Back home again

All good things must come to an end they say, and our holiday is over - we came home early yesterday afternoon. We had a lovely relaxing (and sometimes cold!) time. We must have been lucky for the Nundle folk as we brought the rain with us; in fact, it snowed on the hill just out of town, we have photos. We were lucky enough to see lots of wildlife: wallabies in the park in the middle of Nundle in the evening as we walked up to the pub; more wallabies in bush as we were driving through; several large wedge tailed eagles circling overhead at different times, even one - which didn't move at our approach - perched on a dead kangaroo by the side of the road; and of course lots of parrots, rosellas, galahs, cockatoos and corellas.

And of course some road kill, including.....sob.......four wombats.

We visited towns that Kevin knew, they were in his territory when he was a sales rep calling on hardware shops, lovely little towns with a 180 year old history of white settlement: Stroud, Dungog, Buladelah, Clarence Town. That part of New South Wales is beautiful. A couple of places we thought a bit 'touristy' so we didn't linger. The pics (considering we were away for more than two weeks we didn't take many, shame on us) will make it onto the blog in due course.

Driving in Sydney gets more difficult each time we go away and come back. Country towns have little traffic and no one seems to be in a hurry, but here in Sydney the traffic is frightening and becoming more so each time we venture out. However next year we will be moving out of Sydney, moving to Tamworth where folk look at you and say g'day when they see you in the street, instead of ignoring you or pointedly looking the other way as they do here.

And of course it will come as no surprise to know that I found a few quilt shops while we were away, some background fabrics for my Bearly Autumn Bears Paw blocks came home with me, as did a couple of black and white prints. I was able to achieve lots of knitting, so much so that I made a scarf (twice - first time it was too wide and too short, so I made it again with less stitches on the needle) and knitted lots more of my blue cardi, it's not far from being finished now. I made a mistake and had to undo nearly four inches but it didn't take long to knit it again. That's what I told myself, anyway. It wasn't just a stitch mistake, I had one of the collar pieces round the wrong way. Bummer, double bummer and triple bummer. (that's not quite what I said when I realised what I had done but it will do for now, I don't want to burn your sensitive ears)

Keep warm, may your points be perfect and your stitches be neat.

Jennifer

See you all in a few weeks!

We will be heading off on Monday morning, the alarm will have to be set otherwise we will sleep in......we want to be on the road by 9am not noon, as we will have several hours' driving ahead of us.......so no posting for a few weeks as I don't a laptop or palmtop or one of those other fancy-nancy gadgets. No ipod either, although I can see their uses.....I reckon the world is going gadget mad, do we really need all these things?

Although I would not be without at least one sewing machine in my life......

The knitting is organised to go (have to do something in the car for all those hours), the hand-piecing project is already in its work box too. And there is a bag of books to read as we don't have TV in our little caravan, we listen to radio or play CDs. Oh yes, quilts for the beds too as it will be cold, and of course food and clothes....that's all we need. And I am hoping that a couple of weeks out of Sydney in fresh country air will help my body shake off the last of The Dreaded Lurgy which hasn't q-u-i-t-e gone away.

The lilli pilli tree in the picture is in the grounds of the Orphan School that we visited last weekend. Yes, the fruit really is that colour and yes, it is edible. Isn't it pretty!

Back by the end of the month. Y'all be good now.

Jennifer

WOW Family

These three wombats are obviously made from the same design, although the light one has its head at a different angle from the grey one. They are sold as garden statues so I put them in the garden......well.....near the garden, I picked up a couple of the fallen camellias from the bush nearby. I have no idea of its name, it's very pretty, has pink and white petals with ruffly centres and is one of the few survivors of The Great Hailstorm of 1990. There won't be a WOW post for a few weeks as we will be away, hence the trio.

Yesterday Kevin and I went on a walking tour of the Female Orphanage at Rydalmere, about twenty minutes' drive from here. It was built from 1814 to 1819 and, as well as taking in orphan girls from the age of two to twelve, also took in the daughters of the well-to-do folk to educate them. The girls were taught to read and write at a time when many girls were not even taught those essential skills at home and Aboriginal girls were also cared for under the same conditions as white girls, being educated side-by-side. Like many public buildings of the time it is an imposing brick building and was reached by river, as roads through the bush were practically non-existent in those days. Can you just imagine the impression it would have made on a little girl when, upon stepping out of a boat and walking across a bush path, she was faced by these stone steps she had to climb to get to her new home?
The centre, which had other buildings as well as the main one, functioned as an orphanage until the 1880s, becoming co-ed when boys moved in during the 1850s; their orphanage until then was further away. During the 1880s the foster care system started so the orphanage ceased to be used as such. It then became a psychiatric institution (it was known as 'Rydalmere Asylum for the Insane') for nearly 100 years, many buildings date from 1890-1910. The buildings are interesting and the grounds very peaceful - it is all now part of a university. Unfortunately we were not able to go inside the historic buildings but could look through some of the windows.

Social history is a topic which fascinates me, as you can see! I love finding out how people used to live.

One of the quilts I am making for bushfire victims has the top, backing and binding finished and I have started on the next. They probably won't all get done before we go away next week but it won't be for want of trying....it's a busy week. And the Bernina is behaving itself beautifully since its hissy fit the other day. It was the chocolate that did it.

Have a lovely week, may your seams all be straight.

Jennifer

Best wishes to my American friends

It is 4th July here so if it isn't where you are, it soon will be.....so to my American friends, have a great day. We spent 4th July on American soil three years ago. We were lucky enough to be on a cruise from Vancouver to Alaska and spent 4th in Juneau, it's not a big town for a state capital and it's an interesting place. We spent some time watching their parade which was great fun and even scored some of the candy that was being thrown to the spectators.

I am having a coffee break from sewing, I am assembling blocks into tops to make quilts for victims of the bushfires earlier this year. The need is still there and quilts are still being distributed. But when I stopped sewing to load a new spool of thread - same colour as the old one, same brand, same everything - it kept catching under the bobbin area of the machine. So, like the good girl I am, I took the bobbin area apart, cleaned it, put it back together......and it still kept catching, three times I put it back together and it kept catching......so it and I are having a short break from each other while I have a coffee and perhaps even some chocolate; the Easter chocolate wombat still hasn't been eaten but its time is drawing nigh.

Perhaps My Lovely New Bernina (which will celebrate its tenth birthday next month) could visit the sewing machine spa while we are on holidays.

Enjoy your weekend.

Jennifer

Canada Day

Best wishes for Canada Day to my Canadian family and friends! I hope you all have a great day.

As you can see the Maple Leaf runner is finished and on the table; it's already 1st July here in Australia. The fabric is by Deb Strain for Moda from a range called "Love is in the Air" that was released earlier this year for Valentine's Day, with lots of pink, red and white. The pattern is from the book "Maple Leaf Quilts" by Ilene Bartos but the colour scheme is mine, as is the reverse side with just one Maple Leaf block. Quilting is in a red and white variegated polyester thread by Aurifil. And that is indeed a little beaver you can see. It's not easy standing on two chairs trying to photograph something that is a bit long to fit in the viewfinder, but I am woman, I can do anything.

According to Blogger I have completed 100 posts, that's a lot of blather about not much........but wouldn't you think that, after so many posts and photos, I would remember that pics are uploaded in reverse order of selection?

Have a wonderful Wednesday.

Jennifer

Garden WOW

Another of my garden wombats that lives in the house, not outside in the garden, although it did go out to have its photo taken. Wombats get tired and need a lie-down.....

It's been a productive week! Last week I made cumquat marmalade, something I had never made before; I have made marmalade years ago but it was regular orange marmalade. It's not bad if I do say so myself (she says, modestly patting self on back). Yesterday I made a very yummy chicken stew in the big slow cooker we bought not long ago. We have sorted out all our CDs and stowed then in their proper places, we didn't realise we had so many. And the binding is more than half sewn down on the Maple Leaf runner so it will be on the table the day after tomorrow.

This morning I was reading an article on the 'gossip' (their word) or 'rubbish' (my word) that passes for entertainment in womens' magazines today. Does the average person really care who is keeping company with whom, or what some actrine looks like without make-up? Are we all supposed to live our lives vicariously through the so-called rich and famous? The article went on to say how much of the stuff published in these magazines is some journalist's idea of what might happen given a certain set of circumstances, which themselves probably don't even exist.

Each to her/his own, but give me a good book any day.

In two weeks we will be heading off in our little caravan for the holiday we didn't have after Easter, and we are looking forward to it. Even though it would seem that life is one permament holiday now we are retired, it's not the same as heading off on a journey. First we will stay a couple of days at Nundle to get over any stress in our lives - if you are still stressed after visiting Nundle then you are in a bad way - my family has a connection with Nundle. My grandfather's birth in 1885, and the births of several of his siblings, was registered at the Nundle courthouse; the building still stands but is now a local history museum. There is a wonderful woollen mill in the village which sells its own knitting yarns, and a patchwork shop on a farm just out of town, the pub does wonderful burgers, and elsewhere in the district some gold mines are still working.

But until then it's business as usual here, housework, sewing, music, reading....not necessarily in that order.

Have a wonderful week!

Jennifer

Coffee break

Some pretty summer blooms for a grey winter day. These are from the frangipani bush in our back yard, they have the most heavenly smell....needless to say they aren't in flower now! It's a dull gloomy day and every time I look out the window I expect to see rain, but none so far.

I am having a coffee break from quilting. All the quilting on the Maple Leaf runner is done - not perfect, far from it, I am not good at free-motion quilting, but it is done - just need to finish off some thread ends, then bind it. But first..........coffee. And chocolate.

We will sleep well tonight. Last night we were roused from sleep by a strange noise which at first sounded like an alarm, then I realised it was my mobile phone playing its merry tune; when I answered it a bloke's voice muttered something so I asked "who are you" - "I'm Brad" he said" - I do not know anyone called Brad. We established that he had woken me up, he started to apologise profusely, I ended the call and looked at the clock, 2.17am. I don't think anyone I know is even awake at 2.17am, let alone making phone calls........if he had an almighty hangover this morning it serves him right.

While I am having coffee I will check out a few blogs on the Quilting Bloggers site, every time I look there are random bloggers selected. The other day I found Deb's blog this way, she has a beautiful quilt on her header that is being donated to the breast cancer quilt project. It looks like a fun quilt to make.

Enjoy your weekend.

Jennifer