Rainbow Scrap Challenge for June and Other Goings On

Life has settled down since we returned from our holiday.  Therefore, I have already completed my three blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

It wasn't too hard to decide on fabrics this time as the colours were aqua and turquoise.

The block for the Squared Away Sampler this  month is called "Country Lanes" and was a sinch to make.  I love the way you can get a totally different look by rearranging the colours.

I'm linking up with So Scrappy here.

In other happenings, Chookyblue celebrated the sixth birthday of her Chookshed.  As is the tradition, we baked a cake.  It does seem a little unfair that the girls partying miss out on a slice, but Mick and I enjoyed it and the thought was there.

The weather here is turning wintery, as is to be expected.   We haven't seen a red sunrise for quite some time, so when we woke to this on Friday we were hopeful of receiving some rain.   We were treated to 8mm, which was greatly appreciated.

Mick has been lamenting our lack of autumn colour in the front garden.  We have two deciduous street trees and a crab apple at the side street frontage, but nothing out the front.  I love the sky we had last weekend.

We don't want anything too big or dense though.  But where to plant one, if anywhere?  The wattle tree in the middle of the above photo was rather straggly so we decided to sacrifice it.

We decided that a silver birch would be rather nice.  Tall, rather than spreading, and not too dense.   Last weekend we found a nicely shaped one and planted it where the wattle was.  Mick then decided it looked lonely and that we could fit one in the other garden bed.  Fortunately, the garden centre had another nicely shaped tree.  It made sense to plant them both at the same time.  We think it looks much better now.  Our crab apple was rather messy.  I don't think it has ever been pruned, so we got in and gave it a fair tidy up.  The other shrubs will get a haircut after the remaining wattles flower in spring.

Remember at the beginning of autumn I was amazed at the number of raspberries coming on our bushes.  Well, we have had so many raspberries.  It has been a real treat.  The plants were just dug up out of a friend's garden, so we had no idea of their variety.  They are obviously an autumn fruiting variety, so rather than just cutting out the canes that had fruited, we have been able to trim them all right back. I forgot to take a before photo, but they were rather unruly.  The beds look very bare at the moment and the green bin is full of prunings for tonight's collection.  There were still some raspberries that we picked and ate while pruning. Some self sown sweet peas are coming up next to the arch.   

The vege gardens are looking rather bare, with only some spinach and parsley remaining in the raised beds.  We will plant peas, snow peas and broad beans very soon.  In our side gardens all the dahlias and other frost tender plants have been cut back, ready for when they reappear in spring.  Everything else has been given a tidy up.  We really only have the rose to prune now, but I will wait till more of the leaves drop.  We are so enjoying having a manageable garden and most importantly, water.  Mick continues to rave about having squishy green lawn.  It doesn't take much to keep us happy.

Finally, I have to share this photo of Joey.  He generally isn't allowed on this couch, but he was settled on the woollen quilt.  Mick is a big softy and tucked him in.  He was rather settled in his little nest.

Today I have been working on my Verandah View quilt for June's OMG challenge.  It is going quite well, so I'd better get back to it so I can show a finish fairly soon.