Another week in stitch

A bit of a mixed week this time. We did quite a bit of walking, I had rather a miserable week, I know why but I am keeping it to myself at the moment. Oscar had to go to the vet to have his immunisation and the poor old car broke down! I made a delicious chicken and leek pie, then a couple of not much happening days. We walked but I felt so tired I did a lot of sitting and sewing, trying to make some stuff to take to the Melbourne retreat next month and dont have a lot of time between Queensland and Melbourne to do it in. Off to see my specialist for my 12 month review of my knee.

Walking Pt Elliot

It was relatively mild this morning, although there was quite a strong northerly blowing. We went over to Pt Elliot to walk, down the steps and along the path, the wind was blowing the waves back on themselves, quite big southern ocean rollers coming in. It is always a little different. The aloes are well and truly out and look magnificent during our grey winter weather, always lift my heart. I am slowly getting things done, very slowly it seems to me but it is nice to nearly finish something. Trying to be positive!!

Glorious morning

For all my moaning yesterday, and for some reason my hip ached (not another thing!!) We had a shortish walk along the cliff tops at Petrels and were passed by fast dog walkers but my excuse is I was taking photos. I know I take this walk often and put up photos probably just as often but it is always a bit different, today the sea was incredibly clear and you could see the bottom with the waves breaking. I am wearing a skirt at the moment, not something I do often but this was a really nice Carla Zampatti, lined wool one I found in the op shop, I cut some off the top and turned it over and now it is very comfortable to wear when my back aches, and I really dont care what I look like in it, it pleases me. I think I am getting more and more like my grandmother the older I get. I seem to remember her wearing such outfits, long line tops to hide my cortisone tummy too, not that she was ever on cortisone. I have fiddled today, making tags out of manilla folders as I couldnt buy any ready made ones, stamping them and then placing fabric flowers on them to take to give away at the Melbourne retreat. I have run out of pin backs and forgot to get more this this morning, a peaceful thing to do on a lovely sunny afternoon in the sun room.Off to cook cabbage, I quite like it if its almost stir fried, I bought pies for dinner tonight and a naughty raspberry tart for desert. I am not sure I walked enough today but there is always tomorrow.

Miserable week

I dont like to post that I have had a miserable week, but I have, the body doesnt like me and I am aching badly. Hope for a better one next week and that Queensland will be fun. I am trying to get things organised to go and set things up for the house sitter, a big job! The clouds this morning as I drove home from shopping were quite spectacular. we did actually manage a couple of walks this week one to Pt Elliot where the track to the beach looked lovely with the wattles starting to come out. Our walk along the beach at Encounter Bay produced this lovely big, live rough turban, he got thrown back into the water and I hope he survives. I have seen smaller ones of this shell often but not the really big ones on the beach, we used to see them in our diving days. The sun room is the place to find a few flowers at the moment and is lovely when the sun comes out, which hasnt been often lately. I have been playing with some tags, stamps and die cuts, I thought I had done the wrong thing buying these memory craft dies at the craft show as I couldnt get them to work on my cuttlebug but a bit of research on what combination of plates to use has meant that I think my going out to buy a sizzix in a fury may have been the wrong thing to do! Ah well it may have some advantages I dont know about. Off to sew some pin backs on my flowers as I have just discovered that it is expected that participants at the art retreat in Melbourne in August are expected to take something to exchange, not sure how many I will have or if they they will be the sort of thing but it is what I have a few of at the moment. Oh and I forgot about Oscar, he is spending a lot of this miserable weather curled up on the chair by the fire.

Stitched week

A busy week, infact I had to do about 4 days yesterday as I hadnt caught up with all my trips to Adelaide and back. I had my sister down so a trip up and back to Adelaide on Monday. Tuesday we went to look at a pretty distant whale and on Wednesday went over to our old stamping ground as children to Yankalilla and Normanville, very windy day and not the best for driving. Thursday it was back up to Adelaide to get R home to collect her dog and I spent the night with P which is always fun to do. Friday I went to the craft show and bought lots of stuff and then after 2 hours walking there drove home, tired. Saturday I shopped and then we went over to see my nephew and niece and partners and children, lovely to see them all but the whole thing got rather tiring in the end, after such a week, although we walked in the morning on Sunday and I picked up some new shells from the beach I then sat and stitched all afternoon and vaguely watched football. I think I am still getting over the week. Still grey and dull and not a lot of sun,. and although we walked this morning suddenly I think nothing is getting done (apart from lots of washing) and we go away in 10 days.

Three little girls in blue

Where have I been? I have been busy, my sister came to stay, that meant trips to Adelaide and home to organise her, then we did some car trips around as she isnt walking very far, making meals etc etc. Back to Adelaide on Thursday afternoon and spent the night with P who fed me well, then down to the Stitch and Craft fair in at Wayville, caught up with lots of people, bought stuff, a lot from The thread Studio, which was great, and fun. I walked for at least 3 hours, the trouble with these places is that I cant think until I get home what I want. At least with the thread studio I had made a list off the catalogue, but I also bought some dyes to use with the cuttlebug and some material, lovely bits to use on the dolls and some wool felt, wish now I had bought more. Home again feeling terribly tired and this morning in to shop and then after lunch a quick trip to see my niece and nephew and their children and partners and give them some letters I had found while cleaning out that their mother had sent me before she was married and had gone over seas. so yes busy but not feeling I am doing very much that is productive. Off to put some corned beef on so we have meat later for sandwiches, and perhaps some cauliflour in a cheese sauce would be nice to go with it all.

Weekly stitch

A week of cold, sometimes wet, blowing winds, sitting by the fire, seeing a whale, shopping and finally for half a day the sun came out.Poor old Tuppy the pug had to be put down, the house we wondered about at the bay and the lovely orchid John bought for me. I did a lot of hand sewing and reading as well. today I have been up to Adelaide to collect my older sister and bring her home. Once upon a time I didnt mind these round trips to Adelaide but these days it makes my shoulder hurt and then I get tired. Thank goodness I had made a big pot of soup so we had that for lunch with some fresh brown bread.

One small doll finished, walking on the other side of the Peninsular

I have finished one of the little dolls, they were supposed to be angels but this one told me she didnt want to be an angel at all, so here she is, finished, two more to make. We went over to the Gulf side of the Peninsular this morning, to deliver some more books and walk on the beach, which was a bit abortive as the creek was running fast and wide, too wide to get across easily so we did a short circuit and saw this rather wonderful piece of wood buried in the sand, took a photo of what remains of the jetty, the tide was very low as you can see, when I was a child this jetty went a long way out but bad storms over the years have reduced it to this. These days I think in summer it is used mostly to sit under to get some shade. It is always nice to go over there, as a child I spent so much of my childhood holidays in this area. Came home to be told our booking over Christmas on Kangaroo Island has been double booked, the fact that we made the booking as we left last year and we have had it for about 10 years makes no difference to agents. I feel quite upset as we are always over there for Christmas, I dont feel like trying another house as I know what I need for this one and it suits us, I suppose we will have to look at going earlier and having Christmas and birthdays at home, somehow it wont be the same. There are enough upsets in my life at the moment without this. Sorry, rant over.

A bit of loveliness

John brought home this beautiful orchid for me after his meeting on Thursday, I have always wanted a moth orchid and this is just beautiful, wether I can keep it alive is another thing of course. We walked this morning over at Pt Elliot, it was rougher with the wind coming in from the south east and although there had been reports of two whales with new born calves they were not to be seen, I imagine that they had moved off shore a bit with the huge waves coming in. It was a lovely walk though and I came home ready to tackle a bit more house cleaning, why is it that when some one is coming to stay one feels one should really do a deep clean? Of course now my shoulder doesnt like me and it is cold and damp and not very nice outside, although they are threatening frosts the clouds will need to clear before that happens. I think I have worked out the food for the next few days, it is my sister who is coming to stay and she hasnt been down for quite a few years. I am looking forward to it. I have been enjoying the odd moment reading by the fire, all this getting rid of books means that old favorites have been re discovered, a bit of regency romance with Georgette Heyer, bought in 1956 I see, when I was just a young and impressionable teenager wanting to be swept off my feet! Such fun and the excuse is my aching shoulder.

Little doll bodies and a whale?

Yesterday was an absolutely foul day, the temperature didnt get over 8 d all day and there were rain and wind squalls making for a day not to go out in. So I made up some doll bodies and began tidying the house as my sister is coming next week, still going through books and things,I cant believe how many are still to be gone through. On Tuesday we walked over at Pt Elliot as there had been whale sightings, we did see one but it was a long way off and looked huge, mostly if you were lucky you could see it blowing. It was a nice early morning to be out, the wind came up later in the day and the whole thing began to deteriorate quite badly with warnings of high winds and lots of rain. Yesterday there were reports of snow in the Flinders Ranges to the north, surprisingly they get more there than we do on our closer high ranges. Not the weather for doing anything outside although our dear old last remaining pug Tuppy had deteriorated so bdcly we had to put him down, it was only a matter of time, he was nearly 16 which is a good age for a pug and I miss him barking at me to be fed at 3.30, at least half an hour earlier than I do feed them. So we are down to Max and the aging Oscar. Off to make a nice warming casserole for dinner.

A week in stitch, more flowers and a walk

Here is my week in stitch, the weather on the whole has been pretty rough but we did manage walks most days, I get a bit bored with my stick figures so they dont always make it to the stitch process, Oscar is sitting there with a cheeky mouse beside him, not that we have mice in the house but we do have them outside. The tree branch that blocked the road for us, I have been sewing, flowers and doll bodies and we walked along the top of the cliffs near Parsons Beach and there were a lot of small birds around after what flowers there were on the stunted little gum trees. As you can see the flowers are getting smaller, any scrap is used, I have a few ideas apart from brooches for these. As we walked this morning, we had walked on the beach but to get back to the car we walked along the path as it was easier on my knee and Johns hip. we discussed how old this house on the sea front might be, it is now surrounded by other 2 story houses but I remember it as the only one and we thought perhaps it was pre war, most of the little fibro beach shacks have been torn down and fancy 2 story duplexes are going up in their place. I just liked the view across to the causeway with the yacht near by. One day I might paint this if I ever have time. Off to finish dusting.

Parsons and Waitpinga Beaches

Something a little different this morning, we decided to go out to the look out above Parsons Beach, it is rather rough and rocky and I didnt think I should walk down to the beach but there were people fishing off the beach, John had the binoculars out to see if they were catching anything, they were. Then we went along the top of the cliff using a part of the Heysen trail to see the other side of the bluff and look back over Waitpinga beach, more people fishing and a lone surfer. We were quite high up so the waves looked very different to a few days ago when we were on one of the closer beaches. These are good surfing and surf fishing beaches, but they have their dangers as well, sharks and big seas and rips, not suitable for ordinary swimming. All surrounded by a small national park. I love these beaches and they are only about 20 minutes from home. I am making small cloth dolls at the moment, after a damp night it is almost too warm to sit in the sun room, crazy weather. Off to feed the hens and the dogs and Oscar, who has been complaining about no fresh fish, I am too, I hope the fishing team are all well enough to come together soon.

Big seas

Our walk this morning was once more over to Pt Elliot, we had been to the market and as it was still pretty early we had a quiet walk along the path watching huge seas come in and break on the granite rocks, the aloes were a little more out than last week too. Although I am aching it was a thoroughly enjoyable walk. Click twice on the photos to enlarge them.

A abit of this and a bit of that.

I seem to be full of aches at the moment and not sleeping well so I am trying to take my mind off it all. Those flowers are really addictive, as well as these I now have some smaller black and white ones and another heap cut out to sew up. Something to do when the weather is not conducive to being outside. We did go for a walk along the beach in between the shopping and showers and these two sooty oyster catchers were patrolling the beach What I hadnt noticed until I double clicked the photo is that there were two hooded plovers on the left of them as well, not very clear, but we had seen four that morning. I thought it would be nice to go home the back way, until we found this big branch off a tree down, we were not far from home and it was silly to think of going back so I held up part of the branch, just enough for the red ute to get through and before I had to let it go, it was all pretty heavy, too heavy to drag off the road and we dont really carry an axe with us any more, people might think we were axe murderers! So the tree branch and a view of rain coming up the valley towards us, it was quite wet by the time we got home.

A different day, and a big excitement.

Gina Ferrari on her blog was making flowers a bit like these with her young embroiderers group, I as usual thought they looked like fun so sat and sewed up some petals and had a go, I wasnt very impressed with only one row but they look better with two rows of petals. useful thing to be able to do to add to a card or use as a pin on a bag or some where else. I also started to glue my gelli plate fun onto a few cards so i have some on hand. When we walked yesterday, on the cliffs near Petrels Cove it was amazing the difference a few days make, for one thing the sun was out but also the waves were coming in great rollers to the delight of some surfers but it was the amount of sand that has been moved around that was so interesting, these rock shelves last time we were here were all covered in sand, now it has all gone, no doubt to come back again at a later stage but the amount of sand that has been moved around in the last 10 days or so is huge. The big excitement, I have been published in Dale Rollersons e mag, Threads in fusion, such an honor, I am still pinching myself. Sorry about no links but our internet is not behaving itself.