The Rest of June (At Home)

We returned from our holiday in the middle of June.  Most of what I got up to was stitching…..and catching up on the washing….

It’s always a delight to come home after a holiday at this time of year to see the zygocactus in flower.  Actually, the garden was looking much better than we expected, as there had been quite a bit of rain while we were away, and there had been very little frost.  The lawn even needed mowing.

Having said that, it is still nice to have the heater going to keep us nice and snug inside.

As it was well into winter it was time to refresh the little shelf in the kitchen.

I went to a high tea, hosted by the church ladies.

They always put on a good spread.

I listened to the audio book “The Deadly Dispute”.  This series of Tea Lady mysteries are a lovely, light hearted listen.  I think they work best as an audio book, as the narrator really brings the characters to life.

And that about sums up the second half of June.  More of our Queensland travels will appear soon.

My Wishes for July

Now that we are back home it is time to have a look at what I can achieve this month.

MY MAIN WISH

This has been a hard choice to make.  There are lots of things I want to work on, but where does one start?  I had one idea, but for what should be the cold, quiet time of the year, my calendar seems to be rather full, so I don’t want anything too time consuming.  As I type this I’m still trying to decide……..

…… OK, I’ve written the rest of the post, so time to make that decision ……. 

It will be to finish the Simply Serene Quilt.  That way it will be finished for Show and Tell when we return to Baradine in August.  So far, I have made and trimmed the HST and cut the plaid squares.  Time to play on the design curtain and then cut out the setting triangles, before stitching the rows together.  I'm looking forward to seeing this one come together.

RAINBOW SCRAP CHALLENGE

The colour selected this month is Aqua.  Well, as I used that colour last month I have to make another substitution.  I’ve decided to go with DARK BLUE.  That is sort of related and I don’t think it is a colour that will come up……I hope.

BETTY’S GROUP PROJECT

I haven’t made a start on piecing the rainbow strips together as yet.  I still have to come up with a plan.  Let’s keep the goal simple, by just coming up with a plan.  If I can get the quilt top together, that will be a bonus.

A new block pattern has been released by Betty, so that will be made and posted to her.

USING ELLY MAY

Poor Elly May has been under her cover since the middle of May.  There is no definite plan to for her at the moment, but I do hope to get her up and running this month . . . . . . . . . .Now that has changed, since I finally made my Main Wish decision.

CROCHET

The Corner to Corner rug should have been completed last month, but I got side tracked with my red scarf.  In theory, I just needed to do a couple more rounds of half trebles to have it done…….then I layed it out on the floor and could see that it was still too narrow for Wraps With Love, so a few more rounds are required.  It should be finished in the next couple of days, ready to donate at the Knit In in the middle of the month.

I will have to find something to work on at the Knit In, so will probably start another C2C rug.  This time I will make four 10 inch strips to the length of the rug, as it will be more portable, and then stitch the strips together.  That’s the plan anyway.

KNITTING

I NEED to get a wriggle on with my alpaca knitted jumper.  My wish is to have the body knitted up to the armholes by the end of the month.  Surely, I can knit a 100g ball of yarn a week?

STITCHING DAYS

Now that I have pretty much completed the C2C rug, I need to come up with a new project.  There is a fair chance that will be the alpaca jumper, but there may end up being something else.

SASHIKO

I am going to attend a Sashiko workshop on Sunday.  I have completed a few panels now, and have said I’m not going  to do more, but this little workshop is working from marking out the project on the fabric, rather than using preprinted panels, so should be interesting.  The plan in the back of my head is to make a little four sided bag with whatever I create.  Watch this space.

15 MINUTES A DAY

That’s the aim….

OTHER WISHES

1.    Try a new recipe

2.    Read (or listen to) a book.

3.    Have a fun day out - there are couple in the pipe line.

4.    Finish writing up our Queensland holiday.

It will be interesting to see what I manage.

Taroom to Rockhampton

We woke up to a rather sodden area after the previous night’s rain.

It was rather atmospheric as we drove along.

I loved the look of the scrub, all washed clean and the tree trunks looking so dark.

We drove through showers most of the morning.

The next town we came to was Theodore.  We have camped there on our way north a couple of times, but it has been a few years since our last visit.  Time to stretch the legs and have a walk around.

The first thing we noticed was that the water tower has a relatively new mural, only completed in 2024. 

It really is a nice one.

These artists have completed quite a few murals that we have seen in rural Queensland.

I loved how there was a sneaky little Wally (or Waldo for the Americans) hiding near the base of the tower.

This mosaic has been on the water tower for some time.

There was another mural completed by the same artists on the side of a shop.

This one had a sneaky little cat near the bottom of the mural.  I'll now have to keep an eye out for sneaky additions on their other murals when we see them.

Near the water tower there is also this artwork completed as part of NAIDOC Week 2019.

