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.

 

Riches in the rubble

Just when I thought it was still a paddock of rubble, this is what I found today on my garden walk.....

some pretty alyssum

 Sam's music

 jonquils

stacks of tree seedlings

a solitary marble 

and a star flower.
Such treasures among the rubble and weeds. We are going to have a go at digging up the gum seedlings and transplanting them along our boundary. I know they don't appreciate being disturbed but they will shortly be trampled so it's worth a try.There appears to be huge numbers of them.

Our kitchen garden needs to be removed for the builders. Today I dug up as many of the herbs as I could and put them in pots. They are all so healthy and green.....it was such a shame to disturb them. The mint and parsley will add some fresh green to the kitchen bench. 

These jonquils are some of the bulbs I transplanted from a clump. Plenty of room to multiply now.

And this little group have been blooming under the oak tree for many years.

Beautiful Belle ...today's blocks. The brown is not really me but I'll still run with it! 

Another Winter quilt called Soul Blossoms. Our new room will run off the library/computer room.

Sooooo.......check out my new jarmies!!!!!

Abraham Darby...you are beautiful!
(Bill has started pruning......glad he didn't start with this one. )

Wimmera and Mallee visit

We have arrived home from Mum and Dad's to what must surely be the coldest couple of days I can remember.  
This quilt is called Good Folks and I love having it around in the Winter. 

Before we left here last Saturday, Bill did some hand mowing out the front. These photos were taken looking through our bedroom window.
 It was nice coming home to see everything looking so green.

We  harvested some carrots and parsnips from Dad's vegie patch. They were delicious.
 Dennis, Raylene and Marcy came over for Bill's roast pork lunch with us and Raylene brought along her legendary trifle for dessert.

We went for a drive to Hopetoun to show Mum and Dad the Bush Mallee Retreat. We almost had the place to ourselves.
 Sandwiches and coffee from the Bon Bon cafe on the edge of Lake Lascelles. It was very tempting to get the bonfire going!!!

 I couldn't help throwing these in......gosh, we love this boy.

Definitely time to get those Winter quilts out.
I  sewed some more Belle blocks today. There are three sets to go now.

Stay warm and well everyone.
No building works to report on yet.