A Day In The A Blue Mountains.

Thanks for visiting my blog. I welcome you to take your time and browse , visiting my bush garden and discovering the wonders of my city within a national park; Blue Mountains National Park. Via my blog you will travel with me through the successes, trials and tribulations of gardening on a bush block. I share with you my patchwork & quilting, knitting, paper crafts, cooking and life in general.

Thursday 31 March 2011

Is It Any Wonder?

Is it any wonder that giving up Chocolate for Lent is difficult?  Is it any wonder that giving up sugar for Lent is difficult?
As a matter of fact, is it any wonder I've put so much weight on over the past two years?


Everywhere I look, temptation.  In the pantry; last year's Easter egg, mint leaves, marshmallows tempting me to make hot chocolate, mini M&Ms and snakes.  Open up the fridge to find fig & chocolate jam, leftover Bavarian cheese cake, yoghurt and cream desert. And not to mention the individually wrapped kool fruits sitting on top of the servery...sigh...


Breakfast this morning?  Three pieces of fruit and a glass of water with one teaspoon of psyllium husks stirred in.

Wednesday 30 March 2011

While I Was Sewing.

A storm has been brewing.
It's come over so quickly even our trusty weather station didn't record the rain until it had actually started raining.
Mad dash to bring in the laundry.
Hope it blows over as quickly as it came!

Irish Chain Quilt Top.

I am well on my way with a quilt (I mentioned in an earlier post ) for one of my Twin Sisters' fiftieth birthdays. I shall call her The Younger Twin.  The colours are not quite what I had in mind but I wanted blue to be the star colour in her quilt.  
As always, I never stick to the original pattern layout.  I didn't particularly like this layout either so I changed it to suit myself. Of course this means a nightmare job of rearranging blocks and then of course, I tend to change my mind halfway through the quilt anyway!!!  
So...I have three options to chose from 
This was my original option but I dislike quilt tops that draw your eye to the centre (unless it's an art quilt).  My preference is to take a little journey around the quilt, surveying the entire piece.
Option Two is a bit subtler in the centre, maybe too subtle?  It does strengthen the blue colours though.
I think Option Three is more balanced, the focus is still the centre yet the stronger reds and rusts draw the eye around the quilt.
Which would you choose?

And yes, I know, there are blocks missing...my next task.  This will also probably mean that once they're complete, I'll change my mind again...about the layout.  Hehe!

Tuesday 29 March 2011

One More Quilt.

Remember this?
Well, look at it now!
All pinned and ready to go!
I had put it aside after adding sashing and borders but then realised that I had no hand sewing to do while I watched TV at night.  So I've gone ahead and finished off the backing, added the wadding and will now hand quilt.

Stuffed Lemon Grass



A meal is so much more satisfying when a major ingredient comes fresh, straight from your garden.
I couldn't believe that I was able harvest twelve beautiful lemon grass stalks which ended up looking something like this.  The recipe came from the April issue of Better Homes and Gardens.  Unfortunately it's not available on line at the moment. Originally pork was called for but I used chicken mince (from thighs) instead and it was delicious.  Shared this with my Honey Pie and Son Number Two who visited for the night from St Peters. (Our One and Only Daughter is in the U.K., with her daughter at present,).
 Also did the Asian Salad and some steamed Jasmine Rice.

Monday 28 March 2011

This Lent Thing.

It's been almost three weeks since my Ash Wednesday post.
Without much fanfare, I decided back then, that I would give up chocolate for Lent.  I am very pleased to report that I have not had a scrap of that delicious food since.  Except before last Sunday, when we celebrated two birthdays at my sister's house. (Chocolate Birthday Cake.)
Also, I have given up sweets, deserts, snacks, coffee, ice cream...you get the (sugar/caffeine) idea.
My usual practice now is to have breakfast, usually a bowl of porridge, or toast with a cup of miso, nothing until lunch, when I have either a sandwich with a cup of tea, or miso and toast, plus a piece of fruit.  Then the next meal is dinner where I try to eat my fill, but no desserts or snacks until bed.
The first few days were painful.  I did tend to get hungry.  If I got so hungry that it became unbearable, I'd have five or six almonds or walnut halves.  I drank (and still drink) lots of water and hot herbal tea (more as an aid to help digestion).  I'm very strict with the almonds and walnuts...normally, if I feel peckish, I eat nuts...by the handful!  At night, in front of the TV, I drink tea and eat chocolate most nights.  If there's chocolate cake, I'll have it for morning and afternoon tea.  I'm not a coffee drinker but if I'm feeling a bit fuzzy headed in the morning (which has been almost every day for months now) I have an affogato, (an espresso coffee over two or three scoops of ice cream).
The first few days I felt a little off, and lacked energy. Then I began to notice that each morning I woke earlier than usual, feeling quite perky.
The fuzzy head I'd been suffering from the past few months had disappeared making it easier to concentrate.
And although my scales have nothing to report, I do believe that I'm beginning to loose some weight.  I can tell from how my clothes feel.
I'm amazed at how easy it has been to resist temptation for all the foods I've given up.
Occasionally though, I must confess, I do spend time daydreaming about what I'll be able to eat come Easter Sunday.  The thought is; will I want to?  We'll see.