The town was established in 1924 as an irrigation scheme on the Dawson River.  Let’s have a walk.

Look how this shop has been in existence for the town’s entire life.   It has beautiful goods for sale and I may just have made a purchase.  Nice to support the small towns.

There are two nice churches.  I love how moody this photo looks.

The catholic church has a lovely window.

As we left town we drove through some of the irrigation area, planted with sorghum.

And cotton, much of which had been harvested.

As we continued on our way the weather started to fine up.

And before long, we reached Rockhampton.  This is the area we would be spending the next week in.

Stitching Wrap up For June

Despite us having the first two weeks of the month away in our caravan, I still managed to get quite a bit of crafting done in June.

My main goal for June was to complete the red knitted scarf, which was a great travel project.  Tick.

My main goal for May was to complete the solid fat quarter quilt.  Well, I was a few weeks late, but it was completed in June.

I had hoped to finish the corner to corner crochet rug, but that hasn't quite crossed the finish line. The main body of the rug is completed and I am currently working on the edging.  It is just rows of half trebles.  As it is rather mindless to work on, I'm saving it for my stitching days.  I expect it to be completed by the end of this week.

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks have been completed, also partly done while travelling.

The little donation cot quilt was a quick and easy project to complete.

I have finally started knitting my Long Paddock jumper.  The alpaca is beautiful and soft to work with.

The last thing I worked on was a quick little running repair on a couple of Christmas ornaments that I made many years ago.  They used to hang on the bookcase door handles at our old house and our cat, Joey, decided that they would be nice to play with.  I don't have a "before" photo, but they had both lost their hangers and the star one had a missing bugle bead and the others were loose.  Fortunately, I still have the container of beads, so was able to replace it and secure the others.  Now, they can be added to our tree in future Christmases.

Roma to Taroom

While we were at Roma we were closely following the weather forecast,  as there was rain predicted in the area in the coming days…..and the rain started on our final night there.

Our original plan, or should I say general idea, was to head north to Carnarvon Gorge.  Now, that would not work out if it was wet, so once again we changed our plans.  Mick has this theory that “if it isn’t planned, it can’t go wrong”.  It sometimes drives me nuts, but when wandering around with the caravan, with nothing pre booked and no real time frame, it can work out to be the case.

So, instead of heading north, we headed east towards Mile, once again on a road we haven’t been on for a very long time.

The first place we came to was Wallumbilla, a tiny old railway settlement.  The tourist brochures refer to the “Calico Cottage” located there, so we thought we had better pop in.

Next to the old railway station is a rustic old “Wheat Shed” and a small heritage area, which was closed when we drove through.

“Calico Cottage” had recently moved from the heritage area into the new “Wheat Shed”, a beautiful, spacious, light building, modelled on the original wheat shed.  It's realyl well done. Inside are some Council areas and a delightful craft shop, also serving light meals.  We didn’t need anything at that time, but bought some yummy jam drops, cooked by the ladies in the kitchen there.

Most of the day was driving through farmland and bushland, but there were the occasional interesting features, such as the bright pink pub at Dulacca.

In the middle of nowhere, there was a large wind farm.

We arrived at Miles in time for an early lunch at the bakery.  They made good pies and I had to have a sarsparilla, for old times sake.  When I visited cousins in rural Queensland in the early 1980s, “Sars” was the drink of choice.  I was amazed that Coke wasn’t even sold in the milk bars back then.

While in Miles we visited the local Vinnies and they announced as we entered that all clothing was $3.  I had a bit of a look to see if there were any shirts that Mick could use for working at the bowling club, and found one that looked OK.  I noticed that it was a “Gant” brand, which are fairly good.  It was only once we were back on our way that I noticed that it still had the swing tag attached.  Mr Google told me that the identical shirt retails for $229.00!  Score.  Mick has been advised that it won’t be worn as a work shirt.  I found an as new pair of Corfu jeans as well.  We were rather happy with that.

There is also a charity book store and they had this rather cute bookworm in the front window.

We scored there too.  Mick has been reading a series of books.  There are 6 and he had been missing number 5.  He found it not too long ago.  To his delight, he found Number 7, only published this year.  I also scored, as I found this interesting shaped jigsaw.  I think there may be one piece missing, as there is a cross on the picture, but I can live with that.  Total price for the two items - $5.  Going to Miles turned out to be a good thing.

Once we were on the road again the rain started, as we had expected.

We decided to set up camp mid afternoon at the little town of Taroom, while it wasn't raining.  There is a main free camp site, but you park on the dirt, so not ideal in the weather.  You can also camp in the car park at the Lions Club Park, which is sealed.  That suited much better as it turned out, as we had quite heavy rain during the night.  Carnarvon Gorge received even heavier rain, so our change of plans was the right thing to do.