us in a national park, and there are all shades of greys and browns too.  Their colour seems to depend on where they live.

This quite amazing critter is a leaf insect, a staff member very bravely offered to sit one (they had several in a glass terrarium) on her arm so it could be photographed.  She said that although it has tiny claws on its feet it doesn't hurt, but it does tickle.

She was braver than I was.  I don't do insects.

We've had a foretaste of winter this week, and it hasn't been good.  However our cold winds and low temperatures have been nothing compared to storms and floods suffered along the coast, they also had hail and damage from strong winds, many homes destroyed by falling trees, some homes washed completely away in flooded creeks and rivers, and sadly several people drowned in the unexpected floods.  Mother Nature can be benign, and she can also be very cruel; my heart goes out to everyone affected.  We have started getting out our winter woollies because they have certainly been needed, and the jumper (sweater) that I was knitting before we went away is now in the process of being sewn together so I can have a nice new cosy woolly for the colder weather to come.

"Carriage dress.
The material for a dress for a drive through the public streets of a city, or along a fashionable drive or park, cannot be too rich.  Silks, velvets and laces, are all appropriate, with rich jewellery and costly furs in cold weather.  If the fashion require it, the carriage dress may be long enough to trail, or it may be of the length of a walking dress, which many prefer.  For driving in the country, a different style of dress is required, as the dust and mud would soil rich material."

Does this mean that anyone lucky enough to possess 'rich jewellery' can trot it out in cold weather?  I have a few pretty pieces of real jewellery, some are even antiques......one is a gold bangle that belonged to my maternal grandmother, she is wearing it in a photograph taken in 1924......and I love wearing them, although I would have said some were more suited to lighter summer fashions than dark heavy winter clothing.

I do not, however, own any furs, costly or otherwise, because our climate isn't cold enough to need them.

Enjoy your days!