We're heading off again!

That's right.....day after tomorrow we are hitching up the caravan and heading off to Canberra, to visit our older son and to spend Easter weekend at the National Folk Festival.  We've been going for many years now and always enjoy it; due to a misunderstanding last year I ended up working many more volunteer hours than were required and was in two minds whether to volunteer again.  It felt as though I only had half a festival, but that won't happen this year.

So you won't hear from me for a couple of weeks, because although we will be taking our Lovely New Laptop Computer I won't be sitting around surfing the net when I could be singing, or playing music, or listening to a great concert, or having a drink with friends.

These pictures were taken about 18 months ago when we visited a beautiful garden about 40 minutes south of here.  The picture above was the view from the garden looking north (I think), and below is a corner of the garden.

Can you spot the little blue wren?  He (boys are blue, girls are brown) is much brighter than the forget-me-nots behind him.  Lately we have been visited by a family of wrens, one blue male and several brown birds......although they may not all be female, as it says here.  They are very sweet little birds.  It's difficult to imagine how tiny their little toe bones must be, isn't it?

Last Saturday night we attended the theatre, the local amateur society is performing "The Mousetrap" by Agatha Christie - it was very well done, and very entertaining!  However I can't tell you the ending or who the villain is, because at the conclusion of the performance one of the actors stepped forward and enlisted the audience in the conspiracy not to tell.  Apparently that has been done at every performance of the play's 60-year run.  Agatha Christie thought it would only run for a limited time so she gave the royalties to her grandson as a gift.....he has done very well from it.

For the first time ever we are having house sitters come in to look after the house and the cats; poor old Binky doesn't like going to a boarding kennel so they can stay in their own house with their usual routine, and we will have someone keeping an eye on our house.  There is some opportunist crime in this town (as there seems to be everywhere these days) so we feel happier that the house won't be left empty for 16 days.  If it works out well then we will look at getting in a sitter for the Big Canadian Trip later in the year.

So there has been a flurry of dusting, and cleaning, and sweeping.  Don't want the sitters thinking that a sloppy housewife lives here, do we?  Still have some cleaning to do, but that's OK, we will manage.  Important things, like putting new strings on my guitar and learning a new song, and packing my knitting and the coffee grinder, have already been taken care of.  I have my priorities.

Signs of autumn are everywhere now, trees are definitely changing colour, and we know we will see even more signs as we head south.  We will be driving over mountains so can expect some cool weather - but that's all right, we have jackets, and sleeping bags and quilts for the caravan.  Easter is earlier this year than it was last year but we still expect cool weather.

"Treatment of inferiors.
Never affect superiority.  In the company of an inferior never let him feel his inferiority.  If you invite an inferior as your guest, treat him with all the politeness and consideration you would show an equal."

Remember that, next time you invite the gardener to tea.

Enjoy your days!

First two projects for 2009

Isn't this cute. Too small to leave its mother. While we were visiting Cooma I bought a kit to make this little bag, which is made of eight rectangles - four for the outside, four for the lining. The beads were included in the kit to be used for the bag trim but I haven't decided if I will use them. I had always wanted to know how these bags were made.
The bright bag - these pretty fabrics are the Maypole range by April Cornell for Moda, florals, bright spots and tone-on-tone florals and spots. I used all 40 squares. First one side.......
.......then the other.
I used all 40 squares, the last six made pretty pockets inside. The lining is a teensy weensy tiny soft lime green print on cream. And I made a rigid bottom so it would stand better. I like the prints but I'm not sure the bag is really "me", however it will get used. Bags are always handy.

Ain't technology wonderful! The weather pixie on my sidebar changes her clothes according to the weather! We had soft rain overnight and this morning, so she put up her umbrella. This pixie is the closest to me, I have long hair too and most of it is still auburn.

And for those of you who would like to get rid of your snow and ice, hang in there. Our weather forecast is for 39 degrees C again this weekend. Just keep it packed ready to send.

One of these days I shall see how my guitars are surviving the heat and start learning my new song for the first meeting of the folk club in mid-February.

Jennifer

My blog name WOW

This is the bronze wombat, after whom I named my blog. It is the largest in my wombat collection and is made of solid bronze, all 16kg (35lbs) of it. Several years ago while DH and I were travelling we visited a small town called Uralla, in northern NSW. It had a brass foundry that had been working for over a hundred years, so we paid our $2 and took a tour which was really fascinating. They had a shop with lots of interesting items for sale, one of which was my wombat. If it's still here when we are going home, said DH, we will buy it. It was, and as you can see, we did. No 2 son carried it in from the car staggering under the weight, he was not impressed as I remember.

What a brave woman am I, I went to the local mall this morning to do a little bit of shopping. It wasn't too busy when I arrived before 10am but when I left a couple of hours later I was glad to go. I bought a couple of candles for Christmas decoration, one red and one green; a soap dish for the bathroom to replace the one that DH accidently broke yesterday when we was doing some plumbing repairs; some guitar strings for my lovely classical Ibanez guitar, and not much else. Then after lunch I went to the library and bought some books to take on our holiday next weekend, they sell surplus books - 55 cents for a paperback! That's cheaper than thrift shops. Once we have read them, we can leave them behind in the campground laundry for someone else to read.

And the Christmas tree is up, the house is decorated - not too much though - I don't go overboard with decorations as I'm the one who has to pack them up after Christmas - and there are some presents under the tree already with my name on them. Woo hoo!

Jennifer