The Rest of April

When I read back over my posts for April they really only cover the purchase of “Frank”, our little Fuso truck, and Scrub Stitchin’.  There was actually quite a bit else that went on as well.  Autumn and spring always seem to be our busiest times of the year.  

The colours of the trees are at their peak, so it has been the best time to be out and about, taking it all in.

We did have our first frost on the day after Anzac Day, which is to be expected.  The dahlias all got zapped so have now been cut back for the winter.

Firstly, in the week before we headed north, I assisted with the set up of the Royal Bathurst Show, in the needlework section.  It was a really interesting process to be involved with.  As we were heading off in the week before the show I was only able to assist with receiving and preparing the entries in readiness for judging.  I didn’t get to see the final display, but a couple of photos were forwarded to me. There were no entries from me this year, as the show was held while we were at Baradine.  I look forward to being involved again next year, and it won’t clash with Scrub Stitchin’, which is good.

In the preparation for Scrub Stitchin’, I cleaned my machine and wound a few bobbins.  I don’t know why I had never previously thought to use a pipe cleaner.  Boy, can you dig in and find some big dust bunnies.

I knew I would be doing a lot of appliqué at Scrub Stitchin' and I use an easy thread needle to weave in the thread ends.  Usually, the needle sits in a pincushion beside my machine.  I don’t know what made me think of it, but I have a cute little suction cap pincushion that I received as a gift, but have never used.  I popped in on my machine and it is the best thing ever.  Love it.  Why didn’t I do this before?

I had fun getting my batik fish ready to take to Baradine, not that I did any work on them.  Mick took this candid shot of me selecting the various threads for the appliqué.  Yep, I have quite a selection of threads to choose from.

We have had some roadworks out the side of our place.  The road has been full of pot holes for years, with just a shovel of tar added after rain.  It really needed doing.  They took just three days to completely rip up the road and then reseal it.  Let’s hope it lasts well.  The sealing took place on the day after we left for Baradine, so it was a nice thing to see it all finished once we returned home.

And the pretty sky on the morning we left for Baradine, showing where the road works were up to.

We have done quite a lot of miles since we returned from Baradine, but in the car, not Frank.  

Firstly, just a few days later, we headed down to Sydney to the Caravan and Camping Show.  It was such a pretty morning as we left town.  The only thing we bought were two more sensors to go on Frank’s dual back wheels.  They let you know if a tyre is going flat or if the wheel is overheating.  We are so glad we are not in the market for a caravan now, as there are just so many to see.  We think it would be rather overwhelming.  It was a nice day out.

I read a book.  It is one that I had picked up at an op shop or street library or somewhere.  A rather enjoyable, light read.

On Anzac Day, after we had attended the Dawn Service, we gave my brother a hand to get a load of firewood for his heater.  We went out to a property his mate owns that has lots of fallen timber from a wild storm a few years ago. My brother took his ute and trailer and we too Frank and our trailer.  It’s been years since we have been out wood carting. As a kid, they were always a fun day out in the bush.

Well, Frank proved that he isn’t a four wheel drive, which we were well aware of.  One incline on the property had really wet, slippery grass and despite several attempts, Frank would not go up, his wheels just spinning.  Let’s face it, he came with very basic road tyres.  

No worries, we just piled into my brother’s ute, filled his trailers and then the boys went back to Frank, swapped trailer and filled ours, before swapping trailers once again before heading home.  Problem solved.

While the boys were swapping trailers I had a nice little wander around.

The timber they were after was stringy bark.

So named for obvious reasons.

There were numerous wombat burrows in this section of scrub.  Mostly unused, as told by the leaf litter at the entrance.

Quite a few were under the roots of a fallen tree.  This one looked more recent. Any wombat in there would have been woken from its slumber with the cutting going on above.  I didn’t even realise this hole was there until they were well into cutting the timber.

The timber on this particular tree was still a little bit green, so they split the logs, ready to store till next year.  When one was split I noticed this little creature.

A witchetty grub.  I’m not sure if this is the ones the aborigines ate, but it looks like it.

Also, there were some interesting tiny fungi growing on the side of a part of the log. So delicate.

Just before we left, I found another wombat hole.  This one is the freshest we found and is obviously in current use.

We did bring home a little bit of wood.  Someone else had cut a couple of lengths of a hollow log and left them there.  We will pop them in the garden and plant something in them.

We did have two more big days out, both on the last weekend of the month, but they will have their own separate posts.

So, that did tick off most of my other goals for the month.  However, there was no new recipe tried, which was a bit slack.  Maybe this month.