There ain't no cure for the summertime blues

There ain't, you know.

 All done!  Pattern was called "Gumballs" by the designer (been looking for the original post to link to, but it doesn't seem to exist any more).  However, due to my lack of love for summer heat I thought this was a more apt name.

 The backing fabric is brighter in real life but I was scrabbling to take these pictures early yesterday morning before it rained, so the light isn't what it would normally be.

 See that bright orange and blue triangle piece in the centre, next to the blue and green fish?  That was my inspiration for the colour scheme; the fabric was in my stash and came from I can't remember where, I don't remember how long ago.  There is still a small piece left. 

 A close-up of the quilting from a local LA quilter.....those long wavy lines are vertical, but I didn't want it dragging on the ground so it was hung sideways.

The obligatory artistique shot in the remains of the we-think-it-was-an-apricot-tree, in our back yard.

Sighing the happy sigh, because my quilt is finished and I love it.  Also because it rained yesterday, the best rain we have had for many months.  Nowhere near enough to break the drought - long-range forecasters are saying there is no hope of any decent rain until next February-March at least - but enough to give thirsty gardens a drink and put a smile on the face of many folk.

We have started unpacking our Stuff!  Right now the dining room table isn't usable because of what's spread out on it, but it will be again in a day or two.  You have no idea how good that feels.  18 months ago I had to buy some serving dishes from an op shop because we had company and ours were all packed......now those pretty dishes and plates can be used again. 

I know Stuff is only Stuff, people are more important than Stuff, but our possessions are part of our lives - the stories they tell, the memories they evoke.  Some of my possessions came to me from my mother, they were wedding presents when my parents married in 1946; the marriage didn't last, but those plates have.  The wedding presents we received when we married are part of that story too.

Best of all, I am looking forward to having my books again soon!

My sumptuous wardrobe has been increased by new jeans.  Or a new jean, if you prefer.  Yesterday I popped into a shop I had never thought to try before (have often bought tees and tops from them, but not bottoms) and, much to my surprise, found jeans which fitted beautifully and were the exact right length for my short self.  Even better - there was a 50% sale, so they were the right price.  Still need new trakkie daks, but I may end up making them.

"A knife should never, on any account, be put into the mouth.  Many people, even well-bred in other respects, seem to regard this as an unnecessary regulation; but when we consider that it is a rule of etiquette, and that its violation causes surprise and disgust to many people, it is wisest to observe it."

We have our decent knives and cutlery to use again, too.......no longer are we limited to just the everyday stuff.

Enjoy your days!

Not one, but two busy weeks!

However, life in the Chateau des Wombats has now returned to what passes for normal.

It has rained!  Wet stuff has fallen from the sky!!  Last night and this morning some very welcome rain fell.......nowhere enough to break what is turning out to be the worst drought for a century or more, but each and every drop and dribble is welcome.  Hearing magpies and kookaburras singing in the rain earlier today was a beautiful thing, and kangaroos have been on the hill munching away at damp dry grass.

Our moment of musical fame and glory went well last Sunday, and we have been invited back as often as we wish.  I'm all for playing every month, but every second month seems to be the choice of the rest of the group at this stage.

My back is now happy again, so my quilt is being bound!

It is bright.  Gorgeously bright.  I love it.  At this stage I don't know if there will be a recipient......it may just join other quilts in the cupboard, to be brought out and gloated over occasionally.

The meeting with our prospective house sitter went well, and we have no qualms about leaving the house and Bianca in her very capable hands when we go away.

You all know the old saying "A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing"?  Kevin was trying to download something onto our big computer which would never have worked, I have told him in the past that it wouldn't work, but being a bloke he couldn't help himself, he just had to try......goodness knows what he downloaded, possibly something quite nasty, so the computer made a trip to the repair shop for some much needed R and R early in the week.  It now runs quieter and much quicker than it did this time last week, and we are a little poorer.

Sigh......

I have been mentally going through my sumptuous wardrobe and deciding what, if anything, I need to buy for Canada.  Some more jeans, most of mine are getting elderly.....perhaps a nice new pair of trakkie daks, sweat pants for the non-Aussies.  "Daks" are long pants, "trakkies" are what used to be called track suits but are now leisure suits, sweat suits. yoga pants etc.  Doesn't trakkie daks sound nicer than sweat pants?  (anything sounds nicer than sweat pants, I reckon)  Perhaps I should say "a jean" instead of "jeans", I know it's only one garment but it is bifurcated; I crack up laughing at "a pant", "the jean", "the short" etc.

