My Other February Goals Check In

Now that I have checked in with my stitching goals it is time to see how I went on out other goals for the month.

1.    READ A BOOK

Happily, I can report that I read two books.  Not high brow literature, but still two books.

We popped into the local library earlier in the month and they were having a sale of their obsolete books, along with books that have been donated to the library.

I was very pleased to see this book.  This is from a series of books written by the author of the Phryne Fisher series, but features Corinna Chapman, a size 20 baker who lives and works in an art deco apartment building in Melbourne.  There are crimes to solve, and has a cast of the interesting characters who live in and around the apartment block.  A good fun read.  I think I only have one more of this series to read.

The second is a book that has been sitting on my bookshelf for some years.  It even survived the major book cull of a couple of years ago.  There is a story behind this book.

You see, neither of my parents enjoy reading books.  My Mum is a crafter, so she has always been knitting, or crocheting or sewing while sitting down.  My Dad didn't have a great education, and although he could read and his spelling and grammer were spot on, he didn't enjoy reading as he said he was too slow.  When we were kids Mum always took us to the library, but Dad insisted that we read non fiction books.  I must say that to read a book full of words seemed rather daunting to the young me.  One of my friends owned all the Famous Five and Secret Seven books, but I thought they would be too hard to read. 

We did have one book at home "Reach for the Sky" by Paul Brickhill.  The story of Douglas "Tin Legs" Bader.  When I was about 10, I read it.  That was my introduction to reading "big books".  I then discovered the Billabong series and then Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden and my favourites "The Dana Girls Mysteries". I was hooked.  We had a great library teacher in primary school and she made the library a fun place to hang out in.  A few of us became "Library Monitors" and were able to put the books away and check them out when being borrowed.  We also had a couple of fund raisers and purchased a carpet square and a few bean bags for the library.  I loved it all.

When I went to high school the library was quite a different place, although, as it was a brand new school, quite funky in a late 1970s way.  There were however, no Dana Girl Mystery books.

Over the years I have come across plenty of Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden books, but not Dana Girl Mysteries and no one seemed to have even heard of them...... until one lady I know announced she owns the complete collection.  I didn't even know who the author was.  It turns out to be the same author as Nancy Drew.  Eventually, I came across this one book and keep it as a reminder of my introduction to the love of reading.  When I re-read it, I found it to be rather corny, as expected, but can see why a ten or eleven year old would enjoy it.  It will stay on the book shelf.

Yes, "Reach for the Sky" is sitting quite near it, and I have pretty well all of the Billabong series, some of which I have never read.  That may have to be a goal for the future.

Now......back to February's goals.......

2.    TRY A NEW RECIPE

Jenny of Elefantz shared a recipe for Matrimony Slice on her blog earlier in the month.  It sounded tasty, and most of all, easy to make, so I just whipped it up one afternoon, using home made cumquat marmalade we made last year.  They were rather yummy, and as they were still warm out of the oven when we first tried them, Mick requested ice cream to accompany them.  Yep, good.  The recipe has been filed in the recipe folder for future use.

3.    FRIDAY FUN DAY

Well, sort of......it was just on a Saturday morning.

A few weeks ago we had a bleak, damp Saturday morning, so we went into town and had a nice morning tea at a new coffee shop/bakery.  Then we adjourned to the art gallery.  There was an exhibition that looked intriguing that was to finish fairly soon.  The artist was Adrienne Doig and the exhibition was entitle "It's About Me". I had seen the poster advertising the exhibition, which caught my attention, but knew nothing about what she did.

It transpires that she hails from Katoomba and is a textile artist, among other things.

These are the two pictures featured above.  Just about all of the artworks have a self portrait of Adrienne included in them.  I was fascinated, and loved seeing the vintage quilts that she had incorporated.

Upon closer inspection, the vintage quilts are real make do and mend scrappy quilts.  Check out the joins within the block pieces.

There were some pieces where she had European tapestries with Australian flora and fauna embroidered on them and then her portrait appliqued.  So clever.

This is the piece that was on the advertising poster that initially caught my eye.

And another with a vintage quilt in the background.

There were a couple which were thrift shop tapestries where she had then added herself into the scene.

This one was actually petit point and I noticed had a red sold sticker on it.

This collection made us smile.  The background of all these works are souvenir tea towels.  

This was a project where she started to make a cardboard cutout of herself every day, but it has now become more of an ongoing, slower process.  There are some fun ones in there.

And, finally, a collection of little dolls of herself and sometimes her husband.

We had no idea what to expect from the exhibition, but both came away having really enjoyed, it and with a smile on our faces.  One very clever lady, with a sense of humour.

I thought that Mum might like to see it, and when I requested she be able to visit from the nursing home they allowed us to go to the art gallery, as it is pretty easy to socially distance there.  I was very pleased that Mum also enjoyed it.  

The following Saturday we had another nice coffee break.

This time the weather was much nicer and we enjoyed the park like area at the old Tremains Flour Mill precinct, which is being rejuvenated.

Then, on the Friday just gone, we went into town for the "Picnic on the Parade" as part of the lead up to the Super Cars racing at Mount Panorama on the weekend.  This is the first time they have had racing in the format of two races of 250kms, over two days, with lots of support races.  You can thank COVID-19 for that.

Anyway, we wandered down late in the afternoon, and as it was hot, treated ourselves to a nice Annie's ice cream.

The gardens are looking a picture in Kings Parade, especially after the garden beds being bare over the last 18 months, due to the drought and water restrictions.

Of course, the carillon is the feature of the park and was looking good in the afternoon sun.

Sadly, the actual event was very low key and pretty much a fizzer, but we did go along and do our bit.

So, no actual Friday Fun Day, but we did have a couple of nice little interludes.

4.    MOTORCYCLE RIDE

No, once again, nothing to report.

5.    WEEKEND AWAY IN THE CARAVAN

No, but that was expected.  That is all about to change.  We can't wait.

Now, what else did we get up to during the month?

Our garden has been doing well and the tiger lily is always spectacular.

We picked tomatoes and made a batch of sauce, a batch of relish and froze heaps.  The plants have now been removed for the season.

On our walk up the hill we noticed that the one little patch of blackberries were fruiting, so returned with a container to pick them. This reminded us or our last trip to the UK, where we picked wild blackberries at lots of different places.

They were only small, but were delicious with some ice cream.  So much tastier that store bought ones.

We were treated to a very faint double rainbow.  Our raspberries, hiding under the netting in the above photo are just starting to fruit.  Yummo.

Our peace rose was glowing in the afternoon sunlight one day.

And we were treated to some stunning sunsets.

That about wraps it up for the month.  

March will be a busy month, so hopefully lots to report soon.