It’s Wisteria Time

I previously shared a photo of our wisteria at the end of last month, festooned with buds.  Our fingers and toes were crossed that there would be no late frost that would kill off the blooms, as happened last year.

To our delight, all went well and we have our best ever showing from this plant.  It is now six years old and is really coming into its own.  Some of those racemes are three foot long.  I find it rather mesmerising to sit at the outdoor table and watch them sway in a breeze. I don’t know what the variety is (I’d have to hunt for the tag), but I haven’t really seen any others liked this.  They are normally darker, with shorter racemes.

When we bought this house there were three wattle trees planted here, at the end of our back verandah.  They were messy and cut so much light.  Mick built this framework and the wisteria lets the sun in during winter, provides gorgeous flowers in spring and summer shade.  You can’t get better than that.

It is such a pity that they will be finished in the next week or so.

Remember the crocheted rug I recently completed for Wrap With Love?  

Well, the yarn I used was called “Wisteria”.  I popped up the road to my neighbour, who is the coordinator, and asked if I could borrow it back.  I wanted to take a photo of it in front of our wisteria.  Silly, I know, but then, that’s how I am.

We planted a wisteria at our first little house and it grew over our pergola.  We loved it.

When we moved out of town and planted a large garden, a feature was a wisteria walk.  Mick and a mate built it using old telegraph poles, so it was really sturdy.  We bought some wisteria plants from a local nursery and they grew well………they just never flowered.  We were really disappointed.  We had been told they often take several years to flower, particularly if propagated from seed, but these were there for over 15 years with no flowers.

Last weekend we had to visit our old home, as some of our mail had been sent there - only 10 years after we moved…..

Well, blow me down, look at that wisteria.  It is now flowering profusely.  Not only that, it is the same as the one we have here with the pale flowers on very long racemes.

We were delighted to see it.

I Made a Bag - Do Da Do Da

Not only did I make a bag, I ticked off the last month of the Chookshed Challenge.

The project this month was to make something with a Sashiko panel.  You can read about it here.  Well, I dithered about the size.  Then, I completely changed my mind and was going to use different fabric and a couple of small Sashiko panels.  Then, I came back to Plan A and told myself not to overthink it.  Just make a simple tote bag using the fabric you had bought for that purpose.

This afternoon, I finally put on my big girl panties and got stuck in and made the tote bag.

It is a fairly simple design, which showcases both the stitchery and the striking fabric well.

The dimensions are similar to another tote bag I made some years ago that is rather practical for taking projects along to my stitching mornings.  Therefore, this should get plenty of use too.

I’m happy to actually have completed a project in the designated month.  I still have several from this year that haven’t been completed, so fingers crossed I may progress something more before the end of the year.

I still have the scallop Sashiko panel as well as smaller ones with flowers and dragonflies.  Hiding in my stash was a small bag of Japanese fabric scraps I bought about 15 years ago at a market and recently I bought some yardage of another Japanese inspired fabric.  The challenge is on to make something using those before too long, but probably not this year.

The Last Days of our Trip Home From Baradine

The posts of our most recent trip, at the beginning of September, have really dragged out. I promise this is the last of them. 

After our visit to the Nundle Woollen Mill we kept on our way.  Our route this time was via Muswellbrook and the Bylong Valley.  We haven’t travelled that way since all the heavy rains in 2022, which caused quite a bit of damage to the road.  Hopefully, it would be much better by now.

Of course there was lots of lovely scenery along the way.

It was a bit nerve wracking crossing this very narrow bridge with the van in tow.

The area around Muswellbrook was all lush horse studs when we travelled this way as kids and in our early years of marriage.  Now it is all huge coal mines.

Once you get past that area there are the stunning rocky hills.

Our destination for the day was the Bylong Sports Ground. We have stayed here once before and it is a lovely quiet and pretty place to stop.  There was only one other van there on that night.

