Winter

Today heralds the first day of winter.  After the unseasonably warm weather we have had for the last few weeks, today is cold and wet.  As it should be.

However, inside it is toasty and warm and we don’t have to go anywhere today. 

I have a cake in the oven.

The lounge room looks like a Chinese laundry.

Mick is happy over in the shed with his heater going.  He and a mate are playing with sidecars.

I’m quite snug on the lounge, starting again on my knitted wash cloth with Joey the cat for company.  He is quite settled under the coffee table.

This is about as good as it gets.

Chookshed Party

Chookyblue is celebrating the Chookshed’s second birthday with a big party.

Lots of us are helping her to celebrate, some in person and lots more of us in spirit.

The girls who are with Chooky are having a ball, by the sounds of it…… and have even achieved a bit of stitching.

I haven’t had much time to join in today, as we’ve had a couple of open houses, but I’ve done a tiny bit of stitching tonight.

Yep, when all else fails, make a bib for the gift box.

I did start to knit a wash cloth, but after dropping a stitch and not realising for a few rows, it now looks like this.

Ready to start again.

I also had plans for a crochet project, only to realise that I’ve packed away all my crochet hooks…….Mind you, I haven’t wanted to use one for ages.  I’ll have to go digging for them.

Not to worry.  I have one little project for OPAM, so not a fail for the month, and hopefully tomorrow will be a day at home, so I’ll be able to help Chooky celebrate more then……….and have another go at the wash cloth.

Gold Country Car Rally

Last weekend heralded our Historic Car Club’s annual rally.  Mick and I weren’t as involved this year, so I had a chance to wander around the lovely cars during the lunch break.  There was a huge variety of cars entered this year.

The rally had a record number of entries and the weather was good.  You have to be happy with that.

The orange Ford ute was Mick’s favourite. 

The three below are local cars.  We do have some lovely cars in our club.

The next two are locals as well.

The little Anglia was a very popular car, winning its class.

I’m guessing this is a 1947 Buick (looking at the number plate)?  Another popular class winner with its straight 8 engine.

This rather classy Austin won best car in the rally. Notice the screen in front of the rear seat.  Rather posh.

I do like looking at all the bonnet emblems.  They are a real work of art from a very different time.

I think everyone had a great time.  It is a lot of work to arrange, but very rewarding on the weekend.

Artisan’s Market

There was an Artisan’s Market on the library forecourt on Saturday.  This is the first time that I’ve visited, although the markets have been going for a few years now.  This was apparently the biggest so far and was well worth seeing.

There was a good variety  of items for sale and no rubbish in amongst it, which was lovely to see.

My friend Anne had her quilts and home furnishings for sale.

I’ll just share a random variety of stalls.

We do have some very talented and creative people in our area. I’m looking forward to seeing next year’s event.

There seems to be an increasing number of markets held in this space, and not just your average rubbish.  I hope the number increases, as it is a great outlet for locals and a terrific place to find a treasure.

Changing of the Season

The weather has been a little confused here of late.  We had freezing temperatures at the beginning of May, but the last week or so has been more like late spring, complete with moths and gnats.  Last night saw that change, with half an inch of rain and today it has been mainly grey, with a cool breeze.

Our poor garden doesn’t know what to do.  However, some things are starting go get into their late autumn mode.

The cotoneaster has a lovely show of berries.  The birds do make rather a mess with these.

One patch of violets have been violetting away for a while now, but the other varieties are still sitting back and waiting a bit longer before starting to bloom.

We have our first jonquil in flower.  There will be lots more before too long.

And finally, another little clump of fungi in a damp spot.

An Outing to Lithgow

I recently had to go down to Lithgow and had some spare time to wander up and down Main Street.  It is the usual story, you travel through a town all the time…….but always on the way to somewhere else…….so never have time have a look……..or it is on the weekend and everything is closed.

Well, I decided to walk from one end of the street to the other……..and it is rather long.

I didn’t take many photos, but I found a few treasures tucked away.

Tiled entry ways to shops quite regularly show up as quilting inspiration, but I don’t think I’ve seen any like this before.  It is all apple core tiles.  Don’t they look great in this simple pattern.

There was a cake stall along the way, and of course I had to buy a few things to take home.  They had a rather novel item for sale.  A bickie on a vintage plate.  There were two very cute, matching plates, so they came too.  The bickies were just a bonus, and eaten before any photo could be taken.  The plates will join our other mismatched little square plates that we use all the time for afternoon tea.

A pair of egg cups that match our mugs (the original mug coming from GDITC at Nundle a couple of years ago) were also brought home from a rather nice gift shop.  That shop also provided me with a new “upmarket beanie”, as I will call it.

See, it scrunches down flat, so should fit in a bag to take away, or go in the top box on the bike.  I’m not quite sure if Mick  really doesn’t like it or is just taking the Mickey out of me.  Oh well, I quite like it and as it is wool, it should be nice and warm – and of course, red makes you feel warm too.

The op shops weren’t too bad either, meaning that a couple of jug covers and a few books also came home with me.  You have to support them, you know.

And finally, I found a delightful home decorating shop.  I could have brought quite a few things home from here, but I have to remember that we are decluttering at the moment.  A visit in the future may be in order though.  Very tasty.

Of course, there was an interlude for morning tea as well.  You need to keep up your strength for all that browsing.

I thoroughly enjoyed my morning.  It was a real indulgence to wander by myself, with no time limit and nothing that had to be looked for.  I wish I could do it more often in other regional towns, as so many look interesting as we travel around the place and seem to have some treasures where you least expect it.

If you get a chance, have a stroll along the street of Lithgow, or any other regional town.  You might be pleasantly surprised.

Wandering in the Bicentennial Park Part 2

I’m back again to finish my wander in the park in my lunch break.

I briefly mentioned “The Cairn” in the last post.

Here it is a bit closer.

Next year, Bathurst commemorates its Bicentenary – the oldest inland settlement in Australia (although not the oldest City, Goulburn was declared a city before us).  There are lots of plans being made for the celebrations.

The circular wall surrounding the cairn has plaques of many pioneering families.

We will now start to wander back the way we came. 

However, this time we will detour through the Peace Garden.

It didn’t look like this when I was a kid.  The steps were there and the bust and plaques, but it was overgrown and a mess.

 

As well as tidying up the steps area an addition was made to the Peace Garden.

I love visiting here.

This was a community project.  The local brickworks provided the blocks of 5 bricks, which were still attached to each other, and hadn’t been fired.  Community members or groups could obtain one or more of these blanks and carve them.  The idea was to have round sections top and bottom and rails in the middle section.  They were then returned and fired at the brickworks.  There is so much creativity here.  Let’s have a look at just a little few.

There are some that are just patterns, some have Australian themes.

Some have political and peace themes.  Notice the Amnesty International symbol on the left hand one below.

And the special thing for me is to find the one below with the “88” on it, as my Dad made it.  He would say he was not at all artistic, but he got involved in the project and his simple designs really stand out.

His second contribution is the block on the left with 1788-1988 carved in it.  It is a nice legacy he has left.

And then it was time to go back to work.  I really enjoyed my couple of strolls in the parks.  I may have to venture somewhere else one day.