Today’s Vege Haul

While much of the country swelters under extreme heatwave conditions, we seem to be having a cool wave today, with temperatures only in the high teens C.  It feels rather autumnal, although we still have about six weeks of hot weather ahead of us.  We have had to hunt out the cardies, which is a bit of a change.  We had temps in the mid 30sC just a couple of days ago, and that is the forecast for next week as well, so we should make the most of this cooler day.

Our vege garden is continuing to produce nicely.  Today I had a little bandicoot around the potatoes in the tyres and found a couple for us to enjoy.  I think they are ready to harvest, but we will leave them a bit longer.  In the mean time, it will be nice to try these little few of our first ever home grown potatoes.  

There was a nice little variety in today’s picking.  As well as our first potatoes, we have our first egg plant, with several more coming along on the plant, and our first cob of corn.  Our corn is a bit of a failure this year.  This cob is rather thin and there aren’t many more coming on.  Oh well, just a small taste will still be nice.  The beans aren’t producing much at the moment, but we don’t mind, as it gives us a bit of a break from freezing them every couple of days.  There are lots of flowers coming on, so there will be plenty more in the near future.

Remember our two zucchinis, one that rocketed away and one that did very little.  Well they were both supposed to be “Black Jack” variety, but the one that had taken off wasn’t.  Initially, it just produced a lot of rather spiky leaves and a few little fruit that mainly shrivelled up.  We seriously considered ripping it out.  Now, all of a sudden, it is producing larger fruit, more like a squash.  I’ll try to pick them while they are fairly small and treat them like zucchinis.

Tonight we have left over chicken and mango curry (yummo), so we won’t be using these veges today.  However, we are looking forward to a meal including lots of fresh veges tomorrow night.

In the meantime, I will make a double batch of Zucchini Slice for the freezer.  A serve is the best thing to take for my lunch on our patchwork days.

The Rest of December

What else has been going on in December?  

We’ll start with the weather.  What a mixed bag.  There has been days up into the high 30s C, down to the low 20s C, storms, heavy rain, and no rain to speak of for the last couple of weeks.  There have been lots of windy days, resulting in a largish bushfire in remote country not far from here.  Thankfully, it is now nearly out.

We had an evening out. The background is that last year, while watching the cricket, we kept seeing ads for Australian Idol.  We don’t normally watch that style of show, but did this time.  Surprisingly to us, we both really enjoyed it.  There wasn’t the nastiness that seems to be the norm in reality TV.  The ultimate winner was a fellow by the name of Dylan Wright.  Well, at the beginning of December he had a show here in Bathurst, so we thought we would go along.

The venue was “Keystone 1889”.  This is the old Masonic Hall.  

After the Masons sold it, it became “Carrington House” and was a function centre for many years.  You can see where the inspiration for both names comes from.

The interior is lovely.

It was an intimate event with only a smallish audience. The support act was a young local girl who has been touring with Troy Casser Daley.  She was rather good.

Dylan performed solo and with his best mate.  They put on a really nice show.

He was happy to do the meet and greet with all the attendees.

It was a really enjoyable night and we hare happy we went along.

The vege garden is getting into full production.

The onions have been harvested and are curing in the shed.

We are getting plenty of beans, even enough to include in our Christmas dinner, small tomatoes and zucchinis.  

Our hydrangeas are putting on a show.  Mick bought the one in the pot at the church fete.  It is a beauty.

The dahlias are also starting to flower.

The golden rain tree out the front is also looking a picture.

Mick has been very busy down at the bowling club.  They had their annual tournament at the beginning of the month, so he helped lots in getting the grounds looking their best.

The main green keeper is currently on holidays, so Mick has had a crash course in maintaining the greens, mowing, rolling and watering.  He is down there nearly every day at present, and loving it.

Oh, and I made a cherry pie.  

So good.

And that about wraps up December, and 2024.  

Cricket, Jigsaw and Left Overs

We enjoyed a lovely Christmas Day with family, friends and too much food.

