Settling back home again

Much as I like being away and coming home, unpacking is not much fun......sorting out stuff, washing clothes, putting things away......but it's nearly all done now.

We had a good time except for the heat.  Fortunately it wasn't ~quite~ as hot as our trip one year ago, but inland Australia is usually hot in summer anyway.  Never mind, in a few months it will be cooler.

We had a fun 2nd birthday celebration with Euan, who says "Hello" beautifully.  He had learned "Hello, Gan-puh" by the time we left.  Me, I don't have a label yet......"Grandma" is still being worked out, it seems.  Perhaps it will be achieved by Easter when we see him again.

 He liked his birthday cake.

We also enjoyed our family Christmas, the first one for a few years!  Usually it's just the two of us.

The night before we left I decided that I needed a 'car knitting' project because we would be spending a long time driving, so yarn bought last April in Bendigo, needles and pattern were taken along.  The first stitches were cast on as we left town here, and when it was all measured yesterday - the day after returning - this much has been done of the back, only a few more centimetres remain to the armholes.  Colour is light blue with a hint of lavender.

 Just think of all the knitting time which would have been wasted if it hadn't been taken along!

A day or two before we left the final stitches were taken on Winding Ways, and it was finally photographed yesterday.  As you can see not all black is dark, and not all white is light.

 The back.......yes, they are cows.  A bloke on the other side of the hill owns them and they often come down our side of the hill.  We don't mind seeing them, but at times it smells somewhat......rural.

The next project will be started soon.  Very soon.

While in Canberra we saw two exhibitions,  One was "Versailles" at the National Gallery of Australia, and while it was interesting I don't think I could have lived in that palace.  By the end of our visit I was just about ready to run through the gallery waving my red cap while shouting "Vive la revolution"!

The second exhibition was, to me, more interesting perhaps because it related more to our lives.  "The Sell" at the National Library of Australia - talk about a trip down memory lane!  The oldest article in this exhibition is a small poster from 1796 advertising a play in Sydney at "the Theatre".  The first European settlement in Sydney was in 1788, so there may not have been many theatres eight years later.

On our way home we spent several days in Gulgong, a small town with an interesting history and many old buildings remaining from the gold rush days, including the Prince of Wales Opera House, a glorified tin shed with wonderful acoustics.  Their annual folk festival was held over the new year weekend, and great fun it was too; we spent time catching up with old friends, and making new ones, and listening to music.  Each night there were sessions to join in - playing and singing in the company of like-minded musical friends is, I think, one of the great joys of life.

"Requirements for a happy marriage.
Respect for each other is as necessary to a happy marriage as that the husband and wife should have an affection for one another.  Social equality, intellectual sympathy, and sufficient means are very important matters to be considered by those who contemplate matrimony."

To which I would add, the ability to stay married while sharing a small - very small - caravan for a few weeks.

Enjoy your days!

Happy New Year!

We are back!

We'll be back in the new year!

Day after tomorrow, Saturday, we will be hitching up our little caravan, climbing into our car and heading south to celebrate a birthday, Christmas, and a new year, so you won't hear from me for a few weeks.

Life here at Chez Wombats has been drifting along.  My Winding Ways quilt is nearly done, yay!   A large amount of bias binding was made and machined onto the front, and is now being hand-sewn down on the back - right now it is three-quarters done.  Once that is finished it will be immortalised in a photograph for the world to admire.......after such a long time it's good to be so close to finishing; the first blocks were made in a class late in 2007.

Some hand-sewing will be packed to take along, and a book of crosswords, and of course a ukulele (that goes without saying), and my tablet loaded with who-dun-it mysteries.  We don't have TV  in our little van, the space it would use is taken by a microwave which, in my opinion, is far more useful, and if we get bored we can always watch our dinner go round and round......and round......a radio/CD player is our entertainment, we can usually pick up a local station somewhere.

There are always new acquaintances to be made in camp grounds, if we hit it off that's good......and if we don't, we can always console ourselves by remembering that it will be a brief acquaintance.

