The Week That Was

What a difference a week makes.

When I posted last Saturday in the morning we were stuck at home pending the results of a Covid test taken on Thursday.  There were starting to be a few regional cases, but Bathurst had escaped any lockdowns.

I'd barely sent the post off into the ether when we received notice that the entire state of New South Wales was going to have Stay at Home Orders imposed from 5pm on Saturday afternoon. Apparently, the supermarkets were just crazy on Saturday afternoon.  We were pleased to be nowhere near them.

We didn't mind being at home, as the weather was beautiful to be out in the yard, but our fresh groceries were starting to get low, as we hadn't been able to get to the supermarket, as we usually do on a Thursday. Fortunately, the pantry is well stocked and we remembered some UHT milk that was in the caravan, which tided us over.

Finally, at about 8.30 on Sunday night we received our negative test results.  In the meantime, Micks snuffles had cleared up by mid Thursday.

On Monday at 7.00am we ventured to the supermarket to buy groceries to restock the fridge.  I thought there would be quite a few people in there, trying to beat the rush, and in the end creating a rush, but was pleasantly surprised to be the only person pushing a trolley around the store, and it was fairly well stocked.  

Last Saturday there were 466 new cases in NSW.  This morning they announced that there were 830 new cases yesterday.

Mick and I have both been still going to work at this stage, but we will see what eventuates this week, as there are now six confirmed cases in Bathurst.  Yesterday, we received a notice from the aged care facility where both our Mums live to advise that there has been a possible exposure to Covid there.  All residents and staff have been tested and nearly all residents and staff have been vaccinated. Details are rather sketchy, but it all starts to feel real.  Fingers crossed that all is OK.  The doctor surgery we attend has had one of their staff infected.  We are supposed to be going in on Thursday for our second vaccination shot, so that may now be delayed.

This all sounds rather negative, but I just wanted to record where things are up to.

It hasn't been all doom and gloom, though.

Even though it isn't officially spring until September, we have had a few beautiful days.  The garden is definitely starting to wake up.

The bulbs are popping up everywhere.  We still have loads of daffodils to flower, which we look forward to.  I particularly like the old fashioned blue hyacinth, as we has some of those when I was a kid.

The hellebores have really flourished this year.  So cheerful in a winter's garden.  This is the first year that our new daphne has bloomed.  So fragrant.  The wall flowers are always beautiful and the wattle blooms are just starting to burst into their little puffballs of yellow.  It already smells devine.  

This morning we made our first little start on the vege garden.  The treasure chest of seeds came out and we planted some peas along the long bed at the back of the verandah and some snow peas on the teepee in the same bed.  When we trimmed back the raspberries at the start of winter I kept a few of the long straight canes and we have tied them into another rustic teepee.  There are more snow peas planted there.  The snowdrops are putting on a show at the end of the raspberry bed.  We can't do a lot more at this stage, as it is still too early to plant anything frost tender.  We would like to start some tomato seedlings in the green house, but lock down has put paid to going shopping for garden supplies for a little while.

Finally, here are a few of our different violets.  We had quite a few different ones when we lived out of town and tried to bring a few in with us.  They are popping up all over the place and will probably be considered to be weeds by many, but we love the little pops of colour around the place at this time of year.

We finally even went for a nice long walk on Friday and again today.  Through the winter it seemed to be wet nearly every weekend, so we made the most of the nice weather.  Mind you, it is forecast to be back to very wintery temperatures on Tuesday.

I received some happy mail during the week.  Shortly after I posted about my little egg coddler I found at the Rylstone Swap Meet, one of my very best friends found these in a op shop.  How cool is that!!  We haven't had a chance to try them out as yet, but should be able to next weekend.  It was a wonderful surprise.

I spent nearly all of yesterday sitting in my chair keeping company with ladies from all over the world and working on my redwork Christmas stitcheries.  There were up to 16 ladies at a time stitching and chatting.  Thanks Chooky for hosting this wonderful community of like minded women.

I have been doing some other stitching too.  Last Saturday, after I did my blog post, I made a start on the garden trellis quilt.

My Janome was a bit noisy again, so I gave it another drop of oil under the bobbin housing.  The oil takes a while to soak in, so I used Mick's Mum's Elna.  It really is lovely to use.  The quarter inch it sews is spot on, which is good, as I had lots of snowball corners to stitch and usually have trouble with them matching up with adjoining seams.  This time I had no trouble at all.

Of course Joey had to come and inspect, as soon as I laid out the blocks on the floor.

I left the room for a little while and this is what I came back to.  Naughty kitty!

The blocks are now all together with the setting triangles.  I still have to add the final border to complete the quilt top.

As I was stitching the long seams, I ran out of thread on the reel and the machine made a bit of a clunk noise and now the tension has gone crazy.  I've tried all the tricks I know, with no success.  I think it may be something to do with the bobbin tension, and I don't like playing with that.  Therefore, once things open up again both the Janome and this machine will go in for a service.  It's not a great worry, as I can now use my Janome again and I do still have my Elna and Mum's Elna that I can use.

I must be off now, as I have just taken some raspberry and pear muffins out of the oven.  Time to enjoy some afternoon tea on the front verandah, for the first time since autumn.  We also enjoyed our breakfast on the back verandah for the first time this morning.  It is so nice to be a bit warm again.