we were checking water in the dam, loved these clouds, looks very brown and dry and it is amazing how the rain just soaked in. OOps I hadnt realised my hand was in the 2nd photo, taking photos from the car, lazy woman. I am paying with an aching back for trying to plant a canna in very root bound soil. At least it was damp. I just hope I havent done something silly and it (the plant ) survives. Not sure about my back.
We had a wild and blustery night with some lovely rain, we had about 30mm over the last 2 days, wonderful for the garden and it has topped up the rain water tanks so having to wash in the dreaded dam water is now further off and with any luck we will get through with what we have, or get in the future. This morning we walked around at Pt Elliot, the surf life saving boat was out practicing but there were still large waves coming in near the steps, straight from the southern ocean. A lot warmer than yesterday. I have been searching for rabbit patterns to knit, but I think I may have to buy one as the free ones are not quite as nice. I need to keep my arthritic fingers moving as I am determined not to give in to them and knitting is a good way of using them.Wish me luck.
We are having a lovely rain, not too heavy but wonderful. With it it became cold so we have lit a fire. George isnt sure what to make of it. Probably silly but with all my metal bits I find I get cold really quickly and this old weatherboard house tends to leak air like a sieve, I have gone around and closed all the windows. to think a few days ago I was moaning about the heat. It will be back though, summer is not nearly over. With any luck the rain water tanks will at least get a top up. I have been drawing and sewing little things.
It was cooler, but still muggy, a few drops of rain but quite high winds. There has been much controvesy over Petrels Cove, a good little surfing beach but with bad rips on either side and people get caught in them. Last year there was some talk of closing it off, but how do you do that? There are signs warning people, this morning there were people swimming there and only last week 5 people were rescued after they fell in from the rocks on the side. If they close it how to manage that? People will go there any way. People must occasionally look out for themselves.
Any way we had a lovely walk and went down to the beach at Depps and there was a pretty desiccated seal body there which I took some photos of and a lovely length of sea weed. On the way back to the car the Bluff looked like a dragons tail going into the water. Some interesting clouds too. A nice walk but I am still stuffed up, I am sure a decent fall of rain would help clear the air.
I played with this little stitchery the other day, fun to do with some of the new thread that I was sent by Dale. This morning I dont know if it was smoke from the Tasmanian bushfires or what but a very distinct smell of smoke and a haze over the Bluff and the town as we walked this morning. Close up the sea was very clear. I seem to have an allergy to something, smoke or dust or what ever but my nose feels as if it is on fire and I have a horrid head ache. On top of that my mare has run a piece of wire in to her heal and hoof and my local vet who doesnt want to do horses has no tetanus so we have had to chase around to get some. Perhaps tomorrow will be better.
A tiny tiny knitted rabbit in a dress and a spirit doll. Something to keep the hands and mind busy. John has gone fishing this morning, so all our plans for today, the Australia Day holiday went out the window. Instead I have washed and cleaned and although its reasonably cool it is muggy so I am a little hot and bothered. i think I will go and read a book. Oh and I made a batch of biscuits too. feeling a little bit virtuous.
I hadnt forgotten my anniversary but some how didnt get around to posting. I began this blog on the 21st of January 2006. Unbelievable and looking back through some of those early blog posts I wish that I could do now what I did then. Ten years can make a big difference. Then I had the orange cat Oscar, now I have the black and white George. He has taken to sleeping in the dolls house in the sun room. I had to remove all the furniture from the dolls house as he kept throwing it on the floor. I thought he was going to be a sweet gentle cat, but like Oscar he is becoming rather a fiersome one. Loves to sit holding your hand and biting it. I still feel rather unwell, aches and pains and a stuffed up nose. so I have a good book to read and I will go and sit quietly and read it. I have done all the household chores and had a walk so an hours reading will be nice.
double click to enlarge.
