Been and gone and come home again

My life has taken on a life of its own lately.

Had a fun weekend at the folk festival in Dorrigo catching up with old friends, making new ones, playing music, singing, even joining in a big scratch band on stage to open the Sunday morning concert.  Now back to reality......

Dorrigo has a very nice quilt shop.  A little retail therapy may have been indulged in.    Not all for me, you understand.  It doesn't count when it's a gift for someone else.

On the way there and back we stopped at a village pub, as it was lunch o'clock.  Ebor is a small blink-and-you-miss-it place, but the lunches were quite yummy.  Here are a few Ebor trees for you.

 You can see the road which goes through town.

 I like these trees.

 A tall sentinel - these pics were all taken from the pub car park.

It is much greener in Ebor and Dorrigo than it is here.  Dust, dust and more dust is currently the order of our day, and added to that is smoke from fires not too far away.  Air quality is quite bad; we are being warned to limit our time outside, and people who have breathing difficulties are being told not to go outside at all if possible.  Waking up in the morning with a raw throat is not much fun, and singing becomes next to impossible.

Never mind.  This, too, shall pass.

Speaking of retail, have you noticed that many stores don't give bags for our purchases these days?  When one needs to buy undies (as one did yesterday) one must make sure to take a bag (one did), or one may be faced with the prospect of twirling one's new undies around one's index finger while sashaying along the main drag, no doubt to the scandalised gaze of locals.  It's a good thing to use less plastic, but that doesn't really address the problem of the over-packaged items placed in one's take-along bag, does it?

Recently new shoes were added to my less than extensive shoe collection.  I really really don't like shopping for shoes, but these were a necessity; leather lace-up shoes in a light nothing colour called "stone", support for the occasionally broken foot.  I have black shoes but wanted light ones for summer, and I dislike white athletic shoes even more than I dislike shoe shopping, so "stone" it had to be.

Some stitches have been taken.  No fabric has been cut out.  Friends from Canada are arriving on Saturday for a visit, so cutting out is on the back burner for a while while we enjoy their company.

"The feet.
A well-formed foot is broad at the sole, the toes well spread, each separate toe perfect and rounded in form.  The nails are regular and perfect in shape as those of the fingers.  The second toe projects a little beyond the others, and the first, or big toe, stands slightly apart from the rest and is slightly lifted.  The feet, from the circumstance of their being so much confined by boots and shoes, require more care in washing than the rest of the body.  Yet they do not always get this care."

Not a word about a twice-broken foot, you notice.

Enjoy your days!

Still on our merry way

Not a lot of excitement happens here, however sometimes that is a good thing......yes?  There is good excitement, and there is bad excitement.  Good excitement could be something like winning a life-changing amount of money (that would be in my dreams) while bad excitement can be nasty, so we don't go there.

The biggest excitement was last week when our lovely neighbour Natasha knocked on our door to tell me that she had seen a two foot brown snake slither from under her bins to under our caravan.  Brown snakes are particularly nasty.  I don't do reptiles, and I specially don't do brown snakes.

We have some new plants.  Some of the garden is flourishing - not bad, considering the drought - while some is unhappy.  However as we currently aren't allowed to use water outside (unless it's recycled from kitchen or bathroom) we are looking at alternatives, and succulents are interesting.

 Some empty pots have been pressed into service, and some new plants were purchased.  The smaller red leaves were from a sprawling Kalanchoe which had been getting leggier and leggier, so bits were chopped off and stuck into new pots where they seem to be quite deliriously happy.

 So far, so good.  The two larger pots below have been on the front verandah for a couple of years, with mixed succulents.  The sun was shining bright on this one which makes for a poor photo, but you can see its plants are growing well.

 This one has flapjacks which are threatening to take over the universe, and something interesting in the bottom corner.

 Isn't it pretty?  The individual rosettes look like flowers, and it's tricolour.....green, yellow and pink.  I have no idea what it's called, and I can't even recall where it was bought.

