Morning walk to Granite Island

This morning we decided to walk over the causeway to Granite island and walk around it. It is so nice to be a tourist in your own town. A lovely morning, not too cold and not too much wind.
The first photo is of the Horse tram, very famous and a great tourist draw card. the second is looking back from the Island, over the causeway towards the town and the Hindmarsh River. and the third one is of the massive granite boulders on the southern, Antarctic side of the Island looking towards the Bluff and the Islands on that side of the bay.
we came back for a coffee and then home.
I have friends for dinner tonight so am vaguely cleaning the house. An easy meal, oysters, whiting and salad and chocolate self saucing pudding.
If I cant get to friends then I will invite them here.
I think if you click on the windows you will get a closer view.

My socks

I have finally finished my other sock, this is my first pair ever. The first sock is a bit shorter than the second, as I wasnt sure how to go about getting the length and I finally worked out how to graft the second one, I have to admit it is fractionally more comfortable than the first sock!
I have another sock ball to knit but first I have to begin knitting baby things for the new grand child, I know it isnt due until November and we are going into summer then but they still need a few warm things.
Rain over night and a warmer and slightly sunny day today.

This is what we saw today

We went to Adelaide today, hair cuts, saw my mother, had a lovely lunch at the art gallery and saw the Egyptian exhibition at the gallery and the other two at the Museum. They were all brilliant in their own way.
Click to see them larger. We had a lovely day.

TAST Long and Short stitch

I new that eventually this stitch would be one we had to do and it is one I have the most trouble with. Probably because I dont use a coarse material to do it on. I think if I used something like aida with holes in it I would find it easier.
Any way I perservered and here it is.

The week ends photos

The first photo is of the frost outside the back gate on Saturday morning. Taken around 8 am.
the second photo is looking across the bowling club towards Pt Elliott and the coorong from the font verandah of the Anchorage where we had coffee and read the morning papers at about 10 am on Saturday morning, and the last one I took yesterday from the verandah of the Mt Lofty Golf Club when we were there for a lunch.

gardening in pots

Yesterday was very cold and frosty, we went over to the Markets at Willunga and then on to a nursery for me to get some pansies and primroses and some winter lettuce seedlings. I put them all in pots so they will be above the reach of the peacocks and also hopefully into a bit more sun so they will grow for me. I have a couple of trees by the back entrance that I fill with pots in winter as they have no leaves on them and so it is sunnier.
A very quick sketch as we had friends coming over for dinner and I had to get myself organised as it was a spur of the moment invitation.

Small bag

This doesnt seem to have photographed very well but this is my almost finished small bag that I did from the Angie Hughes article in Stitch magazine. I dont think I was thinking very well when I went to do it the other day as I couldnt work out from her description how the lining was done, so yesterday while I was over with Wendy we sat and sorted it out, Wendy of course being younger and cleverer than me had no problems with it. Any way apart from getting a cord done and eyeletes in it is finished and I really liked it. It is made form black cotton velvet with sweets wrappers adhered and a rather nice bronzy coloured crystal organza over the top. I bought the eyelets today while I was in Victor Shopping.
I have had a busy few days so no blogging, my mother was very pleased with the rug I knitted for her and took up and we had a lovely chat although she kept forgetting that she had seen the paintings I hade done and taken up to show her.Still cold and it has been damp and mizzly but today we have had some sun.
I must manage a walk today as I seem to have done nothing but eat the wrong food and when it is time to walk its been raining and I have been over tired, two days away from home this week was some sort of record. I actually scored the car!!

More week end photos

I was fascinated in the way the sand had scoured out this bit of the beach, maybe a future textile. The other photo is around the actual bay, called Horseshoe bay at Pt Elliott and this is the breakwater. this was one of the first places that was suggested as a port in South Australia, after they lost several ships the idea was abandoned.
I have been busy catching up with a few things and getting a few more fabric stuff under way. I have beading tonight and tomorrow I go to Adelaide to see my mother. I have finally finished the rug I have been knitting and got it all together, I am not sure I am entirely happy with the colours but it is warm and I hope she likes it.
I think I will have to look out some heavier winter clothes than I have been wearing. I think Adelaide is 13 degrees tomorrow.

