North South and North again

I have just had a lovely trip to Victoria.  Spent a long weekend at Halls Gap in the Grampians - the mountains are spectacular.

 This was the view from the deck at the back of the house we stayed in

and we drove up to the lookout where you could see for miles…….

Unfortunately we had to drive through the fire damage from the fires that swept through the area about a month ago - fortunately the town was saved…..

We spent our weekend at textile workshops - all of us doing different courses…
I did embroidery

and F and V did screen printing

R did jewellery making but I didn't take a photo.

Textiles were for sale - kimonos were purchased

and we loved getting back home to see this little person

I then went on to catch up with some OLD friends

and family

before returning home to this….

springtime gardens and wildlife

I've been spending a bit of time sewing, cooking and gardening - all gentle pursuits which aid recovery.

Here's a 'vintage' quilt I'm making while watching all available episodes of Homeland.....

and here's my chicken with preserved lemons and olives!!!!!

 and what follows is an assortment of things that are going on in my little garden:

These came from Evans Head - apparently will do very well in the heat by the pool and don't like too much water.

 hopefully the baby mandarins will stay on there and grown up!

On a sad note......despite all sorts of things put in place to deter evil possums.......

such as tight wire strung along the top of the pool fence (makes it hard for possums to walk on the glass)

and scary pretend varmits...

there is a lot of possum wee making it's way down the wall into my pool

Has anyone got a fail safe solution??????????

post operative

I am now in week seven of my recovery from a total hip replacement.  I went back to work this week - just to see if there was a real life out there.  I am very tired and it has been a hard week but I am happy to continue with it for a few more months or perhaps a year!!!

I had a lovely stay at the beach

it is very restorative to walk along the beach - such a shame that one walk wore me out for the rest of the day and I didn't dare venture into the surf.

The chair I covered for M looks wonderful in her room and she spends many happy hours there reading and drawing

here's evidence of the drawing........

shows what I was doing!!!!

When we got back we had a nice dinner at the local Thai, catching up with local news.

moving on

We are all moving on for the better...

this little fellow got better in the hospital where we all spent time visiting:

He's at home now and doing all the sorts of things he should be doing!!!!!

So I'm home too - this weekend has been a bit of a catch-up":

I fixed up the study - the tree of life blooms again!!!

and bought some new shoes - if you look upside down you will see they've got a cat's face!!  Probably the best thing to do with a cat!

 and I attended to some gardening maintenance.

I also started making a quilt but more of that later.

absence explained

I've been away for a few weeks.  The reason was to persuade this bump to come out and introduce himself to us!

and he came - dear little thing - all 4.5 kilos of him!

Dear little Billy - what a special person you are

a very welcome addition to our family

 and we are so proud of mum and dad

After a few days Daddy took him home

The first Great Escape!!!!         to be continued.........

How to spend $1200 and be happy about it!

Excuses for my garden looking ragged:
1.  It has been raining solidly for about 4 months, interspersed with hot sunny days so everything grows
2.  I work full time
3.  I am over 50(!)
4.  I am going to get a new hip in August and the old one is very sore

So when I heard that the brother of the man who mows my nature strip had been retrenched from his job at the Harbour I asked if he would like to come and help me for a couple of days.
This is the result:

Everything has been clipped and weeded........

And the path down the side is now visible for the first time in about 6 years!

The possum scarer I paid $80 for has done it's job and I even have a passionfruit.....

He worked for 11 hours over two days and took away 5 huge bags of rubbish in his ute so I think that $500 is quite reasonable.

 And the balance of the spending ($700) went on a new back fence which is looking very raw but will be rather nice in a few months when I get some more soil and plant some trees along it.

So I'm on bread and water rations for a while but will enjoy walking around the garden eating an apple!!!