Spring is Here.....

It is a lovely Spring Day here today. I thought I would show some pics of the garden which I took this morning.

This is looking from the back to the front of the garden.

My old farm wagon. I just love this little wagon. I bought it at a farm auction of people I have known my whole life. It would have been originally used to take the cans of milk maybe to the railway nearby.

The front view across the garden.

This was my original old bike. My brothers lovingly restored it for me and painted it pink when I was about 15. It is very faded now and the basket almost rusted through. It made a very cute planter though!

This is the buxus hedge that was planted just over a year ago. It is growing beautifully.

This old set of laundry tubs came from my parents farm. They were the original set of tubs that were in the old downstairs laundry when we moved to that farm. My little herbs are doing beautifully in them.

I wonder if I will ever harvest olives from my olive tree?

I am looking forward to so many more delightful Spring days and hopefully enjoy them in my garden with some nice cups of tea and some friends company, now all the hard work has been done.

Gone Mad.....

We have been madly gardening here since the weather is starting to

feel much more like Spring.

The lawn is starting to green again. Since the last picture I posted showing the lawn, we

had quite severe frost and the whole yard turned white! So lovely to see the tinge of green again. It is so rewarding to see your efforts paying off when the garden is looking pretty.

Today though I think was our maddest moment in gardening so far. We have entered our garden into the "Novice" section of the local country gardening competition. Novice would be the word!! Not a clue what to expect or what is expected!!

The judging is any time from tomorrow through until Wednesday week and apparently we don't get told when to expect them!

AND TODAY IT IS RAINING

SOOOOOOO

In the rain it was - mowing and the final little tidy up! It would be just our luck to be on the first day!

So here we are in our raincoats - gardening. I wonder what the neighbours think!!!

The rain is beautiful and will dust everything off just perfectly.

Happy Birthday.......

My big boy turned 18 today. I really can't believe where the last 18 years have disappeared. I pray that the years to come will be full of success and wonderful times.

Last week he had a job interview with a major bank in our city and he is waiting for their decision. I so hope he gets this job. Cameron has decided to work full time at the moment to further his career in flying. Unfortunately flying is a very costly industry to get into. He has deferred from uni at this time.

I was a very proud Mummy when he came out dressed for his interview!!

Tonight we have had dinner out together for his birthday.

Much love to you Cameron. Happy Birthday!!

Well, I guess that brings to a close birthday month at our house!

100 little things.......

This week is flying by again. I am home today thankfully, but a thousand things to do as usual. Luckily blogger is playing fairly and the pics uploaded very quickly today.

It's Book Week this week. I was so pleased when I found out that Alexandra's new school celebrated this week. There have been displays of books and a show and yesterday she got to dress up to go to school. They could choose either a book character or the theme "Fuel the Mind".

I guess one plus for ballet and end of year concerts is getting to use your costume again. It made all the hard work worth it!! So she went as Tinkerbell! Her hair was still beautiful from her ballet exam the day before - she must really love it as she has gone to school today with it still done. It was well and truly glued to her head, so won't be going anywhere terribly quickly.

Finally today, my 100 buxus arrived.

I have done the edges of the garden beds along the front pathway and driveway.


The stick in the middle is a standard burgandy iceberg rose that is underplanted with Poppies and White Primula. I finished the beds off with mulch. What a job that was!

I am so looking forward to Spring!

Off to the laundry now and then I hope the sewing room - that's if I can remember where to find it!! It's been so long!!

This Week........

My baby has had her eleventh birthday. She celebrated with some friends last weekend. Today she dragged me around her favourite shops with birthday money burning a hole in her pocket. I think she enjoyed buying some special things though.

My sweet Mitchell turned 15 this week . He is about to begin learning the bass guitar, so no doubt that will be interesting (and loud) for all of us!

I couldn't wait any longer for my stocks to flower, so I treated myself to a bunch this week. They are just beautiful, I love their perfume!

I had a really enjoyable day this week and had some much needed stitching time with a lovely group of ladies. We had a lovely time at The Quilters Angel at Highfields. It is in a lovely complex with a coffee shop and other delightful shops.

I do however have this beautiful tulip in my garden. I have three pots of them all coming into flower, this being the first one. I havn't grown tulips before. They seem to be doing really well and should put on a delightful display.

On my way down the backstairs this morning (and there are quite a few of them), somehow I miss the last few. Well, I was a crying heap at the bottom - I can tell you!!!

Two skinned knees and a very big bruise coming out on my arm. I can feel my body becoming stiffer and stiffer.

The things we do for a picture for our Blogs!!!! I hope you enjoy this tulip very, very, very much!!

