Damp morning

 John has gone fishing and yesterday when we walked on the beach I saw a dead gannet, so this morning with a plastic bag and gloves I went in to collect it.
Why? I just love gannet skulls so it is now out with I hope lots of 'things' eating away at it.
It had begun to drizzl, in fact the road around Victor was quite wet and yet we were dry at home, bummer, we need more rain.
I went around to the car park for the Kings Beach walk and in the drizzle walked down to the cliff edge and took some photos.
There is aslo a new sign up on the heritage trail.
If you double click on the collage it should enlarge.
Lovely big rollers coming in and breaking on the rocks
The cottage on the hill looked lovely and wintery, I often wish I lived there.
It was nice to get out of the house even for a little while, sometimes I feel a bit lonely when John isnt home, silly I know but there it is.
I am now home making soup, adding to last nights casserole for tonight and I need to make bread and bake some biscuits.
I will see about the biscuits.
I may find a movie to watch on tv and quietly do some more of my knitting.

New ear rings and around the garden

I bught some silver wire when I was at Ballarat and decided to see if I could make some ear rings with beads on them. I beat the wire flat and managed to not hit the beads! I am quite pleased with them.
I walked around the garden with Max this morning, in between showers of rain, slowly the amount is building which is lovel.
I let the chooks out and here are the rooster and hen I bought last year, they are so pretty.
The pomegranite has a flew fruit on it, I love the shiny red of the outside. This is not a terribly good eating variety, I think it was a seedling but I have some of its seedlings around the place and the leaves go a lovely butter yellow later in autumn.
The buerre bosche pear goes the most lovely autumn colours, I love the fruit but it is worth growing if only for its autumn foliage.
There is a bit to look at but after such a dry summer a lot of the leaves have fallen without colouring and the birds took most of the fruit.
Off to feed my hungry dogs and put the chooks away, then think about dinner for us, I think chicken baked with a leek and cheese sauce would be nice.
Oh and there is a reason for my aches, the dreaded polymyalga is back, and I cant have cortisone until after I have the knee op, so we are trying a bit of mind over matter and some stronger pain meds.
Wish me luck.

Wet and cold with a rainbow

 John took the photos of the rainbow on his phome yesterday, He was quite excited about it.
I have been struggling with a terrible back, I think brought on by my knee exercises, you cant win!
Still things have been done, washing and ironing so I feel a bit virtuous today.
Yesterday I was slothful and read a book.
We did very well with the ponies yesterday, well Sarah and her girls did, it was the riding pony foal show with classes for other breeds, we of course were in the Welsh and my little Rivington Sundress, Imperial Aden's first foal from R Sunsilk was Grand Champion welsh, she is under contract so to speak and her potential new owner was there to see it all and was very excited.
I didnt go as it is a 2 hour trip across the city in the truck and then back again, not good for aches and pains.
My knitted lacy shawl is progressing but goodness knows when it will ever be finished, nice to be able to pick it up when I have a few moments.
It is lovely to hear the rain on the roof and water gurgling down the downpipes, we didnt quite make 10ml up to this morning but with any luck it will creep up to about 15ml by the time it has all passed.
Our non wetting soil is a beast and John tells me that last night the flat where Aden is at the moment was a sheet of water as it hadnt soaked in.
Off to organise dinner, corned beef with mashed potaotes and brussels sprouts and mustard sauce. Yum.

suddenly it is autumn

This lovely collection came in the mail the other way from Eithina in Ireland. I won her blog give away.
Isnt it gorgeous.
Now normally I would give a link to her blog but we have used up all our time so are on very slow and it is also raining (yay!!) so the wireless is not co operating either, and I am surprised I even have some photos up.
School holidays doesnt help the traffic either in this country area.
So yes autumn colours and leaves are falling and some unexpected moisture which we need desperately.
I hope you all have a lovely day, I am off to sit with the cat by the fire and see if I can knit a lacy shawl.
I am not sure about this but want to have a go.