Sunday 27 March 2011

The Best Way To Predict The Future Is To Invent It.

The people of New South Wales have invented the future...
My prediction is that NSW will be in a sorry state within the next twelve months.
With a government that has an "extraordinary majority of around 44 seats in the 93-seat lower house, and the sort of “blank cheque” mandate for change which Premier Kristina Keneally had warned of ahead of the poll" * how on earth can it be anything else. 


Friday 25 March 2011

Malcolm Turnbull

Haha, this morning, early, I received a telephone call from Malcolm Turnbull.  Yes!! New South Wales State Elections tomorrow.  Read about Malcolm here.
Unfortunately, it was strictly a one sided conversation because it was a recording of Mr Turnbull and my narcissism ensured I listened until he was finished!
Good one Mal!
Haha!!!

Thursday 24 March 2011

tHiRsTy ThUrSdAy!


Autumn, has most suddenly and certainly arrived!  I'm feeling a definite nip in the air and me being the sensitive type, can feel that there is a change in the barometric pressure, causing me some vertigo this morning.
Starting Monday, the weather has been glorious; the humidity has dropped to around fifty percent, the sun is shining, the sky is blue and there is definitely movement in the air which is helping to dry out some damp and means I can now get my laundry up to date.  The constant rain and grey sky was beginning to get me down!
This morning I woke with a strong desire for fruit juice so out came my trusty juicer and I ended up with what you can see above; beetroot, apple and pear juice.  The pears made the drink nice and thick, the apples gave it a touch of sweetness and well...you can see what the beetroot has done!
Oh, and happy 137th birthday to Harry Houdini !
Posted by Picasa

Wednesday 23 March 2011

Let's Have A Party!

In my possession, I have the most fabulous orange skirt.

Only problem is, I just don't know where to wear it!  Every time I pull it out of the wardrobe to don it, I change my mind. 
I cannot count the times I've been tempted to put it into the op-shop bag for donation.  Every time I do, I have a change of heart and put it back on to its coat-hanger and back into my wardrobe.


I'm afraid it's too ostentatious to wear to any outing I might be heading to. 
Often, I secretly plan a party inside my head,with a theme...yes, everyone must wear ORANGE, then I can get to wear my beautiful skirt!
Do you own such a garment?  Where have you worn it and were there any reactions?
I think I have worn this sequined skirt once...and I'd planned to wear it to a fiftieth birthday party many years ago, but ended up not going to the party, because I was ill.
Posted by Picasa

Monday 21 March 2011

Raindrop.

Posted by Picasa

Today's Weather.

@0824Hr     19.3oC
                     93% Humidity
                     26.4 mm Precipitation in the past Hour.
                     28.5 mm Precipitation in the past 24 Hours.

Sunday 20 March 2011

A Rose By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet.

What a great day at my sister's house.
Great food, great company, relaxing.
So good to catch up with family, some of which I have not seen for over twelve months.
I made Black Forest Brownie Cake once again!  Actually, I made TWO for this weekend.  
Yesterday, we had a family catch-up with HIS family, and today, family catch-up with MY family.
So I really had no choice but to make two did I?
Are you getting the impression that I might be a chocoholic?
This beautiful rose is from my sister's garden.  She and her family are renting and their house has been sold.  In the next six weeks, they need to find a new house to rent...but with Sydney's rental market the way it is, they are not happy that they will find something in time.  I do feel for them.
Posted by Picasa


Beautiful, gentle Yoshi, chased a possum through my sister's house!  Thankfully all the guests had gone home by that time!  Bedlam prevailed, until my brave niece, with her father's help chased both dog and possum out of the house. Phew! 


Appreciation.

As I dash out to celebrate my brother-in-law's fiftieth birthday, and my nephew's 12th, (yes both on the same day) I am reminded how much we take our close and loved ones for granted.
Yeah, they may not pick up after themselves, leave the kitchen and bathroom as if a tornado has swept through but when they DO clean up not only after themselves but after YOU, when you're in a rush...do you thank them?
That's what happened to me this morning.
And I'm just about to log out and thank everyone who helped me out this morning as I add the last touches to my handmade birthday cards!  Sorry, no time for photographs.  Perhaps I'll be better organized next time and I can show off my creations.
Until the next blog...Sweet Pea.

Saturday 19 March 2011

Autumn Equinox Down Under.

In the southern hemisphere the Autumn Equinox (Mabon, Alban Elued or Winter Finding, Mean Fomhair) occurs around the 20th -22nd March. This year, in the Blue Mountains, Autumn Equinox happens on the 21st March, at 9.21 a.m. to be exact.
Nevertheless, worldwide, night and day are of equal length at the equinox.
Australians do not normally celebrate the Autumn Equinox. 
The closest celebration to this event is Saint Patrick's Day which is celebrated, on the east coast, with a parade through the streets of Sydney.
The switch from summer to autumn, in the southern hemisphere, is much more subtle than in the northern hemisphere.
In Australia the majority of trees do not change colour nor loose their leaves in autumn.
There are not many Australian deciduous native trees; Silky Oak, White and Red Cedars and the Boab Tree, are a few.
Some small towns, for example, Mount Wilson, or small cities, like Bathurst, have streets lined with deciduous trees or parks and gardens filled with them.  Their autumnal colours are such a novelty that during the season a pilgrimage to such places as the Southern Highlands and Mount Wilson is not unusual.  These stands of mostly European trees are a part of Australia's British past, when, during the first settlement, newcomers, sickening for reminders of home filled their gardens with plants from their homeland to console themselves.

Moonrise at sunset over Napier Range and Boab Tree.
The Boab Tree looses its leaves during the dry winter season.

Thursday 17 March 2011

Storm of Time - 2

Last night I finished reading Storm of Time .
My sympathies reach out to ex-governor of New South Wales, Captain William Bligh and my condolences to Conor Mannion; while I look forward to a romance blossoming in No Barrier.
What I also suspect is that we'll be seeing less of Johnny Prentice now that he has completed his life's goal to destroy his old master.  Will his mother take the punishment meant for him? Will he be pushed even further away from the settlement as the explorers find their way across the Great Dividing Range?
And does the conniving John Macarthur have more tricks hidden under his proverbial sleeve?  Stay tuned.

Wednesday 16 March 2011

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Final Report.

Finally, TVHC quilt that I've been making for my daughter's future God son is complete. (Except for the label).

You can see my previous posts about this quilt here and here .
I'm very happy with the way the project has turned out.
I absolutely love the backing fabric and now so want to make a primary colour quilt.

Because of time constraints, I have machine quilted the single bed quilt - still I was at risk of going overboard with my quilting and had to restrain myself from machine quilting every square centimetre of the quilt!
What are little holes chewed by a hungry caterpillar good for?  Why to free motion machine quilt of course!
As I've mentioned before this is my third TVHC quilt.  Only recently the family was informed of yet another great grandson/nephew about to join the family.  This very much welcome newcomer due in August has an older brother how has received one of the aforementioned quilts so I asked his mum if she would like one to match or would she rather a surprise for his little brother.

Our expectant niece would prefer a surprise so a quick search on the WWW revealed some wonderful surprises.  Like this Dr Suess panel.  Now I just have to source it in Australia, otherwise - it might just be an overseas purchase!
In the meantime, previously mentioned projects remain untouched.  But something to look forward to blog about next is the first of the Twins' quilts.  Because I have made progress on that.

Sunday 13 March 2011

Storm Of Time.

What I'm Reading ATM
Storm of Time: An historical novel by Eleanor Dark.



