Orchids in my sun room and another walk

These cymbidium orchids love my sun room and look lovely. One my mother had and I am still just managing to keep going. The dendrobiums are coming along too with this small burst of warmer weather, although you will see from the other photos that it hasnt been bright blue skies.
Thank you to all who worried about me, I am a bit sore and a bit battered and bruised but otherwise alright.
So this morning we walked where I thought we were going yesterday, along the road at the base of the Bluff, I could only get run over there!
We saw 3 cars and one was the little Austin 7 which was being taken for a run. In our youth we used to roar around the town in a very pared down Austin 7 called Venomous, it was basically the engine, seats and wood for the floor, great fun but of course these days not in the least bit would we have been allowed to drive it in that state.
So photos of the fish measuring station on the little jetty, the piles at the base of the jetty,
the little Austin 7 (who had a very tall man driving it!) and the sky.
A pleasant walk, not too difficult and just nice to think I can still more or less do it.

Feeling fragile and TAST 26

This morning John and I walked a piece of the cliff near Kings beach we dont often walk and I fell over and nearly down a steep bank, almost the cliff.
I just stepped off the path where there was a hole I didnt see and over I went. An aching shoulder and my bad knee (of course) and my camera full of mud and my confidence lost.
The third photo is of the path and where I went over was somewhere in the middle.
We had climbed down a steep and tricky path to where the beach and rocks were in the first couple of photos and then crawled up a steeper bit to get back to the path.
You can see how rough the rocks are on this little bit of beach, I have lots more photos for a later day.
It was interesting but I was finding it tricky as my sight and the wrong shoes were not helping me.
An adventure!
The 4th photo is looking the other way towards Kings Beach, we were walking towards the Bluff but in a bit I now know why we dont often walk!
Lovely blue sky, which has now clouded over, the sea was so clear it was incredible after the storms we have had and a long low lazy swell occasionally coming in.
I was feeling all was right with my world, now I am not quite so sure. I cant have aching bits, there is too much to do.
Here is my TAST for this week, not looking terribly well done and I think I have it right, it is called Chained cross stitch. I dont think this is one I would have much use for but interesting to know about.

Scarf finished and poppies on fabric.

I have finally knitted my scarf, it was supposed to be much longer but I find really long scarves a nuisance. It is done in sock wool and is a pretty simple stitch for a scarf, chevron stitch. I am quite pleased with it and dont feel much like knitting any more, but a pair of socks just might get done to match it, I had an extra ball of wool.
I played around with a larger stencil i cut out and using shiva sticks put this collection of poppies onto a piece of hand dyed cotton, just to see what they looked like. I quite like it but am now waiting for the shiva sticks to set. It is not very big, but then I tend to hand quilt and so I dont really do big quilts.
Actually I dont quilt at all.
My painting, still not finished from my lesson yesterday is on my other blog.
I have rescued some of my seedlings from the slugs and got them into the ground, now to see what grows and what the wretched rabbit will eat. Two hours in the garden was enough, just goes to show how unfit I am. No walk except around the close paddocks which are horribly muddy and wet so not much fun.
It is warmer today and more blossom is showing in the garden, a good day forecast for tomorrow and then more rain, all just in time for the Royal Adelaide Show which the girls will be at hacking with the ponies. As Sarah said, probably rubber boots for the leading rein on Monday.

More from yesterday

Just a few more photos from yesterday, the clematis was out even more than last week, the yellow native yam daisy, a row of granite above the path and lichens on the rocks which I am sure have doubled in size since the rain.
I had good but also frustrating morning at my watercolour class. I got totally bogged down and didnt finish but have a better idea of how to go about it in future.
An early start as I needed to get the papers and go to the market as well.
I hope to finish my vase of flowers tomorrow unless it is too good a day in which case I will be in the garden
My scarf is finally finished I will put a photo up after I have blocked it.
Lots of things I am wanting to do it is finding the time that is the problem.

