I popped in to Mum’s the other day and thought I would share some of the lovely handmade decorations she has collected over the years. This is only a small selection.
She has made many of them, while others have come from various markets and craft shops. They look lovely on their tree.
I just finished sending out our Christmas cards yesterday and one of my treasured possessions was brought into service.
In the mid 80s I attended some craft classes. We learnt all about fabric covered photo frames and albums. It was just as Mick and I were setting up our home and life together and this was one of my creations.
It has seen constant use over the years and is starting to show its age.
As you can see, the finish wasn’t the greatest, but that doesn’t matter.
I’ve mainly used the Christmas Card Lists at the back.
I filled up the years initially and then removed those pages and started again. They ran out in 2008 and I didn’t enter anything last year, although I sent out cards.
Looking back over the entries is a trip down memory lane. There are the relatives, the wonderful friends, some who over the years have become what I call “Christmas Card Friends”. We very rarely catch up, but there is always that connection at Christmas time. There are old work colleagues, who as time has passed have drifted in different directions and are no longer in contact. There are some that we never receive a card from, but always like to send one to. This year I am also finding that a few on my list have now passed on, so it is also a time of reflection.
Because I am such a hoarder, in a box somewhere, there is a blank book that I bought at the same time as this one. I will get it out and make a cover for it, in a more contemporary style. Some names will sadly not be carried over, but it will chart the next part of our life.
Pop over to Melody’s to see what other treasures are being shared this week.
The reason behind this statement is that our dam is now officially full.
We had a heavy storm early this morning and the runoff everywhere around here was amazing. We had a river of about 2 inches flowing through my side of our shed. Hopefully nothing of importance got wet. Mick has been out digging trenches this afternoon.
Remember the photo of our jetty from Sunday here, well it is now below water.
When Mick built the jetty it was to the same level as the spillway of the dam. However, over the last decade quite a bit of grass has grown in the spillway, so it is banking the water up a bit more.
I didn’t go across the causeway on the way to work or back, but Mick came home that way late this morning. There has been some serious flow down the creek. (This is a creek that rises very fast, but also drops relatively quickly.) This photo was taken mid afternoon from the opposite side of the creek from my photos here and here and the water had gone down quite a lot from this morning.
My heart goes out to the people in much worse conditions than ours. On the scheme of things we haven’t received much rain today, only just over an inch in a very sharp storm. Looking at the radar some areas have had really heavy rain all day and last night. I hope it all ends soon.
PS. We haven’t caught any yabbies in the trap. At Bookworm’s suggestion we moved it shallower water, and after a couple of day changed the bait, but not a nibble. We may not have any yabbies in the dam. Oh well, it was a bit of fun anyway.
Every Christmas I bring out this treasured old battered shoebox.
One Christmas a parcel arrived in the post from Aunty Doreen which contained this.
I was guessing that I would have been about 10 at the time, but I checked the newspaper in the bottom of the box and it says 1971, so I may have been a few years younger.
Santa wasn’t new when he arrived at our house and I don’t know what his background was.
I do know that he has a lovely jolly face and it wouldn’t be Christmas without him.
Pop over to Melody’s to see what other wonderful treasures are on show this week.
It has stopped raining here for the time being, but we had plenty more yesterday and last night. As a result this morning the causeway was deeper than the other day, but I still got through OK. There were huge delays in the traffic headed into town from the Sydney side as water was over part of the highway. It took me an hour to travel what would normally take five minutes.
The rest of this story is Chookyblue’s fault. She shared a photo of some delicious yabbies that Bookworm had caught. We have a trap hanging in the shed, but have never used it. Now that we actually have water in the dam we thought we might as well christen it and see if we have any of the little critters.
I hunted out the gum boots. They haven’t been used in several years…. and they look it. Luckily there were no spiders in them.
There is lots of weed in the dam, so hopefully some yummy yabbies. We are complete novices at this, so wish us luck.
Our dam is quite sizable and was dug in July 1998. I remember the date, as three weeks later we had the most recent big flood in Bathurst (quite a bit more serious than the current flood in Bathurst) and we were worried that the wall wouldn’t hold, being so new. It held and the dam filled to overflowing. That summer we even swam in it. The following year was also reasonably wet and the dam remained fairly full and we got to have a swim in it again the following summer.
I had romantic ideas of a jetty with a little boat. As it had filled so quickly, the jetty had not been built. We had to wait a couple of years for the water level to be low enough for Mick to build it.
The water has never been higher than the bottom rung of the ladder ever since!!!
Today it is only about a foot below the jetty planks, which are at the high water line. I had been joking that it could keep raining until our dam was full, so with all the run off that is still happening, I think it can now stop.
This is what the ground is like on the way down to the dam. I think it will be full fairly soon.
If you zoom into the photo of the dam you will see some pipes on the side of the jetty. The white one is water coming into the dam. Mick has quite an involved water catchment plan. As each tank on the house (we have quite a few) fills, they flow into the next, which then overflow into a huge one for the garden, which then overflows into our little dam in the front yard.
When this fills, there is a 2 inch poly pipe down to the big dam for any run off. That is the white pipe at the end of the jetty.
The grand plan is then to set up a pump on the windmill and reticulate water back into the little dam by a second pipe, which is already in place, so it is always full, with the overflow returning to the big dam………..but we have never had enough water to warrant setting it up. Maybe it will happen now.
Mick loves his old windmill. It is unusual as it has two tails. The brand is “Challenge”.
It was peaceful down at the dam. It was so still with lovely reflections.
Although it looked grey and threatening, so far it hasn’t rained. Here’s hoping everything gets a chance to settle down a bit before the next lot of forecast rain.
