Such a brilliant day

Yesterday we did a lot and this was the glorious view, clear water and breathtaking colour of the sea as we walked after I had been to the market. At the moment this is my favorite walk as it is relatively flat going along from the Petrel Cove car park. We even met a beagle walking too.
I went home and had a fit of the tidy ups but I am paying for it a bit today, feel terribly tired but am still trying to get the house straight.
John has just come home from fishing, he caught a few nice fish I think we are both feeling rather tired, I know that when I am not home he doesnt sleep well and well, I had three very full on days.
Tomorrow we go to Adelaide so I am pacing myself.
No painting, no sewing, just a bit of re grouping. (There is a plus too, the bathroom has had a good cleaning so I feel terribly virtuous!)
I do feel so much better though, I have trouble realising how awful I felt before.

Back from Northern Victoria

Sarah and I had a very tiring but wonderful trip away, to Upper Lurg! dont you love the name, near the Victorian Alps to visit Mark Bullen and his newly moved Imperial Welsh Stud.
We took back a stallion we have had on loan, a wonderful boy who has left us some beautiful foals, and a little A brood mare we had swapped to NSW, Daniel met us at Marks and he had brought over the little stallion we swapped the mare for.
We had a 12 hour drive and were still going with a dinner party at about 10.30 and then totally collpased in a heap. Lovely to meet up with very old dear friends and have the time to talk and see the new property.
We were up bright and early the next morning as there were ponies and studs to see. Down the road to Weston, Janet was away but Dick was there and the cats, see the photo. Janets garden looked wonderful. Daniel was looking at a mare there.
Then back to Marks to see all the ponies, so many beautiful ponies. Wonderful hills as well.
The first two photos are at Marks and the one of Sarah is there as well. I really didnt take a huge number of photos and now wish I had.
The birds there are also wonderful, so many wonderful red robins but too quick for my little camera.
I was having a quiet afternoon as the pills are working and I feel so much better but didnt want to push my luck so Sarah and Daniel went off to look at Nattai River while I sat by the fire, and then when they came back we went over to Mark Brown at Indi Stud and saw some of the cobs, Daniel had a mare to pick up there then back to snare a couple of colts almost in the dark, I once more stayed inside!
Out to the pub for a quick meal and then home, some chat but another long day and early morning the next day.
We were up at a bit after 4 am and loaded ponies and off by 5. Home after thank heaven, an uneventful trip at about 3.30. another about 10 hour day with Sarah doing all the driving.
I am being a bit slow today but still feel so much better. I think this was the tonic I needed although I could have done without the length of the drive!

Pennants finished

Here are the remaining four pennants that I have to do for the swap. I still have to put details on the back but that can wait for a while.
I have felt a bit off today, the aches are not there so much but I have not felt terribly good. I assume that my body doesnt like the stopping of one lot of meds and the starting of another.
So what could I do? get onto the sewing machine and do some mindless sewing around these pennants.
I hope that the recipients dont think they are too awful as they have been done under a lot of difficulty.
I am having a bit of a panic about the long 3 days I am going to have next week and just hope I can manage it. I think the thinking about it is worse than the actual happening.
Looking forward to a better tomorrow.
Again thank you all for the kind thoughts and wishes you have sent my way, bloggers are wonderful!

Morning walk and some help

I feel so much better. John and I went in to the market and had a morning walk along the cliffs towards Kings Beach, one of our favorites and now they have improved the path it is easier to walk there. Stunning skies and views, the sea was quite flat but with a surbe to it and the sky was incredible. A lot of sand washed away from Petrels Cove and a lot of rocks.
We arrived home to a message from my GP to ring and go in to see him.
My problem is now solved and it is polymyalga rheumatica, which sounds horrid but he assures me it can be cured or at the very least kept under control. Cortisone tabs decreasing through 2 months he hopes will do it. I am off the very sleepmaking high intensity pain killer, which wasnt working any way, I feel better already! Just knowing it was treatable has made a huge difference.
Whoopee!!
Thank you to all who sent very kind messages.

