One-twelfth of the year has gone, you know......

.....never to return......not this year, anyway.

We had a busy hot January , first the trip to Canberra to see the family (who are all well.....Euan is now crawling and we suspect he will be a late walker like his father was) and to see a wonderful exhibition of works by Tom Roberts, one of the best shows I have ever seen.  Paintings that many Australians know well, such as his paintings of sheep shearers, were hanging - they were painted just a couple of hours north of here.  'Bailed up' was also hanging in the exhibition and if I could have snuck out of the exhibition with just one painting under my arm, that would be the one.  It's so evocative of the Australian bush in summer that it took my breath away.

There was a 'play room' attached to the exhibition where one could dress like some of the women in Roberts' paintings to take a selfie (something I have never done in my life and don't intend to start doing now) but I tried on the hats anyway......oh my......one flash number from Edwardian times in black with a wide veiled brim and a red feather was very oooh-la-la, I liked it, then I tried on a smaller-brimmed black bonnet......well......not so good, I looked like a Salvation Army lassie of old, and the white wide-brimmed hat also did nothing for me.  White has never been my best colour.  But it was fun, it's been a long time since I played dress-ups.

From which you can tell that, although seeing the family was good, that exhibition was the highlight of my trip away.  Sorry, family.  That's how it was.  Especially after being told by our son and his wife and child, as we handed over Christmas gifts for all and a birthday present for Euan "sorry, we didn't get around to getting you a Christmas present".  I con't care about the lack of a present.  I do care that you couldn't be bothered to find five minutes in your oh-so-busy lives to at least make the gesture.

Anyway.  Moving right along.

Yesterday the last stitches were taken on a project bought last year in Canada!

 A couple of days before we left to fly home the friends with whom we were staying on Vancouver Island took us for a drive from Victoria 'up island' to Courtenay.  The weather which had been so nice the day before turned cold, windy and rainy and, each time we stopped (there are several quilt shops along that drive, you know, and my friend is a quilter too) we dashed very quickly from the car into the warmth of the store.  The husbands had more sense - they waited in the car!  We had a lovely evening with our friends' friends, and next day drove back to Victoria in slightly better weather.

One place we visited on the way back was Parksville, and in Sweet Pea Quilting I saw the kit for this table topper.  The dark colours of the fabrics reminded me of our drive the day before with dark waves crashing on the shore and boats rocking at their moorings, so it came home with me.  Pattern is 'The Centrepiece Tablemat' by Sweet Treasures.

These pics were taken on the way home......waves were still churning and the wind was still cold, although not as fierce as on the previous day.

 As you can see, there wasn't much sun that day either!

I'm glad I wasn't out on the water in a boat on either day.  We left Swartz Bay on the ferry for Tsawassen the following day and had a good crossing......but the day after that, the weather turned so nasty that all B.C. Ferries were cancelled, including the one we would have taken had we stayed one more day!  That was our trip back to the airport to fly home so, while I'm sorry we couldn't have stayed longer, I'm glad our travel plans weren't disrupted.

It's good to make a more complex and/or larger project, but sometimes a smaller one with some mindless sewing and not much brain power required is Just The Very Thing for hot weather when the heat fries one's brain, and it has been hot......so one's brain is well and truly fried.

We have survived another country music festival.  The whole town is taken over for much of January by country music fans and it is fun, but it's also good to be able to just go inside and shut the door on it all.  We had friends staying this year, a woman connected with one of the 'fringe' events and her teenage daughter; their billets were supposedly already arranged by someone, but the bottom fell out of those plans and we offered them beds here.  It was very nice to have them and we have made the offer for next year too.  My friend and I had a little music session one day, she played my baritone uke (she plays guitar and banjo) while I played my tenor uke......well......I have never heard the two ukes played together before and it was magical.  They were made by the luthier out of the same woods, and they blend beautifully.  If there was a way to play both ukes at once I would do it.

"True hospitality.
Try to make your guests feel at home; and do this, not by urging them in empty words to do so, but by making their stay as pleasant as possible, at the same time being careful to put out of sight any trifling trouble or inconvenience they may cause you."

I hope - in fact, I'm sure - that our friend and her daughter enjoyed their stay here, and it was no trouble or inconvenience to have them; quite the contrary, it was a delight.

Enjoy your days!