I’ll let you know if we catch any yabbies after we check the trap tomorrow. If we do, we’ll have to figure out how to cook them.
Look what arrived today.
How exciting, but I had to wait till I got home to see what was inside.
Here it is……
The lovely Linda from California is responsible for this collection of goodies. As instructed I opened the littlest parcel to reveal the cutest kitten.
She really suited the pantry door.
However, I think she will add some Christmas cheer to the kitchen dresser.
Hasn’t she got the sweetest face, and those tiny buttons…..
Thanks Linda. I can hardly wait until Christmas to open the rest of my goodies.
Of course, thanks also to Chookyblue for making this process run so smoothly.
In response to the recent tragic mine disaster in New Zealand Shirley has requested that quilters around the world prepare blocks for “Healing Hearts” quilts. There has been an overwhelming response and I will be sending off my little contribution today.
Hopefully the resulting quilts will give some comfort to the families of the miners.
On the home front it has been quite damp. Mind you, nothing compared to out west which has been seriously wet. We have only had just over 4 inches. However, as everything is already soaked and the local water supply full there is water lying everywhere.
I can drive to town by two different routes, both about the same distance. Yesterday morning the local radio was announcing that there was water over the road on the way I normally travel, but didn’t say how deep or if the road was closed, so I went the other way.
There was water over the two causeways that needed crossing. This one had a few people stopped, but once my next door neighbour in the ute went through with no trouble I followed. I don’t think the silver car was going to cross. We generally use the rule of thumb that if the water is no deeper than 20cm we cross. It was right on 20cm.
There was quite a bit of panic in town during the day with predictions that the roads near the river would be closed and as a result many people headed home early so as not to get caught, with shops closed and production at factories stopped.
We are lucky that there is also a third road that we can use to get home which, although it is dirt, doesn’t have any causeways. Some of our neighbours came home that way.
I stayed at work, and by the time I had finished and then done the groceries I was able to drive home the way I came to work with no dramas at all.
It didn’t rain last night, so hopefully there will be no further flooding worries in our local area.
I’ve been a bit tardy in showing the gifts that are currently winging their way to who knows where.
They were sent on the first day so I am hoping they will arrive at their destination before too long.
I see that some parcels have already started to arrive and some lovely ornaments have already been on show.
Gosh, where did the last week go. I can’t believe it is Tuesday Treasures time again.
I had a wander around this morning to see what I would share and came up with this little duo. They live on the bookcase in the living room.
I’ve had these for quite a while. I don’t know the origin of my little puppy, but I can remember the arrival of my train. We were down at Grandma’s and Mum and Grandma went into town leaving us kids behind. They returned with a train for each of us. As you can see, both these little pull along toys saw much use and love. The train has a little squeaker, which still works. The puppy’s head nods, as it is on a spring. He had lost an ear and his tail, but Dad replaced them. It doesn’t matter that they don’t match his surviving black ear.
Pop over to Melody’s to see what other treasures are on show this week.
Also, can you believe it I have made something that I can show. Sewing seems to have been on the back burner lately.
Each year I like to make a Christmas decoration for each of my little nieces. This year I chose a pattern from Handmade by Lisa Cox. I thought these handbags were just too cute.
Once I had made them from the pattern in the magazine I felt they were a bit too small, so I added 1/4” seam allowance to the pattern and made a larger version which I like better. Therefore, the girls will get two little handbags each. Yet another quick and effective idea.
After our twilight Tall Ship Cruise on Saturday we just wandered back to our hotel in Ultimo, taking in the sights of the city at Christmas time.
We like to visit Sydney at this time of year, although it doesn’t happen very often. Even Mick gets into the spirit of things and he DOES NOT LIKE shops and crowds.
We planned on going for a wander on Sunday morning but seeing everything at night instead was much better.
Firstly, the tree in Martin Place. It sparkles and flashes at different times.
The Strand Arcade was closed but you could still see inside. Stunning as usual.
We both looked forward to visiting the David Jones window display with its puppets. They have been a feature of Christmas in Sydney for many, many years. Mum took us to see them for the first time when I was about nine. This year the theme was Christmas Carols.
They looked beautiful at night.
Can you believe it, we had it nearly to ourselves. No crowds pushing you around.
This lady was even doing her needlework.
See, Mick does really enjoy all this. He then started whistling Christmas carols. He’s just a big softy at heart.
Finally,for the grand finale, we were just in time to see the ginormous Christmas tree in the Queen Victoria Building.
This is on the ground floor.
We then climbed to the third floor.
And looked right up into the dome. I’ve no idea how they put it in place.
All this Christmas cheer has put me in the mood to decorate our Christmas tree next weekend.
No, not on this one.
This is more like it.
We were given a gift voucher for a twilight cruise on the “Southern Swan” for Christmas LAST year and thought we’d better do something about using it before it expired, so we had a lovely weekend in Sydney playing the tourist.
She was built in Norway in the early 1920s as a cargo ship and plied her trade between Norway and Greenland for about 30 years before being pensioned off. An English couple bought her and fitted her out as a yacht to live on, but found it too expensive. While they were in the USA were able to charter her to the Canadian Navy as a training vessel. In the mid 80s she was back in England and took part in the First Fleet re-enactment which saw her sail into Sydney in January 1988. She has remained here ever since.
Wouldn’t this be a terrible job.
The weather was quite breezy and the water choppy, so we motored out towards the heads and then sailed back towards the harbour bridge.
It was so peaceful without the motors running.
It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to do it.
Heading back home.
Mick was taking it all in.
We had a wonderful time. It was a very thoughtful gift.
