What Have We Been Up To?

It has actually been a rather quiet time around here, which we are both enjoying immensely.  The weather has been lovely.  We had a couple of days with some rain, receiving about 30mm over a few days.  Not flooding like some places, so just nice for the garden.  The temperature has been reaching the mid to high 20s C.  That is about to change over the next few days, with it supposed to be reaching the mid to high 30s C.  Not so nice.

In the sewing room I have continued to work on the Just 2 Charm Packs Quilt Along, having completed the next 10 blocks.  That means all the blocks are now made.  They aren’t due yet, but there is nothing better than being ahead, rather than behind the eight ball.  I won’t work on this any more this month and will hopefully have the quilt finished in February.

A few more crochet squares have been worked on while watching the cricket.  This is where I am up to now.  I don’t know how big I will make it, but they are a great project to pick up when you just need to make that 15 minutes.

I haven’t worked on my Blue Quilt for a few months and I really want to get this one to the finish line.  The next border consists of the appliqué blocks, which I have already completed, and a lot of checkerboard blocks.  The pattern just says to join width of fabric strips and cross cut.  That would be easy, but I have lots of smaller pieces of fabric I wish to use and which will also make the end result scrappier.  Obviously, this takes more time and is somewhat fiddlier.

I’m making progress, and a great big mess.  Hopefully, they will be finished this month.  If not, at least I will have made some good progress.  The next border that needs a bit of work will be the half dresden plates, which will all need to be appliquéd down.  I really want to get started on that, as it is something that I can take to my stitching mornings. 

I have continued to work on my What Sweet Delight stitchery at my patchwork group mornings and am very confident that it will be completed this month.

And I can report that I have worked on something for at least 15 minutes every day in January……and am having a lovely time doing it.

In other happenings. Mick has continued to work on the fit out of Rosie, the Suzuki Sierra. He has fitted a solar panel, deep cell battery and hooked up a 12v fridge. It is looking good.  We took it for a short drive last weekend and it went well.  There are no creature comforts and the air conditioning is via winding down the window.

I haven’t done a garden update for ages, so will try to do a separate post soon.  In the mean time, here is yesterday's harvest.  We are getting that many beans every day, so loads are being frozen and some given away to neighbours.  We are also getting one, if not two zucchinis each day, so they are being given away too, as well as making zucchini slice for the freezer.  Our tomatoes are not doing well at all this year.  We think it may have something to do with the sudden extreme heat in early December.  Lots of people are having the same issues.  There are a few self sown plants coming up in garden beds, some of which have come up in compost that has been put on the garden.  We are leaving them in place, hoping that they will provide some fruit.  Funnily enough, the healthiest one is in the flower garden by the front door.  This is the first cob of corn we have picked.  We haven’t grown corn since moving here, as we haven’t had the room.  Now that Mick has extended the vege garden, we can plant more variety.  The egg plants are just starting to have fruit large enough to pick.  We will probably have more than we can use of these too.

Last night we had a lovely dinner of homemade chicken rissoles, accompanied by all our own veges and our homemade tomato relish.  It was very good and that cob of corn was just perfect.  We just cook sliced egg plant on the barbie or in a frypan and it is so lovely and creamy.

A common sight at this time of year has always been the Christmas beetle.  However, in recent years they seem to have disappeared.  We heard on the radio that there is now a program where you advise of sightings, so researchers can work out where they are and where they have disappeared from.  Mick found a beetle yesterday and we thought it was a Christmas beetle, as it was the same size.  However, the dark stripe on its back didn’t look right.  After a little Google search, it turns out that it wasn’t a Christmas beetle, rather it is actually a Cowboy Beetle.  We’d never heard of them.  They are an Australian native and live on nectar, so not a pest species.

On Monday I had a day out at Orange, travelling up with my friend.  She is picking and selling beautiful organic blueberries.  We had a lovely time.

Of course, we are enjoying them for our breakfasts.

To finish off, we went on a walk after dinner a couple of days ago and enjoyed this sunset.