In recent times I have read biographies of two women, one born in England who lived a lot of her life in Australia, another who was born in Australia but lived for a while in England.  "The amazing Mrs Livesey" was about young Ethel Livesey, born in England in 1897, who married as a teenager and had a child to her first husband who was reported killed in World War I.  Her parents took the newborn boy to give her a chance to mourn and gather her thoughts, whereupon she packed her bags and took off for pastures greener and 'Husband' No. 2 - to whom she wasn't legally married, but that didn't stop her claiming his army money.  Forty (forty!) aliases later, eight husbands (many married bigamously), four children, living in several countries, young Ethel was never one to let the grass grow under her feet.  Although the book ends with her death there is even a question about that, because no one knows what name she was using at the time.  Ethel learned as a young woman to always speak well and to dress well, both skills which helped her along her merry way of scamming people......because who would ever believe that such a well-dressed and well-spoken woman could be a confidence trickster?

The second book is "Rosetta", written by Rosetta's great-granddaughter.  Rosetta caused a great scandal in 1905 when she left her prosperous businessman husband and young daughter to run away with a fortune teller......and not only was he a fortune teller, he was half-Chinese, someone who would have been well out of the social circles in which women like Rosetta moved.  They moved to Europe and numbered among friends many of the nobility and even royalty, quite a step upwards fro their earlier life in Melbourne!  The author has woven truth and possible truth together to tell Rosetta's story; much of it is documented in reports of the time, and some from her imagination.  From the day Rosetta left until she died she and her daughter never met again, although it turns out they lived not far apart.

We tend to think of ancestors and people of earlier times as living dull lives, but obviously that wasn't always the case!

"Manners and personal appearance.
A charming manner not only enhances personal beauty, but even hides ugliness and makes plainness agreeable.  An ill-favored countenance is not necessarily a stumbling-block, at the outset, to its owner, which cannot be surmounted, for who does not know how much a happy manner often does to neutralize the ill effects of forbidding looks?"

Obviously Mrs Livesey and Rosetta were both possessed of charm.......it certainly lubricated their way through life.

Until we meet again - no matter where you live or what you celebrate, best wishes for a season filled with peace and love.

Enjoy your days!

We're having a heatwave.......

.......a tropical heatwave......

Today is the fourth day of a very hot five day heatwave, and I for one am over it.  It can go away now.  According to the weather people it is being caused by a large slow-moving mass of hot air moving south from central Queensland.  As far as I am concerned they can have it back - we wouldn't want to deprive them.

On to happier topics.

The quilting is all done on my Winding Ways quilt, the last stitches were taken yesterday.  Now to sew a line of stitching around the edges and trim off the excess backing and wadding, and make the binding from a printed black and white uneven plaid cut on the bias.

This fabric - what do you reckon?  I laid it out to get an idea of how it would look, I think it will work well.

Well, the new green glasses are a thing of beauty, to be sure!  As I need to wear them when taking pictures I'm not sure if I can get a photo to show you, but you can see them here, the green/lime colourway.  They are comfortable to wear and seem to do what I need them to do, which is to help my somewhat aging vision......what more could a person need?  They have a slight cat's eye shape, something I haven't worn before.  According to their brand website they are "Urban Kool".  Doesn't that sound like me, Kool to the bootstraps?  (don't forget the capital K, so much kooler than just cool.)

A little sadness here at Chez Wombats, our nice neighbours at Number 66 have sold up and are moving early next month.  We will be sorry to see them go but understand why they are going - their neighbour on the other side, Ms 64, is making their lives very difficult.  Ever since she moved in a few years ago with several unrestrained cats there has been friction and bad feeling (we are all fed up with her free-ranging moggies, even those of us who like cats) which culminated in her bloke and Mr 66 exchanging punches last year when we were in Canada.  It ended up in court and has caused a lot of acrimony, so for the sake of their health they have decided to go.  On the other side two doors away Number 72 is also on the market but not because of nasty neighbours, this is due to a marriage break-up.

