A cactus or a tree?

 They are not the same - cactus aren't classed as trees, they are a different species altogether.  However, one has snuck in with my trees, so it can stay there.

A desert cactus......

And an autumn foliage tree.

Two very different trees this week, numbers 81 and 82.  Only 17 to go!

During the week I managed to fit in a visit to the local quilt shop where I found a few batik fabrics to add to the stash.

No doubt they will make excellent trees.  

Every now and then this pic comes up on the computer.  It was taken at Butchart Gardens back in November 2012; we were visiting with friends, and their car was parked in front of a tree which was busy dropping leaves.  The fallen leaves put me in mind of some of my batik fabrics.

If you have ever visited Butchart Gardens you will know how beautiful they are - if you haven't been and the opportunity arises to go, take it.  It is a never-to-be-forgotten experience at any time of year.

How has everyone been this week?  We have managed to survive a whole week with no medical visits necessary, for which we are thankful.  Hunting and foraging, as usual, filled in some time.  Stitches have been sewn and knitted.  Words have been read.  Sadly no notes have been sung; I was all geared up for choir on Thursday afternoon but received a message from the director earlier in the week to say there would be no choir on Thursday.  So......now I am doubly eager for this coming Thursday to roll around!

Last night daylight saving began, so our clocks (body clocks, and horological clocks) will take a few days to re-adjust.  I don't mind daylight saving, although there are those (a couple of women in my quilt group come to mind) who are vociferous in their dislike - nay, hatred - of it, but why waste energy?  There is nothing they can do about it; it is here to stay having started over 50 years ago in our state, so all their moaning and whingeing won't make it go away.  Not being a morning person, particularly not being an early morning person, means I don't mind darker mornings so it doesn't bug me too much.

Over 20 years ago we were visiting southern Queensland in summer.  Queensland doesn't have daylight saving, and it was a great shock when the mornings were getting light at about 4 a.m.!  At that stage we had been used to daylight saving for well nigh on 30 years, so our bodies had adjusted to it.  We stayed in Toowoomba, a nice town, which seemed to close down at about 5 p.m.....which is no wonder, when it's daylight again not long afterward......

We are having a quiet long weekend lying low.  There is a massive footy (i.e. rugby league) carnival taking place in our town with thousands upon thousands of visitors, so we are keeping out of it.  It's the annual Labour Day weekend which can often be busy, but a peaceful day suits us.  Workers - stonemasons - in Victoria, Australia, were the first in the world to achieve an 8-hour working day, so that's something to celebrate.

"Mutual trust and confidence are other requisites for happiness in married life.  There can be no true love without trust.  The responsibility of a man's life is in a woman's keeping from the moment he puts his heart into her hands.  Without mutual trust there can be no real happiness."

This is probably so.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

Finally....unstressed trees!

Things are proceeding well on the injured hand.  It can now be left uncovered to enjoy the fresh air, and is enjoying its freedom - as is its owner, and as am I.

Consequently the stress has pretty much disappeared, so this week's trees are stress-free.

First, a lime tree with what could be berries.....

....I'm not sure if one can grow blue, red and purple berries on one tree, but this tree does.

This puts me in mind of a creeper growing against a rusty metal fence, so perhaps it's not ~quite~ a tree.

Although I still like it.

Numbers 79 and 80, how good is that?  Only 19 to go; at two a week, and three in the last week, that makes nine weeks' worth of trees left.

This fabric will be used for binding.  It was bought on our last trip to Canada and is from the same range as the border fabric on my Canadian quilt.  It was made in red and black (the border fabric is red and black), red and red (which I liked, but the black/red contrast appealed more for the border), blue and black, and gold and black.  As it was well into autumn by then, the gold had to come home with me.

I couldn't remember how much had been purchased - turned out to be half a metre, more than enough for binding.  Decisions still need to be made on backing, but as there also need to be more fabrics bought - eight or nine or so, not many - an eye can be run over the batik choices in the local quilt shop.  If she doesn't have anything which appeals to me, there is another shop in a town an hour north.

