Cuddly Lilly and Hungry Voldemort

As Easter approached there was the most amazing moon.  I woke up in the wee small hours two nights running to find the light of a glowing, golden, full moon shining across the bed.  This photo really doesn't do the colour justice but setting a camera up whilst half asleep is a big fat fail, so I settled for auto and hoped for the best.

 Even as dawn broke the moon was still there, hovering above the horizon looking magnificent.

 On Good Friday the family arrived.  We were blessed by a visit from Michelle, Paul, Sam and our granddaughters Stevie-Lee and Riley.  It was so good to see you all :-)

 There is nothing, NOTHING, more heartwarming than hand-made cards.  They are proudly displayed on my fridge now.  :-)

I organised a range of things for the girls to do.  I made them both a scarf, then I showed Riley how to make pom-poms that we attached to the ends of the scarf.  I think she wore it all weekend.  Stevie preferred the idea of a fringe, and as she was busy playing an engrossing and imaginative game with a small doll alongside me, asked me to do it for her ha ha. 

We went and visited our neighbour who kindly showed the girls her miniature horse Star with her most divine little foal Lilly, who adores being cuddled upside down on a lap.

We went for walks, watched the kangaroos, did jigsaws, fed the chickens, and checked out the progress of Voldemort the King Skink's breakfast.  He lives under the outside settee and I've discovered he loves eating banana and cherry tomatoes so I chop some up and leave it out.  We can watch through the window when he gets hungry.

 Neo is engrossed with Voldemort and follows the skink's progress around the outside of the house by moving from window to window with his nose pressed close, watching intently.

 And when he is bored with watching Voldemort, he sits on his favourite chair by the sliding door and watched the bouncy little wrens eating their breakfast of dessicated coconut outside on the path.  It's like Neo personal wildlife video :-)

 After we said goodbye to the family, we had the pleasure of a visit from Ange and Amy.  How many photos of kangaroos did you take Amy? :-)  It was wonderful to see you both.

 On the home garden front, the tomatoes are all but finished (thank god for that!).  We've reckon we've grown over 100 kilos this year which is really great but a lot of work to preserve them in various ways and I'm glad it's finished with.  Look at all the colours of the varieties we grew this year, so pretty! 

 I am fascinated to discover that down here the figs ripen much much later than Perth.  This variety is called Black Genoa, which is the tree we also grew in our Willetton back garden.  We used to get the start of ripening figs at the end of January in Perth, but here they have just started, in mid April.  Granted this summer has been weird and everything has been a few weeks late but this is a big difference.  But no matter, we are thrilled with our first Black Genoa figs, and they are HUGE!! Look at this one, it's about the size of a pear! 

 On the craft front, I've downed tools for a few weeks whilst we've had visitors.  But in progress is something I'm making Riley for her birthday in June. 

 I am way behind with the current 'crochet along' blanket that I'm doing on the internet, but no matter as I'll catch up eventually.  These are the squares from week 1.  We make three of the same pattern but changing the order of our pre-chosen colour scheme. 

Steve very kindly made me a blocking board (hey Paul, do you recognise this wood?  It's the offcut from your bar top!).  Often when you crochet you need to block your work, it can be a bit out of shape, so you peg it out and dampen it and stretch it into the shape and size it should be, then when it dries it stays that way.  As this blanket needs 36 squares all ten inches square, it will make the sewing them together so much simpler if I have blocked them all, then they are exactly the same size.

Embroidery isn't something I spend much time on at home, I usually do embroidery when I go to the Tuesday group in town, and this is what I'm working on slowly but surely.  This type of stitching is called canvaswork and I've been making it up as I go along, all I knew was that I wanted to stitch a line of houses, sort of like something reminiscent of an English seaside village street.  It's coming along okay.  The eventual use for this is as a decorative top to a door stopper.  I am going to stitch up a patchwork cube filled with rice to sit in front of the bedroom door to stop it slamming, and I thought this might look nice sewn on the top of it. 

Time for a cuppa, see you next time xx