After our great climb of two weeks ago, a group of us decided that we would climb Mt Cooke. So yesterday we climbed Mt Cooke(d). In 2003 a fire resulting from a lightning strike, blazed through a large area that included Mt Cooke. Five years later some of the area is still struggling to revegetate. Some areas they say will never recover. Rocks like this one, are looking normal. This is because their mass is so big, they were not heated and retained their lichen and moss growths. Smaller rocks were heated to the point where all plant life was burnt off and even today remain clean of any plant life.

Looking up the south side and to the rock in the centre, which forms the cave that provided much excitement and interest to us, especially the younger members of our party.

These walkways have been constructed to protect the fragile faces of the rock.

Looking south from the south side of Mt Cooke.

Writing all our names in the book that was under the rock. The book was found placed in a crevice in the cave and as it was started in 2001, would suggest that the book survived the fire.

Coming out of the cave.

The oldest youngest Sweetie with the Farmer.
The Waugal viewed through the 'leaves' of a grass tree.
These are some of the rocks that were affected by the fire's heat and remain clean of any growth.


Looking North at Mt Vincent and Mt Cuthbert, the two 'mountains' that we climbed a fortnight ago.

Looking north to the north side of Mt Cooke.

Travelling along the track towards the new Mt Cooke hut. The old hut was completely destroyed by the blaze, and a new one has been built to provided shelter for Bibbulmun Track walkers.

This is another part of the Bibbilmun Track that is accessible from the Albany Hwy, just south of Sullivan's Rock. The scenery is superb and this walk was far easier than our walk of a fortnight ago. We rested often and just looked at the view, and then climbed further up the slope. It wasn't hard just high in parts. These photo's were snapped by the Librarian, the youngest Sweeties and myself. Just such a lovely day, with great company.

It's a very special day - Blogless Kathy's birthday.

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear Kathy,

Happy Birthday to you.

Before I forget, at Deb's 200th Post Giveaway there is fabric and a lovely book to be won.

Our walk on Saturday was just grand. The weather lovely and the company just perfect. The Librarian, the middle Sweetie and I walked, talked, sat, looked and ate our way along the track and enjoyed every minute of it.

We travelled North by car up the Albany Hwy to the carpark near Sullivan's Rock. Rearranged our clothing to achieve the right combo and then set off across the Highway and then onto Sullivan's Rock. Across the rock we went and just gorgeous with the moss and the lichens and the size of the rock. The magic of these 'rocks' is special. Onwards and upwards we went and joined the Bibbulmun Track for our journey up Mt Vincent and then finally the jewel of the day, Mt Cuthbert

Ascending Mt Vincent.

Descending Mt Vincent. Easy going down, hard staggering up as the last climb of our day.

First glimpse of Mt Cuthbert, thanks to the Librarian

Sundew, droscera sp. An insectivorous plant, resplendent in the sun, especially in the morning when covered with dew.

Hexagons can be sewn anywhere. How much joy can a person have? It was heaven.

The Librarian was off and taking photos; the Sweetie was off exploring and I just breathed and looked. Totally wonderful and awesome and we just have to go again and look at that view.

Lovely shot taken by the Librarian by laying down full length on the granite rock.

As always these veins of quartz in the granite always fascinating.

Mt Cuthbert, Mt Vincent, Mt Cook and Sullivan's Rock are monadknocks.

Drum Roll!

And the winner is Chooky Blue

Thankyou to everyone who entered, I really appreciated being able to do this.

I am gathering the goodies for the reverse present (click on the link to get back to the page to leave a comment to win the reverse present) for my 2nd anniversary of blogging. I have included a few of my favourite things. One of which I had to sample just to check that they hadn't melted, become infested with chocolate weevil(insidious pest here, well that's my excuse); and were at the right temperature. They were fine after I had checked the second one ;-))))))

I had a huge day on Thursday - worked in the morning, got up really early and hit the decks before any sane person would have contemplated even opening their eyes; came home and cleaned a bit; and then at night I WENT SEWING AND THERE WERE OTHER PEOPLE IN THE ROOM AS WELL. Why was I shouting, well it is like this, I haven't been able to do that for four months and it was so good. I used my new/old Featherweight for the first time and complained that it didn't go fast enough. However after a while I realised that maybe going that slow was part of the 'slow sewing movement' that I take part in when I English piece the hexagons and piece the double wedding rings. It was quite nice to sew moderately and not like the Meatloaf impersonation that happens when I sew on my Pfaff. (Bat out of Hell). So it was a great night and I started to sew the 365 (insanity) Challenge together.

Yesterday was also a huge day, when we climbed part of the Bibbulmum Track being Mt Vincent and Mt Cuthbert. So here are just a few of the pictures that The Librarian, the middle Sweetie and I 'snapped' on our walk.

I think that it is a bit of a falsity when they are called 'Mt' as they are really like big hills. It was so beautiful and I will have to dedicate another post to do real justice to the day that we had.

