Prickly Brains

We visited the Albany Show a couple of weeks ago, always interesting to see a variety of things.  There was log chopping...

 And cutie pie alpacas...

 And more cutie pie alpacas...

 And impressive huge metal sculpture...

 And bizarre cacti that look like brains...

 And magnificent poultry...

 On the home front there are loads of little birds buzzing around, gathering nesting material and showing off to each other.  This magnificent fellow is regularly outside the kitchen window, a fabulous Splendid Wren.

 The weather is very strange, it still feels like we are in winter with it being wet and hovering around 17 degrees, but suddenly we will be blessed with a sunny, warm morning.  Neo is content to burrow under the blankets until the temperatures rise.

 Steve harvested his fantastic crop of garlic.  They have grown really well this year, the globes are huge and very healthy looking.  They are drying over near the shed now, then we'll strip the browned off foliage from them and store it in a basket in the pantry.

 For our reference, this is the water tank level on November 1st.

 We've been looking through a few more boxes of Barbara and Eric's things.  We came across this interesting sword.  We believe it is a replica of an old Chinese ceremonial sword.  I'd love to decipher the text on it!

Until next time... xx

Memories

Steve's mum Barbara left us on September 30th after a long long journey with Alzheimers, she's flying free with Eric now xx 
We are so grateful to the caring staff of their nursing home for looking after Barbara and Eric since 2012. 
After all this time Steve felt ready to have a look through Barbara and Eric's possessions that we packed up in 2012, and we had a healing time reminiscing over hundreds of slides of days gone by, and remembering the stories behind ornaments and trinkets.
Goodbye dear Barbara, we miss you, and we miss you too dear Eric xx

 One night last week we drove up to the War Memorial in Albany, there is a wonderful art installation to see.  It's called Field Of Light by Bruce Munro.  He has installed 16000 lights all along the Avenue Of Honour, that pay homage to the 41000 troops that left the shores of Albany destined for the battlefields of WW1.  I believe the lights are representative of the souls of those who lost their lives. 
We parked the car, and with many other people, walked slowly in the dark up the long, winding avenue, surrounded by magicial, beautiful lights and the shadows of the enormous trees lining the road. It was amazing, not only in its beauty, but is also really made us reflect on the devastating loss of life in wartime.  It is well worth a visit, and the installation will remain in place until just after ANZAC Day 2019.

 Until next time...xx

Repurposing

We are caught up in Grand Final excitement today, come on WC Eagles!

 Neo, on the other hand, is uninterested in muscly, sweaty men chasing a leather ball.

 He does enjoy being warm and gooey atop his bookshelf after the fire has warmed the upper air.

 His buddy Voldemort has awoken from his hibernation and is back basking on the settee.

 Voldemort is rather hungry after his big sleep so he's been stuffing his face on banana.

 The male Splendid wrens are colouring up in readiness for the breeding season.  His girlfriend is not quite as spectacular, but cute nonetheless.

 Brows has taken to perving in the bedroom window waiting for her breakfast.

 And Lucy sits right outside the door.

 Do you remember me telling you about Rabbit (Lucy's last joey) and how she was a new mama?  Well I finally got a photo of her bub, cute.

 Rabbit is on the right, and on the left is one of the boys, his name is Pretty Boy Floyd, or Floyd for short.  He has a beautiful face.

 On the left is Pixie, Growler's joey, and on the right is Chevie, Split's joey.

 There's Split at the back and another boy, Pawlie, at the front.

 I dont know who this one is at the front, he has interesting facial markings.  Still thinking of a name.

 We decided to throw caution to the wind and support the local Albany strawberry grower.  $16 for 4 kilos of magnificent strawberries, with not a needle in sight :-)

 We've eaten them au naturale, with ice cream, with cream, made them into syrup, and I also tried dehydrating them.  I have to say we were a bit underwhelmed with the dehydrated ones but it's good to experiment.

 I have a beautiful teapot that has a broken lid so this week I decided to repurpose it, as I have another teapot anyway.  What do you think?  I potted my African Violet into it, I think it looks fabulous!

 The start of a new crochet project, I've put a couple of other projects aside that I'm not in the mood for.  This is called the I Heart Granny lap blanket, I've chosen a colourway that is totally not me, but the colours just sprang into my head.  It's for me to keep me warm when I watch tv.  It's a little challenging to do but I'm enjoying it very much.

Until next time....xx

Softly, Slowly, Gently

It's good to remind ourselves of the beautiful things around us, no matter how small and insignificant.  My cliveas are bursting into bloom, huge, happy orange flowers that last for weeks.  So vibrant and lovely.