Today is an early taste of summer warmth.  The bluebells (which we didn't plant) have joined with the snowdrops (which we also didn't plant) flowering in the back yard, and their (mostly) annual flowering is a delight.  The huge port wine magnolia in the front yard is flowering this year because we have had good rain; it doesn't flower at all in dry years, and the flowers are fairly undistinguished anyway, but oh - their scent is wonderful.

How has everyone been this week?  We spent time at the medical centre having Kevin's hand checked - thank goodness those visits have now ceased, although I achieved quite a lot of waiting-time knitting - and we managed the usual hunting and foraging.  Words were read, stitches were sewn and knitted.  Sighs of relief have been heaved at the thought of no more medical Stuff for some time.  

Songs were plinked and sung, and my tenure as leader of the Thursday U3A ukulele is now over.  In a few weeks I will taking up my new position as leader of the new Monday group instead, and best of all....next Thursday I can go back to choir after having to miss two long months, something I am really looking forward to.

We are, I hope, nearing the last of the annual footy season, although these days it seems to go on for most of the year.  Time was when cricket was the main summer sport, and various styles of footy were played in the cooler months, but not so much now.  I find myself wishing that they would disappear from our screens forever, I don't watch them; boofy blokes kicking/throwing/hitting a ball around doesn't appeal to me in the slightest.  Kevin is welcome to watch with the sound turned off, as we can't stand the commentary either.  As for motor racing....well, you can see what's happening, you don't need the screaming of the cars, the spectators and the commentators, do you?

We find ourselves turning the TV off more than it's on.  We don't do streaming as we can't see the point in paying for things we wouldn't watch; both of us grew up in the era before television took over everyone's lives, so we don't mind just having music instead.  Let's face it, when one considers the dross available on the screen these days, it's no great loss.

"Another condition of domestic happiness is intellectual sympathy.  Man requires a woman who can make his home a place of rest for him, and woman requires a man of domestic tastes.  While a woman who seeks to find happiness in a married life will never consent to be wedded to an idler or a pleasure-seeker, so a man of intelligence will wed none but a woman of intelligence and good sense.  Neither beauty, physical characteristics nor other external qualifications will compensate for the absence of intellectual thought and clear and quick comprehensions.  An absurd idea is held by some that intelligence and domestic virtues cannot go together; that an intellectual woman will never be content to stay at home to look after the interests of her household and children.  A more unreasonable idea has never been suggested, for as the intellect is strengthened and cultured, it has a greater capacity of affection, of domesticity and of self-sacrifice for others."

Times have changed, haven't they?

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

Less stressed trees

Less stress is good.  Kevin's hand is still healing (it was quite a bad injury) so the medical appointments are less frequent than they were, although they haven't yet ceased; the bulky bandage has been removed and it's now down to a large adhesive dressing.  He is relieved.  

Because he is complaining less, I am also relieved.  I might even get that long-awaited rest soon.

As a result, this week's trees are not quite as stressed as the past couple of weeks' were.  A slightly muddy brown, with green contrast.....

.....and a clear bright orange.  Both the orange fabric and the blue contrast are left over from Summertime Blues.

Numbers 77 and 78.  It probably doesn't matter which is which - and that only leaves 21 to go!

The conclusion has been reached that there might not be enough fabrics to make 99 different trees, so I might need to go shopping....gosh darn, what a shame.....several of the fabrics which were used for contrasts are too small to make a tree, while others are tone on tone fabrics which, while they made excellent thin trunks and branches, don't have enough variety of print or colour for a tree.  The result would end up looking like a blob of one colour, something I am trying to avoid.  

There is no weekly wattle pic today because flowering has finished for the year, but many branches have new growth on them, which augurs well for next year's flowering.

How has everyone been this week?  We have been well (apart from Kevin's hand); stitches have been sewn and knitted, one sleeve is finished and work is progressing well on the second sleeve, thanks to all those medical visits.  One sits and waits....so one knits......  Words have been read.  Songs have been plinked and sung, and there is one more Thursday ukulele left - so then I will be able to go back to choir!  One of the choir members was at last Sunday's historical museum day, and asked me when was I coming back....we miss you, she said....I miss you too, I said, I'll be back soon.

