Photos today

Day 26 of my August blogpost a day challenge

Another busy day today so I'm just going to fill the post with some photos that I've collected over the last few days 😊

The yard is starting to filling up now as we have 130 cows calved - about 70 to go.

The youngest two calves happily fed and snuggling up - 

The oldest calves at the start of another nice day - 

After their feed, watching me drive away -

And from same paddock, looking down on the MOML shifting the 'very close to calving cows' and drafting out the new calvers - 

Yesterday, to the excitement of two cats, a wee Silvereye turned up inside. While I was busy trying to open more windows, etc, he found a friend to sit with!

til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

Travelling to retreat (Going back in time)

Day 25 of my August blogpost a day challenge

A long one today

One of the reasons I wanted to do this blogpost a day August challenge was so that I could catch up on some events that happened AGES ago.

One of those being Sue's and mine travels to and from the Scrub Stitching retreat at Baradine in New South Wales, Australia. Scrub Stitching was back in April. Sue was very good and posted every day but I never quite got to it.

So here I am - I really want these travels documented!

Sue picked me up from Melbourne Airport (Tullamarine) and after snatching a coffee and finding the car, we were off.

Our first stop was Echuca, about 2 ½ hours away, which is a historic river port town on the banks of the Murray River. 

We stayed at the Campaspe Lodge, which was very close to the river. It was a lovely peaceful spot - until the birds arrived at dusk!

It was close to the Port of Echuca so we had a leisurely stroll along the river bank, marvelling at the Paddle Steamers, other boats, the Flood Tree and detouring for an ice-cream :-)

First night excitement - and the joy of finding GF ice cream cones —

The next day we went on a cruise on one of the old wood burning Paddle Steamers, the Pevensey. The cruise was about an hour and it was lovely.

Steamer accommodation from approx 1915 - people must have been a lot smaller then, it all seemed so tiny!

'All The Rivers Run' was filmed on the Pevensey —

Lots of houseboats!

Trying to perfect our selfies —

Afterwards we wandered around the town, and had a really interesting time. 

(Bottom right photo is a Koala crossing to keep them off the road)

The next day we drove to Forbes. It was a big day's driving but we managed to find a couple of interesting spots to stop at —

The painted silo at Mathoura - we had been there before but approached it from the back of it so we didn't recognise it at first!

We also stopped at the information centre at Deniliquin ...and stumbled upon a modern quilt exhibition which we quite enjoyed - we spent longer than we should have there.

Sue was inspired at Narrandera -

We met up with the Deana and her USA contingent at Forbes - we had a lovely dinner together (no photo sorry) (whew, you'll be saying)

The next morning we all travelled in convoy along the Lachlan Sculpture Highway. This is a permanent sculpture/art trail along a100km length of road.

The first one, the Goana, had us excited about what else we would see -

They were all so different; some we needed to read the information about them to understand them, but we appreciated them all!

A late lunch at Condobolin before the girls headed on to Baradine. Sue and I opted to spend the night at Narromine.

The next day we were on familiar roads and heading to Scrub Stitching at Baradine.

We arrived!

(And I wrote about retreat *here* and *here*)

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

A One Year Anniversary

Day 24 of my blogpost a day August Challenge

Today marks exactly one year since McGeorgeous came to live with us.

My nieces trapped and rescued him from the church grounds below their apartment in Auckland. 

After a few months of rehabilitation with their two cats, he came north to us.

(My brother put aside his 60th birthday celebrations to help bring him up, which is a good way to remember when we got him!)

He spent the first few weeks living under the bed in the spare room. 

Sometimes in the bed —

He's had his scraps while he's been here; about 10 days on, while starting to explore the house, Tammy cat chased him outside through a door we didn't realise was open. It took two days and lots of planning to entice him back in again - we had to shut Tammy upstairs overnight, leave a sliding door open for him, with some food nearby.....he came in, had a feed then came along to the bedroom for a nosey. Very stealthily we managed to shut the bedroom door, then the outside door and trapped him back inside. Then he spent all night lying on me and purring his little heart out.

[We also had the Garden Shed incident a few months back when he disappeared for nearly a week - locked in the garden shed 😢.]

He's very smoochy and companionable when he feels safe but is also very timid...some people just have to believe that he exists - as they've never seen him! Our son has been living with us for months, and he's only just now being allowed some pats!

He's becoming a good little sewing room cat aka The Palace Cat —

He and Tammy are becoming nice little friends, but she won't tolerate him snuggling up and sleeping with her.

So there we go, 12 months of Mr McGeorgeous. He who takes up a big space in our hearts.

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

Marmalade

Day 23 of my blogpost a day August challenge

A quilt that took my eye last year was the Marmalade quilt which was a covergirl on the Australian Quilters Companion magazine.

(I think it might have got its name from it's marmalade coloured border?)

I thought it would be a fun scrappy quilt to make; one that could slowly evolve in the background.

In the evenings  in the early part of winter I hand stitched all the Pentagon flower blocks and appliqued them to their backgrounds -

And recently I've started making the triangle blocks - 

Today I 'cornered 'the pentagon blocks and then laid a few blocks out to see how they were shaping up - 

It's going to be a bit brighter than some of my work but I think it will work out. My other projects lately have been reasonably controlled colour-wise so this might take a bit to get used to!!

Anyway, it can continue in the background as my leader-ender project.

And another silly animal photo - most speckled snout of the season award goes to #33 - 

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

Lucky Us

How lucky are we? Tonight the family teamed up to give the MOML and I the afternoon's chores off so we could watch a special hockey game.

YD has worked hard and in the last two seasons, has made the Womens Premier grade team for her club. This year her team made the finals and tonight was the night of the big game.

Son-in-law took over in the shed, and son was in the calf shed, so we showered and sped up the drive before anyone could change their mind!

It was a great game but sadly the final score did not for our way -

ED and family were there too. Miss Lily decided she needed a selfie with Ganma -

And was mesmerised with her wee cousin Isobel -

Rounded off with a nice meal in town before heading home -

We were so appreciative of being able to get away for a few hours.....we quite enjoyed our wee date!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn