It is said your day is wasted if you don't learn something

Today I learnt a little about praying mantises.

 Sometimes they visit our garden and hang around on the shade cloth blind that keeps hot sun off the back of our house.  This one was bright green but you can't tell that because of the sun glare, and was several inches long.

This morning this large brown girl - for it is a female - was making her ootheca, or egg capsule.....we know what she was up to a week or so ago, don't we!

 This afternoon she was gone and had left this ootheca behind on the post; the colour could be best described as pea soup green and it's a bit over one inch long, or 2.54 cms if you prefer.

When all those new critters hatch we will have lots of new friends here at the Chateau des Wombats.  If they were cute little things I might keep one as a pet, but I don't do insects.  Fur, yes.  Feathers, maybe.  Fins and scales, definitely not.......we're getting further away from warm and fuzzy here, folks.  I only do warm and fuzzy.

However - my day wasn't wasted, was it?

Last week's promised rain didn't happen.  We had a few spots, a bit of a shower, but it was nothing to get excited about.  So we didn't.  Right now it's trying hard to rain, fingers crossed that it does, as this month is on track to be the one of the driest Februaries ever since records were kept.  That's not the sort of record we wish to set.

Work on Euan's quilt is proceeding, with only eight blocks to be quilted before the border is tackled.  It will have to wait for a little while; this coming Saturday is quilt group and I am organising what to take, and making sure my little vintage Singer Featherweight is oiled and working (My Lovely New Bernina is set up for free-motion quilting, and it's staying that way until Euan's quilt is done) as the plan is to work on making quilts for the local Ronald Macdonald House.  It always takes so long to pack up 'stuff' for a day's sewing, doesn't it?  Then when you get there and start to set up there is always something which has been forgotten, which is why I need to prepare in advance.

Next week we will be away for a few days, we will be making our annual pilgrimage to the Big Smoke to see our financial bloke to make sure we can afford to keep living until Christmas, and to catch up with friends, and to do a little shopping for things which just aren't available here - good quality dark chocolate from a proper chocolate shop, perhaps a CD because my kind of music isn't available here in the Small Smoke, a visit to a big huge book shop - we have a book shop here, but it's not big - maybe even take in an exhibition.  It's going to be a busy few days, isn't it?

Then on Friday we will drive back home, and no doubt breathe a sigh of relief as we leave the Big Smoke behind until the next time.  I lived there for forty years, but now when we visit I find it suffocating.  So many people, so much traffic, so much noise.......

"The girl who has so educated and regulated her intellect, her tastes, her emotions and moral sense, as to be able to discern the true from the false, will be ready for the faithful performance of whatever work in life is alloted to her; while she who is allowed to grow up ignorant, idle, vain, frivolous, will find herself fitted for no state of existence, and in after years, with feelings of remorse and despair over a wasted life, may cast reproach upon those in whose trust was reposed her early education."

That sounds to me like a fancy way of saying girls should learn interesting things - for example, studying about praying mantises.

Enjoy your days!

Waiting for the pitter patter

Not of tiny feet, but of raindrops - today's forecast is for showers later today, and for rain tomorrow.  Fingers crossed that it happens.  So far this month we have not had one drop of rain so there is a lot of catching up to be done.

Some of the world is buried under tons of snow right now, we'll send you some of our sun and heat if you like......we have more than enough to spare!

However it appears that summer is losing its grip because we are noticing changes in some of the trees hereabouts; leaves are losing their bright green colour and looking faded, while some are turning yellow and bronze already.  Our neighbour said it's because of the ongoing drought, but I like to think it's because summer is on the way out.

Just looking at these photos makes me feel cooler.

 Canada in autumn is beautiful.

We don't get the same glorious colours, but summer's green still makes way for light gold, red and bronze.....there is more colour here in the change of seasons than when we lived in the Big Smoke.

Last week the medical centre rang to tell me that I don't need to worry, the 'thing' on my forehead is a solar keratosis not deadly skin cancer, so my face won't fall off.  It's good that I don't need to panic......wouldn't want to waste a good panic, would we?

Also last week I managed to scald my stomach when my hand slipped on the kettle handle while pouring boiling water into the kitchen sink, and water splashed onto the edge of the sink and onto me.  Oh dear, it did hurt.  I reckon one of the most painful ways to be injured is by burning or scalding.  Way back when I was a little tacker I pulled a pan of boiling milk off the stove and onto me.  The scars are there to this day, inside my right arm and elbow and on the outside of my right breast.  I'm really glad I have no memory of it, because it must have been horrendously painful.

Work is continuing on Euan's quilt, I tried to get a picture but the bright colours make it hard to photograph indoors - every block looks very orange, even if there is no orange in it.  So take my word for it, progress is continuing and eventually it will be finished.

Then a Big Decision will need to be made, about which of many projects to work on next.

Recently we went for a Nice Sunday Drive on a Friday to Nundle to order a shade for the light in our bedroom.  The current shade was in place when we moved in, and it's not lovely.  We will be glad to get rid of it, and replace it with a glass shade from these glass artists, whose work is gorgeous.

We've been in this house now for nearly five years, and are still finding things we would like to change.  Last year we had the fussy frilly curtains, valances and pink blinds taken away from the kitchen and the living area next to it;  they were replaced by cream blinds and no curtains, so much neater and less cluttered.

"A douche or hip bath may be taken every morning, with the temperature of the water suited to the endurance of the individual.  In summer a sponge bath may be taken upon retiring.  Once a week a warm bath, at from ninety to one hundred degrees, may be taken, with plenty of soap, in order to thoroughly cleanse the pores of the skin.  Rough towels should be vigorously used after these baths, not only to remove the impurities of the skin but for the beneficial friction which will send a glow over the whole body.  The hair glove or fleshbrush may be used to advantage in the bath before the towel is applied."

It seems funny to us these days that people once needed to be reminded to bathe daily, doesn't it?  The thinking, so I have read, was that one bathed once a week whether one needed it or not.....or perhaps it was once a month.  Could even have been once a year......now there's a scary thought.....

Enjoy your days!

Finally......quilting has started!

Yesterday the sewing room was re-organised, small tables were moved to better positions to support the weight, and today the first quilting stitches were taken on Euan's quilt.

 It's quite bright.......that orange sashing and border is only one inch wide, so I am quilting a wavy line down the middle using the walking foot.  My first thought was something more adventurous but it is for a baby, so the quilting doesn't need to be worthy of taking first prize in an international show.

As promised, here are some of the flowers and buds on one of our pretty correa plants.

It's not very big yet, so I hope you appreciate that I had to get down on hands and knees to take this.  Getting down is still not too bad, but getting up again is a different story.........

On Tuesday I had a minor medical procedure.  For some time now there has been a blemish right smack dab in the middle of my forehead; it has been frozen/burnt off twice but still comes back, so I made an appointment to have it seen to.  The doctor didn't think it is anything ominous but as Australia has the highest rate of melanoma and other skin cancers in the world, I felt it was worth checking.  I almost wish I hadn't, now.......first there was an injection at the edge of the blemish, then a couple of minutes later another one nearby.....I don't like injections at the best of times, and having to have two - TWO! - in my forehead was a bit much......then he took two scrapings of skin to be sent for biopsy, one for each injection, because there were two patches of scaly skin.....then the nurse slapped on a large white dressing, and I was given instructions on how to care for the wound.  The dressing looked like a headlight, a beacon shining forth from my head, but as the instructions were to soak it off in the shower the following morning the indignity of wearing it was only for one day.  Then there was the delight of having a scabby forehead that looked as though I had taken on someone bigger and stronger than myself, and lost.......but it is healing nicely now, although a small bruise next to the wound will, I suspect, take a little longer to go away.

If the biopsies don't show a problem then nothing more needs to be done, but if there is cause for concern I will be notified about a follow-up visit.  No news yet, so fingers crossed!

Like many Australians my ancestry is from the British Isles, England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, and like many Aussies I have skin which would be better off in a milder climate away from our harsh sun.  However I was born here, my parents were born here, two of my four grandparents were born here, some of my great-grandparents were born here, great-great-grandparents too......my family roots in this country go back to at least 1800.  Like many people of my generation we were sent outside to play, we wore no hat, no sunscreen, no shirt - skin cancer hadn't been invented then, obviously.  I can recall being quite badly burnt more than once in my life, and people of my generation are now paying the price for that neglect.