More fabrics have been cut.  It is proceeding slowly.  If I was really cracking the whip and getting on with it I would cut multiple layers at once but I am trying to use as many different fabrics as possible, so just one strip is being cut from each fabric before it is cut into squares and triangles.  This ensures a wide variety of fabrics, but also means the cutting progresses somewhat slowly.  Oh well.....it's not as though I have much else to do with my time, is it?  There is still music to be played, strings to be changed, and books to be read, and stitches to be sewn.......

At least the hand-pieced tumblers are coming along well, being the current TV and portable project.

The weather has ranged from bearable to horrible.  Earlier this week it was unseasonably hot for a few days with a gusty wind, and of course there is so little ground cover that wind also means dust.  We have been closing up the whole house, windows and doors, but still the dust seeps in.  This means that one will have to turn into a domestic goddess before our Canadian friends arrive in a few weeks for a visit, but before then we will be heading off to a music festival for a weekend away.

Hard to imagine that a year ago we were enjoying our own visit to Canada!  Photos scroll around on the computer, and I sigh every time those autumn colours appear.  There is a lot of sighing, as a lot of leaf pics were taken......the inspiration for the quilt pieces currently being cut out.

Even spent a few dollars on something other than quilt fabrics last week, bought a new summer outfit of capri pants (green, of course) and a colourful tunic top.  Over the past few years enough pounds have crept on to make my skirts a bit uncomfortable to wear, so I have decided to join other elderly ladies of the town and wear capri pants or as I term them, Olde Ladies' Shorts.  There comes a time in one's life when one does not, or should not, wear shorts in public past one's front fence, and I have reached that time.

At least I have the sense to realise it, unlike some women I have seen strolling down the main drag of our town.  Just because one can wear something, doesn't mean to say that one should.

"Morning dress for street.
The morning dress for the street should be quiet in color, plainly made and of serviceable material.  It should be short enough to clear the ground without collecting mud and garbage.  Lisle-thread gloves in mid-summer, thick gloves in mid-winter, are more comfortable for street wear than kid ones.  Linen collars and cuffs are most suitable for morning street dress.  The bonnet and hat should be quiet and inexpressive, matching the dress as nearly as possible."

Not one word about shorts, you notice......and particularly not one word about wearing rubber thong sandals.

Enjoy your days!

Snipping, slicing and dicing

That's what happens from time to time in the sewing room.......snipping, slicing and dicing of fabrics.  Here's a peek into the Big Bin of autumn leaf prints:

There are gorgeous fabrics in the bin.......red, orange, gold, brown, green, certainly more than you can see in this pic.  Nowhere near enough pieces are cut yet, but with a slice here and a snip there, they are gradually getting done.

Slacko that I am, even the table centre hadn't been changed for a while until this morning.  The crochet was done by Kevin's grandmother, he remembers she was seldom without a crochet hook in hand and we have beautiful pieces that she made.  I know doilies are considered old fashioned, but I like to acknowledge the work of previous generations.

The bowl was made by Pilliga Pottery, the leaves are gilded to match the rim rather than being the usual green.  We also have a large bowl with a very mid-European folk arty design, made by Pilliga.

More tumblers are being joined during evenings of watching TV.  Eventually they will become a quilt top, and a Big Decision will need to be made......quilt, bind and finish as is, or add borders first? 

Another gig this morning, at the monthly market at a small church just north of town.  We had fun, our audience seemed to enjoy us, and we will be back there in a couple of months for their Christmas market.  Yes, folks, the C word has reared its head......

Is it my imagination, or is every second ad on TV for a vehicle of some sort?  The ads try for arty but end up being very boring, and all look the same to my untrained eye, probably because cars all look alike to me anyway.  I hit the mute button when ads come on; the volume is nearly always louder than the program it is interrupting, and most of them don't talk to their audience - they talk at us.  Ads seem to be a necessary evil; we don't pay for cable TV because the programs don't seem to be any better than the free channels, so why bother.  We scroll through the TV guide online to decide if there is anything we can't live our lives without watching, but no.......very little comes up.  I don't watch serials (that includes the popular one set in an aristocratic English household) because I just cannot be bothered getting hooked.

