Due to many things this winter, we have not gone walking as we normally do. However this Sunday past the usual suspects went of to Boyagin Rock, a fantastic granite rock ~40kms north east of here off the York Williams Rd. Took our lunch and a cake to share and what a wonderful day we had, clambering all over this marvellous huge rock. Lovely weather not too hot and a little cold. There were tadpoles in the pools at the top of the rock, my word that's a long way to hop.And no hat all day.

There are a few things that have changed around here

The before photo and ........

the after photo. All in preparation of the first day of school.

The middle Sweetie, now named the Hostel Boy. Doesn't he look gorgeous? I asked for him to put on his school uniform so that I could take this. He now sleeps four nights a week at a residential college attached to a Senior High School ~90kms from here. Still gorgeous and lovely, just a bit further away than normal.

When we were at Two Peoples Bay here is what came out of the underbrush to share our lunch. Superb creature who was very focused on what we were eating and he didn't get any. We ate it all.

Sitting on the foreshore at Albany's Princess Royal Harbour, this was our view one night. It was a magical sight, somewhat lessened in this photo.

Oh where have I been?

The time has flown and to quote one of my favourite book titles - 'The Days Are Just Packed'.

I have been quilting LOTS and working and cleaning and cooking and at times not even been here.

We even went to a PARTY.

On the way home we stopped and spent some time just being on Sullivan's Rock, which I might add was still cold to sit on. The people are saying that spring here, well it hasn't penetrated Sullivan Rock yet.

The younger sweeties were buzzing after their weekend and as I couldn't contemplate another 45minutes with them in the car with that amount of energy, and that volume, we stopped and gave them a run. There is nothing harder trying to drive when tired and there is a youth fest in the back of the car. Hang it all, just stop and let them run. My mother had many sayings and one of them was 'that it was better to arrive..............' Mum never completed the phrase when she used it, it was always left unsaid and somehow more poignant for it.

The air is very special on those rocks, very cleansing and uplifting.

We then all piled into the car and arrived home.

I was just thinking that it was rather squashed in the back of the car, where they were and there was a roll of batting in the back as well. We do have a station wagon, albeit what they call a 'tourer', however we had to put one of the back seats down to fit the roll in and they were sitting cheek by jowl. Within poking distance of one another. Hmmmm, how boys like to poke and laugh and be happy.

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.

The disappearing nine patch appeared for a short time yesterday and is turning into an epic. Probably because I missed several sewing days, and I was hoping to be further along than I am. Focused and disciplined are not words that could be used to describe me, however I am trying very hard to take UFOs to sewing days and finish them. So far I have managed to finish two projects. Next week I will have another go and see how far I progress. My idea to to take only UFOs to the sewing days and yes I am allowed to sew them on other days, however I am also allowed to start other projects, in that I have to complete at least one block. My theory behind this idea is that I could end up with a heap of orphan blocks which could also be made into a quilt.

Well I was down to just one Sweetie last night, so we went out on a frog hunt and listened for different frogs. This wee beastie (see above) and several hundred of his kind were very much in evidence last night. He is known as a Moaning Frog (Heleioporus eyrei) for his call go to this link.

We also heard several Banjo Frogs (Limnodynastes dorsalis) see above. These sound like a banjo string being plucked and I will endeavour to find one to record as it is quite distinctive. There was another frog last night that was quite elusive and coming from two differnet directions and quite far off. See how we go tonight, although I think I've got extra sweeties here tonight as well as all mine. I could take them on a frog hunt, however it will be a matter of keeping them quiet. 'Sweeties' and 'quiet' = mutally exclusive.

Friday was a great day as not only was it the last day of the first school term (where has the time gone?) it was the day of servicing for sewing machines in our town. Three very brave sewing machine mechanics, they are some of my favourite people, make their way to our town and sit for the whole day servicing our sewing machines EVERY YEAR. This year I had these two serviced, next year it will be the treadle and the Pfaff. The Pffornicator has had a hard time getting sewing lately and now ........she's sewing like a young thing. I won't say 'like she did when she was new' because it was crap, however now because of the yearly servicing and tweaking, she is a dream and no longer a nightmare. If my machines go away for servicing, I miss them so much so this set up is ideal.
These are those wonderful White Tailed Black Cockatoos that fly around our district and they were feeding on the honky nuts that come off the Marri (Eucalyptus calophylla or Corymbia calophylla) and they were literally on the side of the road. Soooo.....we stopped and the boys took many photos. A really big parrot, huge birds, huge beaks. Just so lovely.
Unfortunately this is not a good photo however, I quilted this quilt for the the mother of one of the owners of Kraft Daze. A lovely shop with lots of gorgeous fabric and happening patchwork workshops in Maddington, West Australia and the staff are so wonderfully helpful. I'm a bit biased as they also sell other craft lines eg. knitting and other things that people do. Doesn't that sound so lame, I'm not interested in other crafty things that people do, so unfortunatley I haven't remembered. Ah I know that they sell lace. They have recently taken over the lease of the shop next door so their workshop space is HUGE and of course the old workshop area is now used for more fabric.

After those quite heavy rains that we had, this very attractive amphibian was found wallowing in the chooks' drinking water. He was rescued as these tackers are not known for their athleticism and ability to jump out of anything.

Dilemma

I have a dilemma about the borders for the Super Bowl Bargello - in truth I have no idea what Super Bowl is except it is something to do with watching men play some form of sport - I am quite happy with the pieced 4" outer border. However, there is part of me saying that another border would be the right thing. Hmmmm. Any ideas?

