Do something real on a long weekend.

Today was a holiday in Western Australia. That means a three day weekend.

We have filled it full of wonderful things that restore the soul and add to our lives. None of these things required much in the way of money and all of them involved us being active and interested in our lives and the lives of others.

On Saturday I went up to Trish's place to learn how to do free motion quilting -that weird thing when you drop the feed dogs and move the fabric at will, drawing with your sewing machine. Wow, what fun! I can really see how I will be adding this to my repertoire of skills to make my quilting projects quite individual and fun. The latest project is a whole cloth quilt for my niece's baby.


On Sunday I slept in and that meant that we were a bit late with a few ideas we had. No problem however to rustle up a salad or two so that we could have a barbeque lunch with a friend of ours.

Then my dear friend from school days and her husband came to look at my veggie garden! That was a lovely thing to do.

Then we were off to our Sunday night home group. What a supportive group we are becoming. We share each other's ups and downs and we care for each other.

Today I slept in again (this must be a record!).
The weather had turned rainy and cold so I used my time finally putting together the quilt sandwich for the whole cloth quilt for my niece's baby. It is a tough job doing this on the floor when you are as ancient as I am!

DH enjoyed an afternoon nap under the quilt I made at Trish's class.

And our elderly cat slept alongside.

Then I potted up the seedlings that I planted a few weeks ago into newspaper pots and soaked a big block of coir to put in the raised garden bed.

The day ended with a lovely roast chicken -free range of course, and roast veggies. A DVD of Poirot makes for a fun and life-giving weekend.

Hope yours was the same!

Fields of Gold

In January I visited New Norcia -and wrote this
"The Western Australian bush looks dry at this time of the year, but it knows how to survive the heat, and will be ready when the rains come again"

Today we visited New Norcia again for the Friends of New Norcia Picnic Day -and what a difference the winter rains have made this year!
The canola crops have turned the country into fields of gold, and the wheat is knee high and emerald green. The sheep and cows are looking healthy on their green feed -and the cape weed even is turning everything into gold. Trees are looking much less stressed. There is water in all the dams and the rivulets and on the sides of the road.






We had a lovely day. The monastery town had put on a lot of displays and exhibitions along with a fine lunch and some concerts to attend.




We visited the famous "New Norcia" bakery to see the baker pulling focacia from the 4.5 metre long wood fired baker's oven. They made it with olive oil made from olives first planted over 140 years ago when the Spanish monks first arrived in WA. They brushed them with more oil and garlic and sea salt. YUM!

Like all those lucky enough to work around New Norcia, the baker was happy to share the secrets of his craft and to share the results.

The only downside of the day was the intermittent showers which prevented us from eating our picnic lunch outdoors, and which meant that the final walk from St Ildephonsus' College, where we had been listening to an early music concert, to St Gert's for afternoon tea, resulted in us being absolutely drenched! I am sure it only poured for five minutes -but we were wet through.

So we came home to a warm room and fresh clothes and the glow of a very happy day among the fields of gold.



Here is one last picture.

I love a good day out. My DH and I love being able to escape from our daily routine, and New Norcia is a special place of spiritual renewal for both of us.

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Happy days

Saturday started slowly. Lying in bed listening to Classic FM in that lovely state between waking and sleeping. Handel on the radio. I hope there is a special place in heaven for the baroque composers !

Coffee with DH and DS before a quick shower and then took some pictures of my spring garden while the sun was shining, Good to see the seeds making such progress in my new mini greenhouse.





Then I started on the 'house blessing".Each week I try to spend some concentrated time on one area of the house. Today I spent 20 minutes giving the stove top a good going over. Made some muesli whilst also tidying the pantry -when I open packets and put them into storage containers I can tidy a shelf and get things back to order. Swish and swipe over the bathrooms, clean toilets, sweep floors.

DH does the washing poor man and in winter it is a pretty never ending job. He also got excited and did a thorough clean and tidy of the bedroom. Where does all that dust come from?

It took only one hour and a quarter, but we were back in order and DD and myself were off to have fun.
























We stopped at the girls toy shop and I bought some Christmas fabric for an advent calendar.

We went to Joondalup to have some lunch because we haven't done that for a while.

Then to a couple of op shops. Picked up some bargains.




Home for coffee with DH and SIL before they both went off again. Chooken in the oven for tea, time to read some of my favourite blogs.

Have the chicken bones simmering to make stock-plan to watch some good TV tonight. I have a DVD of the TV show about Mr Gently and then there is Rockwizz.

It was a good day -and I hope to have a lot more of these in the future. I am about to make some changes in my life -but I can't tell you about them just yet until I have informed some interested parties, but I hope that soon my life will be more of a collection of happy days.

Come for a walk with me

Put on some comfy shoes. It is sunny outside but you will need a coat.


































Come for a walk in the spring sunshine.

Let's see how full the lake is after the winter rains.

We can hear the frogs calling.

The birds seem very busy all of a sudden.





















Let me tell you about the new path I am thinking of travelling.

Somewhere more free than where I have been.

Perhaps something a bit riskier.


Let me talk to you and you to me.

We can dream of summer days.