Thursday, 13 March 2014

Football cards...only on Fridays!

Whilst flicking through the paper this morning, I noticed an ad for the 2014 football cards.

Amy has often said that one of her highlights as a little girl was when Bill  reached into his shirt pocket and produced  two packets of football cards for her and Sam. This was only ever on a Friday!



 Luckily Sam's album was inside the house. 
Not sure what year that would be.....thoughts???

Sadly, Amy's album was in the gazebo and was burnt in the fire. However, in one of our rummages through the ashes, Amy found this.......

Some more football cards in a lovingly made school pottery mug.....this too is Sam's, found just as it appears here.



But, it's a new season and we have just begun to organise a  family footy tipping competition. (thanks Ned ) Bill has fashioned this "gorgeous" trophy for the lucky winner.  Can't think why the black and white ribbon would be adorning it....


Wednesday, 12 March 2014

It's all about the people.

We have had some truly wonderful people here over the last few weeks....many that we know and just as many that we don't know. 

A couple in particular who came with buckets, gloves, rubbish bags and a slab of water bottles and returned three times to see if there was anything else they could get for us. They were happy to just be known as Sally from Shepparton and her friend Paul, whose parents lived nearby.

And then there were the gorgeous wildlife warriors who had taken time off work to check for injured animals. 

Sadly, I didn't get photos of any of those people. We were still all reeling from the shock I think.

When faced with the prospect of clearing all this...




........we couldn't have picked a better team. These guys did a fantastic job working in very dirty conditions......and a can of Red Bull for breakfast must surely help!!!


Oh, someone must have told him about our new photo shoot location !!!! 


Tuesday, 11 March 2014

Was it the sprinklers ?

Before we left our house on the day of the fire, Bill turned three sprinklers on..two at the front of the house ....

and one at the back near Amy's campervan, affectionately known as Bertie .........
This is how Bertie was found that night with burnt grass right up to it. Amy had only purchased Bertie one month previously and had great plans for her   (yes, it's a her !!)

 Painting had begun and there was plenty of sprucing up to do in anticipation of Bertie's first trip away. 


We made some cushions and a quilt....( or at least I did ! )



 Bertie's Quilt took pride of place across the back of the seat.  The tablecloth was an op shop find for $4. Bertie was ready to go...... 

 I guess the firemen must have turned the sprinklers off at some stage.

  I suppose we will never really know what part those sprinklers played.......but I do know that Bill would put those sprinklers on again in a heartbeat.


Monday, 10 March 2014

Yesterday's blog post was supposed to have a video of Pa's mulcher. If you go back and try again you will find that it works this time. 

This is the view from my sewing room at the moment.( also known as Jake's room/ Flynn's room/spare room ) 


And this is what is in the garden bed under the window right now.
My three beautiful daphne bushes looking very parched....in fact probably dead ....in fact definitely dead I would say. I grew these from cuttings and was very proud of them. One of my great delights is the smell of daphne in winter. We have a lovely healthy plant to replace it. (thankyou Ibby )

So I decided it was time to sew and have a play with some colour......... 


The writing is on some fabric that Ruth gave me (thank you lovely lady )and I used some leftovers from Bertie's Quilt.
Not finished yet but I'm loving these colours.




It was a beautiful night here last night and the little pooches were back. * Sigh*

Sunday, 9 March 2014

Pa's mulching machine

My Dad is also a great fixer of things and loves to invent his own versions of.........well, everything really! He fashioned a mulcher out of bits and pieces to pulverize cow manure for the garden. Twelve months ago on his 88th birthday, with much fanfare, we had an official unveiling of the machine ready for testing.






We could still recognize some pieces but won't expect Dad to fix it this time.......



  This is the old stable that I had just converted into a potting shed . It was covered in a beautiful white climbing rose called Lamarque. You can see the long cylinder from the mulcher lying on the ground.


You can just see the top of the stable above the archway covered in the the white climbing rose.
We will have so much mulching material to look forward to.....there won't be another mulcher quite like Pa's Mulcher though!