Not much else here other than much pie making at the bakery. Hoping for a more enjoyable week this coming one!

Life........In General

It's been over two weeks I think since my last post. I am not sure where the time has disappeared to. Just generally busy I guess.

Early in that time, this is how Mitchell came home from school one day. I was not a very happy Mummy when I saw this hole in his pants. The story that came with it was one that made me cranky and laugh at the same time!! (Only because Mitchell is a good story teller)!

This is a "Tech Shed" incident. Tech is where the kids learn to make things with timber. This is what happened to Mitchell when another child was being really stupid with an electric drill!!

There was this hole in his pants, a hole in his shirt, several holes in his undies and lets just say broken skin on his rear end!!!! As a result Mitchell was screaming, the teacher was screaming and the kid on the end of the drill thankfully turned the thing off. Joy oh Joy! What fun it must be teaching a room full of 14 and 15 year olds with power tools!!

So I patched it the best I could and of course Mitchell couldn't care less about how it looks. Lucky it's winter and is covered by his jumper most of the time.

The last week or so has been quite cold with some nice days too - it is so nice to think that Spring is only around a month away now. This row of lavendar is looking great. It is one side of our vege garden. I hope it fills in nicely to finish off that side of the garden. We have had a lovely time planting the vege patch this past weekend. Lots of new things like Chinese cabbage, Bok Choy, Rainbow Spinach, Squash and Beetroot along with peas, beans, corn, radish and lettuce. We have left some room to plant some potatoes soon.

Last Monday was one of the coldest Winter days we have had for a long time. It was freezing and raining. Each time a shower came across is rained ice! Some said it was hail and others said sleet. I am not sure which. I would more likely say sleet. It was quite unusual for our part of the world. Two areas, one about an 1 1/2 hour to the north west and another about 2 hours to the south both received a light dusting of snow that day. So when it snows in Queensland - it's most definately cold!

Late in the afternoon, the clouds cleared away and I thought the garden looked really nice. We have had some heavy frosts since then, so the grass is not as green as this now.

These are two of the gifts I sent to the winners of my Anniversay giveaway. The third was a little different, but dummy me had wrapped it before I thought of photos!! I am sure Lisa might show us on her blog when she gets it. Sue and Ineke have already received the ones shown. I hope they enjoy their little gifts as much as I enjoyed making and sending them.

Not too much happening on the stitching front at the moment. I have started the needlepunch from Rosie's book and enjoying that when I can catch a moment for myself.

My little girl is eleven tomorrow and looking forward to having some friends over on Saturday afternoon. I had better get her gifts wrapped now, so we can enjoy birthday in the morning.

I must just say I must have been having another dopey moment before my last blog entry too. It was pointed out to me by my dear friend who often lurks around this blog , that I have shown the wrong quilt - so I am sorry to those two ladies - I must have been off in a different land!! When I get some time to photograph the "Love Is" quilt, I will show it to you then.

Antiques Steps..... by request

Quite a few people have enjoyed looking at my cushions from the last post. Isn't it funny when we are looking around all the wonderful blogs there are and we are also looking way into the background of the lovely photos and enjoying the "rest" of the picture too! I know I do! (Or is that just being a sticky beak?!!!)

Well, at least two people were enjoying the background of my cushion photos and were asking about the quilt. Thank you for asking Anne and Ineke.


I made this quilt a few years ago now and it is the largest one todate. I bought it as a kit at a craft show in Brisbane. It is called Antique Steps and is from The Old German Quilthouse in Geelong, Victoria. I couldn't find them on the web, so not sure if they have a web site or not.

It measures 76 x 100 inches. The fabrics are the Antique Flowers range from Lecien. It has 35 different fabrics in it. You only require 15cm of each fabric. I had it machine quilted - I don't hand quilt at all. Too much to do! I would just prefer to get on with the next project. I rarely have more than one thing on the go at one time. Especially quilts! I do however have more than one project in my cupboard - ready to go!

My favourite part was the scalloped border. I just love borders done like that. The worst part of that though is having to make bias to bind the edge. There was quite a nifty instruction in the pattern and was easy enough to do.

It is an absolutely perfect winters day here today. Beautiful outside in the garden. We have just finished to all the little plants with liquid fertiliser. The cold weather has slowed everything down quite a bit, so the warmer weather will be lovely for the garden. I am still deciding wether to prune the roses this weekend or next. The new roses are doing beautifully - lots of new growth already. There is rain forecast for early next week, so I hope they are right with that.

I hope to get a little more stitching done this weekend. It's been enjoyable in the garden so far!