Some of us are easily amused, aren't we?

"Evening dress for ladies.
Evening dress for ladies may be as rich, elegant and gay as one chooses to make it.  It is everywhere the custom to wear full evening dress in brilliant evening assemblages.  It may be cut either high or low at the neck, yet no lady should wear her dress so low as to make it quite noticeable or a special subject of remark.  Evening dress is what is commonly known as "full dress," and will serve for a large evening party, ball or dinner.  No directions will be laid down with reference to it, as fashion devises how it is to be made and what material used."

Not one word about comfortable trakkie daks, you notice.

Enjoy your days!

Busy week coming up

Every now and then the week ahead has something happening every day, and the coming week is one of those......all things I enjoy, just so many of them!  So while I was doing nothing much this afternoon, it's time to update the blog.

Have you noticed that blogging seems to have fallen in popularity?  Why is this, I wonder......is it because so many people are on other social media platforms, and have let their blogging lapse?  Perhaps keeping things updated became onerous for some folk......or perhaps they have just moved on.

There's not even much to report on because not much happened last week, apart from the fact that I buggered my back.  Last Monday morning I was rubbing moisturising cream into my legs (the current dry weather plays havoc with one's aging skin) - one at a time of course, that's all I can manage these days - one foot on the toilet seat creaming away, when I felt my back give a little like a piece of overstretched elastic, and that was that for the next few days.  According to the chiropractor it's a bulging disc; I've had it before, and no doubt will have it again before I die.  It is feeling much better now, thank you, I can move without pain, my back just feels tired sometimes but even that is easing.

Consequently very little was accomplished, although many books were read.  My quilt was collected from the quilter but hasn't yet been bound, the gorgeous orange binding hasn't been cut, but I have high hopes for later this afternoon.  The quilt has turned out beautifully, so I want to get it finished!

The most excitement we had was on Thursday night when I was coming home from choir.  Picture this:  a quiet street in a country town, ten past nine on a cold winter's night, a car being driven steadily because of wildlife sightings (kangaroos have been coming into town because of the drought, we have evidence on our front grass to prove it and we have seen kangaroos in the street) when I saw a very large kangaroo on the front garden two doors away from our house.  Because of the size I am guessing it was a male, it was huge.  It hopped slowly along to the next house......I followed equally slowly.  It then hopped onto our grass and sat near our mail box......I still crawled along behind.  Kangaroos are very unpredictable; they can hop along in a fairly straight line then suddenly veer to one side or another, which makes a collision hard to avoid.  So we have a stand off, the kangaroo sitting on the edge of our driveway and me waiting to turn into said driveway, not quite game to make the turn in case Mr Roo jumped into the side of the car door - yes, they do that.  Eventually it hopped on down the road, and your correspondent was able to make the turn safely.

Imagine one of these fellers jumping onto the side of your car......Mr Roo would have been over six feet tall with very powerful muscles.  Don't be fooled by their cute cuddly appearance.   This was taken from our back fence nearly a year ago.

Next Sunday the uke group is playing again for the monthly market at a small church just out of town, we have even learnt some new songs for the occasion as we don't want to bore our audience by repeating songs we sang a couple of months ago.  One favourite from many years ago is "Vaya Con Dios"......."now the hacienda's dark, the town is sleeping".......we like singing that, it has lovely harmonies.

"Rehearsals should be carefully attended to, no indulgence in personal whims or preferences should be allowed, but the directions of the stage-manager, who should be, if not a professional actor, at least competent for the work, should in all cases be rigidly attended.  There is no greater proof of good sense and sweet disposition than to pass the ordeal of taking part in amateur theatricals without a single quarrel."

Well......we don't quarrel, that's for sure, but then we don't have a stage-manager either.  Although - it must be said that I seem to be falling into the part of leader, simply because I have more performing experience than anyone else in the group.  Not sure if that's a good thing......

Enjoy your days!

Golden orange light

Last weekend the backing for a quilt was finally assembled, it was held up due to the Great Flood and associated packing up and unpacking of stuff.  A rather gorgeous orange batik fabric was chosen for binding and to feature on the back; strips were sitting on my sewing machine waiting to be joined for length when I noticed the sun and machine light shining onto the fabric, and couldn't resist taking a pic.