A couple of weeks ago while out shopping we bumped into Mrs 66 who told us she had been responsible for capturing a teenage burglar in our street that very morning.  She had been out walking their little pug and was coming back up the street when she saw a young bloke riding slowly, checking out houses and gardens as he went.  She became suspicious then remembered she had left her back door unlocked, so picked up Pud (probably short for Pudding, he's a roly-poly little dog) the pug under her arm and sprinted for home.  Once at her house she saw the bike beside the house across the road and a side gate open so went inside her house and rang the police, who came very promptly - and caught the young bloke in the act with some jewellery in one hand and car keys in another.  He couldn't say "oh no, it wasn't me" could he?  He must have laid hands on a police person too, because one of the charges he faces is assaulting police.  15 years old......why wasn't he at school?  Now he faces a criminal record and time in criminal detention where he will probably learn even more bad habits, and come out with something to prove to himself and society.

Like many communities we here in the Small Smoke have our share of opportunistic crime, some committed by young people who regularly truant from school and think the world owes them a living......a 'skill' probably learned from their parents and grandparents, and so it goes on down through the generations.  However far and away the majority of people here are decent people and a few bad apples don't taint a whole case.

"The pernicious influence of indolence.
If you would preserve your children from the pernicious influence of indolence and all its corrupting tendencies, you must be earnest in purpose, active, energetic and fervent in spirit.  Earnestness sharpens the faculties; indolence corrodes and dulls them.  By the former we rise higher and higher, by the latter we sink lower and lower.  Indolence begets discontent, envy and jealousy, while labor elevates the mind and character.  Cultivate in your children habits of thought which will keep their minds occupied upon something that will be of use or advantage, and prevent them from acquiring habits of idleness, if you would secure their future well-being."

Indeed.  Somehow, though, I doubt that the parents of these young miscreants would understand these words, let alone act on them.

Enjoy your days!

Round and round and round.......

Have you ever wrestled an elephant through your sewing machine?  That's what it feels like, but I am pleased with how it's turning out......circle after circle after circle.  Only four complete circles to be done - I think, I hope - and the remaining partial circles along the outside edge will be easier.

 Of course it wasn't finished for Saturday's Big Reveal of our challenge quilts, but I'm pleased to say mine wasn't the only one!

Every now and then pictures from last year's trip to The Great White North (which wasn't very white at the time) scroll through on our computer to remind us of our holiday, and I thought my Aussie friends might like to see this bear proof rubbish bin, or trash can in Canadian-speak.

We do have some nasty critters here (including some which may kill you if you are unlucky, although many Aussies live all their lives without ever seeing snakes and crocodiles in the wild) but at least we don't have to worry about bears.

This past week has been busy, fortunately not as hectic as the previous week but busy enough.  Two - two! - trips to the theatre, including a big band concert yesterday afternoon which was great fun.  Big band music from the 1930s and 40s is great.  On Wednesday night we attended a 2017 preview night at our local theatre to find out what will be on next year, we have some fabulous concerts and plays to look forward to.

Many regular TV programs have finished for the year and are replaced with, in some cases, much more interesting programs and in other, complete rubbish.......and summer sport......lots of sport, way too much sport.....we have found that ads are much more interesting with the sound muted.  Watching people dance and prance around with no music playing is quite funny!  Odd......but still funny.

However what intrigues me each and every year is that news programs also stop for over two months.  Regular daily news bulletins still continue, but in-depth news programs just - stop.  Does this mean nothing newsworthy happens over December and January?  I find that very difficult to believe, you know.

We will soon be starting to crank our brains up for the annual onslaught of Christmas.  Here at Chez Wombats Christmas is always quite low-key, and this year's event will be even more so as we won't be here.  We will be in Canberra having Christmas with family, for a change.  Fingers crossed for a mild season - last year's Yule season was horribly hot, and I can't cope with that too often.  So the Christmas wombats will stay packed away this year, and Flossie the Jim Shore angel won't come out of her box, and a tree won't be decorated.  We might take a small tabletop tree and a string of tiny green lights away in the caravan with us for a bit of festive cheer, but that will be the extent of our decorating this year; it will be "bah, humbug" all the way.