Being the current chauffeur, I am getting plenty of experience driving the new(ish) car.  I'm not a confident driver, in fact I don't really care much at all for driving, I only drive because it's quicker than walking.  It's not helped by the fact that Kevin used to be a instructor of advanced driving techniques.  I don't like driving with him beside me, as he's very critical of other drivers.  Super critical, in fact.  He knows I don't like having him as a passenger so he doesn't say much but I can hear his brain ticking over with what he's not saying, just the same.  Last Wednesday the doctor said no driving yet, we'll see what this week brings.

We are heading toward the spring equinox which, so my reading informs me, will be at 4.19 a.m. on Tuesday 23rd September.  I won't be getting up for it, it will just have to pass me by.  We are finishing the last few days of winter with rain - Friday night was very rainy - and slightly cooler temps than earlier in the week, so cool in fact that there is soup simmering in the slow cooker as we speak.  Early in the winter I made a batch of chicken stock which, because it doesn't contain preservatives and suchlike Stuff, needs to be used within a reasonable time frame; the last container of it is now adding flavour to butternut squash, and onion, and green Thai curry paste, with light coconut milk being added during the blending process.

"It must be remembered that husband and wife, after marriage, have social relations to sustain, and perhaps it will be discovered, before many months of wedded life have passed, when there is a social inequality, that one of the two have made a sacrifice for which no adequate compensation has been or ever will be received.  And so both lives become soured and spoiled, because neither receives nor can receive the sympathy which their efforts deserve, and because their cares are multiplied from a want of congeniality.  One or the other may find that the noble qualities seen by the impulse of early love were but the creation of an infatuated fancy, existing only in the mind where it originated.

Well, yes.  This is probably so.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

Slightly late slightly stressed trees

Much of yesterday was spent at a museum sewing, and singing and playing ukulele, and talking to people about sewing and about singing and Stuff......and another visit to the emergency department in the evening to have Kevin's hand checked because it was swollen....and that was my yesterday.  Today, however, is another day.

This week's trees, one which reflects the now-darker wattle.....

....and one which looks like interesting petroglyphs.  Some sort of glyphs, anyway.

Both reverse trees.  It's interesting to see how fabrics change according to the other fabrics they are partnered with.  There are now 76 trees, the same as the number of trombones in the well-known song.

Yesterday's time at the historical museum produced one bag; two were cut out and went along with me, one was started and completed.   The other will be made up on a day that I just feel like some mindless sewing

The white lines are straight but to fit it in a photograph it needed to be bent a little, hence the wiggly lines.  I'm not sure that I love it enough to want to keep it but my friend was admiring it yesterday, so it might be gifted to her.

The weekly wattle.  As you can see the bright lemon colour is darkening; we had rain during the week, and those little fluffy yellow balls were heavy with the weight of water.  They have since popped up again.

The colour, however, has changed for the season.

Kevin's hand is, we hope, healing.  The last stitches were removed on Friday but a close eye is still being kept on it by the medical people.  As directed by the hospital people ("see your regular doctor in a week") we duly trotted along last Tuesday, and indeed every day for the following four days.  We will be back again this afternoon at 4p.m. - we should have had a reprieve from medical visits over the weekend, but Kevin's hand had other ideas - and possibly several more times this week.  At last night's visit the hand was unwrapped, checked....not too bad, you can wait to see a doctor if you think you need to, but it will be several hours' wait.....re-wrapped by the nurse who didn't think it needed to be seen by a doctor, thank goodness...so we will see what is said this afternoon.  It doesn't feel too bad he says.  That's good, I says.  Have you ever tried to keep an old bloke from doing things?  It's not easy, let me tell you.  I do let him put the car in and out of the garage, magnanimous person as what I am.