Morning walk, from Pt Elliott

It has been damp and cold and the air has that rather thick look to it, hazy and not clear. I took photos as we walked along the top of the huge granite rocks and looked down to the surf beach.
A coffee and walk back made it a lovely morning.
I cant believe how cold it has been, sitting by the fire has become a bit of a priority at the moment and knitting is being done as well as some hand embroidery. I venture into the sunroom, where there is no sun, and do a bit of painting which is on my other blog( see the links).
We are incredibly lucky to live in such a lovely part of the world and these areas are within 20 minutes of the farm.

TAST french knots

This is the same little embroidery I did last week with the wheat ear stitch and I think Sharon b must have known that I felt it wasnt finished and was going to add some knots along the bottom when she suggested this for this weeks stitch, so that is what I have done. I love french knots and must quietly do another little scene as Doreen has done and use them that way.
Finding the time is the problem, although it has been so cold here that sitting by the fire stitching is a pleasure at the moment.

Textile Madness

Sorry about the flash in this photo. I have just got my Module 4 stuff back from Dale and her Playways on the net and in it was my vessel which I just love, all done with textiles. As it was in toning colours with my little casket and the tyvek flowers I have been making, here is my small textile display. the flowers were in Stitch magazine and the first one was the size in the pattern which I thought was rather huge so I made a smaller one and popped them in my "vase".
I know the little pink box doesnt quite go but well what the heck.
I dont think that these are favorite colours especially either, they just happend that way.
Still cold but now overcast so feels even colder, it has been about 10 degrees by the back door for days.
John has gone fishing, he did suggest I went with him and took the car but as I am broke and the area he was going has too many tempting shops I didnt go. Not much fun on your own anyway. Today it was much more fun playing at home with the fire going.

Vliesofix abd sweets wrappers

This will eventually become a bag, I hope, I was playing around with a little bag in Stitch magazine and this is the fun part. Of course after I had fixed all the sweets wrappers on I read the instructions again and it said to use scraps of fabric as well. I loved the brightness of this and it goes under some organza before I stitch it all so I dont think that it will matter.
Today I made a tyvek flower, also out of Stitch, it was bigger than I thought but a lot of fun and I may well make another one as it goes quite nicely in my textile vessel I made for my Module 4 stuff for Dale at her Playways on the net course. It was fun to look at what I had done when it came home yesterday, I had almost forgotten.
Minus 2 by the back door this morning and freezing cold again tonight, at least the sun has been shining.
We went to the optomotrist (sp?) today and I have chosen a spiffy new pair of red glasses, very modern looking, not that I need new glasses it was just that the lenses are so scratched I can hardly see out of them and any way the frames I have now look awfully old fashioned.

Across the valley

I took this while walking, if you look very hard you will see a flock of white birds in the middle, this is one of the many flocks of white corellas that have invaded the valley and are creating mayhem, they dig up the paddocks, pull leaves and branches off trees and where we feed rain out to calves and cattle settle in flocks of up to 3 or 400. John keeps trying to move them on with the shot gun but they just get more cunning.
I had a bit of the black dog on my back yesterday, the lack of a 2nd car means I am stuck here whether I want to be or not and at the moment J is never home, or so it seems. I will get over it.

Mc Laren Vale

Sorry about John's shoulder but it was hard to get him out of the way. It was a lovely morning but got windy and cold and overcast as the day went on. We met up with friends, went to 3 wineries, find that is as many as we can manage, this was taken at Tapestry where we had really yummy smoked salmon and cheese and rocket croissonts and then moved on to D'arenberg where we had a big fat mushroom on grilled polenta with a pesto sauce and it was also yummy.
I was the designated driver which meant that I didnt drink but got a few give aways, mostly coffee but at D'arry's I got a chocolate brownie which was really good. I was a bit coffeed out by the time I got home but no breathaliser and not picked up for anything so all in all a good day.
Met up with birthday girl Robynn at Pirramimma where she got two white cyclamen, one from me and one from her sister in law! They had a good cheese platter there.
Today was jolly cold and overcast, no rain. I am still trying to dry out the sun room floor. Not a lot of constructive work done today but orchids have come under cover in case of frost and I have totally pulled apart Jills necklace and am redoing it as she somehow managed to shred some of the threads on it. I have had it since we were in Queensland, just didnt like the thought of having to do it all again but it was the only way.

Take a Stitch Tuesday

Here is my wheatear stitch. I really liked this stitch and for a change didnt rush it. I had got some docotrs flannel and this rather lovely yellow felt so put the two together and with some silk waterlily threads I stitched my summer field. I spent 3 evenings on this.
Thanks Sharon for this ongoing treat, I am learning more and more about embroidery stitches and am getting a bit more adventurous with how to use them. Not to say I wont go back to being quick next week!

Little pink box

I made the little pink box yesterday and finished off with some beading last night. this came from the quilting arts magazine but I have made these with origame paper as well.
I spent almost all of today moving very heavy furniture around in my sunroom. Something had been telling me to move the very heavy big box in there and I was glad I finally did as the rain had come in under the window sill and the floor boards under it were wet and would have rotted if I hadnt decided that today was the day.
I can hardly move now as my back is killing me but it all looks a lot better and roomier.
A heap of pots have moved out while I wait for the floor to dry, so that will be the next job, finding somewhere for them to go, I really think they should have gone ages ago.

My finished box

Here is the little box I have finally finished. took longer than I thought but I am really pleased with it mostly I used silk to make it.
We walked this morning and it was lovely, cool by the sea but no rain.
I have been busy trying to get a few more fabric things done, but I feel rather tired today, well I did get the soup stock done and a loaf of bread, some lemon flavoured chicken legs roasting in the oven for dinner, so I suppose that is a few things.
I really should have been in the garden but it is so cold.
The little box I am making out of the Quilting Arts magazine is not going the way I had hoped, we will see when I finally get it all together. I made up some material from panne velvet and nappy liners and shiva stick I had sitting waiting for me to do something with it, a bit of embellishing on the machine and some stitching and that was my top fabric. Trouble is that what I chose for the bottom fabric frayed badly, any way I found an old bottle of fray check and used that and have now painted the edges so we will see how it all works out.

A moment of sunshine

I looked out of the kitchen door and saw this glow of leaves from the liquidamber and raced for the camera. I would love to be able to paint this but am not sure how to go about it.
The last of the leaves were glowing in a few minutes of sun. About all we got today, as it has been very overcast and cold, again, although the East cost of Australia is having huge storms. I keep saying it, back to normal.
If you look hard in this photo there is a peacock sitting on the wall behind the bay tree.
I have just had a dreadful thought, this new grandchild wont know me as the others have, when it is 10 I will be 78 and when it is 20 I will be 88. What a totally horrifying thought.

Rivington Hyder

This is our Welsh Mountain stallion Rivington Hyder in his winter woollies and in his winter paddock.
I am still amazed at how green and lush everything is after our months of dryness. I am almost, but not quite, complaining of the wet and cold.
Having said that I am amazed at the empty dams that are still around in the area.
It has drizzled all day again today and when I did my morning walk this morning, when I took this photo I got quite wet, when I started out I thought it had cleared.
Hyder is now our senior stallion and has thrown us some lovely foals, he is typically Welsh compact and with a lovely outlook.

Interesting day

I have just learnt I am to be a grandmother again, with my oldest grandchild nearly 22 it has come as a bit of a surprise. It will be lovely to have another baby in the family.
Today I went to Adelaide with my youngest daughter and we took my mother out to lunch at a friends place, I think Mummy had a lovely time as P had gone to an enormous amount of trouble.
I came home tired in time to give John the car and head off for another meeting.
I did this yesterday, it is the start of my fabric box .and so far I am very pleased with it. Maybe I will get it finished tomorrow.

