Danger and excitement in the afternoon

Well at 3pm guess what the bearded one and I were doing. Hmmmm don't answer that. I thought to myself wouldn't it be great if all my friends and family were here eating scones, cream and fresh strawberries. Ooooh and real coffee, remember that. Anyway I thought of you all and toasted you with a scone ladened with whipped cream and strawberries, should I say strawberries, cream and scones again? with a slurp of coffee. Heavenly. Wish you were all here.

Ghost fungus

A couple of nights ago, whilst warding off cabin fever due to illness, DS1 and I went for a walk lateish at night to experience a night with no lights and we happened upon these. Not to be confused with ghoul fungus, THEY live off decomposing flesh or rather the ammonia. Omphalotus nidiformis are not edible and they glow in the dark. Never thought I would see such a thing, that's where the makers of Avatar must have got the idea from.

On the road again

Yay. Made it home for the storm. Both favorite sons are in Narrogin, however at least land 'phone lines and mobile service are now restored so they are contactable. Washed my hair, lights are on and a spot of washing is hanging up by the pot belly fire, drying. All's right with the world, and I hope that it is with you also.
When a child is learning to drive, there are perks. Especially on the long drives. This is just so good.

The same..........., but oh so different.

Australia Day - I'm making Damson Jam and prunes.  The jam looks great, the prunes......................well the jury is still out on those.  Give it a day or so.

And listening to Paul Kelly, all 104 tracks off How to Make Gravy

It's a wonder what a difference a hair cut can make.  I left 2/3 of my hair on the hairdresser's floor and I'm not missing it.

  Hostel Boy's hand is fine, just severely bruised.

And the photo?  From last years visit to the Pinnacles.

It's a bit cold and damp here in Paradise - my faithful hot water bottle sprung a leak.  Never to worry - there are another three in the cupboard awaiting to make their debut.  Will it be another blue one, or the purple or red one?  Quite warm outside and really rather chilly in the bedroom, I can see that I will have to go outside to get some warmth.

Just had a call from Hostel Boy, I love to hear his voice, unfortunately he has hurt his hand and needs an xray.  Initially it was for 3pm TOMORROW.  I rang the Hostel and said that I thought that was too long, which thankfully they agreed with me, and they did the heavy and he is in for 3.45pm today.  From what he has said I think that it is heavily bruised.  Better to be safe than sorry.  I still get a feeling of joy when I hear his voice on the 'phone, will that feeling be replaced with that of trepidation?

This a group of us working at our local Arts Council on a quilt made for a very dear friend whose son died recently.

And the final quilt and we finally gave it to her yesterday.  Many tears.

This one is for all of you but especially for my favourite Hostel Boy as he hasn't seen this yet. 

Lolly our favourite sheep has had a lollypop.  We have been watching Lolly with an element of excitement and trepidation.  Anyway late on the 12th March, sometime before midnight, the lollypop was born.  Everything went smoothly, no malpresentations or looping of the cord around the neck and there she was.  The only problem was with a very persistent fox which I ended up chasing off three times before it gave up.  I never thought that I would use the infrared light on my headlamp, but that night it was very handy.  And I got to see the sun came up before I fell asleep in my bed roll in the middle of the paddock.

Well the last couple of months have been busy and enjoyable.

The boys completed another successful school year and both made the observation that the year went too quickly.  The youngest Sweetie has decided that when he was younger, time went slowly and the fridge was always full of food.  Now that he is older, time gallops and there is never any food in the fridge.

This is a bag that I made out of scraps for Blogless Kathy and filled it with goodies and sent her for Christmas.

After Christmas we headed down to Albany for some much needed R&R for all the family.  Three of us took part in courses at the Albany Summer School and the Hostel Boy started a diving course.  The Hairiest Sweetie was enrolled in Metal Sculpture and the Youngest Sweetie and I had a crash course in ukelele.  It was utterly fantastic and exciting and FUN

We were also able to catch up with some great friends who live down there - always wonderful.

I have also started a new job at the local Hospital after much badgering by friends and I am thoroughly enjoying it although we are understaffed.

Oh Bugger Blogger you really are trying my patience today.  Here is one of the seven photos that I uploaded this morning to show the wonderful houseboat weekend that we had on the Murray River, West Australia, in early October.  I must be doing something wrong - like holding my mouth in a smile or something.  Pretty wretched stuff.

P.S.  Jeana if you are reading this, the wheelbarrow is FANTASTIC.  I used it last night for the first time to help me plant a fig tree and I was delighted with it's lightness and sturdiness.  As I am older now, the wheelbarrow that Tim bought me for Christmas, the first year that we were here, is heavy although well made, and has has some hard use transporting small boys, canoes, picnics, manure, water, cement and really the list is endless. So thank you so much Jeana.  It even has a hole in the handle were I can keep my divining rod to work out the best place to plant trees.  Nyx

It's a amazing what 40 years difference in age will do.  The youngest Sweetie had been off at a birthday party/sleepover/motor bike fest overnight, unfortunately the Hostel Boy came down with a lurgy and was in no fit state to ride hither and yonder so had to stay home and vomit and sleep, meanwhile the youngest is full of stories and covered in dust and so t....i.....r.....e.....d.  I picked him up and got him home where I said 'right - shower, clean pajamas and bed for a nap'.   Which he has done under extreme duress.  Whereupon the Hairiest Sweetie said 'could you say that to me?' 

I have quite a stack of hexagons made into grandmother's flowers; another stack that have been basted onto the card and a whole stack that have yet to be basted. I consolidated all that I have here decided that I needed to order around 7000 hexagons to finish off, sounds so flippant 7000, my great hexgon quilt. There have been times where I have thought of other things to make with those that I have already made - egg warmer, glasses case, table runner, doll's quilt - however I have to keep going and one day, sometime when I'm much older we will be able to sleep under it. All those little pieces of fabric from people who threw them out as they thought that the pieces were too small and there it will be. I'll hold that thought. Hmmmm ......... just had another thought, I hope that the younger Sweeties don't both want it. There's no way that I will be able to make another.

The quilt photos wouldn't have been possible without the help of these two wonderful people. The younger one was decidely poorly but still dragged his hurting and sick body out of bed to help.

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.

The two birthday people in our house very kindly shared a birthday cake so I didn't have to make two. A banana cake fresh from the oven.

Over the weekend is was particularly exciting here, we not only had visitors, and a teenage birthday but a fire as well. All a bit hairy and eyeopening. It was a bout a kilometre to the south of us and the wind wasn't helping at all. There were two fire fighting 'planes as well as a wonderful helicopter.






The fire was started from the belt off a water pump becoming too hot and shredding rubber.

Thankfully we didn't make to the national news, no one was killed or injured; all the houses survived and a few sheds were burnt.

Thanks to the local firefighters and those from surrounding districts who came to help. It ended up being an all nighter, and thanks to them there was a good outcome.

After standing in at the end of the driveway and watching the flames and smoke from a distance, I decided that I will create an emergency box with all our pertinent documents ready to go. I will not stay to save our house. The fire if it had have continued on its journey it would've burnt our town, there was only a short tract of land before it could have started on an uphill journey and then down the other side and hit the town. I think there will be some serious thinking happening hereabouts about what people will do in the event of a fire.

At the beginning of the year we went to Albany for a much needed holiday and time away from here. I 'cured' my insomnia that has been plaguing me for ~ two years. I say two years, however when I look back I think that it is more like four years. We got up when the sun did and went to bed with it as well. Over two weeks of walking, riding, swimming, reading, talking, eating and snorkeling.

A tad staged.

ANZAC memorial on the walk from Middleton Beach to Albany harbour.


Seagull at Middleton Beach.

Does he look cold? Because he was.

The Hostel Boy at Middleton Beach after swimming lessons. Waiting for lunch and SO cold and SO hungry and just give it to me now because I'm desperate and I only have a pair of shorts to wear as everything else is wet.

Here is another from a long time ago. The words are gentleness, love, peace, goodness, patience, self-caring, joy, faithfulness, kindness, however I think that it needs the word humour stitched into it somewhere. All the words are very admirable, however humour would be the thing that gives it the spark and make all okay.

The door is between the front lounge and the kitchen and is our old front door that the four of us sanded back and oiled one afternoon. The builders of the house made it from the leftover Jarrah floorboards, from when they built our house in the 1930s. The toilet door was also of the same construction and made at the same time. It is one of the features of this style of house that the dunny (toilet) door would be made from the leftover boards. The hairiest Sweetie built the door frame, side light and hung the door to block off the rest of the house as I used to quilt in the front lounge and had people dropping and picking up quilts. They were quite nosy at times and would take off for a tour of the house! So a door was the best option and then I knew that the youngest Sweeties could be vegged out on the couch without complete strangers walking through and conversing with them. Remember humour - it's always important. As are the other things on the stitchery.

A while ago when things were younger, my family holidayed down in the south west of West Australia and I learnt to snorkel. I snorkeled a lot, whenever the opportunity. Hey, I even snorkeled in the family pool. I was very enamoured with snorkeling. Snorkeling has become a bit of a legend with the younger Sweeties and of course they wanted to snorkel. Soooooo they learnt to snorkel and as a bit of a reward, the Hairiest Sweetie and I took them to a place that I snorkeled and 'hunted' abalone. The Hairiest Sweetie had never been there, and to say that he was shocked with the length of time it took to walk there, is a bit of an understatement.

So the youngest Sweeties snorkeled in one of my favourite places, where the Indian Ocean is just over the other side of that reef and there are schools of fish and flocks of terns that don't budge, and cormorants that wash in the water right in front of you as you snorkel. The oldest youngest Sweetie was laughing through his snorkel with glee and the youngest Sweetie thought that the 'waves' were too high and 'really, what was so exciting'. Hey, at least I have one convert. Watching them snorkel was one of those 'aaahh' moments for me and I really wanted to be in there with them and next time I will, because it really is so grand under there where there are so many fish and other creatures. As I said 'I can feel a snorkel moment coming on'.

I had forgotten just how strong and rich the colours are.

The lights were out but there was somebody home.









The limestone cliffs where lots of birds nest.

In retrospect, I think that the reason that snorkeling is such a fantastic thing for me, is that it is just like all the swimming dreams that I have. Some people have flying dreams - I have swimming dreams. Like flying dreams, only better.

The weekend before last the Floreat Fairies and their siblings/spouses went away for the annual get together. This time it was at Siesta Park in between Bussleton and Dunsborough on the west coast of West Australia. I was desperate to finish this quilt and used the opportunity when the others were swimming/snorkeling/crabbing/sleeping to apply the binding. As you can see I had some strange companions, however they didn't impede my sewing. And I must admit it was rather nice sewing outside with such a nice vista. There will be more photos of the quilt after next weekend as it is entered in the local show.
The things that we do to get things done. Thinking about it though, not one of the Sweeties made a comment or complained about the presnece of the sewing machine in the back of the car. I've trained them well.