CHOOKS AGAIN AND A BIRTHDAY PARTY

'I know there is something going on in here, if I crouch down they might not see me...'

'Maybe I can find these funny feathered things around the back...'

They have found their perches...

What is she thinking? Is it safe to come out?

Bottoms up as they find their food.

I have three neighbours, all who have their birthdays in June and I have been planning a birthday afternoon tea for a whole month, life getting in the way. One, called June, is having a shoulder operation tomorrow so I thought that was a good 'reason' to lure them here. One of the 'girls' couldn't come owing to a very nasty bug but the show had to go on! Too late to cancel as I didn't get her message until the other two had arrived. I made tiny posies for each of them and presented them when I produced the cake and candles!

It was good fun apart from missing our dear friend.

Have a good day and 'see' you soon.

FARMERS MARKET AND OUR NEW ARRIVALS.

The big one here has been building this magnificent structure in his spare time for a while and at last it is finished. So.....yesterday I went to the ....

FARMERS MARKET in a local town. The big one sadly couldn't come as he had to do some 'cattle work' rather urgently. I bought our new arrivals......

They came home in boxes, six of them, I am sure too many for us but it will be great to be able to give eggs to family and friends... the Melbourne lot are lining up already! We should start to get eggs in a couple of weeks. 

 

The nesting boxes, built with a hinged door on the top so we can collect all the masses of eggs without disturbing the girls too much.

We are a bit concerned about Bear, our rather silly golden retriever who has rushed up barking to the enclosure. He will get used to them we think but we will keep him inside when we start letting them out in a few days time for some entertainment in the grass and around. all exciting.

Their first meal...only joking about the placemat, knife and fork!!

Have a great Sunday, here we have another beautiful North East winter's day, frost in the morning and then the clear skies...beauuutiffffullll!

Socks

A few months ago Kate from Greedy for colour gave me a pair of 'delicious' socks, soft and warm, made of 8 ply wool. I often put them on in the evenings when I need a bit of comfort or just have cold feet.  Just so nice to have snuggling my toes!

We have some close friends who have recently lost their beautiful grandson, only twenty-two months old and an only child. As you can imagine the entire family, extended family and all their many friends are just devastated to have had this little boy for such a brief time. As every-one does, one's thoughts can be about what can be done to help those in the depth of grief. I too wondered and then came up with the 'Kate socks.' I rang her and she thought she might have the same wool which she would send to me, plus her pattern. The NZ post to Australia can be amazingly quick or very  slow but eventually this time the parcel arrived.....and so comes the point of this post! She didn't know whether she would have enough but we both thought I could fiddle a solution. Well, I weighed the socks I was given, weighed the wool Kate sent and THEY WERE EXACTLY THE SAME WEIGHT!! Next step was to divide the wool into two balls of exactly the same weight ...again! Now I have only the very end of the first sock to finish and in the photo you can see the amount of wool left to finish, obviously not the ball next to the sock! I couldn't get over the coincidence, the two amounts being the same and feel the  Universe really wants these socks for the mother to wear and perhaps gain some comfort.

We have had about ten days of drizzling rain, I'm not complaining but the dull misty days do start to get AT you. washing draped in front of the fire...being VERY grateful for the beautiful wood I am given every day...wet doggy smell inside.....yes they could stay out-side but how could i do that to mt friends,,,,dirty cars, puddles to avoid...unless you allow the child within to take over and so on. Today the sun has been visiting for brief periods and I found the eastern rosellas were visiting the bird feeder. The splash of colour is fabulous and very cheering!

I took this photo about half an hour ago in the sunshine and NOW it is raining again!! 

Back to some very over due accounts now, not so much fun but at least the job is a rewarding one!

SOME RECENT WORKS.

It  is about time I showed some of my finished projects, a jumper for a special little girl.
 

This is how it was meant to look all over BUT I lost two balls of the violet wool. I searched everywhere, thought I had lost it somewhere else, went through ALL my stash and then gave up and rearranged my plan.

I had just enough wool to put a few stripes on the sleeves...
 

embroider a flower on a 'vacant' spot...

and declared the jumper finished. I was pleased and it does look very pretty. The said girl loves it and said 'it doesn't even make me feel scratchy'... a high compliment!

Three days later I found the missing wool, in my stash drawer!! Does this mean that the universe decided in it's most knowing way that the jumper would have been too stripey with so many stripes? I don't think I was meant to find those balls until after I had finished knitting because they were where I had looked many times!! I now think it is just right the way it is!!

For a new wee one, Josephine Lilly. I do love the name. I must say the pinks are much nicer than they appear here, the light is not very good today.

A black...would you believe...beanie for a 14 year old grandson. I hate to knit with black but as he never asks for anything I rose to the request and it wasn't too bad with the light shining right onto the knitting and it wasn't a jumper!!

Now have two parcels to send , well, wrap and send. This seems to be challenging for me, I find it hard to find the time to get to the PO and for us it is always a trip in the car, 15 or 25 minutes to get there so not just around the corner.