I made this collage up after we had walked over at the Middleton cliffs this morning. cool, overcast and I suppose we came here years ago but as we were divers, not surfers this wasnt an area we went to often. A lovely walk and the cliffs were very interesting. Lots of dog walkers and the tide was quite low. Then we went on to Goolwa to see a lovely exhibition at Signal Point, it included the Jam Factory 40 years exhibition. Over to the market where I bought some petunias as finally most of my pansies have succumbed to the hot weather. We actually got nearly 6 mm in a thunderstorm and it has been relatively cool and muggy. Yesterday morning we went to the local farmers market, then a walk on the beach and finally a quick trip around the artistic market that was on in Railway Terrace, quite interesting and I found a clever girl called Zinia King who is an illustrator and designer, she plays with pen and colour using birds and animals, better than mine but relatively similar. I bought some postcards from her. Something a little different. If you go over to my other blog (on my side bar) you will see I have been doing a bit of playing and art journaling. On the whole an interesting few days but now I am either having an attack on my sinus or I am getting a cold. Damn.
Hope everyone in Australia has a great Australia Day on Tuesday, my flag is hung. in the branches of a bottle brush tree, sadly I dont have a flag pole but at least the tree is native to here.
I hate taking photos with my phone, it is so slow. this morning we went in to walk the cliffs at Petrels after we had done the shopping and on the way home there was this young edge tail eagle on the road trying to eat a dead rabbit. No Camera!! I could have taken some wonderful shots and this is all I got, I think if you click twice it will enlarge. They are huge and it takes time for them to get off the ground, he looked hilarious with his feathery legs looking like baggy trousers running up the road, NO CAMERA and when he took off he perched for a while and then took off with a huge wing span. NO CAMERA. I have never felt so frustrated.
the sea photo I took yesterday morning, this morning it was hotter and muggy and horrid, having been promised a cooler day down here. On that premise we decided to go early to see the big Rotary art show, usually we go on the opening night but it has been so hot and inside a huge marquee when it is hot is not comfortable. It wasnt terribly comfortable this morning either but we managed it, as usual a mix of good and bad paintings but some I really loved. On the way back to the car we were stopped by the cockle train steam engine on its way back to the turntable, we didnt go there but it was lovely to get a couple of really close shots of the engine, steam blowing, engines grumbling, no wonder the early inhabitants thought they were living creatures Then to turn around and take a photo of the original station masters houses garden. After pretty sleepless night it was a boost to do that this morning. It is that time of the year when on a year like this things start to break down, water has problems, there is little money and the whole thing is a worry.
It is heating up again. I finished off this fabric bead necklace a few days ago, they are fun to do. We walked early this morning as today and the next few days will be quite hot. I m sick of the heat and no rain. Yesterday I went up to see our Welsh youngstock show in the hills, always difficult as we are in the midst of the cycling Tour down Under and although there were no official races where I was there seemed to be some unofficial ones. Windy hills roads and cyclists are not a good mix. We did reasonably well, the show has two rings and two judges, one judge gave us a fair go and we came home with two reserve champions and a champion. I dont think the other judge liked us at all. The way it goes sometimes. It was really quite hot and I dont really like the grounds either, dirty and dusty where you park. Not sure we will bother next year. It is an effort to get ponies ready at that time of the year and expensive.
I shouldnt be moaning but honestly I really dont like the heat.
Would just love a week of rain and dont care if it is humid and hot with it. We are going to start worrying about lack of rainwater in the tanks soon. That means transferring to spring water to wash with etc, everything but to drink, and that means a red residue from the iron in the water. Not good for washing whites.
The tide was rushing out in places this morning. Cool and windy. I am feeling a little depressed as money is so tight at the moment and I have just cancelled my class and booking for accommodation at Halls Gap for the Grampians Textile in March. I just dont think I can justify going as P has decided she doesnt think she can come. better to make a quick decision I think.
We went walking this morning and were caught in a thunderstorm, thunder over head and it poured, not for terribly long but enough for us to get soaked through. When we got home we had had a whole 1 mm of rain. it has been humid but not as hot as it could have been as mostly we had cloud cover. I did the washing and have played around with a few things, none of which are terribly productive. The washing machine is having a few problems so it seemed to take far longer than I expected. My poor daughter has just had to have her dog put down, a very nasty accident, it is always the good ones that go, she is very upset. So am I as she was such a nice little dog border collies seem to have a propensity for accidents.
I finished this tiny little elephant yesterday, she is so cute but I think I may enlarge the pattern size a bit more as she was quite fiddly to do. Sorry, I found the pattern on the net but dont know whose it is, if any one knows please let me know. It wasnt too hot early this morning and as John had gone fishing I felt I needed to walk a bit so wandered down the track, taking this photo of the newish bed I had made and then down to see my lovely foal gout of my beautiful Section B Welsh mare, Imperial Magdalene, the filly is by the stallion we lost last year, the only mare we put to him but she is developing into a lovely filly. destined for a saddle career I think.
It has now got quite hot and the sun is out, it was overcast all morning so I have had to put on the airconditioner, John rang to say that they had some fish which is good. We were so lucky last night as our grand daughters partner has craypots and last night we were invited for a bbq with a lovely fresh crayfish as part of the meal.
If you look at my other blog, on the side bar you will also see what I have been doing. Have to keep busy in this heat, I can only do so much sitting down and reading.
A beautiful morning, not too hot although it has heated up through the day. We walked the cliffs, very low tide. I had been to the market and shopped earlier, came home with some beans and radishes and apricots which I stewed. I also made a potato salad for tonight, off to a bbq at our youngest daughters house. John has spent most of the day trying to work out where we have a problem with water, always happens when it hasnt rained for ages and it is hot, luckily he found a leak in a pipe but has taken him a lot of the day to fix it. I finished a tiny tiny elephant and painted some backgrounds, photos tomorrow I hope. Thankfully we can now use the airconditioner.
It has been rather cooler with a south easter blowing and so we have been back to our normal beach walks, not so many dogs and children either. We have tended to go in early as well. the beach and the sky changes every day. a lot of kelp has been washed ashore this morning and there were two young Pacific Gulls wanting us to pass quickly as they had a dead part of an octopus they were hoping to eat.
I have been a little lax with posting to this blog, I seem to be rather drained by the hot weather and then this cooler weather coming in. Also some discussion about why blog, to me it is far more satisfying than face book, once up hard to find again and I dont follow the other things like twitter (stupid) or instagramme ( takes up too much of my time) i prefer this little insights into peoples lives that blogger can give. Also the older I get, the more I find that friendship important.
I really need to get into trying to move some of the dust in this house before the next burst of hot weather (due over the week end ) arrives.
Hope all my friends are safe, floods, droughts and fires seem to be the go at the moment.
Well a new part, this was on the Goolwa beach towards Middleton, it is where John and the fellows had been the other day to get cockles. today was cool and windy and overcast, we did have some rain this morning but that had blown away. There were people cockling and walking but the tide was low and plenty of room for all. Coming back through the track through the sand hills was a bit of a challenge but it was lovely all the same. I have been finding the beaches we usually walk very crowded at the moment so this was bliss.
We had a whole 0.04 mm or rain over night, not enough to get excited about but has stopped the dust a bit. Just as well I did the chores before we went off as now all I want to do is sleep. If you look on my other blog, on the side bar, I am starting a new challenge which should be fun, not too onerous but enough to keep me thinking I think.
I really didn't know what I wanted to use as my daily diary cover, finally in the afternoon I thought I would use my lino cut stamps using acrylic paint on a piece of calico. So I set too and made the fabric, the first photo. Today I cut it to size and made it up. The third photo is the 2015 diary, bulging rather at the seams and then both of them together. I tend to collect news cuttings and other odds and ends to put in my diaries. Something I have done for a lot of years.
Today was quite pleasant, bit windy but cool, thank goodness.