The historical museum yesterday was fun.  The house is called 'Calala Cottage' and this year celebrates 150 years since it was built, so of course the ukulele players sang 'Happy Birthday' with the audience joining in.  The Cunning Plan had been to take one of my 1920s Singer treadle machines along but, as Kevin's hand didn't lend itself to taking apart, carrying and re-assembling a heavy machine twice, I came up with the idea of taking my 1950 Singer Featherweight 221 instead.  It's still an old machine albeit 75 years old rather than 98, but as it's so small and easy to manage it was the right decision - and it still generated a lot of interest.  A couple of women said "oh, a Featherweight!" so of course we chatted about them, and even a few older blokes talked about their memories of learning to sew by hand and by machine as children; one man in particular was very interesting.  I didn't mind the chats; if no one was interested in the machine and what I was doing I could have accomplished more, but it wouldn't have been as much fun.

In fact, it's been such a busy week that I still haven't had that rest......

Words have been read.  Stitches have been sewn and knitted - my knitting now goes with me every time we get in the car, because we never know how long these medical appointments are going to take....one sleeve is nearly completed, and the other has been started.  Many songs have been plinked and sung, and yesterday's audience enjoyed our offerings; a few of the U3A folk had never performed in public before but did very well, and our audience said nice things to us and about us.

"Requirements for a happy marriage.

Respect for each other is as necessary to a happy marriage as that the husband and wife should have an affection for one another.  Social equality, intellectual sympathy, and sufficient means are very important matters to be considered by those who contemplate matrimony."

Well, yes.  To which I would add, to be happy to drive each other to medical appointments.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

A couple of slightly stressed trees

Because it's been a slightly stressful week.

Firstly, the happy stuff....two trees were made.  A green tree with blue spots which could be raindrops, because we certainly had our share of rain last month.

Every Arboretum needs a blue and green spotted tree, yes?  The contrast is interesting; on its own it is a slightly pinkish tan, but set inside the bright green fabric it looks brown.

This bright fabric wasn't wide enough to cut the 6-1/2 in by 9 in piece for a tree....but it was wide enough to cut two, 3-1/4 in by 9 in pieces and join them using a contrast trunk.  Pat on the back for me too, because I even managed blend the foliage design.  The blue and green fishy print makes a fun contrast.

This week's trees, 73 and 74.  We won't quibble about which is which.

The weekly wattle.  It's difficult to get a close-up on a windy day as those thin branches wave and dance with every puff of air, but I managed.

How has everyone been this week?  We attended the anniversary morning tea at the library on Monday, and Hizzoner duly delivered his waffling rambling (fortunately not over-long, but long enough) speech.  I believe that councillors undertake some media training upon being elected; the mayor has been on council for over 30 years, so perhaps a refresher course would be a Useful Thing.  He and I did not need to speak so the dilemma of what to address him shall, for the foreseeable future at least, remain unresolved.

While there I was introduced to a woman named Joyce, "she's 90, you know".....Joyce started working at the library a few years after I left and continued there for several years.  Every time we hove in sight (or earshot) of Joyce we heard "I'm 90, you know....."  

The following day, Tuesday, was one of my two monthly quilt group days but as my tummy had been feeling a little unhappy for a few days, I decided to stay home.  Kevin wanted to catch up with a few things down town, so took the car and drove off.  Some time later, just as I was about to settle down for a rest, I answered a knock on the door which turned out to be the wife of a café manager.  Kevin had decided to treat himself to a coffee and, while walking from the car, tripped and sliced his hand open, it was bleeding profusely, so off we duly drove to the hospital.  Many hours later, several stitches in the hand, lots of padding and bandages, and we finally made it home again.  Back the next day just to get it checked - I'm not a medical person, I wasn't going to be the one to unwrap it - it was wrapped with new bandages, leave it on said the nurse, see your GP in a week to have the stitches removed, don't get it wet, etc., etc.  It's his right hand, and of course he's right handed, so all the chores which are usually split between two people are being done by one.  Never mind....it's my turn this year, Kevin did the chores last year when my arm was in plaster.