When I was a child the country town where my family lived didn't have TV at all.  The only time we watched was when we visited my posh Melbourne grandparents but it didn't arrive here for several more years and by then I was off gallivanting here and there as teens do, not sitting home in front of television with the oldies.  It's just never been a big part of my life.  Music, however......now that's different.  I just can't imagine life without music.  A Mozart piano concerto is currently playing on the radio, and very lovely it is too.

"In the matter of literary genius and talent, the youths of the rising generation are gradually but surely, if slowly, advancing to the front intellectually, whilst Australia's daughters are distinguishing themselves in the arts hitherto cradled beneath Italian skies, or perfected in the classic climes of Greece or Italy - namely, poetry, music and song."

Of course we are.  I wonder if the writer of these words in 1885 ever dreamed that many years later Aussie women would even play ukulele?

Enjoy your days!

One thousand and eleven

That's how many pieces need to be cut for the elephant......er, the quilt......that is currently on the chopping board.  Out of curiosity I counted up the various labelled baggies; 120 of this, 90 of that, 333 of something else, etc.  I am really enjoying going through my Big Bin of autumn print fabrics, it brings back many memories; a lot have been bought on our trips to Canada while others have been in the stash for longer.

Never mind.  The cutting out will eventually get done, then I can have the fun of mindlessly feeding fabrics through the machine - definitely a favourite pastime.

Last Friday afternoon the uke group played for the 30th birthday of a support group for people who have suffered a stroke, and many nice things were said to us and about us.  One compliment we are often paid is "you look as though you are having fun" which we do - we are having a lot of fun!  Next Sunday we are back at a market day at a small church just out of town, then we can sit back and heave a sign of relief......but not for long.  We have several gigs coming up to Christmas, which will be upon us before we know it.

Proof that it has indeed rained since we came here - this was a few months after we moved in, a view of the hill behind us.  Those plants must have been knee to hip height, maybe even taller.

 Wet stuff!  Actual wet rain on the garden!

 Although this wasn't taken recently, the view hasn't changed.......it's still dry and brown now.

Sigh......it will eventually rain again.  We just don't know when.

Yesterday afternoon the boat was well and truly pushed out here - I baked a cake!  I used this recipe, but used an eight inch tin and gave it 45 minutes in the oven.  It also has a streusel topping of flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, walnuts and melted butter, but for some reason the topping soaked into the cake as it baked.  I may have overdone the amount of butter......but all is well, as usually that topping falls off instead of sitting nicely on top.  Instead of using the spices in the recipe I dipped into my little container of ready-made pumpkin pie spice mix bought last year in Canada.  There are many recipes online to make your own spice mix, but I thought I would try the real thing.  As we can't buy tine of pumpkin pie filling here I made my own by chopping a pumpkin (Japanese, from memory) into chunks and roasting it in the oven for half an hour or so with the skin still on.  No oil, no seasoning, nothing like that.  When it was done and had cooled the skin was peeled off and it was puréed in the food processor, then stored in self-seal bags - one cup per bag, most recipes seem to use one cup - in the freezer until the mood took me to use them.

Should you feel like joining me in the boat for a bite of something delicious I can recommend it.  Sometimes I make cupcakes with this recipe, but usually it's a bigger cake as it goes further......12 cupcakes is 12 cupcakes, but an eight inch cake can be cut into more than 12 slices.

"The beard.
Those who shave should be careful to do so every morning.  Nothing looks worse than a shabby beard.  Some persons whose beards are strong should shave twice a day, especially if they are going to a party in the evening."

A gentleman probably shouldn't eat cake while wearing a beard, as it would be a shame to waste even the tiniest crumb......which, of course, leaves more for the rest of us.

Enjoy your days!

Wattle they think of next......

As well as being Father's Day (1st Sunday in September for Aussie dads) last Sunday, 1st September, was Wattle Day.  Our little wattle bush is still flowering well considering its bad start in life, and other species are in flower around town.

A bit of a difference since the photo on the last blog post!  It's a difficult plant to photograph in even the slightest breeze, those little golden fluffy balls do not stay still.

 Gorgeous wattle in the local botanic garden.

 A close up of some yellow fluffiness......I don't know how many species of wattle there are, but apparently there is wattle flowering somewhere in Australia every day of the year.

 Silly kitty Bianca......she loves to dash into that kitchen cupboard if she thinks we aren't paying attention when the door is open.  So far - so far! - nothing has been broken, despite the fact that it has glassware.

We have learned that the best defence is to ignore her, and she soon comes out with no fuss when she realises that no bribery is involved.

Nibbles have been made on the elephant, that is to say some fabrics have been cut.  As there are still many hundreds of pieces still to go it's not worth getting too excited yet, so we won't.  We'll save it for something amazing.......just what I do not yet know, but no doubt there will something.

A foretaste of summer this week - it is quite hot, and the wind is nasty.    A good day to stay inside and not breathe in the dust which is blowing around.  It's been years since I actually looked forward to summer's heat, and this year is no exception; looks like we will have another hot dry summer, just what we need in the continuing drought.

Oh my......if another chirpy young person bangs on our front door scaring the bejabbers out of Bianca and telling me I need to switch my energy plan I may just forget that I am a nice person, and whack said young twerp severely around the back of his head as I chase him down the front steps.  Judging from his English accent it seems to be a popular occupation for young folk travelling from other parts of the world.

"The love letter.
Of this it may only be said, that while it may be expressive of sincere esteem and affection, it should be of a dignified tone, and written in such a style, that if it should ever come under the eyes of others than the party to whom it was written, there may be found in it nothing of which the writer may be ashamed, either of silliness or of extravagant expression."

Indeed.

How long has it been since you received a love letter?  I don't know that I ever have ever in my life ever.

Enjoy your days!

How do you eat an elephant?

Just take it one bite at a time, and it will be done.

Yesterday the first pieces were cut for a new quilt.  Several hundred still need to be cut......but they will be, even if only a few at a time, just like eating an elephant!  Digging into my stash of autumn leaf prints, many of which were bought on trips to Canada, always makes me happy.  The pattern is from an Aussie quilt magazine from several years ago, although it won't ~quite~ be made according to the pattern; more rows will be added to the sides to make it square and balance the pattern (the magazine quilt is rectangular, I don't care for that) and the construction method for the 15 Maple Leaf blocks will be changed.

It is my turn next month to provide a block for the Tuesday group's BOM.  We have a Tuesday group and a Saturday group; some people go to both and some to only one of these.  My blocks are always pieced.....no applique for me......and have often had intricate designs, but this one is simpler.  Even the most triangularly challenged should have no trouble with it.

 Just three different fabrics, two tone on tones and a print.  Block is called "Amish Diamond" from Quilter's Cache website but I decided to call it "Autumn Diamond".  It will get acquainted with the iron before it is shown to the group as an example.

Our little wattle bush is starting to flower, another week and it should be glorious!  When it was first planted something (possibly ants) took a liking to it and chewed the tender leaves, leaving just one stalk with a few leaves at the top.  Kevin was all for pulling it out because it didn't look too flash at all, but I convinced him to let it stay because at least those remaining leaves were green and healthy.

It then shook itself, pulled up its little green socks, and decided to concentrate on recovering.  Took a couple of years but it did so, and last year flowered for the first time.  

Many Aussie native plants are slow to get established, and only live for a few years compared to hundreds of years for trees in colder climates.  We know this and accept it, and enjoy them while we can......then when it dies off we plant something else to enjoy.  Pretty sure we have a self-seeded wattle tree in our front garden thanks to a bird or the wind, when and if it flowers we will know what it is for sure.

Winter is still proceeding, nights and mornings are cold and sometimes frosty while days are mild and mostly sunny with not a cloud in the sky.  If only the drought wasn't so dire it would be lovely winter weather, but we would like clouds and rain!  For some time now we have been on Level Four restrictions which means no, absolutely no, use of water outside at all.  Dishes are rinsed in a bucket in the sink before going in the dishwasher then that water is used on plants, which is allowed.  We do, however, put clean water in our bird baths - that comes under animal welfare, which is also permitted.

Bianca is still around.  A few weeks ago she became very frail, was barely eating, and was quite listless - we expected to find her gone one morning on her bed in front of the fire.  However she rallied, is eating again, and sometimes runs around the house like a six month old kitten.  We know, though, that she probably won't be around for much longer.....but she is happy and doesn't seem in pain, so we won't make that final trip to the vet just yet.

Kevin and I have been together for 45 years; I brought my cat Smokey into our relationship (got custody of Smokey when my first marriage ended), and we have always had at least one kitty.  The house won't seem right with none.

"Dinner A La Russe.

The latest and most satisfactory plan for serving dinners is the dinner a la Russe (the Russian style) - all the food being placed upon a side table, and servants do the carving and waiting.  The style gives an opportunity for more profuse ornamentation of the table, which, as the meal progresses, does not become encumbered with partially empty dishes and platters."

I wonder how many servants one would need to serve a cut-up elephant?  Or how many would be needed for the cutting up thereof?

Enjoy your days!

My nose is staying inside today

So is the rest of me.  It is so cold that not so much as the tip of my nose has been poked outside, and yesterday was nearly as bad.  The wind is quite nasty and chilly.  Snow has fallen about 40 minutes away - we're in a valley, but the towns on higher ground not far from here see snow nearly every winter.  Our "feels like" hasn't gone over 3.1 C today, and as it's already 4 p.m. it won't get any higher.

Never mind.  It's good to finally have winter weather.

Stitches have been taken by machine in the sewing room, as well on the repro tumblers......they have become my TV project, as well as going many places with me.  Waiting for appointments can be very boring, and every stitch taken keeps me from snapping at whoever is playing loud music to turn it off.  If you come to our house you will get our taste in music, but that's our prerogative - I don't like being in places where the latest 'hits' are blasted at me so it's classical, folk, jazz here.

Several years ago when Kevin travelled around as a sales rep the car radio kept him entertained, and one day an interview on marketing was broadcast.  One statement made was, if you don't like the music being played in a store you are not their target customer.  Well, gee.......no store wants me!  A couple of years ago an excellent women's clothing store here closed, its owner played background jazz (she was a singer) which made it a fun place to shop.  The clothes were really nice, too.  It's difficult to even shop for knickers now without being assailed by noise, isn't it?

Some pics taken on holidays a few years ago, first a yellow-tailed black cockatoo, a very handsome bird.

 Isn't it gorgeous?  It lived in an aviary with several other parrots and other birds, and one young magpie quite fancied those beautiful yellow tail feathers......so much so that it chased poor Cocky around until it managed to pull one out!  Maggie walked away with a "how smart am I" look on its little feathery face and a yellow feather hanging from its beak, while Cocky shook itself and muttered something about "young people these days having no respect".  It was very funny. 

A sleepy Major Mitchell cockatoo, I would love to see these in the wild.

 A pheasant of some sort, not an Aussie native as the cockies are.  You can see why ladies of old liked to trim their hats with a pheasant feather or two, can't you?

Our local birds have been lying low somewhere in yesterday and today's cold wind, we haven't seem many at all.

Last weekend the choir had its time in the spotlight, fame and glory beckoned us.  Our choir director Bill celebrated 60 years since his first teenage role in a production by our local Musical Society (founded in 1888 and still going strong, the oldest in Australia) so the Society staged a celebratory concert and we were in the finale.  It was amazing to be part of such a wonderful tribute; when Bill was approached early last year he said he would like the choir to be in it, because we are his musical life now that he doesn't take roles on stage any more.  Looking out at a full theatre from on stage was awesome, people even came from interstate and from the Big Smoke.  Bill is held in very high esteem, and we are lucky to have him.

"The letter of friendship.

This should be of a more dignified tone, contain less trivialities than the family letter, and should embrace matters that will be of interest to both.  A letter of friendship should be answered in due time, according to the intimacy of the parties, but should not be delayed long enough to allow the friendship to cool, if there is a desire to keep it warm."

These days it is probably "the email of friendship"......not many of us write letters any more.

Enjoy your days!