"To remove freckles.
A good freckle lotion is made of honey, one ounce, mixed with one pint of luke-warm water.  Apply when cold."

Ladies in 1885 were really concerned about having freckled skin.  Apparently the reason was, a woman who wasn't a lady might spend time outside, gardening, working in the fields, hanging out washing.....but a true lady didn't do those things.  She stayed inside to preserve her complexion, and if she needed to venture forth she wore a hat, long sleeves, gloves, and kept a parasol over her head at all times.  The emergence of a freckle would have been greeted with horror.

Enjoy your days!

Poor neglected blog

Finally - a chance to sit down and compose some thoughts, without having to race out the door for practice, or to a gig, or to chauffeur Kevin who had an eye operation last week and is doing very well thank you but couldn't drive for a couple of days, or.......or......

A couple of nights ago the last stitches were taken on the fourth large flower basket block, here are all four laid out.  Each block is 18in square finished, and each will be quilted before being joined into a quilt.

 When one is short, as one is, and one has to stand on a chair (which one never quite feels secure about doing) to be able to get far enough away to get all blocks in one photo, one just snaps a quick pic and gets down.  Which one did.  Which is why this is far from being a prize-winning shot.

Last year we fell in love with this pretty Aussie native plant and ordered two from a local nursery.  The young bloke who works there kept shaking his head and saying "you shouldn't be able to grow correas where you are......I love correas but I can't get them to grow for me, they don't grow well in this town" however they are thriving in our garden so well that they are now flowering!  When it stops raining I will sit on the ground to photograph them (because the plants aren't yet very tall, although they are growing beautifully) and you can seen their pretty pink bells.  To give an idea of scale, each flower bell is about three quarters to one inch long.

The music festival is over and the uke group has no more gigs for a while, so Euan's quilt can be layered, pinned and quilted.  The orange sashing will have a vine design, the blocks will have a variation on a continuous curve design, and the borders will have cats on two borders with dogs on the other two.  Euan's parents have a dog and his Other Grandparents have a dog, but we have a cat so he might as well learn early that dogs aren't the only animals in the whole universe.

Uke class starts again next week, and the other day I pushed the boat out and changed the strings on my uke because they were sounding muddy and didn't have the clear ring that new strings do.  It should have been done before our festival gigs but it's a bit late to think of that now, isn't it?  Now one item on tomorrow's 'to do' list is 'call in at music shop and buy new set of strings' because it's a good idea to keep a spare set.

By golly, those new strings do sound nice......

Not only has it been raining again, it has turned quite cool for this time of year.  Not that we are complaining - it makes a change from being too hot.  Our plants are very happy with the rain, because restrictions mean that we can only water them sparingly.

"Signature of ladies.
A married lady should not sign herself with the "Mrs." before her baptismal name, or a single lady with the "Miss."  In writing to strangers who do not know whether to address you as Mrs. or Miss, the address should be given in full, after signing your letter, as "Mrs John Smith," followed by the direction; or if unmarried, the "Miss" should be placed in brackets a short distance preceding the signature.
Only the letters of unmarried ladies and widows are addressed with their baptismal names.  The letters of married ladies are addressed with their husbands' names, as "Mrs John Smith."

In other words, when a woman married in the 1800s she ceased to exist as herself and became "Mrs husband's-first-and-last-name".  I wonder what the good folk of that time would have thought of the idea, now widely used, of married women retaining their maiden name - whether for business (as our daughter-in-law does) or personal purposes?

Enjoy your days!

Happy New Year to everyone!

As it's the first time we have been together since the start of the new year, I would like to send everyone best wishes for a wonderful 2015.

Meet our grandkid Euan, who is a nice little feller.

He was 16 days old when this was taken, and supposedly a few weeks early when born......doesn't look undercooked, does he?  Like all babies at this age he does very little other than eat, poop, sleep and cry, but as he gets a little older that will change......and by the time we get together again in a few months he will no doubt be walking and talking.

We enjoyed our trip to Canberra, and of course loved meeting the newest twig on the family tree and his parents, and the Other Grandparents (with whom we stayed).  While I didn't get to the fabric shop or the book shop, they will still be there in a few months calling my name.  We did manage to each get some new summer sandals, and some undies for me (because here in the Small Smoke we only have one specialist lingerie shop, although we can of course buy undies in various chain stores) and some lovely scented lotions as I was given a gift card to the Beautifully Scented Lotion Shop for Christmas.

We enjoyed the trip each way although it is a long drive, but it takes us through some interesting small towns and it is fun finding places to stop for coffee or lunch.  Each trip we enjoy revisiting places we like, and looking for new ones.

Visitors are arriving in town for the big huge country music festival which starts here next week - some hit town early last month, that's keenness for you!  It's not unknown to have 50,000 extra people in town.  Some locals love the festival and the crowds, most tolerate it, some hate it, while one woman I know loathes it, detests it with a passion, and is very nasty and vitriolic about it.  I don't see the point of that; it's been happening for over 40 years, she hasn't lived here for that long so would have known about it before she moved in.  Many people leave town for the duration and often let out their houses to festival goers, while others move in with friends or family and rent out their house to get some extra money for their mortgage or household expenses.

By the end of the month it will all be over for another year, and next year it will happen again. The world keeps turning, doesn't it?

The uke group has two gigs; we will be opening one concert at a popular venue (yay for us!) and playing at an outdoor concert, once again opening for a couple of well-known performers......not well-known to me, I'm afraid.  I don't follow modern country music, although I don't mind some of it - but my tastes run to old country music, the older the better.  Think Hank Williams......early Johnny Cash......1950s, and even before.  Songs to which we all know the words, and probably sing along with every time we hear them.

"Be always mild and cheerful in their presence, communicative, but never extravagant, trifling or vulgar in language or gesture.  Never trifle with a child nor speak beseechingly when it is doing wrong."

Indeed.  We shall endeavour to remember this advice when next we meet up with our grandkid.

Enjoy your days!

Rain!

We have had rain!  Wet stuff has fallen from the sky!  So much rain has fallen this month that a new record has been set - the previous December rain record was set four years ago, and this month we had much more.  Quite ironic really, considering we are still in drought......

Gardens in the town are looking lush and green and healthy, and gardeners are smiling, and local farmers are over the moon.

On Tuesday we will be driving to Canberra to meet the smallest twig on the family tree, and the rain means that we won't have to fret about our garden while we are away.

 

Even the roses are enjoying the rain. This was taken a couple of years ago before we lost our tree in a storm, but the rose is just the same.

The new skirt is nearly done, only the hem needs to be pinned and sewn (by hand - I prefer hand-sewn hems) now.  It may even accompany me to Canberra, because it will be cool and comfortable in the expected warm weather.....and a new skirt makes one feel like a new woman, yes?

While in Canberra we will be staying with our son's in-laws, which will be really nice - it will give us a chance to get to know them better.  We will even see the new year in while we are there, if we can stay up long enough.  Young Euan has no doubt been told that Grandmama Jennifer and Whatsisname (who hasn't yet decided what he would like to be called) will be visiting, and we trust he will be on his best behaviour.

I am hopeful of fitting in a little shopping whilst in Canberra, I know where there is a wonderful fabric shop.....lots of quilting fabrics on one side, a very good selection of dressmaking fabric on the other, and in the middle enough haberdashery to make a semster's eyes light up with glee.

Isn't 'semster' a wonderful word?  It's very old and was in use before 1000AD, meaning 'one who sews', although it was eventually replaced by 'seamstress'.  So much better than 'sewer', don't you think?  Or - my pet hate - 'sewist', which doesn't even appear in a dictionary.

"New-Year's Calls.
The custom of New-Year's calling is prevalent in some cities, and most villages in the country, and so agreeable a custom is it, that it is becoming more in favour every year.  This is the day when gentlemen keep up their acquaintanceship with ladies and families, some of whom they are unable to see, probably, during the whole year."

An interesting custom, and it seems to have been fairly new in 1885 when this was written.  Best wishes to all for a happy start to 2015, we won't meet again until next year.

Enjoy your days!

Best wishes for Christmas!

And if it happens that you don't celebrate Christmas - best wishes, anyway!