Storm of Time, by Eleanor Dark, is available from Blue Mountains City Council Library.
It is the second book of a trilogy.
The first book in the trilogy is titled The Timeless Land.
The volumes were once on the compulsory reading list for higher school student in Australia.  It's probably about time they are added once more.
It's been over twelve months since I began reading the trilogy.
The Timeless Land I found more than captivating.  In fact, to say the least, the book was an eye-opener.
My Australian history, in reality, amounts to nothing more than what was dished out by the New South Wales Education Department's school curriculum of Australian history way back in the fifties and the sixties.
Of course curriculum is mostly taught without emotion, especially when one considers that what was being related to students occurred around two hundred years ago.
What most of us have come to realise too, is that history was, in the past, and no doubt is in the present, coloured by the narrator.
Eleanor Dark surprisingly, appears not to take sides in what I have read thus far.
She succeeds, I think, in personalising, for the reader, the First Settlement of Australia.
I could, from a fairly young age, recite to all and sundry the names of the first four Governors of Australia, in the correct order, that is:
Captain Arthur Phillip, Captain John Hunter, Captain Philip King and Captain William Bligh, then followed by Captain Lachlan Macquarie.  These early figures of Australian history, were, on the whole, faceless men to me. ( Apart from images and illustrations in my text books, encyclopaedias, etcetera) I never felt that they had a particularly extraordinary task to complete.
Bligh, I always believed was a bit of a rogue, who deserved all that eventuated as a result of his governing methods.  Did I ever think that he may have had a personality, a family, (including a wife he left behind in England due to ill health), hopes and aspirations?
In my childish beliefs, I thought he got everything he deserved.
On the other hand, I truly believed that wool pioneer, John Macarthur, could do no wrong.
How misguided I was.  But that's the picture my school education painted.
The Timeless Land will introduce you to the realities of what faced newcomers to this, at that time, unknown land.
The reader discovers how Mother England simply abandoned the members of the new settlement, convict, government, and free settler alike.
One will follow the intrigue initiated by free settlers to advance themselves and add interest to an otherwise sometimes-irksome life.
The reader will become to know well, all the characters mentioned above, to perceive them as concrete with all their hopes, dreams, perceptions, ideals and misgivings.  Macarthur, especially, will be found to have been manipulative, self-seeking, disruptive and opinionated.
In Storm of Time Bligh will be found to be a Governor who's reputation preceded him, even though he was honourably acquitted after the loss of the Bounty.
The convicts, miscreants as there were, often faced with choices that could only lead to crime, were used and abused by the free settlers and sometimes embraced by the Aborigines.
Indigenous Australians were probably the most misunderstood beings in the whole saga.
One must be reminded though, that Dark used her imagination to fill in the gaps to recreate what is probably the most formative part of Australian History.  Her research (In the early part of the twentieth century) involved many hours of delving into records in such public places as the New South Wales State Library.
With only a matter of pages remaining for me to read of Storm of Time, I look forward to the final book of the trilogy; No Barrier,  and the crossing of the Blue Mountains.
Posted by Picasa

Friday 11 March 2011

Japan Hit By Earthquake.

One more devastating natural disaster to hit the Pacific region. News  has just come in about a destructive earthquake triggering massive tsunamis over northern Japan.
More waves on their way.
My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this further destruction.
As I write this, a storm brews overhead.

Second Tsunami Video.
This is all too scary and somewhat reminiscent of the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami.

Return of the Satin Bowerbird

This morning the bower birds returned.  Well, they visited yesterday too but no decent photography was achieved.
Not that today's effort is much better.
My discovery is that the black Satin Bowerbird male is much more elusive than the female.
I am, too, very much an amateur photographer and at seven in the morning on an drizzly autumn day, the lighting certainly does not lend itself to photography.

Male Satin Bowerbird.
Female Satin Bowerbird.

Now this is where things get a bit confusing, because I have a feeling that the bird in the foreground is actually a male.
While selecting a blue object, he did do a little dance before what I'm presuming to be the female, waving his tale around.  But of course I'm no expert on the Satin Bower Bird, if you are, and you have any comments please feel free to educate me.
Posted by Picasa
So why are these birds visiting this particular spot?  There could easily have been twenty of them around this morning.  I have left some blue objects for them to take to decorate their bower with but they were attracted to this spot before I left them out for the birds.
Our neighbour, below us, has had a bit of a melt down since his estrangement with his partner and has left his usually manicured garden go to rack and ruin, literally. Solanaceae weed has infested his previously manicured  lawn and I can't help wondering if this is an attraction to the birds. Whatever the reason, I'm happy to have them visit.

Wednesday 9 March 2011

Dichondra Repens

Well, strawberries actually...

