Back in a few weeks

Next Friday - Friday 13th, but we're not superstitious - we will heading off on our travels down south.  There probably won't be opportunities to update the blog during that time, but we'll be back a few weeks later.  There will, I'm sure, be photo opportunities during our travels.

Consequently not much has happened this week.  More diamonds have been cut, some stitches knitted.  Songs were played and sung.  Appointments were kept.  Food was purchased.

Not having to pack a caravan has its advantages, and its disadvantages.  No more "there's plenty of room so this, that and the other can go in" thinking.....no; on the other hand we are more conscious of only taking what will be needed with no unnecessary extras.  And, of course, a ukulele.  

My brain has been itching, however, to get on with cutting green border fabrics for my house quilt, and to get those tree blocks laid out for Arboretum, and perhaps even to cut into the fabrics for that yellow quilt I have been wanting to make for nigh on 30 years......never mind; we will arrive home the day before Easter, so there will be opportunities for all that cutting and stitching.

But - we need a picture, so let's see what we can find.

Several years ago we spent Easter at the folk festival, then we stayed in Canberra for a few more weeks as our son and (now ex) DIL were away on their delayed honeymoon.  One Saturday morning I was reading the local paper and found that a local (local-ish) garden was open for inspection, so off we went.  It was a 40-45 minute drive east in some rather gorgeous country, and well worth it.

We paid our charity dollars at the gate, and in we went.  I don't even remember what the house looked like - it was not open - but the gardens were beautiful.  I'm not sure what this small tree was, possibly some sort of oak, but the leaves were very bright.

An area just outside the house had been set up as a small café where we enjoyed a coffee and admired the flowers on our table, large dahlias wearing their autumn dresses.

Lots of fallen leaves.......

......and a pond......

.....with a rose trellis......

'Nahema' has a wonderful scent.  If you look it up you can see that's it's a climbing rose which is quite spectacular when covered with blooms.

Here is a timely read for you.  Today is International Women's Day, and this article shows that much is still to be done to make a world in which women feel comfortable.  A woman is not just a shorter bloke with longer hair, there is much more to us than that; I'm not tall, about five foot two as the songs says (although I don't have eyes of blue) and I find many chairs are too high for me to rest my feet on the ground.....and I'm by no means the shortest woman I know.  Many years ago I read that anyone under five foot three inches tall finds most chairs too high.  That's certainly true.  The particularly galling part is that many medications given to women are not tested on them - too hard, say the medical scientist blokes, women have menstrual cycles and pregnancies and menopauses which make them unavailable when we need them to be tested, so we won't bother about them.  Perhaps in the future things might change....we certainly hope so, even if we're no longer around to benefit.

Sigh.....

"Lovers' disputes.

Neither party should try to make the other jealous for the purpose of testing his or her affection.  Such a course is contemptible; and if the affections of the other are permanently lost by it, the offending party is only gaining his or her just desserts.  Neither should there be provocation to little quarrels for the foolish delight of reconciliation.  No lover will assume a domineering attitude over his future wife.  If he does so, she will do well to escape from his thrall before she becomes his wife in reality.  A domineering lover will be certain to be more domineering as a husband."

Of this, I have no doubt.

We will return in a few weeks, but until then - 

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

Marking time

Because nothing new has been started in the sewing room.  Indeed, very little happened in the sewing room at all, this week.

Diamonds have been cut for the tumbling blocks, and more will be cut to have a good supply for the upcoming holiday.  One block was made for the monthly BOM for my quilting group. Fabric was picked up and put down again.  

The house quilt was going to be worked on but the spare bed - the design bed - is being used to lay out some Stuff for the holiday in less than two weeks, so today we shall visit the photo vault.

According to the computer this pic was taken in April, 2022 - nearly four years ago, and probably about the start of the tumbling blocks journey.

This was two years later, in June 2024....many more blocks had been made in the meantime, these few were laid out for a photo opportunity.  Now there are nearly 400 completed blocks out of 449 needed, but a few extra may be made just in case.  Many of the fabrics are repros (some from many many years ago) or newer fabrics which hold hands nicely with the repros; all were used in my tumbler quilt, and since then others have been found in the stash which also work.  Several fabrics have been used up in the process, so that's a good thing too.

In case you have forgotten, or have never seen the tumbler quilt:

Every time I look at it I think to myself - did I really make this by hand?  Not the borders, of course, but that large centre panel and another smaller panel on the reverse, and I pat myself on the back once more.

Here's a chuckle for you:  while having lunch today I was finishing the last few pages of a book, the plot of which centered around the murder of an elderly man who had planned to change his will to cut members of his family out.  This was not good enough for the husband of a niece, he wanted her share (and everyone else's too) so he engineered a gas explosion which blew up the elderly uncle's house with uncle in it, completely obliterating the house and poor old uncle.  Fast forward to the memorial service a few weeks later, one of the attendees asked if uncle was going to be cremated.....a bit late for that, I would have thought, the explosion.....

Words have been read.  Stitches have been sewn and knitted.  Songs were plinked and sung.  My annual entry for the Eisteddfod at the end of May has been lodged, so now the words to the poem and song need to be learned.  Most are already in my brain, the chords for the song are not there yet but they will come.  We ambled around the supermarket and found Stuff to eat.  Appointments were kept.  That was about it for the week.

Despite being told it is so, today - 1st March - is not the first day of autumn.  Days are getting shorter but temperatures are still saying 'summer', and nights are not as cool as we would like.  We will be glad to finally see the last of what has been a long unpleasant summer.  We have forgotten what rain looks like, but hopefully whoever arranges these things will take pity on us and loosen the taps to let some water through before too long.  We have high hope that our sojourn down south will be a little cooler, as we won't be far from the Snowy Mountains.....and I am also hoping to see autumn colour, won't that be nice?

"No young man who would shrink from being guilty of a great impropriety, should ever prolong his visits beyond ten o'clock, unless it be the common custom of the family to remain up and to entertain visitors at a later hour, and the visit paid is a family one and not a tete-a-tete.  Two hours is quite long enough for a call; and the young man will give evidence of his affection no less than his consideration, by making his visits short, and, if need be, making them often, rather than by prolonging to unreasonable hours."

A young lady's family will not thank her suitor for keeping them - and her - from their beauty sleep, by overstaying his welcome.  

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer