Back in the saddle again

Remember that song?  I know it, too......someone once asked me if I knew every song every written, and I replied "no, but I'm working on it....."

The saddle - or should that be the horse? - is my Canadian quilt, which now needs borders.

A narrow black border (already cut), then a slightly wider white border (not yet cut), and the outer border in this gorgeous batik fabric.  The Cunning Plan is to hopefully start on it this week.

Two more houses, cats roaming around the rooftop at night, and a cheerful house with one of my favourite prints around it.

Just five more houses to go.

On Tuesday it will be my turn to take along morning tea to quilt group (which will be something seasonal from a shop, it's fruit mince pie season after all) and a block of the month for anyone who wishes to make it.  I have been toying for a while with the idea of simple blocks in a limited colour scheme, and came up with just blue and green.

The blocks fit together like a jigsaw; the small ones are six inches square finished, while the long ones are six by twelve inches when finished and are easily made from 2-1/2 inch strips.

What do you reckon?  I think it could be fun; I enjoyed making the first three, so made a few more.  The people who whinge at the merest slightest thought of even the hint of a triangle should be happy too.

Don't laugh.  You haven't heard them complain.......

Another night out on Thursday night for the choir end of year dinner, at the same restaurant I ate at last weekend.  Once again, a delicious meal I enjoyed because I didn't have to think about it; it was just put in front of me and I ate it.  

We are being assailed on all sides now every time we turn on the TV with large happy families celebrating Christmas together, from the cheerful smiling (always youthful, of course) grandparents to the cute never messy toddlers and babies, and everyone is genetically blessed and oh-so-photogenic.  That's all well and good......but what about smaller families or people who don't have anyone they wish to celebrate with?  Why can't we see more diversity at this time of year?  Not everyone who spends the day alone is unhappy to be doing so, you know.  These days not so many in this country keep Christmas as a religious occasion any more; people who have come here from other countries have their own special celebration times too, but that message doesn't seem to have gotten through to the people who make TV ads.  

We have booked into a restaurant for dinner on Christmas night, something we started doing when both our sons were overseas and it was just the two of us.  It makes the day a bit more special than just sitting around at home and grinning at each other, doesn't it?

Besides which, it's one more meal I won't have to cook......

Because the ukulele group has been meeting here on Mondays there might just be a few Chrissy decorations strewn about.  Only two more Mondays and we will have a break until next year, with a market gig lined up for January.

"Introductions at a ball.

Gentlemen who are introduced to ladies at a ball, solely for the purpose of dancing, wait to be recognized before speaking with ladies upon meeting afterwards, but they are at liberty to recall themselves by lifting their hats in passing.  Here as in England a ball-room acquaintance rarely goes any further, until they have met at more balls than one; also, a gentleman cannot after being introduced to a young lady, ask her for more than two dances during the same evening.  Here, as in England, an introduction given for dancing purposes does not constitute acquaintanceship."

This being a long paragraph it will, as they say, be continued in our next.  The "here" mentioned in the quote might be America or it might be Australia, as the book was first published in America in 1885 then revised and published in Melbourne, Australia, in 1886.  My copy is a facsimile reprint, an exact copy, published in 1980 and was bought at a library surplus sale in the Big Smoke many years ago.....how could I leave such a treasure?

Enjoy your days!

Another "Ta-da!" moment

The centre panel of my Canadian quilt is done.

Oops.....chopped off some of Saskatchewan on the bottom left corner.  The borders still need to be added, but that will be done after a couple of other obligations are cleared up in the sewing room.

This one plus the completed tumbler quilt were duly flashed around at yesterday's quilt group meeting for show and tell, and were duly admired by our group, and also by another group sewing in the room next door.  We then adjourned to a restaurant just out of town for a very nice lunch.

I always enjoy a delicious meal I haven't had to plan, prepare, cook, and clean up after, don't you?

This week's houses, kangaroos with cockatoos flying in a bright blue sky, and an autumn house.  The swirly print is for the kangaroos who seldom hop in a straight line and for the cockies flying erratically overhead, while I haven't decided on what the little things in the other print are......caterpillars? leaves? branching coral?  Something, anyway.

Only seven more houses need to be set with their black and white triangles, yay!

Well......it has rained, it has poured, it has flooded.  Twice during the week flooding caused the closure of two of the three river crossings from one side of town to the other.  Right now as we speak at this very minute it is not raining, but that can - and probably will - change again.  My trip to the restaurant yesterday meant driving across bridges over swirling flood waters which added to the excitement of the day, for sure.  The main bridge doesn't go (fortunately!) under water very often; the bridge used for my trip home is above the river level but the road onto the western side of that bridge is lower, so the approach road rather the bridge is closed.  The river was still over the banks at that point and had flooded into a grassy car park, where for once there were no picnickers or people dropping a line in the river.  The nearby sporting fields were no longer under water, but they were covered in a coating of brown mud instead of the usual lush green grass.

Perhaps it will have to be hosed off.  The thought of hosing the grass clean with water which would then flow into the river has me chuckling, considering how much water is currently in the river anyway.

Kevin had plans to go to a small town north of here to play lawn bowls, but with so many roads closed, and the fact that is was still raining, his team decided not to go.  It was a fun day for the club's anniversary.

We have made the sad decision not to attend next year's big folk festival at Easter in Canberra.  The current restrictions mean that all performers will be Aussies, no visiting overseas performers at all, and while we have some great local artists many of those will also be here in January for the annual country music festival.....and their music isn't to our taste.  Over the years we have been lucky enough to see some wonderful musicians from overseas and hopefully we will be able to again, one day.  We have always enjoyed catching up with friends in the camping area, but that has also changed.

We still have plans to visit Canberra after Easter because autumn is such a lovely time down there, and with a bit of luck I may be able to time it for a craft fair at the same time.....how good would that be!  Our craft fairs have mostly been cancelled for the past year or two because of lockdowns and shutdowns and 'stay inside' orders; I heard of one which was cancelled at literally the last minute, when stallholders were already unpacking and setting up their stores.

Oh well.  Perhaps one day, in the dim and distant future, the world will once again be something that we can consider 'normal', whatever that is.

"The dances.

The dances should be arranged beforehand, and for large balls programmes are printed with a list of the dances.  Usually a ball opens with a waltz, followed by a quadrille, and these are suceeded by galops, lancers, polkas, quadrilles and waltzes in turn."

Would it surprise you to know that I can dance, and indeed have danced, each and every one of these dances?

Enjoy your days!

'Weeds of Grace' is finished!

My magnum opus is done, and what an opus it is.  Had the weather been kinder some very artistic pics could have been taken outside, perhaps even in a park - but it has been, still is, and will continue to rain so inside it had to be.

To give an idea of size, this is on a queen sized bed.  The back is not boring either.

You can see the backing, a wide fabric bought in Canberra on our trip south earlier in the year......when I saw it I knew it would be The Very Thing.  It's the first time I have used a wide backing fabric, and it won't be the last.

The label is hand embroidered on a fabric used for some of the tumblers, and edged with a piece of leftover binding.

The week has been productive, more of the Canadian quilt is done, and there is only one block to go - yee har!  I want to have the centre panel done before next Saturday for the big reveal; our challenge this year was to finish a UFO, and this was mine.  Borders won't be done by then, but it is much further along than it was in February when we started.

'Weeds of Grace' will also go along to be flashed around for show and tell, another finished UFO.

This week's houses, butterflies around a striped house and bicycles around a fishy house.  There is a saying "a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" which was coined by the women's movement in 1970, so I couldn't resist putting the fish and bikes together.

There are not many houses left to be bordered now.

This morning the ukulele group played our first gig since February, and great fun it was too!  We played at a charity fair and were allocated a spot under cover (fortunately, because......rain) so we had an audience the whole time.  We tried some songs which were new to us and some old favourites; we had people singing along, and were given many compliments.  Considering how out-of-practice we are at playing for an audience, we did very well indeed - let's hope that next year brings more opportunities to play.

According to a web page which has information about what is being celebrated on a particular day, week or month, today is World Television Day.  It will probably be marked in this household by leaving the television off, because there is a lot which just doesn't appeal to us.  Perhaps we're just weird......Kevin is currently watching a car race.  With the sound off.  Because sports commentary is mind-numbingly unutterably boring and far too loud, to me.  We came to an agreement many years ago whereby he watches sport, and I listen to something else.

"The music.

Four musicians are enough for a "dance".  When the dancing room is small, the flageolet is preferable to the horn, as it is less noisy and marks the time as well.  The piano and violin form the mainstay of the band; but when the rooms are large enough a larger band may be employed."

Some of our songs this morning could have been danced to, but no one did.  In the past I have played in bands for dances and loved it.  A flageolet is a wind instrument similar to a recorder; I wonder if it would have been heard when being played for dancers?  Perhaps if the dancing room was small enough, it would have been all right.

Enjoy your days!

Sad sad sad......

The on again, off again choir concert is definitely off.  We are so disappointed.  The charity committee which would have benefited had to comply with so many rules and regulations that it was too difficult to make it happen; the hall is owned by the council which has its hands tied by state government rules, and so it goes on.  Or doesn't, in this case.  We have hopes of a concert happening early next year, but our director is facing some health issues.......so, we can only see what next year brings, can't we.

At least the ukulele group can play next weekend at a charity fundraising fair, which will be fun.  We've even been practising!

A couple more houses.

A cat house and a house surrounded by birds, bugs and blooms, both of whom shop at the same garden store.  

'Weeds of Grace' is nearly finished, yay!  The label is attached, now the last corner needs to be bound - there is not much to do now, and then it can be photographed in all its gorgeous glory.  'Canadiana' is also coming along nicely; Ontario and Alberta have been quilted and joined, Quebec is quilted.

This is a pic from the past.  When we lived in the Big Smoke there was a block of shops not far away; a newsagent, pharmacy/post office agency, small supermarket, etc., and on the top corner a hardware shop with a small but very good plant nursery.  This is one of the plants bought there, a Callistemon called 'Taree Pink' - Taree is a town east of here, near the coast.  It's a pretty plant with pink blooms, and the new leaf growth shown here is pinky-bronze.  

I don't think we have ever had a plant which grew as quickly as this did!  It was a case of "plant it and stand back"; it lived on the front north-east corner of the house so it had direct sun for much of the day, and also reflected warmth from the brick and glass wall behind......and was the complete opposite of 'Wee Johnnie' which took four years to flower.  We planted one here but the drier inland climate didn't suit, because after a time spent doing nothing much at all it turned up its toes, folded its tent and stole away into the night - such a pity, because it was very pretty.

Our drive to town now has a new landmark, and it's not a good one.  On the four corners of a busy intersection are a small but useful shopping centre, the craft shed which has facilities for makers of just about anything you could think of, a sports ground, and until recently a vacant block which was used as overflow parking by both the sports ground and the shopping centre but which now holds a fast food place - I refuse to call it a 'restaurant', because to me that implies something nicer - which has the yellow arches on top; I won't name it because they aren't paying me to advertise, but I'm sure you can guess who I mean.  The corner also has a roundabout which is poorly planned and executed; the first week it was installed there were several accidents, we expect there will be many more now.  There is much gnashing of teeth by people who think it the wrong use of the land, especially as that roundabout is tricky to drive through with the traffic it already has.

Sadly our local council seems to feel that 'development at all costs' trumps traffic safety and the amenity of the aged care facility alongside.  There are supposed to be conditions about business hours etc., but you can bet your boots that it will eventually be allowed to trade for the longer hours it wants, and too bad about the oldies who live on the other side of the fence.  We don't have to use that corner on our trips to and from town, but it's an easier route if we do.

On to happier stuff.

Do you ever wonder what is going through an author's mind when they write their books, apart from telling the story?  I for one do like to see attention paid to spelling and grammar and syntax and Stuff like that, so I was floored a couple of days ago to read 'aquatint' instead of 'acquaint'.  Yes, no doubt it was run through spell check which said "that's fine, it's spelled correctly, you can use it"......but it's not the correct use, is it?  We both had a chuckle over that one; an 'aquatint' is a way of making an etching, to 'acquaint' is to make someone aware of something or someone.

A lot of rain fell this week but the promised flood didn't eventuate.  This is probably a good thing as it was forecast to be of biblical proportions, something not seen here for several years.  Winter popped back for a visit yesterday and hasn't quite left yet, quite a shock to the system - we have become used to spring's warmer temperatures, although there have  been one or two days you would call 'hot'.  It certainly hasn't been weather for barefoot frolicking around the garden in a flouncy summer frock; your frock would have been blown away into the wild blue yonder, leaving you covered in embarassment and very little else.

"Preparations for a ball.

There should be dressing-rooms for ladies and gentlemen, with a servant or servants to each.  There should be cards with the names of the invited guests upon them, or checks with duplicates to be given to the guests ready to pin upon the wraps of each one.  Each dressing room should be supplied with a complete set of toilet articles.  It is customary to decorate the house elaborately with flowers.  Although this is an expensive luxury, it adds much to beautifying the rooms."

                                                                                                      Perhaps we could beautify the rooms with 'Wee Johnnie' and 'Taree Pink"?                              

Enjoy your days!

Don't know why there's no sun up in the sky.......

.....stormy weather......stormy indeed; the radar shows storms heading our way while the forecast is for storms and rain.  And more rain.  And still more rain.....and possibly floods......  Thunder is rumbling as we speak and I can smell rain.

Good weather to stay inside and sew, and read, and play music.  Not the weather for frolicking barefoot among the dandelions while wearing a flouncy summer frock.

The next row of the Canadian quilt is done and joined.  It doesn't have a name; it was originally called "Canadian mystery quilt" by the designer, but I quite like "Canadiana".  So, "Canadiana" it is.

There are five more blocks to be done.

Two more houses surrounded.  The black and white star print seemed appropriate for roaming cats, although we know they shouldn't go out at night (that's the last dark print used from my black and white stash) and a large scale scribbly paisley-teardrop print which I quite like.

The binding on the tumbler quilt 'Weeds of Grace' has been sewn down except for one corner, which has been left so the label can be machined into the binding seam; after that's done the remaining corner will be finished.  The label will be hand embroidered onto one of the prints used for some of the tumblers, a pale yellow stripe.  I can embroider much more neatly than I can write.

At present around town jacaranda trees are blooming around town - it's such a pretty tree.  We don't have one now, but more than 30 years ago one just appeared in the backyard of our home in the Big Smoke.  It was quite small, not many inches high, but I recognised what it was and as it had sprouted (probably from a wind-blown seed) in a place that was all right to leave it, that's what we did.  Just a few months later we suffered a very bad hail storm with damage to our house, and water several inches deep flooding through the back yard because of blocked drains.  That will be the end of the little jacaranda, we thought, it's probably several streets away by now......but no!

According to popular wisdom a jacaranda tree will not bloom until it is seven years old - ours popped its first flowers at six, a whole year ahead of schedule.  This was taken when it was much older.

It grew into a very big tree which provided wonderful summer shade for the house, and a great place for Binky (no longer with us) to climb.

A couple of years ago we were checking out houses where we had both lived in our lives - the internet is a wonderful place for such Stuff, yes? - and we see the back yard is now just a square of grass.  That wonderful tree has gone.  It could have been pruned.....it didn't need to be chopped down.  That's one less tree in the world.

Great news, the choir concert will indeed happen at the end of this month!  It was decided that, as we are able to have sufficient people - it is, after all, a charity fundraiser - to go ahead.  The ukulele group will be one of the 'guest artists' and I will be another, with a solo.  (yay me!)  We have been singing these same songs on Thursday nights for nearly two years now, so after the concert they can disappear from our folders never to be sung again.

"Balls.

The requisites for a successful ball are good music and plenty of people to dance.  An English writer says, "The advantage of the ball is, that it brings young people together for a sensible and innocent recreation, and takes them away from silly, if not from bad ones; that it gives them exercise, and that the general effect of the beauty, elegancy and brilliancy of a ball is to elevate rather than to deprave the mind."  It may be that the round dance is monopolizing the ball-room to a too great extent, and it is possible that these may be so frequent as to mar the pleasure of some persons who do not care to participate in them, to the exclusion of other dances.  There should be an equal number of waltzes and quadrilles, with one or two other dances, which would give an opportunity to those who object (or whose parents object) to too many of one sort."

A 'round dance' isn't, it seems, necessarily danced by a circle of people holding hands; it is any dance which progresses around the room in a circular fashion.  I can do many of those.  I can also waltz, and I can - and have - danced many a quadrille.

That was, alas, before fracturing my foot twice......

Enjoy your days!

Moving right along, footloose and fancy free......

The words of that song sum up the week nicely.

Progress has been made on sewing down the quilt binding.  A second corner has been turned although not without some angst, as I realised it had been flipped the wrong way......so some un-sewing happened, and some fancy poking and prodding of the corner mitre happened, and eventually it saw what I wanted and turned itself to face the correct way.  It could have been left but I would have noticed one wrong-facing corner every time I looked at the quilt - because we do, right? - so it was worth taking time to fix it.  We have had a couple of cooler evenings, so having the weight of a large quilt bundled up on my lap hasn't been too bad.

The top panel of the Canadian quilt is done, there are two rows of quilting in each black sashing.

The row under this has three blocks; two have been quilted and joined with sashing, while quilting on the third is in progress.  

This week's houses, both yellow but both different; a party house on the left (wouldn't want to live next door to them, would you?) and a house proudly flying its Aussie flag on the door, surrounded by tiny stars.

And because he's so cute, here's Wee Johnnie again.  This is the whole plant in all its glory.

You can see by the ruler that he is a Wee Johnnie, indeed!

It has taken him four years to get this far, but he is making up for lost time now.

Welcome to a new visitor to my blog, Viola from Sweden - what a beautiful country you live in!  Thank you for stopping by; I can't reply direct to you as you come up as a no-reply blogger.  

A hair trim finally happened during the week, the dreaded mask was donned (the stress gave me a headache which took some hours to dissipate, it really is a problem for me) and my hair is a few inches shorter than it was.  It could probably have done with leaving an extra half-inch or so on the length but not to worry; it will grow back.  Since having eye surgery last year and finding out how big and bright the world is I need to wear a hat when outside, and that's easier with shorter hair.

Choir resumed a few weeks ago and we are still hoping to have our concert at the end of November, but we fear it is unlikely.  Because of restrictions in numbers we wouldn't be able to have a very large audience; the whole point of the concert is to be a charity fundraiser, and we won't be able to raise much money from a small audience.  So......it looks as though it may be postponed until early next year, instead.  It's the only concert we do all year so we want to make it as good as possible - and with a few more months rehearsal we should be even more fabulous than we are now!

A few nights ago we were rudely awoken at stupid dark early o'clock by the noisiest storm we have heard for some time; it was full-on lights and music, crashing thunder and flashing lightning with some rain and wind.  The clock read 3.33 a.m., which is far too early for any civilised person to be stirring.  Not much rain (a bit more would have been good, actually) and fortunately for us no damage, although people in other parts of the country haven't been so lucky with trees falling on houses and vehicles.  We had first-hand experience of a destructive hail storm many years ago while living in the Big Smoke, and it's something we never want to experience again.

"More formal entertainments.