Another Fabric page

It has got so cold and wintry, almost like a normal, if there is such a thing, winter.
I have been inside in the warmth as my arthriticky knees really let me know when I go out for too long, although walks are still being done. I think the dogs would disown me if I didnt.
Any way I have been having a lovely time playing and this was another of the things that I finished, began sometime last year and finished yesterday.
I am also in the midst of making a small fabric casket, from Janet Edmonds book, I have had the book for over 3 years and I am finally doing something from it. The first little 5 sided box but I love the look of the house box so that maybe my next project. I also have her second book and love what she does.So with that and finally doing something about cleaning the house I am pooped.
John has a meeting tonight so I dont think I am going to beading, probably just as well as I go to Adelaide tomorrow.

Take a stitch Tuesday

Here is my very small sample of satin stitch. Not a stitch i particularly like doing but it is satisfying when it works.

Burning and distressing

This is another page for my fabric book of things done at Grumpy week ends. I painted some nappyliners, shiva sticked over the top, sewed onto some organza and then got to it with the heat gun.
I then stitched it to a page background and hand stitched in a few places. doesnt show up all that well on the scan.
We have now had so much rain I think a few days of sun would be good. Gutters have overflowed it was so heavy at times, and of course the decidous trees are still dropping their leaves so poor John got soaked trying to stop the flood over the back door.
I am working on a fabric box, A nice way to stay inside.
I have an awful mess on the floor trying to find the right fabrics, I think another large plastic container needs to come home.

Walking this morning

we met friends this morning and walked along the walking/bike track at Encounter Bay. it got quite wet so by the time we had reached Whalers we were damp and ready for a coffee and cake. I took the photo of the rainbow looking at the Bluff on my way there and the other from the steps at Whalers. We had a lovely morning and then came home to a warm fire.
I moved two of the old mares out the back gate to eat down some of the grass. They were out there in minutes.
I have been playing with textile stuff again today as well as helping John try and get a cover on the orchid house, brought in a lovely big orchid with a mass of flowers on it.
Such strange weather, I have a hibiscus flowering its head off, and it is June, and camellias flowering as well, a lot are earlier than normal, so my watering did pay off.

Ponies and the house

I tried to load these last night but I couldnt get through. as I had done the painting of the house on my other blog I thought I would put the photo up here and while I was about it put in a photo of the weanling welsh fillies in the paddock which is now lush and green. I cannot believe how fast the paddocks have grown, thanks to the still warm weather and the rain. It is cold now tho so probably the growth will slow down.
The garden also responded far better to the rain than I thought, although I was watering for what seemed months until we ran out of water. Now it needs a good trim and my knees are now responding to the cold weather and dont like me!!

Fabric book page

I slowly make a few of these when I have time. I did this one while we were at Coffin Bay, and even John recognised it. One day they will be put all together. then another one will begin. I really like fusing fabric, and hand sewing it all together, I am not terribly good at free motion embroidery, cant see where I am going and make a mess and I think hand sewing is relaxing.
I didnt want too much on this piece to detract from th outlinse I saw everyday when I walked.
I have just walked the dogs, the big white cockies have unfortunatly found the calves feed and are in massive numbers, they make such a terrible noise and keep the calves from feeding, John has gone to get more shot to make nasty noises and move them on, he hopes. Then the heavens opened on me and I got soaked so I am back inside in clean dry clothes.
A morning of shopping for food, I did look at clothes but the pants that were on special didnt appeal and I couldnt find any nickers that are not hipsters, which these days I find uncomfortable. I spent time on the embellisher today trying out some of Dale's lovely ideas. More on that tomorrow I hope.
I have just finished my 12 months of walking on my other blog, http://penny-withmybootsandsketchbook.blogspot.com but I am going to keep up with it but perhaps not post everyday as I found that rather nerve wracking at times. I will still be walking every day so we will see. Julie and Alison were such good walking partners and their sketches were wonderful, now Hashi is walking so I will keep on with her to the best of my ability.