 We are still abounding in citrus, this was my haul of lemons, limes and oranges the other day.  Leaving the oranges until they fall off the tree seems to be the trick here, they are so lovely and sweet now.

 I love this sight.  Steve is the bread maker of the household and when he makes rolls he lets them rise by the fire.  Which reminds me, looking at that photo, that glass needs a clean! :-)

 Walks along the beach, rugged up against the cold.  Cosy Corner is a beautiful place, and I love the sight of the line of wind turbines off in the distance.

 A wee rest on the steps before we walked back to the car.

 There are more and more bulging pouches, and the start of the tiny joey faces popping out.  This mum is Jane, so named because she has no markings and is plain as plain, but I am interested to see her joey has a nice big white mark on its forehead...makes it much easier to identify them later!

 This mum is Nibble, so named because her right ear has all these little bits missing on the edge, like it's been nibbled.  Her joey is a little overdue for becoming independent, look at this size of that pouch!

 And here is said joey, who popped out of the pouch a few minutes later, had a big scratch and then proceeded to wallop mother.  Feisty little one!  It's amazing something that size can fit into the pouch.

 This is Rabbit with her very first big pouch, Steve caught a glimpse of a tiny nose poking out yesterday, my ambition over the next week is to get a photo.  I am feeling very grandmotherly towards this joey.  Rabbit is Lucy's last joey and we have known Rabbit since she was a baby, so feel very close to her baby and looking forward to meeting it.

 And here's the dear old girl Lucy, up at the house for breakfast.  She is accompanied by Brows who is scouting around for any oats that Lucy might have missed.  Brows is the chick of Peg, a one footed female magpie that we've known for the whole 6 years we've been here.  Sadly Peg broke her other leg a couple of months ago and we were unable to catch her and she disappeared, presumably she has died.  Brows was still learning the ways of a magpie from her mum Peg and has sort of adopted us.  Her name is Brows at present because she has little white eyebrows in her juvenile feather colouring.  She is rather daring the way she wanders around under Lucy, who could squash her any time.

 Oh yes, I can finally show you my secret crochet project, now it has been delivered to its new owner.  I made dad a lap blanket for Fathers Day, it's called an Ellipse Blanket.  Just the right size for keeping legs warm when watching the tellie. 

 I went so far as to add Dad's initials on a little crocheted disc in the corner, the design taken from his wedding ring.  I'm so glad you like your blanket Dad, I enjoyed making it for you.  xx

Until next time... xx

For The Love Of Patience

The cat was astounded this morning, astounded.  He kept wandering around, looking at us with a shocked expression, not quite knowing what to do with himself.

 Why?  Because Steve hadn't lit the fire!  It was a tad warmer this morning and we thought we'd leave lighting the fire until later.  No, unacceptable.  The cat was horrified, so Steve lit him, HIM, a fire!  ha ha ha

 Here he is, placated, although you wouldn't know it, as he refused to smile for the camera.

 Speaking of keeping warm, I am so darn proud of myself, having succeeded for the first time ever in making myself something to wear.  It's a bit different when the thing you are making has to be a specific size, unlike blankets that can turn out any old size and will do.

 Ta da!  Here am I modelling my crocheted cardigan, and it fits me, hooray! :-)

 It will suit my needs well, being one that doesn't close at the front.  I dont feel the cold that much and don't like being drowned in warm clothes, so this will be a nice, light woollie to keep me just warm enough. 

 Now, I must share with you some sad news.  Last week we said goodbye to Patience, one of the most lovely wild kangaroos we've had the pleasure to know.  She chose to be our friend which was such a privilege.

 We presume that she must have been hand reared when she was young, as she included us in her life all the time.  Patience would appear on the doorstep like clockwork early each morning, and patiently (hence her name) wait until we woke up and then asked hopefully for a wee bit of breakfast....how could we refuse that beautiful face.

 She brought her babies to meet us, what a privilege when a doe will allow her tiny joey out of the pouch in the presence of humans, such trust.

 She spent most of her time on our property, napping away in her favourite places.

Sadly Patience broke her foreleg, and although we did everything could for her, including persuading her inside our orchard to keep her safe, then getting the wildlife vet to come out and splint her arm, she started looking very unwell and  quietly went to sleep a few nights later.  We think she was quite an old girl, perhaps about 11, and we'd like to think she's had a good life.  Goodbye beautiful Patience xx

Until next time... xx