Our perfect way to spend Boxing Day is for Mick to watch the Boxing Day Test Cricket, me to work on a jigsaw and to eat left overs.

Mick was quite settled in front of the tele, enjoying seeing the nineteen year old opening batter, on debut, take on the best bowler in the world.

I pulled out the jigsaw that I purchased at Vinnies in Braidwood and made a start on it……and finished it.  It seems that my binge reading style carries over to jigsaws.  I was rather relieved to see that there were no missing pieces.  

My Mum, who is not in the least bit sporty used to spend her summer watching the cricket and tennis on the tele and doing large jigsaws.  I can see the attraction.  I have all her trays that she used to lay our her jigsaw pieces and it is quite a trip down memory lane as I continue to use them for the same purpose.

Today has also been a rather quiet day at home.  Mick had planned to go fishing with his brother, but the weather was really stormy early on and has continued to be rather blustery, so not conducive to fishing.  Therefore, he is enjoying another day in front of the cricket.

Me.  Well, the other thing I was looking forward to was making up the kit for the patchwork basket that I bought last time I was at Baradine.

I have pieced the patchwork and that is as far as I will go today.  Fingers crossed there is no wind early in the morning and I will have a go at spray basting the layers together to quilt.  Not something I have ever attempted before.  Wish me luck.

Here There and Everywhere - Braidwood Airing of the Quilts - Part 2

In addition to the quilts hung outside there were a couple of exhibitions that we visited.  The first was an Apron Challenge.  The entrants made and adorned an apron, all using the same pattern.

There was such a variety of ideas.  Here are a few.

The Christmas apron was a collaborative effort by a craft group.

The two in the top right consist of squares created by primary school children and their teacher added the to the aprons.  Apparently, there were quite a few made by juniors.

This final one was made from a beautiful cross stitch table cloth and then intricately machine quilted.

The other exhibition was the quilt show.  

Oh my!  There are some talented quilters out there and such a wide variety of styles.  Here are some for you to drool over.

The winner of the best traditional quilt and best hand quilted. Beautiful.

I had to add this one for my Kiwi friends.  It is entitled “Extinction” and depicts the Moa and includes various Māori symbols.

I always love quirky Sue Spargo quilts.

This started as an unfinished top purchased from an op shop.  The maker finished piecing it and then hand quilted it.  I feel the quilting really makes it, as the blocks are so simple.

This beauty was the maker’s first attempt at hand appliqué, completed in a series o Katrina Hadjimichael workshops. The colours are perfect.

This was my viewers choice vote.  It is a Sue Cody pattern.  I just love it.

I always enjoy seeing the various versions of the Field Journal blocks.  So much work in them.

Great use of colour.

You can tell this is a Chris Jurd pattern.  I love the pickle dish block, but don’t know if I will attempt it.  All those curved seams.  Maybe one day.

This one is so simple, but so effective.

Such fun.

This was so effective on the darker background.

So much work in this one.  There is nothing nicer than a traditional medallion quilt.

Mick is always drawn to the Sashiko style quilts.  This one is a beauty.

What a gorgeous treatment of a stunning panel.

And finally, a beautiful African inspired quilt.

By then it was lunch time, so we found a nice cafe and enjoyed a delicous, huge, sandwich.  So big we shared and were still full.

As it was so hot, and we had seen everything that we wanted to, we made the decision to start heading home a day earlier than planned.  We decided to aim for Crookwell, where there is a nice little caravan park, with power - which meant AIR CONDITIONING.  There was no point in sitting for another night in the heat for no reason.

On the way, we drove past some new wind towers.  They seem to be getting taller all the time.

The following morning we got an early start, travelling through the picturesque countryside.  You feel like you are on top of the world.

Crossing the Abercrombie River.

We were home by morning tea time, so plenty of time to empty out the van and get some washing done.  

We don’t expect to use the van for the next few months, as it is too hot, too busy and the garden needs looking after.  Hopefully, we will do some more exploring in the autumn.