My Other May Goals

As usual, I had few non stitching goals for the month. Here’s how I went.......

1. READ A BOOK

Yes, I knocked that one over early in the month . It was a simple read, but better than nothing. 

2. TRY A NEW RECIPE

Yes, this time it was Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins, using some of the last of our raspberries.   I kind of made up the recipe by picking bits from a couple of different versions.  They turned out rather well and will be added to the regular makes.  Mick picked the very last few raspberries yesterday, so I think another batch will be made today. Who’d have thought we would be still picking them right up to June. 

We did quite a bit of other baking as well.  All of these are in addition to the other two batches I posted about here.  I've never baked so much in my life.

Banana bread to use up some overripe fruit.

Mick celebrated his birthday, so we made a rhubarb crumble cake, a favourite of ours.  We used the last of the rhubarb stalks.  The plants have now been divided ready for next year.

Another favourite, fruit medley slice was whipped up.  This has no butter or oil, so is nice and healthy.

And, finally, some Milo biscuits.  This recipe is one I took from a Milo ad many years ago, but don't make all that often.

While talking of picking the last of our produce, we used the last of our eggplants in another batch of eggplant curry.  This is such a quick, easy and delicious recipe that a friend recently gave to me.  I could make it every week, but I think Mick would get a little sick of it.

If you would like any of these recipes, let me know in the comments and I will forward them to you.

We really only have silverbeet left in the garden for eating now.

3.    GO FOR A WALK FOUR TIMES A WEEK

No. My excuse? We did have some rather bleak weather, which I feel is a valid excuse, but otherwise, we just haven't.  Having said that, when we did go for a walk, about once a week, we went for a long walk, usually between six and ten kilometres.  

The view from the top of the hill behind us goes for ages.

We have been drawn to walking along the river again.

The last of the autumn colour is beautiful and we were surprised to see the number of small groups picnicking  on the soft grass.

I love this root system of a fallen tree with its mushrooms inside.  It is like a little fairy's grotto.

We walked the loop in the opposite direction to usual this time.  You don't even realise these little rapids are there from the other side of the river.

4. GO FOR A MOTORCYCLE RIDE

Yes.  This is something we were really happy about.  I posted about it here.  Mick also went for a ride with the Panorama Motorcycle Club.

5.  HAVE A WEEKEND AWAY IN THE VAN

Fail.  This was always going to be a pipe dream. The happy news is that from 1 June, we have been allowed to travel again.  We are scheming.........

In other news since I last posted, just to wrap up the month.......

We both came down with a head cold early in the month.  We did the right thing, as requested by the Premier, and trotted up to the hospital and had the COVID-19 test.  Fortunately, we both came back negative.  The results arrived in just over twenty four hours, which was good.  I did take a couple of days off work to get over it.  That is another reason why we didn't do so much walking.

Mick decided to attack another section of our rather wild and woolly shrubbery.  His plan is to plant a couple of plum trees, as we do miss them.  We have always had a plum tree in our back yard at our previous homes.

Rip, rip wood chip.....

That looks a bit tidier.  Now we just have to wait for bare rooted trees to arrive at the nursery.  We will plant a President and possibly an Angeline Burdett.  We still have to make our final decision on the second variety.

Mick also considered planting a feijoa, as we love the one at the little house we lived in for twelve months, but we really won't have the room with the other two trees, even if we keep them small.

Mick has been plugging away at the rebuilding of his Rickman Honda's motor and is making good progress.  He now needs to order more parts for the next section.  He is surprising himself with how much he is enjoying the process.

Finally, on the last day of the month, a small family group visited the property where Mick grew up.  This was to scatter his Dad's ashes.  The site chosen overlooks much of the land his Dad owned in his earlier years.  The property is looking wonderful at the moment, after the ideal autumn conditions.  A perfect final resting place.

And so wraps up the month.  A month in which we were going to do so much, but have really enjoyed the slower pace of life by staying home much of the time.  It was also a month where life has gradually started to return to some sort of normality, with schools reopening, restaurants, pubs and cafes opening in a very limited way, and a  noticeable increase in the volume of traffic on the roads. 

We look forward to June.

What We Have Been Up To

We've been up to all sorts of things over the last few days....and also not a lot at all.

Last weekend was rather wintry, considering it isn't even winter as yet.  We stayed inside and didn't do very much at all.

What I did do, shock horror, was read a book!  Nothing intellectual or long, rather another of the vintage Maigret detective stories.  I have another three on the pile waiting to be read.

Monday saw our first frost, although it was rather light.  We had another one on Tuesday, and there are more forecast for next week.

 

Mick picked the last of the egg plants, so all the summer veges have now been removed, other than a couple of mini tomatoes tucked away in pots.

We are still picking a good batch of raspberries every second day.  They are being covered for frost when necessary, as there are still a lot of berries coming on.  We can't believe how many we are getting considering the summer we had.  The freezer is rather full.

The weather was glorious today, so we tackled some tidying up in the garden.  Our dahlias have grown enormous this year, so we thought it was time to dig up the tubers to divide for next year.  So many plants were being smothered in this garden.  The tubers from these, and another couple in a separate garden filled three beer cartons.  Plenty to give away next spring.

That looks better, although still messy.  We'll leave it like this until the start of spring, when we will give it a good tidy up ready for the new season. At least you can now see the little fairy door with its pixie and elf.

The bonus was a very full vase of flowers from the removed plants.

We've done two lots of baking, firstly rock cakes and then cherry biscuits.  I don't think we have ever baked so much.  They are all tried and true recipes, but firsts for Mick, who has never really baked before.  We are definitely enjoying the results.

We haven't done a great deal of walking, but have still been out a couple of times.

On Wednesday Mick came and met me for lunch and we went for a walk along the river.

There had been a huge fog in the morning, which was still lingering, making everything rather picturesque.

Yesterday we went for quite a long walk, about 8 kms, and met this handsome Clydesdale horse.  He only looks small because I was on a slight embankment.  He came up for a scratch, but there was a sign on the fence not to feed or touch the horses, so we both missed out.

On the sewing front, this morning I made the latest Blockheads 3 block.  It is 8 inches and came together rather well.  I do love my Ultimate Flying Geese Tool.

I then bit the bullet and completed the Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks for this month.  

I'm still not loving making them, but at least I didn't leave them till the end of the month this time.

Meanwhile, Mick is working on the restoration of Marilyn, his Rickman Honda motorcycle.  He had to order quite a few parts online and they are now gradually arriving.  He has the motor completely pulled apart and has started to install the replacement parts.

He even had to go into work today.  He has been semi retired since the start of the year, but there hasn't been much of the semi since COVID-19, which he hasn't minded.  It was a bit sad getting out the work clothes.

This afternoon the Prime Minister announced some relaxing of the COVID-19 restrictions, albeit subject to the State Premiers making the decisions for individual states.  It will be interesting to see what we will be allowed to do, and when the changes come into place.  We do hope we can get out and about a bit more.

So that about wraps it up for now.

Tonight is Friday Night With Friends.  Last week I joined in, but achieved very little - just two EPP seams. I stitched the first and realised I had the pieces back to front, so had to start again.  Then I started the crochet shawl, but as I didn't have the pattern in my head at that stage it wasn't ideal to work on while also watching TV.

Hopefully, I will be a bit more productive tonight, although I still don't know what I will be working on.  I'm sure I'll find something.

COVID-19 Chronicles - Sunday and Monday

SUNDAY

Our Sunday was more leisurely than Saturday, starting with a nice sleep in due to the end of daylight saving for the year.  It's nice to be a bit lighter in the morning, for now at least, but we will miss the long evenings.

Mick was looking for something to do, so played with his Mum's sewing machine.

Yes, another Elna that came to live with us at the end of last year, when Mick's Mum entered aged care.

I dated her to 1978, which was pretty much the end of the run of this style.  My Mum had a very similar machine.  Hers was the Supermatic with the blue top and took the discs for different stitches and dated from 1968.  This one is the next model down with a smaller selection of stitches built in.

She was looking rather tired, but has seen a lot of use.  When I first met Mick, his Mum used to always have this machine out, making clothes for herself.  It hasn't been used for quite some time.

Mick got into her guts, expecting to find lots of fluff and dirt, but it was surprisingly nice and tidy and well oiled.

He gave her a good wipe down and a polish and she came up really well.  Yes, there are scratches from pin, but what do you expect after so much use.

I plugged her in and she ran like a charm, nice and smooth and quiet.

I didn't stitch anything with her, so haven't checked tension and the likes, but I see no reason why she shouldn't sew well.  These are great machines.

Mum sold hers to my cousin in 1980 to update to the next Elna, which is now in my sewing room.  I really should ask him if he still has it.  Yes, it went to a male cousin of mine.

This Elna thing is rather addictive.  I have six now.  They are certainly my favourite brand of machine.

We went for our afternoon walk, once again up the country road.

Such nice views up there, but so much windier than down at our place.  You don' realise how nice and protected we are.

We then kept walking around our neighbourhood as well.

Some kids had been having fun decorating their driveway for Easter.  As we were admiring the artwork one of the girls came out with her Mum.  I think she was chuffed that passers by were enjoying what they had created.

Another house that has one of the best Christmas light displays in town has ventured into Easter decorating this year.  I wonder if this will now grow each year.

Of course, we continued to see lots of teddies.  Such fun to look for.  I know, big kids.

I did venture into the sewing room for a while.

The plan was to work on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks with light and bright blue.

I did get them cut out, but then got carried away, cutting the squares of each colour required for the rest of the year.  Now all I have to do is the final cutting and piecing each month.  No, I didn't stitch them.  I need to psych myself up for all those curved seams.  It will happen soon.

While I was playing I decided to pull fabric for the latest Block Heads 3 block, that was released last Wednesday night.

I got most of it done yesterday.  

MONDAY

This morning I finished off the block and am happy with the results.  I must say that I'm rather pleased that I chose to make the twelve inch block, as a smaller block would have been a tad fiddly.  I take my hat off to the ladies who made the four inch version.

Other than that I went to work.

Mick picked a nice lot of raspberries, which are now in the freezer.

He then did something rather radical.  He started to work on the motor of "Marilyn", his Rickman motorcycle.  He has owned her since 1979, when he was a young whipper snapper.  She started to give grief in the early 1990s so got wheeled to the back of the shed after he bought "Sophia" the Moto Guzzi.  He pulled her apart in 2012 and hasn't done any more.  Maybe she will be his Corona Project.  We'll see.  She needs some serious internal surgery.  You can see photos and read about her here.

On the official front, the government hasn't announced any further restrictions at this stage and the number of new infections is decreasing.  The Ruby Princess cruise ship is now docked at Port Kembla so that sick staff can be treated and a criminal investigation has started.