I have been waiting to post these pictures so the owner could see them first. Now that she has, and very kindly allowed me to show the pictures of her quilt, here they are.

As you can see, an Irish Chain in 1930's fabric. Biggish. I free handed the feather cross things and outlined and swirled to fill in the gaps in the blank spaces.








I line danced through the pieced squares to stabilise them and add some movement instead of crosshatching, which requires a steady hand for both the piecer and the quilter for it to work.




Initially I wanted to fill the borders with feathers, however I am really enjoying adding interest with lines and curves and in doing so adding another dimension.

With the swag like treatment, it almost looks as though the edge is scalloped. Again all the feathers are freehand and the curves are created using a circular rule.





The 'piano keys' in the final borders are free handed as well.

This is a quilt that I didn't want to send back - I just kept on looking and touching and feeling the peaks and troughs of the quilting. Unfortunately my customer likes it too. Bugger!

On 18th August, I will have been blogging for two years. To celebrate I would like to invite you all over for a cup of tea and a piece of my favourite cake. However I live a bit too far away from most people, soooooooooo I'll make the present. It's like a reverse birthday present. Leave a comment on this post and receive one entry. Please leave a link to your blog with your comment. If you don't have a 'blog, leave your email address. I have to know who to send the prize to.

;-)))))))

We in this house are avid readers and somewhat eclectic in our tastes, so a few years ago I was looking for books to read to the youngest Sweeties, who love a good story, and I came upon Red Dog by Louis De Bernieres, the same that wrote Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

This is what Random House had to say about it the book

Red Dog is a West Australian, a lovable friendly red kelpie who found widespread fame as a result of his habit of travelling all over Western Australia, hitching rides over thousands of miles, settling in places for months at a time and adopting new families before heading off again to the next destination and another family - sometimes returning to say hello years later.While visiting Australia, Louis de Bernieres heard the legend of Red Dog and decided to do some research on this extraordinary story. After travelling to Western Australia and meeting countless people who'd known and loved Red Dog, Louis decided to spread Red Dog's fame a little further. The result is an utterly charming tale of an amazing dog with places to go and people to see. RED DOG will delight readers and animal lovers of all ages

The Hairiest Sweetie worked for a while earlier this year in 'Red Dog' country and found this statue of our hero just outside Dampier.

We've also been very lucky to revisit Red Dog in the form of a talking book that we found in the library and we enjoyed it just as much as we did when we sat in bed and read it out loud.

Remember this post when I spoke about being a woman possessed, well it was morphed into this.

Yesterday, the Librarian, the youngest Sweeties and I were to be walking a track that we have set our eyes on all winter, however the lurgy struck, so I'm in bed making short forays into the realms of cleaning. VERY SHORT forays and scuttling back to bed to lie down and overcome the 'exertion'. Yes I know it's all in my head, however at the moment it feels as though my heart has taken residence in my head. This is what I have being doing with the hexagons started as a side project to use up all those little pieces, it doesn't require much energy and I can sleep between stitches.

Yippee - yesterday was mine and the quilting.

For the past three or so months I have three jobs and now I'm down to two, and the relief is great. I gave up teaching FirstClick, which is a government funded computer literacy programme, designed to encourage adults of all ages to become computer literate. It's not that they weren't great people, I just needed more time at home and quilting and the quilts have really been really mounting up. And the state of my house is AMAZING, remember that I live very three very gorgeous Sweeties. However now the pressure is off, I'll be able to spend more time quilting and making the customers happy (and cleaning the house and cooking and generally being there for everyone and I might be able to leave the house at some stage and spend time with other women who sew). Which is the bottom line. Cleaning I mean, not the sewing. When I not sewing it's what I think about. And camping. By a river.

I remember meeting a very nice photographer who was taking photos of the river here, and he was saying that his hobby was fishing and that he would love to throw a line in and have a fish. I asked if he fished very often and he said 'not as much as (he) would like, although he spent a lot of time thinking about it'. It had me thinking about these things that people did as their hobbies, which I call passions, and that the time spent thinking about them was just as important time spent doing them




.

Finished another quilt the other night, so it was a late night, I however went to bed pleased.

The next quilt off the ranks is the Boddington Arts Council, however it has rained and rained and rained and the backing is on the line permanently wet, so I might have to slip a panto in to fill up the gap while the backing dries.

Which one though?

This is one of the latest from Hermoine Agee's Lorien Quilting. It's called Nouveau Feathers and was part of the digital pattern club that Hermoine has every month.

I have had a bit of a win with B#$%^&&, I have been doing a bit of work with the 'edit HTML' screen and have been able to fine tune and put in spaces that B^&*()(* recognises. Hurray. The other day however I received an email from B&**()((* telling me that my sight was a potential source of spam. Hah! So I went in and investigated and it was true, the site was under review and would be closed down if I didn't acknowledge the review. All sorted, however it was all a bit of a mystery.