Home from a week in Ballarat

My friend Wendy and I left for Ballarat last saturday week to do some classes with Fiber Arts Australia, a great 5 days of interacting with friends, making new friends and generally having fun with like minded women.
My class was with a young lass called Jade Pegler who makes the most wonderful 'things' out of paper.
We folded paper but we also made a lot of paper mache which I really didnt ever play with as a child and boy I wish I had.
My small selection of 'things' is in the bottom photo.
I have trouble getting an idea of what I want to do, no imagination! But once I started ideas began to flow.
Basically Jade gave us a list of how to and we went off and covered rocks and made hollow tubes etc and then began to put it all together.
Something I hope to go back to soon.
I got terribly tired as the class rooms etc were a long way from my room and I did a lot of walking which my knee didnt take terribly kindly too.
Of course sleeping in a strange bed doesnt help either, so I sat and did some sewing at night with my knee (leg) up and also a little bit of painting.
Autumn is more advanced over there and I picked a tiny bunch of cotoneaster berries and leaves and that is the first photo.
I was awake very early one morning, daylight saving happened to end while we were there, and this tree was in the car park and the early morning light yellowed one side of it. I dont thini I got that yellowing terribly well but, well that was my tree.
It is a good 8 hour drive over and we came back on Friday, leaving early but stopping at the odd op shop and having a coffee and a lovely lunch at the bakery in Keith and were back at Wendy's by about 3 and I was home a bit before 4.
Such a great class and such great people, it is lovely to make new friends and catch up with old ones.
Then of course there was the unpacking, the washing, cleaning the house (not yet finished!) shopping for food and not sleeping agian because I was excited to be home!
so the things I was going to do today have sort of got done, but I fell asleep in my chair a little while ago and woke up cold.
The weather is changing, the vine is going red, but so far not much rain, about a mm if we were lucky this morning.
It is so dry and dusty, I would love the rain to start.
Double click on my beasts to see them better.
The two little boats were because I had a stone I had covered with paper and then didnt know what to do with them!
I know they probably dont make sense to you, but I love all of them.

Jade Peglers class, Ballarat.

 Double click to see the photos better.
top left are Carolyn and Estelle, next Hilary and Jade working something out. Jade is over in the right hand top corner.
My stuff is on the bottom left and above that is Hilary's stuff, center top is mostly Margaret's boats and below that Cas and some of Gayes, and next to that is Janines's work with some great dolls.
I didnt really get every ones stuff in as it was difficult with people coming and going but it does give an idea of what we did.
There was a lot of stuff and we took up a large table.
Some managed to get a lot more done than others and Carolyn had to leave before the exhibition.
I have been working hard trying to do washing and clean up the house a bit as well as put stuff away, all good but I am still feeling a bit weary.
Autumn is coming but still no more than a few drops of rain this morning, the house is so dusty and it is tinder dry outside, a long gentle soak would be great, and would top up our rainwater tanks that are getting rather low.
I think I might have a nanny nap!!

Home from Ballarat and Fibre Arts week

 tomorrow I will put up what we made, but for today, when I am so tired after all that work and then 8 hours driving, I will just do this collage of the things we saw on the way over, fog on the River Murray, while we were there, book arts, aboriginal symbolism and the college itself, the roof and part of the buildings and finally on the way home, still dry, a steer outside a butchers shop and the windmills by the river at Wellington.
A fabulous few days, great class mates and a teacher who was both fun and great at telling us how to do things and then letting us go our own way.
I didnt sleep much, I walked miles and my knee hurt and the long drives dont help but it was a joy to be there and doing such fun things.
Back to the load of washing, and my aching joints, but it has been great and a reason why I go every year.
Looking forward to next year.

Quietly sewing

 The start of a book.
These are sample pieces, left over from various classes and ideas.
Rusted fabric.
I dont want to back these pages with anything so have tried to make the sewing on the other side look a little bit interesting.
I am having fun working out what to do.
Dorothy Caldwell class, taking colour from black with bleach.
again the back of that page.
Cas Holmes class, layering with paper, fabric and a leaf, free motion sewing.
So I am quietly going, finding things to use has been such fun.
We had a lovely walk yesterday morning but the rest of the day was a bit of a flop as I try to get stuff together for next week and my knee aches.
I am finding I cant walk too much or I am a mess for the rest of the day.
Trying to be positive!!
Will has been in and out and no trouble at all, Mason came for a short visit yesterday too as his mother is working and Sarah is looking after him. Apparently he spent a large part of the afternoon 'fishing' in the paddle pool with the dogs watching (when they were not pinching his fish!) he caught tuna and whiting and salmon and snapper and some oysters and three crayfish in a net - all imagined although the tuna were pieces of bark.
Kept him amused for ages.
So sad they have to grow up.

New ear rings

 A bit of time on my hands today, John is off fishing and Will is out helping son in law so after packing stuff for Ballarat and doing a few odds and ends (like ironing!!) I felt I needed to get back to doing a bit of the stuff I like.
Playing with metal,
They didnt take long, a bit of copper, hit with the hammer to flatten, the longest was finding some ear wires!
I am now wearing them.
Fun.