One Pennant

Here is the first pennant finished. I have just got to do the backs of the others and sew them together.
I have done the beading on all of them and hope to have them done before the due date in August.
This one was the requested pink one with flowers, the rest are a bit different.
Tomorrow I have a blood test to see if that will tell me why I hurt so, some talk of polymyalga, if so I think that would be good as at least something can be done about it. I hope!!
The high pain intensity pills I am on just make me a bit dopey but thats nothing unusual!
Very cold here, not much else to report, I have done a bit of walking but the weekly shop this morning made me pretty tired.
I am taking a bit of time to enjoy my house and paintings while I sit near the fire.

Camellia and pin cushions

It is very damp here but I crept outside to take a photo of two fo my camellias that are in full flower at the moment. I love them as they give me some flowers at this time of the year.
We had a dollie get together on Sunday and one of the things was a kit to make these gorgeous cup cakes, I think they are meant to be pin cushions but I would love to make a few to pop on a cake stand they look so gorgeous.
I am still feeling pretty fragile and I was tired after sunday and then there was the physio yesterday and some washing and cleaning to be done.
I am doing my blog early today in case I fall in a heap later!
I am learning to do things slowly and not expect to get done things that normally I would get done quickly. Its frustrating but if I have to learn how to do things differently well so be it.
At least I can still see and hear and there are plenty of things to keep me amused.
I am not sure house cleaning is one though!
John took me over to see some of the grandchildren and our great grand son, I was begining to wonder if the small ones would remember who I was! Mason assured me that my name was Pen!
They are delightful.

Frost

I was up early this morning as we had to do some marketing it was about-3 degrees and a frost so I leapt out the front door to take photos, I am afraid the frost doesnt show up very well in the first one. the second photo is the garden just by the front door, no frost there as it is against the house. It is a very dry bed but the cactus and succulents seem to do well there.
We have had a very dry July so far, just very cold, probably what I would call a normal winter for us and it is a pleasure to have one after 10 years of odd winters, just hope this one ends with a lot of rain in spring.
It was lovely to go to the market and catch up with friends, some expected and one who is not from here but I know from the fibre forums.
I felt I had been shut up all week and seen nothing but John and my physio!! I am not going stir crazy just yet and friends have asked us for an impromtu dinner tonight which will be lovely. Just hope the body will cope.

Base for the Pennant swap

I am in a pennant swap and this is the start, I think of the base I am making.
Slowly slowly at the moment as my body doesnt want me to do too much for too long but at least this is a bebining. I have to make 6 and I think this will make 4 so I will see how these turn out before getting on to the last two.
I am using felt and silk tops embellished on and then at the moment a lot of cut up scraps and net over the top, now to sew, slowly!
I have good days and bad ones, at least last night I slept after my trip to the physio but I am a bit sore today, probably because I have finished my book I am standing and walking more.
We had a frost this morning so it has been very very cold, and the sun has mostly been sent away by clouds and that doesnt help keeping the house warm, or me for that matter.
Still at least I have something positive to get me motivated. I am a little late getting started on these, so I hope I get them done by the end of August, lots of hand sewing and embellishing to go on them before they are finished.
I am so envious of all those having warm summer weather.

Back home again

We came home to a mountain of mail but included was this wonderful package from The Thread Studio, I had been chosen from I dont know how many for their give away for being I think the 600 friend on facebook, sorry Dale if this is incorrect but it all happened while I was away.
A great haul of very useful stuff.
Next a few photos of still being in Queensland, a row of vegetables in the market, including purple carrots! I just loved the way everything was presented.
Then the happy crew at lunch under Mt Warning at Martha's Kitchen, a wonderful lunch on the verandah and lots of good food and wine. It was lovely to catch up with friends, some were all old skiing mates. John of course took the photo.
Then Mt Warning itself taken from the car park of the restaurant. Looming over the top of us. Once John and J actually climbed to the top, up the ladder but I stopped at the bottom of the ladder, too much for me as I have no head for heights.
A long flight home yesterday and then a cold drive into freezing temperatures, the fire lit and heaters on, I had forgotten how cold it can be.
We were in bed early but unfortunately we had been sleeping in a much bigger bed than our double and going back to the double I found it difficult to get comfortable with aching shoulders, could hardly get myself moving this morning, but after a massage by the physio I feel better, and now have most of the washing done, some bread baked, the animals fed and feel I can relax a little, Oh and all the clothes that didnt get washed are away, but I just know that there is a mountain of ironing to do.
So the next few days will be taken slowly as I get things back to normal. It was lovely being away but is wonderful to be home.

