The Rest of July

​It is about time that I shared what else we got up to during the month of July.

Remember that I attended the California Fashions exhibition just before we went on holidays and found the vintage magazines with information in them.  Well, after we came home I had lunch with one of the organisers and gave her the extra magazines.  She then asked what I was doing on the following Tuesday, as some of the former employees were going to have a morning tea and the museum ladies were going to interview them.  Would I be able to come along and help?  You bet I could.  It was a wonderful and interesting time with about a dozen former employees attending.  I learned so much more.  I even ended up with my photo in the local paper. There is going to be a book written, so that all the research that has been carried out and information gathered from the former employees won’t be lost.

A big event each year since 2015 has been the Bathurst Winter Festival.

Last year the local council stopped hosting it so another organisation took it on.  Their venue was not idea, so this year the Showground Trust, together with many local sponsors, took it over.  It ran for the two weeks of the school holidays and was quite successful, so fingers crossed it will continue into the future.  

We went down on the first Saturday night.

Another afternoon out that I had was to attend a Sashiko Workshop put on by the local Embroiderers Guild. There were only two of us in the class.  We mainly learned how to mark out the patterns for stitching. I have to admit that I haven’t progressed the project at all since that day.  I will eventually make four panels and hopefully make a rice bag with them.

One of my informal wishes each month is to try a new recipe.  Sometimes it happens, often not.  Well, I’m not quite sure what happened in July, but I made seven new recipes.  Yes, seven.  All winter comfort food type meals.  I had a little pile of the free magazines that you get at Coles and I went through them and pulled out the recipes I liked the look of.  It ended up being a rather European centric selection.  I have just taken the photos from the magazine, as they are presented much nicer than mine.  From the top left, there was Cassoulet, seafood marinara, a Greek style lemon chicken, Spanish red wine chicken casserole, beef stroganoff and Curtis Stone’s Best Bolognaise.  The Bolognaise took much longer and was more detailed that the one I normally use that came from a Margaret Fulton Leggos Tomato Paste ad in a magazine in the early 80s and I’ve only ever made beef stroganoff from a packet before.  I also made a seafood chowder that was very tasty.  The seafood marinara was not all that great as it was too tomatoey, but the others were all good.  I did let Mick know that this experimenting won’t last and to expect just the normal old meals.

 My other informal wish to read a book didn’t happen.  Not to worry.

I finally got around to donating a couple of quilts that I finished earlier in the year.  They have gone to the nursing home where Mum used to live.  They will be given to residents that have come in with very little and therefore their rooms look rather plain.  I think that is a wonderful outcome.

And that about sums up the month.

Rockhampton

Back to our travels.  We spent just over a week in the Rockhampton and Yeppoon area visiting with friends.  After our two aborted trips to see them last year, it was nice to actually spend some time with them this time.  Where to start?  Let’s start with Rockhampton, or “Rocky”.

Rocky is a large regional centre with lots of services.  However, we have not really played the tourist too much.  This time we went on a historic walking tour.  

The tour started at the Criterion Hotel, which is quite a landmark.  It is on the site of the first hotel in the area, which was the Bush Inn.  

 The interior is rather grand.

Gracemere, just a bit further inland, is the older settlement, established by the Archer brothers, who were the first Europeans to explore the area and settle in the early 1850s.  They realised that a port would be needed to service the area, so they established one on the Fitzroy River.  Of course, a pub was soon established. 

As the port was the main transport hub of the area, that section of the town thrived.

It was interesting hearing about the early days.

In the late 1850s there was a gold rush nearby, which helped the establishment of Rockhampton, followed by a meat works in the 1870s, as a result of the cattle grazing enterprises in the area.

In 1882 a massive gold discovery was made at Mount Morgan, and the town really boomed, hence the impressive buildings built along the waterfront.

Quay Street, which runs beside the river, is Queenland’s longest heritage listed street.  The Customs House is the stand out building.  

There are no remains of the bustling old port, as rail and road have long since replaced shipping for transporting goods and people.  In its place are beautiful gardens and a leafy tree lined street.

In the middle of all the heritage buildings, next to the Customs House there is one very modern one.  It is the Rockhampton Museum of Art.  It was only opened in 2022.  It has been built on the site of another modern building. 

I loved the wall construction, using sandstone, but with a rougher mortar finish.  A nod to the earlier buildings, but not copying them.

We visited on another day.  

In the large foyer is a featured sculpture, created by an artist from Switzerland.  It is actually a huge candle, made entirely from wax.  

There are two wicks sticking out of the subject's head.    It had only just been installed in the museum, as it was nearly intact.  Over time it will gradually melt.  

Once completely melted, it will be recast and the process started over again.

There were a couple of interesting exhibitions to have a look at.  This one caught my eye, as it was embroidered, and covered Friday, Saturday and Sunday.    The text on the phone is saying she just wants to be friends.  Something quite different.

After our browse, it was time for morning tea in the gallery cafe. This was recommended by the lady behind the counter and it did not disappoint.  Oh my! Rather decadent.

Behind the gallery there is a walkway through to the main shopping street, which features some murals.

The crocodile was the centrepiece.

Of course, we had to have lunch too, and found a nice pub beside the river.  It turned out that it had only opened a few months before we were there.  It was lovely sitting on the verandah in the warmth.  

We did a bit of celebrity spotting while there.  The football legend Wally Lewis and a group of people were also lunching there.

We had a bit more of a wander around town and took in some other old buildings.

It was interesting to see that the railway line runs right through the centre of town.  There were flashing lights and boom gates in the main street, but just one street over, (still very busy), there was only a railway crossing sign, no lights or gate.  It was a very long train.

And that about sums up our looking around Rockhampton.

The Aftermath

So much for a tidyish sewing room.  This is the current state it is in.   Quite a bit of sorting and putting away is required.

Scrub Stitchin’ for 2026 has been and gone.  What a wonderful time we had. We were away for just over a week, arriving back home last Monday.  We unpacked the necessary things and all the washing is done, except for the van linens. As you can see, the ironing has not been done.

Having arrived home on Monday, I started helping set up the Bathurst Show on Tuesday.  When you just attend a show you have no concept of the amount of work involved behind the scenes.  I know I certainly didn’t until I put my hand up a couple of years ago.  Although my main section is the Needlework, everyone pitches in on most of the pavilion section to get it done.  We are well and truly on track.

We had the day off yesterday for Anzac Day, but it was an early start to attend the dawn service at 4.30am.   A lazy day was had after that.  A bit of progress on my corner to corner rug was made.  The only crafting I have done since we returned home.

It was back to the show this morning to assist with more judging, then this afternoon we removed the remainder of my sewing stuff out of the van.  It was rather mind blowing how much I had packed.

I noticed this gorgeous row of trees as we drove to Bunnings today to buy some red onion and leek seedlings.  It was the perfect autumn day.

They will be the only veges planted this year as we will be away when most veges will be needing some TLC next summer.  They are all netted to stop the birds from digging them up.

While we were in the garden, we noticed that the first feijoas have dropped, so enjoyed one each at lunch.  Yummo.  There aren’t a great many this year, but we will enjoy what we have.

Mick is having a lovely time this afternoon, supervising some corned silverside cooking in the  camp oven.

Tomorrow it is back to the show.  It is a big day, with the judging of the Needlework and getting it all displayed.  Being a public holiday has been a great bonus, as there will be quite a few more helpers.  With a bit of luck, I will then not have to go back in until Thursday afternoon for the final tidy up and check that everything is ready to go on Friday.

Hopefully, on Tuesday, I will get a chance to start loading posts about our wonderful week away at Baradine.

The Rest of March

Apart from stitching, some other things took place during March as well.  Grab a cuppa, this is a long one.

Let’s start with the first thing that I was rather happy about.  I finished the jigsaw that I started between Christmas and New Year.  This one was rather challenging, so I kept avoiding it.  

You can see here how the shapes were not the usual standard sizes.  It was occupying half of the dining table, so it was time to knuckle down and get it done before any pieces were lost.  I spent a full day on it and it has now been packed away.  Fortunately, all pieces were present and accounted for.

As the season officially moved on from summer, it was time to redo my little shelf in the kitchen.  Firstly, with a very simple green theme for St Patricks Day.

Then after that, it was time for Easter.