 Is that not scrumptious?  You could eat it, couldn't you?

These pics have been shown before but being too lazy to link back to the post, here they are again.  Backing uses the blue fabric with orange/yellow spots, the luscious orange, and a strip of 12 in blocks to bring it up to the correct size.

It has now gone off to be quilted and I forgot to take a photo of the back, work of genius as it is......but here is the front again, below.  Binding will also be orange.

Pattern is called "Gumballs" but I don't care for that name.  I am thinking along the lines of "There ain't no cure for the summertime blues" - because, let's face it, there ain't. 

Now I am trying to pick up enthusiasm to make a BOM, a very simple block.  I am promising myself that when it's done I can work on my own stuff, which is a great incentive.

The other day I was inspired by all things Canadian (because last Sunday was, after all, Canada Day) to bake something delicious using maple syrup, and chose to make Maple Butter Bars.  The pinging sound you heard was probably our arteries snapping but an occasional treat doesn't hurt, does it?  Should you feel inspired to try it yourself, we can definitely recommend it.  Yummy doesn't begin to describe it.

Our rainless state continues.  Nothing new to report there.

Tomorrow we plan to go for a Nice Sunday Drive on Saturday to Barraba, a small town an hour or so north for their annual art festival.  We haven't been out driving since our return from Canberra nigh on three months ago, so that will make a change from staying home and grinning at each other.

"Etiquette of the street.
The manners of a person are clearly shown by his treatment of the people he meets in the public streets of a city or village, in public conveyances and in travelling generally.  The true gentleman, at all times, in all places, and under all circumstances, is kind and courteous to all he meets, regards not only the rights, but the wishes and feelings of others, is deferential to women and to elderly men, and is ever ready to extend his aid to those who need it."

Words to keep in mind, yes?  Especially as, these days, civility seems to be dropping by the wayside.

Enjoy your days!

To my Canadian family and friends -

 - best wishes for Canada Day. 

Have a great weekend!

 

Fixing the blog comment issue

Following on a link from Fiona's blog I checked out what Shez had to offer on the subject.......tried it, and it works!

Don't forget to save your changes, though.

Dry dry dry

Wasn't there a song or a singing group or something a long time called wet wet wet?  That's not us......

 This was the view from our back yard yesterday, nothing but dry dead grass.

 The late afternoon sun makes it look greener than it is.

As a contrast, this was our view a few months after we moved here in 2010:

It looks like a different world, doesn't it.

The forecast for the rest of today and tomorrow is for rain, but we will believe it when it happens.  So far this afternoon we have had a dribble or two, enough to wet the path but not enough to get excited about.  So we won't.

Back in World War II the land where we now live was taken over by the military for an army camp.  Many young blokes trained here before being shipped elsewhere, one of them was my father; my mother was a local girl but he was from The Big Smoke Way Down South, all the way from another state, and must have seemed quite exotic to a sheltered girl in what was then a small country town.  They eventually married and had a family, which is how I came to be - and when we bought this house in 2010 it had completely slipped my mind that it was on the site of the army camp.  Fortunately there don't seem to be any ghosts.  The marriage wasn't happy, he eventually left (after more than 25 years, mind you!) and we never saw him again.

You know how social media puts ads on your page supposedly because of web sites you have browsed?  Ads generate a huge amount of revenue, I get that.....but how on earth did "they' get the idea that I would be interested in marathon ocean swimming?  I'm not, you know.  Far from it.  Every time I think about exercising, I have to lie down until the thought passes.  A female friend has had ads for bloke's see-through sheer undies in bright colours - doesn't the very thought give you the heebie-jeebies?  I will leave the ribald comments to your imagination.

A few stitches have happened in the sewing room, but as some of those stitches are for Surprises nothing will be shown just yet.  Some unpacking has also happened; it has been very easy to just leave things as they are, messy and in boxes, but it needs to be done.  For one thing there are several circular knitting needles which were packed away and haven't yet turned up.....I know they're somewhere, just don't know where.....

"Obedience.
If you would not have all your instructions and counsels ineffectual, teach your children to obey.  Government in a family is the great safeguard of religion and morals, the support of order and the source of prosperity.  Nothing has a greater tendency to bring a curse on a family than the insubordination and disobedience of children, and there is no more painful and disgusting sight than an ungoverned child."

You know, I agree wholeheartedly with those words.

Enjoy your days!