This is what is left of my strawberry patch.  I'm not very happy to say the least.  An escaped dichondra repens plant, which was transported into our garden in a potted plant, has completely taken over my strawberry patch.  Can you spot the strawberry plants?  I've decided to give up this plot to the dichondra for the time being but considering growing asparagus here as it is probably too shady for strawberries anyway.

Today I potted up some of the dichondra to replant later on into the bush garden beds.  For something so hard to grow, it's doing really well.  In fact it's almost taken over parts of the vegetable patch to the point where I now consider it a weed.
Posted by Picasa

Ash Wednesday.

What does Ash Wednesday mean to a lapsed Catholic such as me?
For many years now, I haven't given much regard to the day.  This year, I'm feeling a different attitude to this whole Easter Season thing.  Perhaps, very selfishly, I'm thinking that maybe there is something to gain from all this Lenten Fasting advocated by various religions.
At what other time of the year is there an opportunity to detox while not having to explain to friends, family, acquaintances and colleagues that you can't eat this or you can't eat that?  And then being bombarded with a million and one questions as to why you're not eating meat, or wheat, or sugar, or fat, or chocolate, or cake...
In Lent you can cut all these things out and explain it away with two little words:  It's Lent.
Perhaps this is what Lent was meant to be, something beneficial to our well being and somewhere along the line the message has become quite distorted.
What do you think?

Tuesday 8 March 2011

Pancake Day 2011.

The recipe says 'makes 12', so I timed it by one and a half and ended up with around thirty pancakes!



These are not your traditional pancakes, more like a hotcakes I think, but absolutely scrumptious. Here they are topped with whipped cream, vanilla yogurt, maple syrup, strawberry jam and grilled nectarine and filled with apple puree.  Wicked!  I also think it's obligatory to serve with lashings of hot black tea.

For the recipe, click here.
I'd love to read your comments about your pancake experience for Pancake Day 2011.
Posted by Picasa

Pancake Day.

Pancake Day, Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Tuesday, evolved from the need to use up all the luscious dairy products in the larder or pantry which would not keep for the forty day Lenten abstinence.

As promised, here is my pancake recipe.
It's been some years since I acquired this recipe so I'm not one hundred percent sure where I found it, but I do think it was in Table Magazine.
But let me assure you, they are delicious!  And gluten free too and well worth the extra effort.
Yogurt Buckwheat Pancakes.
Makes 12 Pancakes.
1 cup (150g.) buckwheat flour
1 teaspoon gluten free baking powder
2 tablespoon caster sugar
350g Greek style creamy yogurt.
3/4 cup (180ml.) soy milk
4 eggs separated
Apple puree
Whipped Cream or Vanilla Yogurt
Fresh fruit if desired.

1.  Sift together flour and baking powder into a large bowl and stir through sugar.
2.  In a separate bowl use an electric mixer to beat yogurt,  milk and egg yolks until smooth.  Combine with dry ingredients.
3.  In a clean, dry bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form.  Lightly fold egg whites into batter.
4.  Melt a little butter in a frying pan on medium heat.  Pour in 2 tablespoons of batter and cook 3 minutes, until bubbles appear on surface.  Turn over pancake and cook for 1 minute.  Remove from pan and keep warm.  Repeat with remaining batter.
5.  Layer pancakes with apple puree and top with a dollop of thickened cream or vanilla yogurt.  Accompany with fruit if desired.

If you have a barbecue plate, these pancakes are cooked in no time, because you can load them on at least four at a time, depending on the size of your hot plate.  It's the only way I cook pancakes as I don't have the patience to stand over a hot stove cooking one pancake at a time!
Enjoy.

Shrove Tuesday.

I'm on Ballet Duty once more this morning.
On our way home we will need to drop by the shops to pick up ingredients for making our favourite pancakes. Yum.
Do drop by later to get a copy of the recipe for the best buckwheat pancakes ever!

Sunday 6 March 2011

Weekend Fare.

