Beautiful white and Bird-man Bill

I thought today was going to be a blog-less day.
Then just like that, Bird-man Bill spotted these little cuties bopping around in the grassy bits out the front.

The photo is blurry but the best we could do from a distance. 
They are the tiniest little things...maybe only 10 cms long. We have never seen them here before but that may be because they are so small and difficult to see. Bill couldn't wait to get the bird book out to start researching their identity.
You guessed it.......the red-browed finch! Very common apparently. 
They have a deep red, conical beak and a thick scarlet  eye stripe.
That brings our bird sighting tally to 72!!!

I love colour.
So it may seem a bit odd that I have such a fondness for white flowers too. There is something about the purity of them that appeals to me. 
When you look closely,  they are all so simple and beautiful.

viburnum

primulas

alyssum

White daphne with it's very first floret open. This is the first time we have had flowers on it. It came from a cutting and was planted near the the granny flat and luckily survived the fire. Thanks Jamesy.

There is so much to love in a country garden and we know how lucky we are to be here. It's all about
 the sounds, the smells, the sights and the colours....all the things that are present in a town garden too, but on a larger scale.
We have learnt to share our garden with the wildlife as well, including rabbits, hares, kangaroos and all manner of birds that feed on our fruit trees.
 I'm not sure which of those have taken a fancy to our white belladonna lilies.......

The frog pond has received enough rain to keep it almost full. ( another 5mms today) The frogs were very vocal as I walked passed this afternoon. I wish we knew what they were.
The relocation of the jonquils and daffodils around the dam has made an overcast day look so much brighter. I missed quite a few so will get them next time and add even more.

The eucalypt seedlings haven't frozen to death like I expected....in fact has that one grown?????? 

Or is it just me?????

Building nests and rugging up

There haven't been any garden strolls for several days now. It's been way too cold.
Not so for our little magpie family. Despite the freezing temperatures, they have been diligently gathering bits and pieces of nest making material.... and it seems as though we have that in abundance! We counted 9 of them foraging just near our back door. We are glad there are still enough suitable trees here for them to raise their little families.

I did manage to rug up and go outside a few days ago to dig up another 90 eucalypt seedlings. (that's what I'm calling them at this stage anyway!)
They have all been replanted and watered in with Seasol. They could very well have frozen to death out there by now though.
Wouldn't it be amazing if they all grew!

We farewelled  Bill's precious moke yesterday. It has been taken to a new home up the road for "who knows what". It has given us lots to smile about.

There were a number of old family treasures that were burnt in the fire. Bill had always thought that this crocheted blanket was one of them. He remembers it being on his bed as a little boy. He thinks it may have been made by his grandmother, Isobel Mitchell. We found it in a cupboard a while ago much to his delight.

I noticed these gorgeous crocheted blankets on Pintrest the other day. I adore this one.....

Love these colours too.

 I am going to teach myself to crochet and maybe try to do some blocks to replace the damaged ones in Bill's old blanket.

I happened to find this patchwork quilt top in my sewing room  cupboard. ( Fancy that!) It's been made from scraps of my Soul Blossoms quilt. 
I have some borders and binding in mind to finish it.
If only I could just concentrate on one thing at a time instead of leaping from one thing to another.........! 

Today's plane tragedy has been shocking and very sad.
 It reminds us to be so grateful for what we have.

Stay safe everyone.

Desperate sewing and lamp love

Luckily the skies were grey again today.

 It was way too cold to be gathering more gum tree seedlings as planned so 

I have been sewing like a madwoman. It's a birthday quilt for Flynn and it needed to be pinned and quilted.  That's what I should have been doing instead of making cushions! 

(The plate and the vintage wooden cotton reels are just for show!) 

I will post a proper photo when Flynn receives it in a couple of weeks time.....Mmmm, that's how long it takes for them to receive our mail!



Bill headed out early this morning to start moving the sleepers from the kitchen garden. But it started to rain and that was that!

One good thing about grey days is that you can turn all the lamps on without feeling guilty.
 I love lamps and they have been lighting up the gloom all day.

 I managed to dash out at one stage and take a photo of this orange ( or is it scarlet?) rose, name unknown. It looked so bright out there on such a bleak day.

Dad was having the time of his life doing his own brickwork when Luke called in on them yesterday! We have no idea how he managed to get down and remove those bricks....the first two rows had become a bit wonky and needed to be re laid. 
Good job Pa!

Stay warm everyone.

Grey skies and little gums

It's been freezing here, but the combination of grey skies and sunshine can look so wonderful. 

We love being able to see the weather in all it's glory out here on the farm.

 The new growth on the trees stands out in this photo. Bill seems to think that the tree we see through the rose arch is dead. If that is so, then we will have a whole new look to our borrowed landscape.
We've had to prop the bench up over the last few days to stop it falling over in the wind.
Bill has started rose pruning.  It's a huge task getting around to all of them, made slightly easier this year due to some early unexpected pruning of sorts!

And out the front, this clear yellow beauty is our first daffodil for the season. I also love those strong green spears and buds ready to burst.

Yesterday I began gently digging up the little eucalypt seedlings from the rubble that seem to have sprouted like nobody's business out there.
Who knows which tree they have come from....it'll probably be the giant one...and they'll all end up surviving and causing endless trouble in the future. Somehow all that doesn't seem relevant right now. I managed to collect over 90 yesterday and replanted them straight away into holes that Bill had dug for me around the boundary fence line.
To be perfectly honest, by the time I had finished I was starting to wonder whether I'd been lovingly tending weeds!!!! Time will tell. On second thoughts, after 3 hours I was probably just hungry!
I will get more tomorrow(when I can move again) and hope that the site preparation holds off a bit longer.

Some time over the weekend I also finished the blocks for Belle.
Now it's time to move the blocks around making sure that the colours are spread evenly and auditioning a suitable border. It all stays like this for a few days while I contemplate each arrangement.  Bill hates loves walking around it each day!

He thinks it'll make the perfect quilt for when he's sick! Mmm pretty busy I must admit, but that's how I wanted it to be. It needs that border for our eyes to settle on something.(quilt speak)
Having seen this photo on the big screen I will move those darker bits around again. It might have to stay there a bit longer.

I became a bit sidetracked when I decided to sew a granny square block for a bit of a change. Trouble was, it was too big for the rest of the blocks I had already made. ( I made an adjustment on my machine that wasn't necessary). 
.......so now it's a cushion.

And because I'd been poking around in the granny square box, I decided to try a cushion that I hadn't made before with some scraps from Bertie's quilt.

The strips are folded...ohh so easy.
And besides.... those Winter quilts needed cushions.

We are optimistic that Mum and Dad will continue to improve. We have left them by themselves for the first time in 9 weeks heaven forbid! They are probably very happy about that.

Can't wait to get out in our garden again.