My December Wishes

December, the final month of the year.  I can’t quite believe it.

On the stitching front I don’t have a great deal planned.  

The main priority is to remove all the foundation papers from the Wensleydale Quilt blocks and get them stitched together into a flimsy.  I’m rather looking forward to playing with this one.

I have a little secret stitching to still complete, but that won’t take too long.

The blue and cream linen top needs to have its extension created, so I can actually wear it, once the weather finally decides to become summery.  I do hope it works out.

On the non stitching front, who knows?

We do have to get our Christmas decorations up very soon.  They should be up by now, but we have both been a bit otherwise occupied.

We would like to sneak in a couple of Christmassy outings.  If they happen they do, but if they don’t it doesn’t matter.

I bought a few Christmas themed novels at the recent Lifeline Book Fair, so would like to read at least one.

While I’m at it, check out their beautiful Christmas tree.  This was used for Santa photos, which would be so much nicer than some of the ones you see.

Christmas Day will be rather low key.  It will be a very different day, being the first one in 60 years without seeing my Mum.  Obviously, Mick will miss his Mum too.

In that rather strange few days between Christmas and New Year Mick will be glued to the tele, watching the Boxing Day Test of cricket.

I will keep up my new tradition of completing a jigsaw puzzle.  I came across another quilt themed one earlier in the year, so it has been placed at the top of the queue.

Oh, and I am receiving a nice Christmas gift.  I’m a tad excited.  More on that as the time arrives.

September at Home

September seemed to be a busy month, being out and about, now that the weather is starting to warm up and the days get a little longer.  However, there has been some happenings at home as well.

Firstly, it was time to decorate the little shelf in the kitchen with a spring theme.

After the tidy up in one garden bed, I potted up some small plants for the church fete next month.  I have since potted up some more, so there will be quite a collection of small cottage plants to add to their stall. They have been settling in nicely in the potting shed.

The garden is waking up nicely, with our wattle starting to flower.  It is now well past its prime and due for a hair cut.

The flowering cherry looked lovely.  However, our daffodils have not performed well at all this year.

I’m in awe of how large our street trees are.  I forget that we have been here for nearly ten years, so they are expected to grow somewhat during that time.  

Anyway, they are getting their first tinge of green and will be in full leaf before we know it.

The crab apple is putting on its usual show.

It is currently being visited by lots of bees.

Our cow in the vege garden is looking nice and colourful.

The ranunculus are just starting to put on their colourful show. 

This was our wisteria a few days ago.  Look at all those buds.  They are just starting to lengthen and colour up now, so in a week or so it should be looking spectacular.

Meanwhile, over the road in the horse paddock, the kangaroo population continues to grow.  Mick counted 45 the other day and yesterday we counted five joeys that we could see.  I’m sure there are more.  It is all well and good while the season is good, but once things dry out it will be interesting to see what happens.  Currently, they very rarely venture onto the road, but they may then start looking for green pick on people’s lawns.  I hope they don’t become a problem.  As it is, it is the equivalent of running a small mob of sheep, so not the best for the landholder once things dry out.

Back inside, I managed to read one book.  I really enjoyed it.

There were a couple of other things that happened out and about.

Firstly, I assisted with the set up of the fund raiser morning tea for the Radiation Bus.  This a service run by our local community transport group that takes cancer patients to Orange for their treatment.  They receive no government funding, and thanks to fund raisers like this they are able to offer the service free of charge.  They capped the numbers at 100 this year and tickets sold out very quickly.  There was also a giant raffle, with one of the prizes being a quilt made by our patchwork group.  It was a very successful event.

Secondly, I enjoyed a delicious lunch in the relatively new cafe located by the river.  It has just reopened after their winter break, as most of it is outdoors.  The weather was glorious, the food good and our table had a nice outlook over the river.

So, a good month, and one that went by very quickly.  

Our Recent Trip to Baradine

As we didn’t have any pressing commitments at home, we decided to extend our trip to Baradine a little.  The event started on Friday, so we left home on the Tuesday.

It was glorious weather for travelling, with the everything starting to wake up after its winter slumber.  The willows were getting their first green tinge.

And wattles, so many varieties as we travelled north.  Different colours, sizes and shapes.

The season around here and further to the north has been rather good, so everything was looking green and  fresh, and we had glorious sunny days.  You couldn’t ask for better.

We saw our first canola for the season and it is always so vibrant.

Our destination for the first day was the small town of Binnaway, as it has a good community free camp by the Castlereagh River.  I may have done a little crochet, before it got too hot.  Yes, you heard right - HOT!

The town was established when the railway came through.  The line ran from Mudgee, to Binnaway, Coonabarabran, Baradine and terminated at Gwabegar, on the way to Pilliga.  The line was closed in the 1980s and the town has been in decline since then.

Sadly, many of the buildings in the main street are empty.

If you would like to move there, the former Anglican Church and its adjoining hall are for sale for $200,000.  Not bad if you would like to live in a quiet town.  There is a kitchen and bathroom, so you could live quite comfortably while renovating.

The old pump house, complete with pump that used to pump water from the river to the tanks by the railway line still stands next to the free camp.

 We did enjoy a lovely sunset.

The next day we continued on to Coonabarabran.

And then on to Baradine, past the back of the Warrunbungles, which were looking rather dramatic with the dark sky. 

You travel beside the railway line that went through Binnaway.  You can tell that there have been no trains here for some time, with the Cypress pine growing in the tracks.

And then to our home away from home for the next few days.

We were greeted by our favourite friendly Apostle Birds and the beautiful wildflowers.

Then it was time to read a book I picked up at an op shop on the way up.  I’m enjoying a few of her books lately.  This one was a quick read of short stories.

We had a bit of time to kill on Thursday morning before helping to set up for the weekend, so went for a wander up the street and enjoyed a coffee at the new venue operating out of the Top Pub.  Rather pleasant.  We then visited the Piliga Discovery Centre, which is always interesting.

Then it was all about “An August Escape” for the next few days.

I forgot to share two important things on my previous post.  Firstly, the cute mugs we received.  They were rather appropriate.  I’m enjoying using mine every day.

Secondly, our swap this time was to be three fat quarters.  I forgot to take a photo of the ones I provided - they were Tilda.  I received these lovely French General ones.  Right up my alley.

Anyway, that’s all for now.  Our ongoing trip will have another post.