Over the past several years Kevin has developed what I call the Old Bloke Shuffle.  Have you noticed that old blokes don't pick up their feet?  I keep telling him to do so, you'll trip, I say......older women don't shuffle as much as blokes, perhaps because we wore higher heeled shoes in our younger days.  One cannot shuffle in a heel, even a low heel.  Old blokes are also likely, as is Kevin, to be taking blood thinners so a badly cut hand means pressing all sorts of panic buttons.

I still haven't had that rest......

Words have been read, stitches have been sewn and knitted.  (I wish I had taken my knitting or my hand-piecing to pass those interminable hours in hospital.)  Songs have been plinked and sung.  I hunted and gathered all by myself, and hey-ho, so passed the week, stress and all.

We have had some very pleasant mild days, but more rain is forecast for the coming week.  The washing is hanging out in the breezy sunshine as we speak; like many Ozzies I have never owned a dryer, something which to me seems like a useless extravagance.  We use a solar dryer - a wash line in the sun!

"An acceptable suitor.

Parents should always be able to tell from observation and instinct just how matters strand with their daughter; and if the suitor is an acceptable one and everything satisfactory, then, in this country, the most scrupulous rules of etiquette will not prevent their letting the young couple alone.  If the lover chooses to propose directly to the lady and consult her father afterwards he has a perfect right to do so.  If her parents have sanctioned his visits and attentions by a silent consent, he has a right to believe that his addresses will be favorably received by them."

You notice that many of these quotes refer to how the young woman should behave, and very few as to what the man should do?  The old double standard was alive and well in 1885.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

Reverse trees

The fabrics used for this week's trees have also been used for past trees, but in reverse - which makes for interesting results.

A tree using fabric from my prize bundle, and contrast that was a bright tree several months ago.

A tree which puts me in mind of light shining through foliage.

Both blue and green, but both very different......that makes 72 trees.

The view from just outside our kitchen window of sunlight filtered through the wattle bush, with trees on the hill beyond.

It's a noisy bush, as there are many bees a-buzzin' in it.

How has everyone been this week?  We have hunted and we have gathered, and we have been hither and yon for appointments and meetings.  Words have been read, stitches have been sewn and knitted; the first sleeve is now well up in the raglan armhole decrease so every second row is shorter by two stitches, which makes for quicker rows.  Songs have been plinked and sung.

As of next term, starting in mid-October, I am moving the U3A ukulele group to Monday afternoons so I can once more attend choir on Thursday afternoons.  The email announcing this was duly sent around and garnered several replies, some of which made the writers sound like chooks with their feathers ruffled, but I am adamant.  I am moving to Monday afternoons.  Those who cannot do Mondays are welcome to have their own strumming group on Thursdays (which I suspect they will) and I wish them well.  I am by far the most experienced musician in the group, so we'll see how it goes. 

Early in the week I received a call from one of the workers at the gallery where I used to volunteer - I decided at the start of this year that, as I was nearly 15 years older than when I started, it was a good time to gracefully bow out - during our many hours there together our past work history occasionally came up and we realised that we had both, at one time, worked for the library which is downstairs in the same building.  I started there as a 15YO school leaver (that's right, folks, I was a high school dropout, but that's a story for another day) in January 1963 and left when I moved to the Big Smoke in October 1970, nearly eight years later.  The library service is celebrating its 75th birthday tomorrow with a morning tea, and as an employee from so many years ago, possibly one of very few left from those days, I am officially invited.  Hizzoner Mr Mayor will be there.  I would not be surprised if there were cameras, so better make sure I wear a good bra and some lippy, yes?  As it's a daytime occasion the tiara will probably be left at home.....and how does one address the mayor?  Mr Last Name? Mr Mayor? or 'Russ', which is the short form of his first name but which might be regarded as just a teeny bit disrespectful for an Official Occasion?

I'll let you know next week.

