September in the rain

Wouldn't that make a good song title?  Oh, wait.......okay......

However it is September, and it has been raining, and many roads hereabouts are closed and the river which flows through town is flooded.  There was a flood a couple of months after we moved here, they happen every so many years; I can remember some really bad floods when I was a child.  We're surrounded by hills, so the river gets a lot of water coming down.

Meanwhile, here's some of our soggy garden.  Our lovely little plant had its name changed some years ago; it used to be called eriostemon myoporoides, but no sooner had I learned to pronounce it than some learned botanists put their heads together and decided it wasn't that at all, it was something else altogether.  It's apparently related to citrus, the leaves smell heavenly when rubbed as they have a lot of oil in them.

 Our somewhat pricey standard grevillea, which makes quite a statement in the front garden.

Hardenbergia, fortunately not the variety which takes over the universe......this one is more discreet.

 Another grevillea, 'Robyn Gordon' - birds love these flowers.

 As promised, the green chair.  It's more turquoise than green, and is so much prettier than when it was an old person's chair!

Don't worry about the mess in the background, I'm not the world's best housekeeper.  Just admire the chair.

Had a good time at the craft show last weekend, even though it was small.  I did buy some fabric for the next hand-pieced project which has started percolating in my brain; those Flower Basket blocks which have been 'on the go' for over ten years will soon be too unwieldy for a portable project, but my fingers will still need something to do.  After much deliberation and cogitation I decided to make a tumbler quilt using my stash of repro fabrics, some of which go back nigh on twenty years, but they needed more neutrals.  This morning I ordered a tumbler template online. and have been fondling my repro fabrics a few times to get acquainted with them.  At this stage I have no idea how big to make it, so I think I will just start sewing and take it from there.

The black and white blocks are coming along nicely.  The whole quilt may or may not be done for the Big Reveal at the end of November, but who's worried?  Not me......it will be done when it's done.

At the Annual General Meeting of our small but quite serious quilt group last year I put up my hand to be our Charity Quilt Co-Ordinator and so far my services haven't been needed.  Recently Madame Presidente contacted me about providing a design and block instructions, and much to my surprise she said she really liked my BOM (last month it was my turn to provide a BOM sample and instructions) so much that she would like our quilt for a Good Cause to use the same block design.  I had fun putting together a few layouts in EQ7, and the diagonal setting was a hands-down winner.  Her mantra is "it's gotta be BRIGHT......make it BRIGHT......it's not BRIGHT enough......" and, while I also like bright colours, there is a point when bright crosses over into garish.  Hopefully any somewhat quieter bright blocks will all play nicely with the louder bright blocks to make the cheerful quilt requested by a children's cancer organisation.

What is it with blokes and the TV remote?  Are they congenitally incapable of keeping their hands off the thing?  Even Euan, who won't turn two for another three months, keeps playing with theirs.  Obviously his grandfather's remote fiddling genes have passed to his father, who has passed them in turn to his son......it is so irritating when one is watching something and, as soon as an ad comes on, the household bloke starts scrolling through the alternatives.  Makes one think that the cultures who chop off a hand for certain misdeeds have the right idea, they could add TV remote fiddling to the list of crimes.

I bet the good folk of the 1880s would have had something to say in the etiquette book about fiddling with the TV remote when one's wife is watching a program.

"The true gentleman.
Politeness is benevolence in all things.  A true gentleman must regard the rights and feelings of others, even in matters the most trivial.  He respects the individuality of others, just as he wishes others to respect his own."

Doesn't that sound to you as though it means "keep your hands off the remote when your wife is watching her program"?  I don't change channels when he is watching sport, sport and more sport, much as I feel like doing so.

Enjoy your days!