Another day, another walk

We went back to Pt Elliot today as the wind was from a slightly different direction, not too cold or wet or for that matter terribly windy which after the last few days is amazing.
You really didnt want to go out any where and suddenly it has calmed down and they are promising warmer weather.
These are all in the wrong order but that doesnt matter, it was lovely to see the waves crashing on the rocks, I saw two seals off the rocks having a lovely time but I have given up trying to take decent photos of them.
In some you can see blue sky but when we arrived there were clouds and rain to the north and some of the waves were really quite large, because we are above them it is hard to get the idea of how high some are.
I took loads of photos so you will see others later. I took a bit more of the coastal vegetation too.
I have been busy finishing off the atc's for the birthday swap for next month so I can get them off in time. I have also been playing again with some of the painting and stenciling and using shiva sticks, this time on wrapping paper, I found some lovely stuff I had saved from when we were in Japan, quite a few years ago now. It worked well.
That is on my other blog.
A lovely day but we are both feeling we had a pretty full week and are tired.

Latest Foal and mail art

This little Welsh Mountain filly was born on Tuesday and she is a ripper. I took this photo late in the afternoon so she still has a bit of unraveling to do.
Poor little thing has had to go through some of the roughest weather we have had this winter but the paddock is nicely sheltered and she seems to be thriving.
In my mail box on the same day or was it a day earlier, not sure, came this wonderful mail art from Wanda in Ohio, we did a private swap and I was thrilled with what she sent me.
I love the envelopes (I did block out our names and addresses.)
The creek has been up but we missed it at its peak yesterday as we spent the whole day in town, not a nice day to be any where, floods in the hills, flooded roads, trees down I was glad to be home.
My mother looked peaceful and cosy in her warm rug, but was asleep for most of my visit. I sat and knitted and chatted away like a pork chop about nothing very much. I really dont know if she was taking any of it in at all.
I did get quite a lot of my scarf knitted. Only about another 80 inches to go!!

The new foal and a bit more of Sunday

Here is the little black Cob colt that was born on Saturday. I went out to see him at Tabby's yesterday and he looks a really nice little boy, a lot more filling out to do but a typical Barnon Beau Gambler foal. I just would have liked a filly!
We left early as the sun was rising on Sunday and here is a photo I took of the sun shining through the branches of the scarlet ash by the back gate.
Then we headed up through the mallee to Swan Reach and here is a photo of the river as we were going across on the ferry and the last photo is of the hotel on the other side of the river again taken from the ferry.
We drove up on all bitumen roads from Monarto to Sedan but came home on the dirt road to Mannum and I hadnt realised how much scrub and how few farm houses there seemed to be on the way back. This is all within a couple of hours or less of Adelaide. A lot of new country to me and I thought I had seen most of this area.
We are back to winter with a vengeance, cold windy and quite a lot of rain. If only it will stay wet until the end of September and then some nice sun for feed to grow, and no locust plague to wipe it all out!

TAST 25 Vandyke Stitch

Here are my rather centipede like renditions of vandyke stitch set for us by Sharonb of pintangle. See Sharons blog in my side bar.

Roonka on the River Murray

Yesterday we were part of a Waterhouse expedition to the Roonka Conservation park (near Blanchetown) which was the area an archaeological dig was held by the South Australian Museum on the 1960's through to I think the early '80s.
Remains had been found on a sand hill on what was Roonka Station and an excavation team was sent out.
Now I am only writing about what I think I gleaned from talking to people yesterday and I am no authority but here are my own thoughts.
There is a lot of interesting stuff held in the Museum but it has now largely gone back to a very denuded once upon a time irrigation site. I believe some of the remains are now thought to go back about 20,000 years.
Some of my photos of yesterday and more will probably come this week.
The sign of the park shows that no money and very little thought has gone into the site for a long time but there is hope that that may change and the local elders may take some interest as we had one of the local men with us. I dont think these local aboriginals are related in any way to these finds at this burial ground as according to what I can gather, these were a much earlier people, we have had several waves of people coming in and populating Australia and work is now finding out all sorts of things that were not known even 30 years or so ago.
A 3 hour drive to get there, and the second photo is of the sign on the ferry as we crossed the river at Swan Reach.
There were a lot of wombat burrow around the site and I think this was a wombat skull, certainly not human. But in the next photo there were some human bones exposed on top of the eroding sandhill, these have been listed by the museum people.
The final photo is of the river area with the cliffs of the far bank behind, the billabong in front and the river further behind.
A beautiful site on a lovely day with the sun out but very cold in winter and terribly hot in the summer. I will try to get some of my other photos up tomorrow.
Another long 3 hour drive home so we are taking things a bit slowly today.