This is a work in progress and a labour of poignancy and love. Years ago, maybe forty or fifty my mother bought this piece of blanket. She  blanket stitched the two 'cut' edges and left the selvedges as they were. She had this blanket on the beds we used when we stayed with her, in fact there are two of them, the other more in gold tones. I inherited them, used them as spare blankets and when we bought our light coloured lounge suite we decided to put it over the couch that the big one and I always sit on, a two seater. the blanket is just not quite big enough so I decided to give it a new lease  of life and as our carpet is turquoisey I thought this would brighten everything up. BUT I couldn't bear to undo Mum's handiwork. I have completed three sides of the first row and think I probably need to do three or four...we'll see! I wonder where it will go when I no longer need it...maybe it will have an upgrade then too!

Have a lovely weekend !
I am having a fiddle with the blog so if the header is looking a bit odd...not in the right spot, please bear with me until I work out what to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AN 'AVALANCHE' OF IBIS, WINTERSWEET MEANDERINGS

We have had an 'avalanche' of ibis around the farm over the last couple of weeks, searching for grubs and insects. They look like something from Alfred Hitchcock, or perhaps from outer space, quite amazing.

On coming home from NZ I discovered the most wonderful scent in my daughter's garden..I tracked it down to a large shrub, one of my very favourites, wintersweet or chimonanthus praecox. It has the most divine scent, on a very ordinary shrub and as the leaves turn and drop, the waxy, creamy flowers appear. this bush is almost a tree and I have been able to pick large pieces of it but even a small sprig can waft around a room. every where I have lived I have planted one, without a lot of success, perhaps not flowering whilst we lived together or just turning up their toes. they don't like drought when they are young either...I don't like it either!!

However I now have one growing thanks to a very thoughtful daughter and son-in-law and it does have flowers, delicious. It is a scent from my own growing up, very reminiscent of my mother who like me had many favourites, whatever it was at the time was the all time favourite. This trait seems to be a family gene as it has passed down to the next generation as well! I so wish you could all smell it too.  

I love the shadows, the play of light here, a glimpse of Kate's [greedyforcolour] woodshed from her bathroom window. Just something pretty to leave you with today. Have a lovely day....always.....yesterday seemed so full of other's problems that the big one and I sat over lunch being grateful and determined to enjoy all that we have.

SECOND DAY IN A ROW

I can't believe I am back again today. Today just feels a good day to be alive, after  another white, white frost. Now the sky is blue as blue, the air is crisp. I have taken a few photos but I haven't loaded them as I want to get on with my day and say HELLO! My poor jonquils were frozen, even the stems and it was as white as far as I could see into the paddocks but has gone now with the sun warming the grass.

When in NZ with the family I had to have a couple of days in bed with an infection. It wasn't all bad as Kate's studio is my bedroom and I am up almost in the trees. I had fun with the camera, experimenting with different settings, watching the sparrows in the trees AND  being with Kate as she made her beautiful quilt. Numerous cups of tea, chatting and reading, reading, reading. And the weather was awful, raining and cold, so not all bad at all. Then Archie, Kate's elder son, was sick too so he snuggled down with me as well!!

what a way to be in bed!

A tooth fell out!

Archie went to cubs.

Cousins played in the sun, precious time as this family is off to France for a year.

The beginning of Autumn.

Sparrows in the treetops.

Don't forget Kate at greedyforcolour is having a gorgeous giveaway! Worth looking at!

Have a fun day, enjoy your weekend!

BACK AGAIN!

 School holidays, boys, water, mud and bikes do go together!

The boys...grandsons from Melbourne here with their mother for some valued R&R, have built this ramp over a drain. They have reinforced their 'jump' with layers of rocks through the soil and have spent the last few days . I am not too sure of the expression on this face ...joy, apprehension or maybe just amazement at his remarkable feat! The wooden ramp was built during another holidays with two older boy cousins from Perth for their skateboards.

When they had finished yesterday it was straight into the bath  for them, clothes into the washing machine.

Today they are in different directions, one helping Pa to build a skate board rail and the other is playing with water colours...and paper thank goodness!  While dinner is cooking we have all been been drawing and  all improved so much just with a few nights of regular practice. Some people are so lucky as their drawing skills are just there but I do believe most people could learn to draw and with practice they can be more than capable.

A parcel for our two year old granddaughter in Perth. It was fun making the kittykat, part crochet and part knitted but not filled too much, more cuddley I thought.

Since I last wrote I have been to New Zealand to stay with Kate at Greedy for colour. 

These flowers were a 'nosegay' picked by my nephew for his wife, my niece, from along our walk, bound by grass, just gorgeous.

And these from Kate's lovely mother-in-law, gorgeous !!.

The computer is being REALLY SLOW, I think it needs some attention from someone more computer literate than I am so will leave holiday photos to later. 

It feels good to be 'back' and will try to be much more regular, have I sad that before? it does sound familiar!! But I will say goodbye for today and 'see you soon'!