So That Was January

The first month of the year has passed in a flash.  It has been rather busy for us, with our holiday at the start of the month, which I still have to blog about, back to work, playing in the garden, as the veges are starting to be quite productive and of course, finding some time to play in the sewing room and joining in with Zoom sessions.

Chooky held another Zoom day on Australia Day.  I did join in for a very short time, and stitched one needle full of thread on my Ruby Cushion applique, but we were a tad busy, so I didn't get to play for long.

I haven't done any other sewing since then.  My Blue quilt is still waiting in the wings, and I only made the few red RSC blocks.  Not to worry, it's not as if they are going anywhere.  I'll get to them, all in good time.

I'm just going to add some rather random photos here.

I was gifted this gorgeous little pincushion for Christmas.  It is Liberty fabric in a silver serviette ring.  So sweet.  A nice addition to my little collection.

The weather has been most unsummerlike.  A few days did not ever reach 20 degrees C.  We've only had the air conditioner on twice, for a short while.  The lawn has not needed the sprinkler on at all.  Mick has only watered the veges a few times.  The river has been up and down like a yo-yo.

Here is some of the first of our produce this year.  We still aren't getting a great deal of tomatoes, but they will be coming thick and fast before too long.  Our one zucchini plant is ginormous and keeping us in a nice supply.  Our beans have the largest leaves I have ever seen and our freezer is filling fast with their output.  I was never a fan of beans as a kid, as Mum froze so many.  I'm worried that my new found enjoyment of them may dwindle with the volume we have.  No photo here, but we picked our first egg plant this week and there are loads coming on.  We've never had much luck with capsicum, but there are some nice sized fruit on the plant, so fingers crossed for this year. No raspberries as yet, but we expect them to be a bit late, given the cool weather this summer.

Mick and my brother took their kayaks out to Oberon Dam one morning.  The water was like glass.  Unlike our visits over the last couple of years, when the water level was way down, it is now 100 percent full.

Mick really enjoys paddling around this dam, as there are lovely rocks.  Not just a boring stretch of water.

He finally caught is first fish since he has had the kayak.  As you can see, it was huge......not.  It is a redfin, which are an introduced species and a pest.  You are not allowed to throw them back into the water after you catch one.  This one was only about six inches long and was going  to go to Joey, but it was really boney, so was chucked out.  Apparently, they are really good eating, and many prefer them to trout.  Mick now wants to go out again and catch a decent sized one and try it out.

It was Mum's 60th wedding anniversary towards the end of the month.  I cannot believe it was ten years since we had the big party for their 50th.  Fortunately, the day before, her nursing home had started to allow visitors, after being locked down since Christmas, and I was able to see her.

Saturday evening last week was really pleasant, so we decided to get some fish and chips and sit by the river to eat them.

After we finished we went for a walk around the park either side.  The light was lovely and the river was flowing nicely, without being in flood.

It was nice to see a family fishing.  Take particular note of the metal hand rail at the left of the photo.  I'll show you why in a moment.

There are a couple of ducks that live near the low level bridge that I always keep an eye out for.  I was happy to see they are still there, after all the flooding there has been during this summer.

We had quite a storm on Friday evening, and another on Saturday evening.  A village about 15kms out of town had 50mm in half an hour, causing havoc after the previous storm and the already saturated countryside.

We were surprised on Sunday to see that the low level bridge was under water once again and where I was standing to take the lovely photos at the end of the hand rail the previous week was under water.  We weren't expecting it to rise that much, but obviously the worst of the storms were further up the catchment.

On other fronts, I did try a new recipe.  We were gifted some home grown mangoes while we were away and I found a delicious recipe.  It was so good I have made it twice.

The recipe is from Taste.  I've borrowed their photo. No photo of mine as we were too busy tucking in and it wasn't as pretty as theirs.  I will definitely be making this one quite often.

I didn't read an actual book in January, but we listened to our first audio book.  I read the book "The Thursday Murder Club" by Richard Osman last year and thoroughly enjoyed it.  

Well, we listened to the sequel "The Man Who Died Twice".  It was really enjoyable listening.  The lady narrator was perfect.  It think Mick would have appreciated it more if he had read the first book, but he still enjoyed it.  I do hope there are more in this series.

Friday Fun Day, as such, didn't happen, but we were away for a couple of Fridays on our holiday, so I think they will count.

I do have some other exciting news for the month, but it deserves its own post.