flowers from yesterday

I am tired, a long day and tomorrow we are off early in the morning. I took these photos yesterday all but the last one on our walk around the top of the rocks at Pt Elliot. The last is in my garden.
So the first is the wattle that is out at the moment, probably Flinders Ranges I think, then some of the wattle and the native clematis or old mans beard flowering profusely.
I think the grass is wallaby grass, a native and more clematis and finally my little patch of hellebores.

Seals, sea and waves

As we wont have time to walk tomorrow we walked this morning before we shopped. I suggested we went over to the Pt Elliot sandy bay area, as we have had such a rough week weather wise I thought although we wouldnt see any whales the sea could be quite spectacular.
As we walked from the car park the waves coming in to the bay were moving in a semi circular way which I havent really caught here as the sun was in the wrong place.
I had just said to John that seeing any seals in these rough conditions was pretty remote when this one appeared, surfing in and around the waves but spending a lot of time under water, I was really pleased to get as much of him as I did. He wasnt hanging around. It is the black bit in the sea to the left of the second photo.
The next few photos tell you why, the waves were huge and although we were above them the occasional very very big one threw spray every where. I was so pleased to get a few of these shots as my little camera is not fast.
I think the best way to see these is to click and enlarge them.
We have had sun and showers all day, but still pretty cold.
I have for most of the afternoon done inside jobs but have just come in from feeding the chooks and in their feed bin was a RAT!! He ran over my hand but didnt bite me, as it is at the back of the garage I cant see terribly well into the bin, I thought it might have been a mouse but no a rat. John came and killed it for me, rats take a lot of killing. Ugh.
So more rat bait out tonight. That is the trouble with farms, there are always rats.

Sketchbook pages

I have been trying to get a few things into my sketchbook, these I did a while ago, one is a grid stitched on a table napkin over a painting I did and the other is another grid using thread ansd beads.
I have also made a mess, not to be shown, when I painted over some ink that was not waterproof. I should know better!
I shall have to think about how to retrieve that one.
Adelaide yesterday was interesting, I think I got all seasons in one day.
It was very tiring, driving wasnt fun with wind wanting to blow you over the road and rain absolutely sheeting down and the windscreen wipers not wanting to work in the ferocity of it all.
My mother was perhaps a little better, I did take her down to where a few 'normal' people were sitting chatting and I knitted, instead of being in that awful room with others who look half dead.
I am not doing much today, in fact I spent some time reading a bit more of Diana Gabaldons latest book, which I am enjoying but it is one of those huge new books and they are impossible to lie in bed and read. So I am taking to my comfortable chair and feeling wicked, although the weather hasnt improved much which makes me feel better but then but the ironing is waiting!
The first foal has arrived, a black Welsh Cob colt, but he is over at Tabby's so I havent seen him yet. I would have been happier with a filly and what weather to arrive in.

TAST 24, Sketch to stitch and a rock garden

Here is my TAST for this week, Siennese Stitch, as put up by Sharon b ( see my side bar). I thought a straight line looked a bit dull so went for a circle.
The next photo is me trying to put the tiny sketches I did following Gina on her blog here into stitch, it is ok I guess but my free motion on the machine leaves a lot to be desired.
The last two photos I took yesterday of the lichen on the rocks and a little rock garden by the beach we went to yesterday I loved the little rock garden and the lichens were a good colour.
I have spent most of the day finishing off my article for the Welsh Pony and Cob Society here in South Australia, took for ever and John who is about to proof read it will probably make me change it.
I am glad I have finally finished this weeks TAST it sat there for ages while I thought about it.
Off to feed the dogs and chooks, we have finally had a bit of sun today. Lovely.