One of last week's appointments was at the optometrist for my two-yearly check-up and my eyes received a glowing report, which is great news.  The rest of me may be falling apart, but the eyes are amazing!  For many years, however, I have been wearing glasses for anything close (as do many older folk) and the prescription is being re-jigged, so I have ordered new frames to contain the new lenses......and guess what, they are green!  Not only green, but they fitted perfectly on first try-on - something which has never happened in the past.  My face is not wide so many glasses don't fit, and the length of the side arms is usually way too long as well, but not these gorgeous green frames.  Obviously made just for me!  The phone call to say they are ready to be collected should come any day now.

"Perspiration.
To remove the unpleasant odor produced by perspiration, put two tablespoons of the compound spirit of ammonia in a basin of water, and use it for bathing.  It leaves the skin clear, sweet and fresh as one could wish.  It is perfectly harmless, very cheap, and is recommended on the authority of an experienced physician."

This handy hint (or should one say 'hack' these days?  I don't) from the mid-1880s was in the days when one's clothing wasn't washed as frequently as it is now, so perhaps that ammonia was really needed.

Enjoy your days!

Something rare - time at home!

This week has been one of the busiest that we have had for a long time - many regular commitments and some irregular ones have all happened together, but now we're enjoying a rare afternoon at home.

It hasn't been totally wasted, though; a small project was assembled at sewing group.  Mind you, the pieces were cut out two months ago and have just been sitting around in my sewing room since then waiting for an opportunity to be made up.

Isn't it interesting?  My Victoria, B.C., friend Lois (who doesn't have a blog) gave me this row by row "West Coast View" last year when we visited, it's from Snip & Stitch Sewing Centre, Nanaimo, one of our shopping stops on a trip up island, on a freezing cold day with a howling gale blowing.  I love the colours!  It will have a border or two added and become a table centre.  Rose Marie also gave me a row by row from Ontario (which, coincidentally, uses very similar fabrics and colours) and it is next on the 'smaller projects' list, once Winding Ways is quilted; I plan to have a go at needle turn applique on that one so it may even go away with me next month.

Six days to go until the challenge quilts are revealed, mine definitely won't be finished.......but I can live with that.  The world won't stop spinning on its axis because of it.

This morning the uke group played at a Christmas fair for a local worthy cause and it was fun, as usual.  We even had people dancing when we played "Sway"!  Two more weeks until the next gig, we'll be famous yet, you know.

It hasn't been all fun and games lately, though.  Last weekend our choir director's partner died; he had been ill for some time so it was not a surprise, but was still sad.  Yesterday he was given a send-off with much love, music and friends, and a couple of songs from the choir.

Today is one year since we arrived back from our trip to Canada, and given today's heat I would gladly go back.  If only it wasn't for the long flight up there in a tin box with 300 of my new best friends and 97 crying babies........

Saw my GP earlier in the week for a check up, and pointed to a 'thing' on my right cheek.  Oh yes, he said, peering at it through that magnifier thingy doctors use, it's a sun spot.  Keep an eye on it, he said.  (pretty difficult when it's low down on my cheek south of my eyes)  Take photos on your phone looking in a mirror to track its progress, he said.  Um yes, I said but I probably won't take a skin selfie, next time I see him in a couple of months he can check it again.  You're not burning it off, I said, you can burn anywhere else but not my face.  No, he said, it will probably have to be (gulp) surgically removed eventually.  Something to look forward to, for sure.

Oh, the fun of having ancestors from northern Europe.

"Freckles.
Freckles are of two kinds.  Those occasioned by exposure to the sunshine, and consequently evanescent, are denominated "summer freckles;" those which are constitutional and permanent are called "cold freckles".  With regard to the latter, it is impossible to give any advice which will be of value.  They result from causes not to be affected by mere external applications.  Summer freckles are not so difficult to deal with, and with a little care the skin may be kept free from this cause of disfigurement.  Some skins are so delicate that they become freckled on the slightest exposure to open air in summer.  The cause assigned for this is that the iron in the blood, forming a junction with the oxygen, leaves a rusty mark where the junction takes place."

