One thing that I missed out on by leaving Nundle early was the Scissor Keep swap.
My little one was received by Cheryl. Chooky kindly took a photo and sent it to me.
I had to wait a little while before mine arrived in the mail. It is super cute and was made by Lea. My pink polka dot scissors fit just nicely.
Now I’m looking forward to next year at Nundle when Lynette Anderson will be the tutor.
Bring it on.
Saturday was the big day of stitching. The hall looked fantastic all set out for us. Of course, while we were waiting to go in I met the local moggy.
The projects this year were half inch hexies. The main project was a butterfly. I had fun fussy cutting the fabrics, but got very little stitching done.
The day started out fun, but unfortunately, went rather pear shaped for me. I’d been feeling off colour all day, but I think it was from worrying about my uncle who had major surgery on Friday. I’d call the hospital and get rather vague answers about his condition.
Finally, just after lunch they told me that he wasn’t responding. That was when the wonderful friendship and support of my blogging friends came into its own. I was a mess; worrying about my uncle and my mum (his only sister), feeling guilty for having gone to Nundle at all, needing to get to Sydney, worrying about how Kate would get home, knowing that I may have some major decisions to make. I couldn’t have coped without the girls taking over and calming me down, packing my things and once I was on the road, checking up on me. They were the best and I can never thank them enough.
As it was nearly three o’clock before I left I drove as far as Mudgee before calling it quits. Despite the circumstances, I couldn’t resist taking a couple of photos along the way.
As things transpired, my uncle didn’t respond and those difficult decisions had to be made. He was a good man who had a full life. He is missed by many.
Can you believe it is well over 3 months since we all gathered at Nundle?
So much seems to have happened since then. Anyway, I thought it was about time I had a look at the photos I took. It is nice to look back at a lovely time with friends.
This year Kate travelled up with me. We stopped for a break at Muswellbrook, and of course food was involved. We arrived just as everyone was ordering a counter meal at the pub, more food involved, and so much of it.
After lunch I wandered over to the Woollen Mill to get a little souvenir for Mick. He ended up with some Nundle socks. While there I met the resident feline.
Next we headed out to Kerry’s shop for a little retail therapy. We felt much better afterwards. This time I met the resident pooch.
We really made the best use of our time, also visiting Ratter’s Flat. What an intriguing place.
Yes, I met the resident pooch here too.
The owner even gave us a guided tour of his garden. There was something different to see wherever you turned.
By now it was time to return to the caravan park for a bit of a sit and chat and share what everyone has been creating in the last twelve months.
There was some truly beautiful work on show.
I hope Chooky doesn’t mind that I’ve borrowed this photo from her with all of our Some Kind of Wonderful quilts. They look great together.
Look at us all sitting there – a big circle of friends. Peg and Dale were checking out last year’s project, seeing as they had missed out.
The day finished off with a lovely dinner. I was too busy eating and talking to take any photos. Then it was time to get some shut eye before the big day.
I wondered if I would remember how to sew, it has been so long. I went 3 months without so much as making a stitch.
I was determined not to have a fourth month with no finish in the side bar, but what to make?
I received this little package of candy with my Homespun subscription renewal.
I thought the Boho range would make a couple of nice, cheerful placemats and coasters – 20 squares in each placemat and one in each coaster, no wastage at all.
The next plan was to get some natural linen out of my recycled op shop clothing stash, but when I was playing with placements, I thought it looked a little lack lustre with with the neutral background. Then I found this in my stash……
I’d bought it at the op shop at Coolah a couple of years ago. It was a match made in heaven.
And yes, the lime green does fit in nicely with our bright mugs in the kitchen. I even had enough green for the backings. There is a join in one, but that is solely due to me failing to measure twice and cut once….oops!
So, Miss Peg and Miss Kris, please tick me off.
Now I have to play with the French General fabrics. I have an idea….
PS. Hopefully, I will be around a bit more often from now on.
Our Historic Car Club were invited to attend the Cumnock Show back at the beginning of March. It is about an hour and a half from home.
A few of us thought this would be a good excuse to get out the bikes and have a weekend away. In the end there were only three bikes, including two sidecars, but we had a great time. We took Snubby the silver sidecar and camper trailer. We had visited the showground for our lunch break on the Orange Classic Motorcycle rally in February.
We love visiting little shows. They have such a community spirit, and Cumnock was a beauty. There was a very strong horse section, as this is the last show in which you can gain points prior to the Royal Easter Show in Sydney.
The pavillion entries were strong, with lots of craft.
I loved this picture. The patchwork is created from cut up children’s artworks.
The school kids had obviously been very involved.
There was the woodchop.
We noticed that there weren’t any food stalls. It turns out that the school caters for lunch, pretty much the same as when we attended on the bike rally. What a well oiled machine.
If anyone went away hungry it was their own fault. What a wonderful spread.
Apparently, the local footy club does a barbie for dinner.
After lunch a few of the locals adjourned to the bar – a true country classic version.
There was a good collection of old cars on display, including some from our club.
Of course, no show would be complete without kid’s entertainment. There were no rides, but the clowns were a hit. I think it was a case of “every child wins a prize”, as most kids seemed to be carrying around something.
After lunch there was the kids games, run by the local teachers. It was like a massive birthday party with lots of games. All the kids really got involved. Our favourite was the marshmallow eating competition. Six marshmallows were put on a plastic plate on the grass and coated in chocolate topping. The kids were in teams and had to run to the plate, eat the marshmallows off the plate, with no hands, and then run back to a finish line. There were some very messy, chocolatey faces.
By now we were keen to head off for the rest of our ride. It was a lovely day for riding and the area was looking a picture.
Mick and I had an agenda for our route. Last year we had ridden in this area on the Dice Roll Run and had passed a deserted old church. We wanted to return and take some photos.
It was a lovely day for photos.
Our ride then took us on to Guerie over a pretty bridge.
To the pub………..it was very hot riding along.
I think the locals in the bar thought I was a bit odd taking a photo of our beers, but they looked so cold and refreshing.
Our stop for the night was at the Wellington Caves caravan park. We have stayed there on several occasions before. We decided on a civilised breakfast the next morning so found the local bakery.
We had a fantastic couple of days away. We were never far from home, but still had a nice long ride. We should do it more often.
I know that it is well into the month of May, but even though I didn’t get around to blogging for a couple of months it doesn’t mean we weren’t doing things. As this is firstly a record for me of our goings on I’m just going to do a few catch up posts, starting with the second half of February. Thank goodness for taking lots of photos, or I would have had know idea what we were doing back then.
February was when our solitary plum tree was ready to be picked. All our other fruit trees bore no fruit this year, as we had a severe frost in October, which knocked most, and then when we had the extreme temperatures in January our apple tree shed all its fruit.
It is only a spindly tree, but had a surprising amount of fruit. It is the “President” variety. They have a green flesh and the stones come out clean. Perfect for cooking, as it also comes up a nice rich deep plum colour.
I had lots of helpers with the picking.
The final yield.
I gave lots away, ate some straight out of the bucket and didn’t get to do anything with the rest. Life just got in the way. Mum made sauce and put some on the church fete. I went and bought it. She doesn’t know that, but it was a win for everyone.
I did get a little domesticated on one front.
Before…
After…
Much better. I just have to keep it tidy.
We spent our final night away from home at Coonabarabran, where the disastrous bushfires occurred earlier this year.
Even though we were away from home it was important for us to attend an Anzac service and we learnt that there was a dawn service held at the war memorial clock tower in the centre of town.
The service was well attended and we then adjourned to the little RSL Club for breakfast. Numbers were boosted by the Blaze Aid Volunteers who are still fixing the many miles of destroyed fencing. I overheard a local chatting to one of the volunteers and saying how the best thing to come out of the fire was the sense of community and the Blaze Aid volunteers. Our own Chookyblue can take a bow here for her wonderful project of providing a quilt to all those affected by the fire, with over 200 quilts to distribute.
After we packed up our little camper for the last time we headed out towards the Warrumbungle National Park to see the firegrounds. There has been quite a bit of publicity requesting that people don’t stay away, but visit and see all the rock formations that are normally hidden by the trees.
The first thing we noticed was the incredible amount of regrowth that is already taking place. These trees still had some of their original leaves attached.
As we went further the fire had obviously been much more intense as there were no leaves and the timber was severely burnt.
We only went as far as the Anglo Australian Telescope. How they saved it is incredible, Thank goodness they had mad good preparations in the couple of years beforehand.
You can see here just how intense the fire had been on the hill leading up to the observatory and nature regenerates.
It was still a stunning area to visit.
The other overriding thing we were amazed about were the houses. About 50 houses were lost. While we did not see any we take our hats off the fire fighter who saved so many houses. As we rode along there were houses with no visible damage right in the middle of the burnt out area. It could have been so much worse than it was.
After we left Coonabarabran we just headed home. As we came to each small town we had to make a detour due to Anzac Day services with large crowds, so there had been no fear of us missing out on attending a service on the day.
It was nice to get back to our local area and to see more colourful autumn trees. However, we noticed how much drier it was the further south we went.
And finally, down the dusty road we know.
In summary it was a wonderful couple of weeks away. We visited some interesting places and caught up with lots of people who are special to us.
The weather did the right thing, with no interruptions due to rain. While in Queensland I only had to put on a light jumper one evening for the whole time. Bliss. However, I can do without the humidity. We are just not used to it.
The bike went well the whole time – just needing the new tyre in Toowoomba, and our camper trailer worked really well once again.
Now we are back in the cooler weather and back to work and our usual life. All is good.
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