Winter has been reminding us that whoever said, way back in late autumn, that we would be in for a warm mild winter was wrong.  This morning was a minus temperature which, of course, felt much colder and which equalled the previous cold temperature back in mid-June; the fire is very welcome as the wind has been biting.  Blossom trees all around town are blooming, however, so we know spring is on its way, and before we know it we will once more be complaining of the heat.  Days are getting longer, mornings are too bright too early - I am not an early riser by choice, you know - and evenings are hanging on for longer before the curtain of night falls once more.

Our parents are still keeping an eye on their girls.

"A watchful care required by parents.

Parents, especially mothers, should also watch with a jealous care the tendencies of their daughter's affections; and if they see them turning toward unworthy or undesirable objects, influence of some sort should be brought to bear to counteract this.  Great delicacy and tact are required to manage matters rightly.  A more suitable person may, if available, be brought forward, in the hope of attracting the young girl's attention.  The objectionable traits of the undesirable suitor should be made apparent to her without the act seeming to be intentional; and if all this fails, let change of scene and surroundings by travel or visiting accomplish the desired result.  The latter course will generally do it, if matters have not been allowed to progress too far and the young girl is not informed why she is temporarily banished from home."

I suspect that these remarks pertain to those folk of a certain social level and above.  Ordinary working class folk could not afford to be so choosy.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

More golden goodness

One of this week's trees could be a wattle tree.

There are apparently so many species of wattle that somewhere in Australia, every day of the year, wattle trees are blooming.  Some are dark gold, some are so pale as to be nearly white, and there is every shade of yellow in between.....we have certainly seen wattles this colour.

The second tree reminds me of an underwater scene in a tropical lagoon.  It's quite a bit paler than many of the trees, but then an Arboretum needs trees which are light and trees which are dark.

This week's trees.  

We're now into re-using fabrics but each fabric is only used once for a tree, and once for a contrast.  Once all the blocks are together I am hoping it won't be too obvious, but the alternative would have to be 198 different fabrics - and while I have a good stash of batiks, it's not that extravagant!

These two pics are fabrics chosen to make bags.  In a few weeks the Historical Society museum will have its Spring Fair and Open Day, and will also celebrate the house's 150th birthday.  As I have done in past years I will be taking along one of my 1920s Singer treadle machines and demonstrating how sewing used to be done - and, indeed, still is.  All fabrics will be already cut out and any pressing will be done in advance, as I won't have access to an iron on the day.

This bag may be donated to charity but I quite like the yellow fabrics, so that bag might stay with me.

The garden from the other end.  You can see how green it all is, and this week's rain has certainly helped.  I even managed to avoid the wash line with my undies flapping gently in the breeze, for which you are no doubt thankful

Snowdrops planted by the previous owner, which pop up annually in late winter.

How has everyone been this week?  We have had even more rain, so much in fact that the river flooded again for the second time in a couple of weeks.  Fortunately it was classed as a minor flood - there are, it seems, minor, moderate and major floods - so while two of the three river bridges were closed, the water went down quickly.  The ground is already saturated, so it doesn't take much rain for a flood.

Words have been read.  Stitches have been sewn and knitted, in fact I may have overdone it because last year's broken arm has been rather painful, so it's having several days' rest from knitting.  At my quarterly check-up earlier in the week the doctor suggested going back to the exercises prescribed by the physio while my arm was healing, so I have been doing that.  Songs have been plinked and sung in readiness for performance at the Historical Society's open day, so it will be a busy day.

A shout out to Barbara, wherever you are - thank you for visiting my blog!  I wasn't able to reply to your comment as you came up as 'no-reply-blogger'.

This quote reminds us how things have changed in the past 140 years.

"Parents should exercise authority over daughters.

Parents should always be perfectly familiar with the character of their daughter's associates, and they should exercise their authority so far as not to permit her to form any improper acquaintances.  In regulating the social relations of their daughter, parents should bear in mind the possibility of her falling in love with any one with whom she may come into frequent contact.  Therefore, if any gentleman of her acquaintance is particularly ineligible as a husband, he should be excluded as far as practicable from her society."

I don't think so.  How will she ever learn to pick good from bad if she is not given the chance?

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer