It's beginning to look a lot like......something

The Chateau des Wombats has a little festive cheer strewn about......not much yet, but it will look a little more cheery when The One And Only arrives with his parents after Christmas, stays for a couple of days, then departs once more.

I am not, as you may or may not have gathered, someone who loves pink.  However, when we moved to this house in May 2010 it had pink walls in the entrance hall and two pink feature walls in the family room, as well as a floral frieze running around a lot of the walls.  The fabrics in this runner were a gift many many years ago - anyone else remember when the usual vivid red and bright green Christmas colours were swapped out for pink and sage?  They languished in my stash for *ahem* quite a while, but for our first Christmas here I made this to help even out some of that pink.

 An early attempt at free-motion work, in pale green thread to match the fabric.  The pattern was also a gift and if I could be bothered to get up from my chair I could find it for you, but I can tell you it was by "Anka's Treasures".  The fabrics all co-ordinate but are from different ranges and manufacturers.

 Even though those pink walls and frieze have - thank goodness - gone, the runner gets trotted out at Christmas because it's pretty......and because I like it.  Even though it's a bit pink.

We are, as the news people are fond of saying, in the grip of a heatwave and it's still very smoky.  It's not yet as hot as the forecast temperature but it is still quite warm, so this picture is just to make me feel better because it was taken in Parry Sound, Canada on a very cold day with snow flakes drifting around.

Tempting though it was, I did not dibble my toes into that no-doubt-frigid water.

The ukulele group has played its last gig for the year, so now we can relax for a few weeks until the next. 

The light at the end of the tunnel is in sight, for the quilt being cut out!  All background pieces are cut, and there are not too many left of those gorgeous autumn leaf fabrics to go.  It would have been quicker to stack and cut several layers at once but I wanted a big variety, so chose to cut one print at a time.  Once that is done, the cutting table can be cleared off and a few projects tackled; it seems such a long time since I have sat at the machine and my fingers are itching to do so.

The bookshelves are also calling......that big sorting out is getting closer.

"Expensive dinners not the most enjoyable.
It is a mistake to think that in giving a dinner, it is indispensable to have certain dishes and a variety of wines, because others serve them.  Those who entertain frequently often use their own discretion, and never feel obliged to do as others do, if they wish to do differently.  Some of the most enjoyable dinners given are those which are least expensive.  It is this mistaken feeling that people cannot entertain without committing all sorts of extravagances, which causes many persons, in every way well qualified to do incalculable good socially, to exclude themselves from general society."

Wise advice to keep in mind for the coming season.

Enjoy your days!

And again.......

The past few weeks have been very busy!  A few uke gigs with time spent practicing have swallowed quite a chunk of hours, but that's nearly all done now.  Even managed to get some pieces cut for the autumn leaf quilt without too many protests from this aging body.  The only stitches sewn have been by hand, but that's all right......more and more tumblers are being joined into sets of four, and once that's done they will all be spread so I can see the final layout.  So long as the colours and values are mixed I think it will look good.

Next year's challenge from the quilt group has been given out - we are to finish a UFO.  It is to be shown in its unfinished state at the February meeting, then worked on during the year.  That Canadian mystery quilt from a few years ago is calling so that, I have decided, will be my UFO project.  It will be wonderful to have it finally done.  That's the kind of challenge I like.

Several years ago we had a similar challenge - to make a quilt entirely from stash - so I used fabric which had been bought in the Big Smoke before our move north, and pinwheels which had previously been made of leftovers from another quilt, and made the quilt I called "Plastered Pinwheels"......so-called because those pinwheels were sewn while my left arm was in plaster after being fractured.  I couldn't do much, but I could feed them through the machine.  Here's a pic from those days for those who haven't seen it:

That was taken before it was quilted, also by yours truly.

Recently we have had a couple of storms which resulted in a little - very little - rain, so the kangaroos were out in force.  They are a fair way off from our back fence and there would have been about 30 that day, some of which were out of range of the photo.

 It looks green, but you can see the hill in the background is dry and the trees don't look lush and healthy.

Our visiting magpie couple.  They now have a youngster who also visits when I take them a treat of steak; some days I only have to appear at the back door and they come flying down!

Isn't it nice to have friends?  Even if they are the feathered kind.

The air quality hasn't been kind lately, and today was particularly bad.  The wind has blown smoke this way from bushfires south and east of us; this morning the whole valley was full of smoke and it was difficult to talk, let alone sing as we did at a lunchtime gig.  Fortunately it wasn't outside, or I think we would have had to call it off.  According to the agency which monitors air quality ours, while not the worst in the state, wasn't at all good......and the next few days are supposed to be no better, with even hotter temperatures.  However we are Aussies, we are tough enough not to let it get us down.

The blog backgrounds which I have used for many years seem to have disappeared from cyberspace!  Now I shall have to get creative and work out how to do my own.

Yesterday evening we let our hair down and went to the movies!  We saw "Fisherman's Friends", an English movie with a fairly predictable plot but really good singing.  I know several of the shanties sung in the film and was hard pressed not to join in the singing, even though there were very few people in the cinema.  Sigh.......I like a good sing......

"Treatment for moist and damp feet.
Some persons are troubled by moist or damp feet.  This complaint arises more particularly during the hot weather in the summer-time, and the greatest care and cleanliness should be exercised to it.  Persons so afflicted should wash their feet twice a day in soap and warm water, after which they should put on clean socks.  Should this fail to cure, they may, after being washed as above, be rinsed, and then thoroughly rubbed with a mixture consisting of half a pint of warm water and three tablespoons of concentrated solution of chloride of soda."

I suppose that answers my concern at the end of the previous post.

Enjoy your days!

Back again, again

What a busy time it's been.  We had a lovely visit with our Canadian friends (in which a little fabric shopping may or may not have been indulged), and there is a week in which to draw breath before the next uke gig.

We took our friends for a Nice Sunday Drive - on a Sunday, no less! - to Barraba, a small town an hour north of here, to see the silo art.  Painted silos have become quite The Thing in Australia, and they are amazing.  Just imagine a painting on a canvas 40 metres high, spread over three concrete silos, and you have the idea.

 The end of the left hand silo has a bird hovering near the man's right shoulder, but we weren't in a good position to photograph it.

Last year while in Canada I bought a calendar pictures of northern Ontario, and while cutting fabric I noticed how similar it was to October's picture......so the calendar came down to join the fabric on my sewing table.  Isn't it a wonderful match?

 Piles and piles of triangles, each pile has ten pieces......so that is 200 pieces right there.  Needless to say, there are many more than just ten leaf and ten background fabrics!

Last night the choir sang at a fundraising concert, and the ukulele group also played.  It went very well.  This morning the uke group played at a Christmas (yes, the C word) market, an annual fundraiser for medical research, and considering the adverse conditions - it was very smoky, with dust and smoke being blown from fires east of here - we managed to finish.  I now have very little voice left, a combination of a lot of singing and smoky air, so not many words will be spoken for the rest of the day.  Kevin can enjoy some peace and quiet, for a change.

We have a week to recover before playing next Sunday at a regular market, held in a small church just out of town.  Indoors.  Not singing outside in smoke again.

The fires are quite devastating and many properties, homes and businesses, have gone.  Sadly four people have died.  Not wishing to laugh at others' misfortunes, but there has been a slight touch of humour in all this; at Ebor, a small village north-east of here, a fire recently did a lot of damage.  The culprit, it seems, was a local man who deliberately lit it so he could backburn around his cannabis crop to protect it from being burnt by wild fire - but his fire ran away and did untold damage.  He is now before the court.  Ebor is at a high elevation and prides itself on its "high country" lifestyle......"high", that's for sure!

Are you all gearing up for the Big C?  It is looming ever closer, you know.  We will actually have company this year as our Canberra son, his wife and The One And Only Grandkid will be visiting between Christmas and new year, first time since his birth nearly five years ago the One And Only has ventured this far north.  We are the distant grandparents he seldom sees and doesn't know very well, while his other grandparents live just a few streets away.  That's how it goes sometimes.  As a child I spent quite a lot of time with my maternal grandparents (I suspect my mother sent me there to get me away from her, we were never close) but we didn't see as much of my paternal grandparents as they lived several days drive away.  Even with today's improved roads and cars it's a long drive, in those days it could be a nightmare.

Following on from last post's quote on feet:

"The hands receive frequent washings every day.  Once a week is quite as often as many people can bestow the same attention upon their feet.  A tepid bath at about 80 or 90 degrees, should be used.  The feet may remain in the water about five minutes, and the instant they are taken out they should be rapidly and thoroughly dried by being well rubbed with a coarse towel.  Sometimes bran is used in the water.  Few things are more invigorating and refreshing after a long walk, or getting wet in the feet, than a tepid footbath, clean stockings, and a pair of easy shoes.  After the bath is the time for paring the toe-nails, as they are so much softer and more pliant after having been immersed in warm water."

Well......I don't know about you, but I would have thought that washing one's tootsies only once a week wasn't frequent enough?  Especially in summer........

Enjoy your days!

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!