This is the wee beastie that has been my partner in crime for almost 25 years. Also known as the 'fornicator', although I must say that we both have settled down over time and no longer give each so much angst. There were times when I thought that she was going to be the most expensive boat anchor, ever. I bought her not long after I purchased my first car, and all things being right in the universe, she was more expensive. I had my priorities right. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times that I have used the embroidery stitches, any embroidery that I have done I have done by hand. So if and when I have to replace her, I will invest in a machine that is a straight stitcher, needle up/down, and a reverse button.


This flower is one of my favourites off the Marri tree, Eucalyptus callophylla, they are late this year by about four weeks, when they flower the smell is quite lovely.

Visitors

I am quite delighted with the Stat Counter that sits quietly on my side bar and counts the visitors that come by. Not by the numbers, I've never been driven by outcomes and numbers, but by the all the different countries that people are visiting from. I log on every day and am surprised. Today I was surprised by a visitor from the Untied Arab Emirates and Hawaii. A while ago I was delighted to have visitors from Panama(this prompted a search on Google maps to find the Panama Canal) and Alaska(which I know isn't a country, however it is big enough to be). Panama is a bit of a catch cry here, from the movie 'Sahara' loosely based on the Clive Cussler book of the same name, 'A Panama' gets you out of a very sticky spot although it costs quite a lot including the cigar.

It is doing wonders for our geography skills.

One of the residents here is this species of frog commonly known as the Slender Tree Frog, or alternatively Litoria adelaidensis. We have quite a colony outside the back door in all the greenery there. They don't live in the water like the Motorbike Frog(Western Green Tree Frog)they tend to live on the verges of water bodies. The biggest I have seen was 40mm, normally they are ~20-25mm in length. I was particularly taken with this one as I could seen the spots on it's body. They normally keep themselves very tidy with their legs close to their bodies. They call is the most piercing shriek - thankfully they don't do that very often.

This is a buttonhole applique w/o the buttonhole yet. It is one of Liz Arnold's of the Lizard of Oz

called 'Garden Party'. I've changed it a bit but putting it on point and using black.

White Tail Black Cockatoos

Today started off very interesting as I was able to 'rescue' a juvenile of one of the species of White Tail Balck Cockatoo that we have here in West Australia. It was in a bad way as I could simply bend done and cover it in my jumper and pick it up. It was feisty and peed off, however I was able to stow it in my car and get help for it. At this point in time it should be at the Perth Zoo being assessed and hopefully on the road to recovery. I met a Black Cockie carer half up to Perth and he took it the rest of the way. This man looked incredibly normal, didn't have a super hero suit on or anything, although he was very tall, however he and his wife feed and rehab these wonderful birds so that they can be released back into the wild. This is the third bird that I have 'rescued' - the first one died, however the care that it received was amateurish, so when the next one came along I saw that it was taken to the zoo. The second bird was a female and incredibly vocal and inquisitve. Her outcome was great, as two months after being 'rescued', she was brought back to the area and her 'mob' was found and she was released back with them. How did we find her mob? We 'phoned around to all the like minded people, in the area, to see if a white tail mob was near them (they can be heard for miles when they are in the vicinity) and drove there and took the cage out of the car and watched the bird. With the first two mobs, she remained inactive however with the third mob, when she heard them basically all hell broke loose in the cage. Fantastic outcome. Keep your fingers crossed.

Higher Duties

Lately I have been seeing the world through the windscreen of my car - just as well I like driving and I am blessed with a divine car.

This is what is 'in' with regard to the latest seasons echidna fashions. It was disappearing at an incredible rate as it dug itself away from us. The only creature that I know of with blonde roots - a reference to all the bottle blondes that I know.

This and That

Friends are such a great inspiration - here is 96 x 2.5" strips ~ 20" long to make a scrappy bargello. See Bonnie Hunter's blog here. I have cut 2 sets and Blogless Kathy has cut another 2 sets of 96 and we will swap. Kathy is such a bright young thing and it reflects in her choice of fabric - I just hope that mine are bright enough. There are some favourites there for you Kathy - you can probably see some if you look hard. ;-)))))Bonnie has such a fantastic blog and webpage - many of her patterns are focused on using up not only your stash, but all those scraps. There is no excuse to throw them away now - Bonnie has a way of using up everything.




We have been camping and fishing and swimming. A new law was created. It is called the Hoon Vacuum Law. Always when we go camping there will be a hoon element present - they are everywhere and more than likely are some mothers' sons. Although don't quote me on that. Well someone has to give birth to them. So the first night we were sitting around after eating, we had just come back from a 4km swim and were tired, and the younger Sweeties reckoned that the hoons were up to something as they kept on seeing flashes coming from the Hoon Camp, I suggested that it was the flash off a mobile 'phone. No, the Sweeties were adamant that there was something going on. Anyway we all went to bed, as per usual I fell asleep before the boys and they were awake for some time. In the morning they told me that the hoons had been lighting the squirtings out of an aerosol can and that the hoons were leaving that morning. I said I was sorry that they had to see the antics that had occurred and also did they know about the Hoon Vacuum Law. They said that they had no idea what I was taking about. I explained the law as such that when one group of Hoons left an area, a vacuum would be created and that another group would come and take their place. They treated my ground breaking statement with derision and thought that I was really taking the mickey out of them. However when another group of Hoons arrived and camped in EXACTLY the same spot as the first group, their eyes were round with wonder when they turned to me and asked how did I know. Hmm.

Over the Australia Day weekend we were very lucky to go and stay with Blogless Kathy. Her family go to the Sky Show in Perth to see the fireworks and so we went too. This helicopter is one of those ones that they use to pick up water and dump it on fires.











So here we are at home with the 27 frogs, 50 gazillion tadpoles (the frogs have been busy AGAIN) and the two goannas that have taken up residence in the backyard to eat the frogs. Its a goanna eat frog world out there.