Evening parties and balls are of a much more formal character than the entertainments that have been mentioned.  They require evening dress.  Of late years, however, evening dress is as much worn at grand dinners as at balls and evening parties, only the material is not of so diaphanous a character.  Lace and muslin are out of place.  Invitations to evening parties should be sent from a week to two weeks in advance, and in all cases they should be answered immediately."

Just remember to leave your lace gown at home before sallying forth to a grand dinner, and you should be fine.  We aren't as formal now as folk were in 1885 when these words were written, which is probably a good thing......but on the other hand, it's nice to get really dressed up occasionally although I can't remember the last time we did.

Enjoy your days!

A corner has been turned......and a new member of the family!

The first corner has been turned on the quilt binding.

It's a very very long way round.......but I am so thrilled with it.  The weather is getting a bit warm to have a heavy quilt on one's lap, the neck and shoulder are still bothersome so long sewing sessions aren't happening, but it is slowly getting done.

Meet our new "baby":

Back in late 2017 when we were living in temporary accommodation while flooded out of our home one of the plants in our back yard turned up its toes, so we bought something to replace it - an Aussie native, a Callistemon (bottlebrush) called 'Wee Johnnie'.  It was duly planted and looked after as best we could considering we weren't living at home at the time, and the drought was really getting underway.  Wee Johnnie didn't do much for a long time, he didn't die but didn't seem to be thriving......although every now and then he would grow another green leaf; Aussie native plants can be slow-growing and finicky and don't like being moved, so being transplanted from his little pot into the ground must have been quite a shock for him.  The weather has since improved, we have had good rain, and Wee Johnnie obviously gave himself a good talking-to because recently we noticed flower buds.  Yesterday I spied a little burst of red peeking out from under those green leaves......

......and here is Wee Johnnie today, nigh on four years later!

So - Chateau des Wombats has a new member of the garden family!  He (I can't bring myself to say 'it' because he's so cute) is barely 25 cm high or 12 inches if you prefer old money, and is now quite lush and green and red with shy flowers hiding under the leaves.....these are almost lying on the ground  He is so low that he is tricky to photograph.  Wee Johnnie has a bigger brother called - would you believe it - 'Little John'.

This week's houses, a yellow house covered in cat footprints and a parrot house.  The parrot fabric is left from the backing of a quilt made for a friend's child a very very long time ago.

More progress on the Canadian quilt, another block has been joined and its sashing is being sewn down on the back.  There are five more weeks until we are supposed to reveal our finished UFOs for the quilt group annual challenge so there is a very good chance that it won't be completed, but hey.....it's much further advanced than it was at the start of the year when the challenge started so that's a good thing, right?  And anyway there's always next year.....

Summer hit us yesterday with a bang but fortunately today is milder; perhaps it's time to take stock of the summer clothing supply.  Yesterday at quilt group someone said that there are good bargains to be had because so many stores have been losing sales with lockdowns etc. that they are doing their darndest to attract customers.  However as we have had almost no social life for months there has been no need for decent clothes, has there?  

Deb QuiltGal - lovely to see you visiting my blog recently but your settings don't allow me to reply, you come up as a 'no-reply-blogger'.

In recent times ads are starting to appear on TV for the Big Occasion which comes at the end of the year.....noooooo!  It's way too soon!  As in the past couple of years we will probably have a very quiet day here but hopefully we can go somewhere for lunch so it feels a bit festive, although I draw the line at a paper hat.

"At five o'clock tea (or coffee), the equipage is on a side table, together with plates of thin sandwiches, and of cake.  The pouring of the tea and passing of refreshments are usually done by some members of the family or friends, without the assistance of servants, where the number assembled is small; for, as a rule, the people who frequent these social gatherings, care more for social intercourse than for eating and drinking."

I quite like a slice of cake with my coffee and chat.  Yesterday it was my turn to take morning tea to quilt group so I fell back on a recipe made once before, Pam Scott's Apple Pecan Cake, and very delicious it is too.  Especially served with cream.

Enjoy your days!