Last Week

Keeping with my plan to blog more regularly, it’s time to look back on last week.

The weather continues to keep us on our toes.  There has been more rain during the week, now mainly via storms, although we had a couple of really nice spring days in there as well.  

Our plan had been to take the caravan over to Gulgong for a few days, to just play the tourist and then to have a stall at their swap meet, which is always a good day.  Well, the weather forecast continued to deteriorate as the week progressed, so we made the decision to stay home, which in the end turned out to be the correct call.  They had a storm on Friday afternoon, another on Saturday afternoon and then set in rain on Sunday.  So sad for the organisers.

A considerable band of rain was forecast to come our way yesterday and it was rather incredible watching the radar as it built up across the state.  This was early in the morning, and by mid afternoon, nearly all the state was under rain.  We had one band go across yesterday morning, as per the radar picture, and then it was fine until late afternoon, when it really set in.  In the end, we received 94mm in the 24 hour period.  The heaviest rainfall in a single day since 1997.  As everything was already saturated, there has been a lot of localised flash flooding from the rain and the river has now risen very fast and is currently at major flood level.  Levee banks have been built after our last major flood in 1998, but they have never been tested.  It is predicted that they may be breached later today.  Let’s hope not.  I feel so much for the towns that had already been affected by flooding and now they are copping it again.  Several towns are completely isolated, and others with flooding where there has never been flooding before.  Such crazy weather.  

Now on to more positive things.

For the first time in, I’m guessing in over twenty years, we made a Christmas cake.  I used a recipe that I have been using since my early teens.  Mum had her recipe and I had mine.  We did cheat and just used mixed fruit. 

We’ll find out on Christmas Day how it turned out.  It looks OK.

Our rhubarb is growing gang busters at the moment, so I decided to use some in a slice.  I used my old faithful mixed fruit slice recipe and just substituted the fruit with three stalks of rhubarb and some cinnamon.  Yummo!  It is more like a dessert slice than a lunchbox slice and was a great success.  It will be made again.

You may notice a strawberry on top.  They are now really starting to provide fruit.

We also now have teeny weeny zucchinis on our plants, so it won’t be long until we are inundated with them.  Not such a bad problem.

In the flower garden, I love how as one plant finishes blooming another starts.  The bottle brush only started to bloom about a week ago.  It’s hard to believe that this bush was really struggling to survive, due to drought, only a few years ago.

The pinks and love in the mist have now joined our lavender in flowering near our front door.  This is the little corner we like to sit in for our afternoon tea, overlooking the town and Mount Panorama.

Having sent the little German sewing machine home with Hans I had an empty shelf.  Well, you can’t have that, so now my little Elna Junior with the music box in it is finally on show, rather than sitting in her case.

On the weekend Bathurst hosted another car race up at Mount Panorama.  This time it was the inaugural Supercheap International.  That means that they now have their full quota of five car events each year.  This event has classes for lots of different types of cars.

On Thursday afternoon they drove a selection of the race cars down town and had them on display.  Of course we went to have a look……and it was one of the days where we had decent weather.

We have no interest in the racing, but they are good to see.  

Such a variety.

I’m glad the older Holdens still get to have a race.

We have a local contender and the driver is proving to be quite successful.

This was Mick’s favourite.

They had a young lady providing some musical entertainment and she had a wonderful voice.

They had good weather on both Friday and Saturday.  On Sunday there was a decent rain band in the late morning, but was then OK for the rest of the day.  I hope they did well.

Now onto the stitching side of things and my goal of working on something for at least 15 minutes each day.  Yes, we are still on track.

7th, 8th & 9th

I continued to work on my beanie and have a very successful finish.

This project introduced me to yet another technique I haven’t tried before, knitting on double pointed needles (DPNs) to decrease for the crown.  Firstly, I had to find some needles.  I doubted if I would have any in the right size and expected to have to raid Mum’s needles when I next visited.  However, firstly, I had a look through my not inconsiderable supply of needles.  I have mine, Grandma’s, Mick’s Mum’s and various others that have come my way, mainly in vintage knitting needle boxes. Guess what?  I have MANY sets of DPNs.  One of the first sets were the right size.  Happy dance.  I also have had a big sort out of needles, throwing out any odds and sadly, finding that moisture has somehow got into Grandma’s box, so had to throw out some old needles that had gone rusty.

Anyway, back to my beanie.  Although initially fiddly to hold, it wasn’t too bad using DPNs.  However,  I think I will still stick with a circular needle when easier to do so.

I would now like to make another version of this pattern, but with a longer rib, to allow to fold back, and one less pattern repeat to fit my head a little better.  Other than that, I’m really happy with it.  I love the texture.

8th

As well as working briefly on the beanie, I continued with my secret stitching and made good progress.

10th

For a change I made another EPP unit for the Blue Quilt.  That is all of this unit completed.

11th

While on a roll, I glue basted the remaining hexy flowers for the Blue Quilt, ready to pick up to stitch whenever I feel like it. They need to be completed by the end of the month to complete my OMG for November.

11th, 12th and 13th

I also started a new project……. After finishing the beanie, I really wanted to start something else in either knitting or crochet.  After much umming and aahing and searching Pinterest and Ravelry, I settled on “Eva’s Shawl” using some of the Bendigo Woollen Mills yarn I bought at the Bathurst Swap Meet last November.  I bought four balls, all in different colours and I think these two will look OK together.

I want a nice warm shawl that will just live on my chair in the sitting room at home and can be draped over my shoulders when the evenings cool down.  It probably won’t be completed, ready to use, until next autumn, but that doesn’t matter. 

This is where I am up to now, after three days.  Not too bad.  It is rather relaxing to work on.  The yarn I have started with is called “Autumn”, but isn’t really all that autumnal in my opinion, but that is OK.  “Tropical Fish”, which I will use for the outer rows definitely has more rich tones.  It will all work out fine in the end….I hope.

I want to get this completed before the weather gets too hot, but I think I need to put it aside in favour of completing my Secret Stitching.

So, not a bad week.  Now it is time to work out what we will get up to this week.