This was the view from the caravan door.  You can’t get much better than that.

There is a pretty stone church just over the fence, so of course we went and had a little explore. Let’s go for a walk.

We were intrigued by the rustic bell tower.  Of course Mick had to try it out.  We didn’t even think to have a look through the windows of the church.

As the afternoon was getting a little chilly we lit a fire and had a relaxing time before tea.

There were so many jet streams criss crossing the sky as the sun set.

In the morning we were visited by a very friendly magpie.  You can just see it at the bottom of the photo. No swooping by this one.  We think it is very used to campers giving it tit bits.

I had another quick wander around the church and it surrounding cemetery in the fresh morning light.

Now, the road condition…….  It wasn’t too bad for the first part……

But once we moved from the Muswellbrook council area to the Midwestern Council area the road deteriorated  significantly.  Patches on patches on patches.  We took it nice and slow.

Then it was the climb up the windy road to leave the beautiful valley.

There were loads of wattles at the top.

There were more jet streams as we drove along.

Our final stop before getting home was the little town of Kandos.  This former cement industry town was looking pretty with the spring blossoms.

It was so nice having the luxury of extending our Baradine trip this time, but it was also nice to get back home.

I wonder where our next caravan trip will be?  Your guess is as good as mine at the moment, but I’m sure we will come up with something.

Revisiting Nundle

The last time we were at Nundle was for Girls Day in the Country 2017, so it was about time we visited again, while travelling home from Baradine.

We stayed at the caravan park, as usual, and had a bit of a wander around.  Not a lot has changed.  

The main reason we were there this time was to visit the Nundle Woollen Mill.  Despite having been to Nundle several times, I had not seen the mill running, so we did the guided tour.  We actually timed it well, as all the machinery was running on that day, which isn’t always the case.

The Mill was only constructed in the early 2000s, but uses redundant vintage equipment, sourced from mills that have closed down.

Their wool is all sourced from a property in Tasmania and scoured in Geelong.  All the processes from then on are carried out at Nundle.

First, the fibres are separated into a lovely, light fluff, using an “Opener” or ‘Picker” dating back to 1916.

The next stage is the carder, which transforms that fluff into 100 strands of very fine fibre, which are all rolled onto a large tube. The machine dates from 1914 and is believed to be the only surviving example of this model left in the world.  This machine is only run on two days a week, so we were very lucky to see it in action.

Those long tubes are then loaded onto a spinning frame, which draws out the fibres further and gives them a twist to form single threads.  The machine dates from the early 1950s.  

The thread is wound onto bobbins.

The bobbins are then loaded onto a Dandy Rover, which plies three threads together to make 8 ply yarn.  It is wound onto larger bobbins.

Then the wool is made into shanks to go to the dye house.  Here the dyes are made up using tiny, exact amounts of dye and the wool immersed in the baths before then air drying.  They also have a small section for hand dyes, which are made using a bae marie found second hand on Facebook marketplace.

Once dyed, the hanks are loaded onto another machine (this one is a new to the mill modern machine) and wound onto cones.

Those cones are then loaded on yet another modern machine and the yarn wound into the balls that you purchase.  Each ball is individually weighed and then labelled, ready to sell.

In the mean time, they also well 24 ply wool, which is three 8 ply yarns plied together.

If you want really chunky yarn to make a blanket, you can buy 72 ply yarn, which is three 24 ply yarns plied together, using another smaller machine.

It is all fascinating to see in action.

Of course, there is a large retail section to the business, selling the wool that they process, as well as many other woollen items and other bits and bobs.  Did we make a purchase?  Of course we did.  I had purchased a long line cardy back in Girls Day in the Country days that has just about worn out, so I did find something to replace it, which has already seen quite a bit of wear.

The other purchase I made was some baby alpaca yarn.  Yes, I know, not their wool, but just what I wanted on this occasion.  I love the colour and can’t wait to start knitting it up.