Now, for the garden…

The start of the month was quite warm and we were still getting lots of veges, but the plants were getting rather tired.  

To our delight, we ended up getting enough tomatoes to make a batch of relish.

The freezer is full of zucchini slice, which is the perfect lunch to take to a stitching day.  We also have a large supply of frozen beans.

The eggplant did well, so some moussaka was on the menu.  Yummo!  There was also barbecued eggplant and eggplant curry.  All so good.

The veges have all been pulled out now, until next season.

To our delight, after a couple of years bearing next to no berries, our raspberries are starting to produce lots of berries.  These are our favourites, so we are rather happy with the outcome.

The flower gardens did well in the late summer/early autumn.  They look a bit unruly now, but will get a good haircut in a little while.

Over the road from us there is a horse paddock and the roadside verge sometimes puts on a nice display of wildflowers……until it gets mowed.  I was able to snap a photo while they were still there.

Mick alerted me to some mushrooms growing amongst them, so I went to have a look.  Now, we have grown up with foraged mushrooms and they do sometimes grow on our front lawn and we have foraged them just up the road from our place, but when I went over, although they on the whole looked OK, the crinkling on top didn’t look quite right.

I cut one, and no, that was definitely not a mushroom to eat.  I went home and washed my hands and knife well.

What else did we get up to?

I tried a new recipe.  It was muffins made from just four eggs, two bananas, half a cup of peanut butter and some berries.  They were OK, but I won’t really rave about them.

I listened to a book.  It was The Road Trip by Tricia Stringer.  A light hearted read about a caravan trip.  I enjoyed it as the characters followed a pretty similar route to what we did through northern Australia.  It was amusing reading of all their dramas.

As we do twice a year, we helped out at the church fete.  This the white elephant stall that I work on, before the rush of patrons.

We had  day in Orange, while Mick’s truck “Frank” was serviced.  On the way up we saw some ibis flying in perfect formation.  This isn’t something you see very often here.

As we had loads of time to kill we visited the art gallery.  There was a photographic exhibition of spiders.  They are an Australian variety called “Maratus”.  The males have very colourful tails that they display during courting.  

What is amazing is that these spiders are only three to five millimetres in size.

There was another exhibition from their permanent collection with all works featuring animals.  I was delighted to see an original Jenny Kee Jumper.

With more time to kill, we went to the museum next door.  They had an exhibition of botanical drawing by two sisters in the 1800s, who drew butterflies and moths.  They were one of the earliest records of the creatures.  It also shows some of the early landmarks of Sydney in the background of some of the paintings.  All rather lovely to see.

The trees in the forecourt were starting to change colour.  The first we had seen for the season.

And now for the weather…..

March usually starts to see the sting go out of the heat and transition to relatively stable weather.  The nicest time of the year, in my opinion.  This year it was rather hot at the start, with some nice rain, and then it did start to get to that gorgeous temperature of the mid 20s C.  

Then, on the last Thursday of the month a rather strong cold front came through with a little rain and lots of strong wind.  It even blew a tower crane off a building in Dubbo.  The next day saw us reach a maximum of 10.9C!!!  That is the coldest March day since records have been kept.  The previous coldest day was 11.3C in 1939.  There was even snow in Orange and Oberon.  Fortunately, that was just a blip and today we reached 26.4C, which is 5 degrees above average.

What I have noticed since Friday, is that our street tree has started to change colour and ones further down the street are quite golden.

Now, for the elephant in the room…. This is just for my record……

Australia, and the world, are living in “uncertain times” due to the war in the Middle East which started on 28 February.  The vital shipping lane for oil, and consequently our fuel, has been blocked.  Fuel prices have doubled with diesel at about $3.50/litre.  We are assured there is sufficient fuel coming to Australia, but our reserves aren’t all that large.  People have been panic buying and the farmers are stressing as it is just about time to plant the winter cereal crops.  Not only is diesel an issue, most of the fertiliser also comes from that region.  It will be interesting to see how long this goes on and the outcome.  As a result, we have decided to cancel our trip to Melbourne to attend the Australian Quilt Convention.  There will be other years when we can go.

On a more positive note, we will still definitely be going to Baradine.