What do you know.......I have rusty skin, and here was I thinking that it was only my joints which were rusty.

Enjoy your days!

What a week

Let's not get too hung up on negatives, though......the world is still (mostly!) an amazing place.

Last week we went for a Nice Sunday Drive on Friday to a small village 40 minutes away and stopped off at a water storage lake which we last visited in mid-September, when there was much less water in it than there is now.

Water in this section of the lake was nowhere near as high as here, and the trees now in the water were still a long way from the bank a couple of months ago.

As promised (sorry, can't remember who was promised but I know I told someone there would be pics) the backing for my Winding Ways quilt.

 The backing has to be joined, so why not make a feature of the join?  The centre two stripes are four inches finished, the next two are eight inches, and I have forgotten how wide the two outside stripes are but they were duly measured and cut.  I quite like this idea and may use it again.

 Lots of circles in these prints.  The quilt is being finished - finally - for my group challenge, which this year is "Circles", hence the decision to get a move on because it fits in with the theme.

Mind you, it still may not be completely finished by the deadline which is two weeks from tomorrow.......never mind, it can still be taken along and flourished aloft, then brought home to be completed.  Quilting will follow the lines of the circles in the blocks on the front and will be done with the walking foot, using a black and white variegated thread.

And I can tell you now that Madame President won't like it.  Not enough garish colour for her taste, but it's my quilt and I do like it.  I like it a lot.  I'm thinking of calling it "The long and winding road".

Last weekend we had a tutor visiting from the Big Smoke, it was lovely to renew our acquaintance; many many years ago we were members of the same group.  I have long admired her work and it was interesting to have a go at machine embroidery/thread painting/whatever you like to call it.  The background is different tones of silver-grey and is more textured than it looks here, the large copper-coloured leaf will be finished once a new bobbin is wound with dark maroon thread and the remaining white spaces filled in with colour.

This technique is quite hard on one's neck, shoulders and back, and the fact that my machine was sitting on a regular table and not in my own lower sewing table with my own chair adjusted for my own short self made it even more difficult; I was quite stiff and sore by Sunday evening and haven't sewn a stitch since.  Despite that it's now number two on the list of Stuff That I Really Want To Finish, and will have its turn after Winding Ways is done.

We're having a little taste of summer now with the occasional warmer day - today isn't too hot but it is, surprisingly for here, a little humid.  Rain is forecast for tomorrow, that might explain it......for once my hair isn't dead straight!

Every now and then the thought crosses my mind to get my hair cut shorter and just as quickly my mind says "oh, don't be silly.  If you have it cut you will look the same as all the other old ladies in town."  So I don't listen to the thought and I keep my hair long, because I like to be a little different.  Perhaps when it's all grey or white might be the time to cut it shorter and have coloured streaks put in - green, of course - but, considering my somewhat advanced age (big significant birthday coming up next year, you know; I'm trying to ignore it) there is still a lot of its natural auburn colour left, so while I still have it I'm going to flaunt it.  Nothing like wearing one's hair up with a flower pinned in to make a slightly frivolous statement, is there?

The uke group has a gig next Sunday morning so yes, there will be flowers.  I'm thinking the blue orchids, because my plan is to wear bright blue clothes.

"The dress for the theatre.
The promenade dress with the addition of a handsome cloak or shawl, which may be thrown aside if it is uncomfortable, is suitable for a theatre,  The dress should be quiet and plain, without any attempt at display.  Either a bonnet or hat may be worn.  Gloves should be dark, harmonizing with the dress."

Well......we will be performing but not in a theatre, we will be outdoors in a garden at the local racecourse, and considering that it could be anything from a bit warm to stinking hot we'll give the cloak or shawl a miss.  Definitely be wearing a hat though, my wardrobe includes several Noosa hats which keep the sun off my face in, hopefully, quite a stylish way.

Enjoy your days!