Torres Strait Islands celebration

These are a few photos of the exhibition at the Queensland Modern Art gallery, a fabulous collection of contemporary artists work from that area.
Baskets, textile, prints and carvings, it was an absolutely must see exhibition.
This is one of the things we saw yesterday in Brisbane.

Brisbane

We have just come home from spending 2 half days and a night in Brisbane.
We spent 2 hours yesterday and a good hour today riding the ferry down the Brisbane river, at about $2.20 each on a seniors card for each trip it was a wonderful way to see the city and also see a bit of the flood damage. In the city centre itself a lot looks better but on closer inspection there is still a lot of cleaning up to be done. If you double click on this collage you will bring it up better.
I always love the architectural details and especially the lovely huge old Queenslanders that are, mostly, lucky for them, high on the river bank.
Another thing I love are man hole covers and the Brisbane city council one I found was a beauty, I think these were done when Xpo was on.
Last night we went to see Dr Zhivago, the musical, I wasnt sure how it would go but the voices, especially Anthony Warhole were magic, the scenes on a small stage very impressive and all in all I loved it.
The fact that I had to climb a zillion stairs and then we were in the front row of what in my day was "the
gods" was a bit difficult as I dont like heights but we managed.
John took the night photo for me.
Jill had booked us into Rydges, which was so very convenient and we could walk every where, not that we ate there, well we wandered down for breakfast this morning and found some where and did the same at the Performing Art Centre's cafe for dinner last night, very nice food but prices not over the top. I am most impressed at how ell it has all been done.
This morning after going down the bit of the river we didnt do yesterday we had a few cultural hours at the Museum, the Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Modern Art, but they are for tomorrow.
We managed to pack in a lot, now I am off for an afternoon zizz!

Springbrook

Yesterday we went up to springbrook in the hinterland behind Surfers and walked to the best Look out, an easy 350 metres down and slightly harder back.
we havent been to this area for ages and then in summer when it is wet and steamy. Infact I think the last time I saw the venerable antarctic beeches was in fog!
Any way it was a lovely day and we had a delicious salad at a place called I think, the Manor house.
More food, and yet more tonight when friends came for dinner.
I suppose it is no wonder I am tired, fit a few shopping centers in and the odd coffee stop and you have it!


Wandering around the rain forest is wonderful, you feel as if you are in the wild, wild woods and at the end of the track is this incredible view across an old volcanic caldera.
There are huge ferns in the trees, on rocks, climbing up the trunks of trees, the canopy over head is magic and there are so many fantastic designs.
the Beeches are probably , dont quote me, but could be many hundreds of years old, only a few are left in remnant populations high on the ridges and far from their early beginnings.
I am not sure hoe I managed to do this but not only have I all the photos you can click on to enlarge but the collage as well!
Still learning how things work!
A magic day, now to see how far I can walk today, although I think it maybe the beach.

Busy being a tourist

We went up to Toowoomba for lunch, dinner and morning tea.
J has developed a bad cold and John and I just hope we dont get it.
I think just coming home from overseas and then too much socialising has caught up with her.
We stayed with a dear friend overnight in Toowoomba, we were warned it would be cold but to us it was very pleasant.
Lovely to sit and talk and have time for a smidgen of sewing and just generally catch up.
D is on one side of Toowoomba and not far from the Japanese gardens at the University so we had a lovely wander around there.
I didnt get all the birds that visited the bird feeder but these rainbow lorikeets just begged to have their photo taken.
I had to take the photo of these croton leaves for future reference, I have had very little time to sit and sketch.
We had morning tea with other old friends who have built a fabulous new house in Toowoomba,on the escarpment on the other side from D, they used to live on the coast and we all played tennis at their house in the old days, J moved on and is now near her family and this was the view and the lovely sun room area we sat in for morning tea. a truly beautiful house, too big for me but I didnt build it and it is beautifully decorated with all J's bits and pieces.
We called into one of the roadside markets on the way home for some fruit but couldnt find what we wanted but the photo was fun.
Finally, a walk along the beach here at the Gold Coast and some of the buildings you see as you walk. again so typical of this area. I am not sure if this one is crooked or not! Somehow I think it is the design.
Click twice to enlarge the photos.

No photos

Sorry about the no photos on this blog but I have run out of photo storage space and it takes 24 hours oe so until my payment is ok'd.