This weekend has been all about family and food.  After all, the two go hand in hand don't they?
The weekend food festival started Friday night with what should have been a failed ginger sponge.  After mis-reading the amount of golden syrup in the recipe some quick thinking converted the sponge to ginger cupcakes which turned out to be favourites...
Saturday lunch was a ploughman's lunch inspired by Friday night's Better Homes and Gardens on Channel Seven.
Feeling lazy on Saturday night was a good enough excuse to order take away...Thai (no less) complimented with a bottle of Tempus Two 2010 Moscato.
This morning's brunch consisted of bacon and eggs, sourdough bread, fried tomatoes  and salad greens, all purchased yesterday, at the markets.
Our youngest son and his girlfriend have just returned from a holiday to Ireland and came to visit us for the weekend, arriving in the mountains on Friday evening.
With them they brought a variety of fine fare from the Gaelic Isle, amongst other things.  I'm happy to report that there's lots of chocolate (my favourite food), some Mead (yet to be tested), a couple of beautiful framed photographs and a tea towel  embellished with the recipe for Soda Bread.
One special gift is a recipe book; A Year At Avoca : A Cookbook which is full of easy to follow formula for mouth watering meals.  Tonight I tried the Summer Traybaked Chicken, only because I had purchased a fresh chicken at the Growers' Markets in Penrith yesterday and I was feeling especially lazy (still).  The result was an amazing meal for very little effort.  The fact that I had used farm fresh produce only heightened the flavours of the meal.
A walk into Springwood, this afternoon, should have helped to burn off a few calories (I hope).

Friday 4 March 2011

Movin' Right Along

One project on the go is never enough for me.  
As you might remember my Quilt Top post listed a couple of projects yet to be completed.
The bad news is that I haven't even started those yet!
The good news is that below you will see two projects that have come along since that post.
I've added sashing and borders to my Churn Dash quilt top.  Now all I need to do is add batting and backing fabric before I quilt and bind.  I will more than likely hand quilt this one.

I've discovered that I'm very efficient at "growing" my quilt tops!  What I envisaged as a lap quilt has grown to the size of a single bed quilt.  

This one was always intended to be a single bed quilt. Since the last post about the above quilt I've added the borders and machine quilted the project.  The binding is just being pinned here but I am happy to report that the machine sewing of the binding is complete, now to trim and hand sew.
Above is my third 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar Quilt'!  The first two had to be completed within a week of each other.  They were for my Honey Pie's two great nephews; cousins born within a week of each other in 2010.  They were almost identical quilts, except for the backing fabric, binding and the hand quilting.  I would have preferred to hand quilt this one but time is quickly running out and I do want to have it finished well in advance to it departing for the U.K.
My next major quilt project is to make two quilts for my twin sisters who turn fifty this year!  I have chosen fabrics for one....

Come Autumn

Come Autumn and the bowerbirds visit no longer.  Despite me leaving some bright blue objects for them, as offerings, they have returned only once since the first of March.  On that day, the birds did remove some of the offerings left to them, but the rest remain where I left them.

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Ode to Autumn.



Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,-
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies. John Keats.

Tuesday 1 March 2011

Autumn

Well, today turned out to be a not so bad day after all.
The wind kept itself down a notch or two, the temperature was bearable, even though at times I built up a bit of a sweat, and the sun managed to take a peek two or three times today.
Not nearly as bad as what was forecast.
I've been busy with my Very Hungry Caterpillar Quilt and hand pieced quilt top.
I'm so pleased with the way both are turning out.  Hopefully more of an update tomorrow morning, as I will be visiting my Mum later in the day.

Total Fire Ban

Autumn is by far my most favourite season.
Today is officially the first day of Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.
I slept in this morning, I mean really slept in.  Usually I'm awake at some ungodly hour, and then drift off to sleep again to "oversleep", and I hate it when this happens.
But not this morning.  I genuinely slept in until about eight.  I heard nothing...no showers running, no grand child calling out to mum, and no bowerbirds calling.  A stiff breeze was billowing up the sliding door curtain.
The temperature in our room was quite cool, yet still comfortable.  Confusion is what hit me as I walked out through the bedroom door because I expected  the temperature to be cool in the hallway too.  It wasn't and I had to ask my daughter if that wind was hot or cold.
"Hot", she said, "I've had to close all the windows because it's so hot."
At 9.30 a.m. the temperature had reached 26oC.
As the morning worn on, I began to wonder why the bowerbirds hadn't woken me.  The offerings I'd left them yesterday are all still there, perhaps they hadn't visited this morning.  Nor have the lorikeets.  Perhaps the birds know something I don't.
A check of the weather forecast, on Google revealed a most unusual start to Autumn.  You can read about it  here.

Comments Welcome

I welcome your comments; they are little personal notes to me. I enjoy reading what each of you have to say. Thanks for dropping by.