Safe and sound

He is here, safe and sound! Our third adorable grand child, (DGS2) born in country Victoria. He had a bit of a rough start, and needed to return to hospital for treatment for jaundice, but is now growing and content. I travelled over to Victoria to help out with the babysitting and general support for the family, and as it turned out, it was a good thing I was there. The second child in the family was sick whilst the baby was being born, and things were a bit hectic for a while.

I had plenty of opportunities to enjoy DGD and DGS1 during the past two weeks. We played outside a lot, had 'picnic' snacks on the patio, made pirate hats out of newspaper, did water painting, went on walks, picked flowers and read stories. We played imaginary games: one involved the Three Bears and Goldilocks, where I played the role of Goldilocks and was put in the porridge pot! DGS1 declared it was 'gloopy'!

Can there be anything more sweet than a posy picked by a 5 year old girl for her Nanna? 

I was given a 'friendship Teddy" just like the one my grandchildren found in their op shop. Wales features large in my family history. 

The Campaspe river bank is a great place to walk. 

We made mandarin cookies, using mandarins from the backyard tree.  We used grated peel, and squished up mandarin segments, and a bit of Pa's orange marmalade to make them. They were a huge hit. 

The birth of a baby is the cause of celebration, of course. This little family was shown great kindness by their community. Many of those who brought gifts remembered a 'little something' for the older siblings, which was most welcome as there were times of being without Mum and Dad, and we could use the new toys as distractions. 

I have to admit to being very glad to be back home again. I missed my DH and my DD,  along with my usual grown-up, calm and orderly life! When you are a FIFO grandparent it is a kind of 'all or nothing" experience. It was so precious to be with them at this time, but so different to life at home. 

DH and DD say it is my role to promote the family routines, and that without them everything was a bit wonky. I am therefore resolutely making bread today, and calling people in for lunch at the appropriate time! 

A walk in the park

Whilst I am away in Victoria for the birth of our third grand child, I thought I would share with you some pictures of a wonderful walk in the Walyunga National Park that DH and I enjoyed just before I left.

It was a warm spring day. Walyunga National Park is about a 40 k drive from my house, and it is at the point where Derberl Yerrigan (Swan/Avon River) comes down from the escarpment to the coastal plain. The spring wildflowers were out and the place looked like a garden, but this is natural Western Australian vegetation and landscape.

Perth is a pretty dry place, and during the summer, this river is mostly pools of water.

In spring, however, if we have had a good winter rain, it is transformed.

We walked to rather poorly named "Syd's Falls", where there was a beautiful display of foaming water. These falls are about a 40 minute walk from the car park. 

I love the granite boulders and the vegetation of the parkland here. 

The birds were very active, even in the middle of the day. We saw baby ducklings! The best sight however were these kangaroo or Yongah. 

They were happy to ignore us as we walked on the path nearby.

DH and I stopped at  Edgecombe's Cafe in the Swan Valley on the way home, where we had a coffee and shared a piece of lemon pie. We also brought home some of the 'world's best asparagus" that they grow there.

It was a lovely day, and DH and I have promised ourselves more days like this when I get back from Victoria. Do you have a place where you can walk and enjoy nature?

Quilting -one step forward, a few tiny steps in the same direction

Last weekend I took a giant step forward and attended my first Community Quilting Bee. 

There were about 15 of us all working on various stages of quilts to be donated. According to the WAQA newsletter this group has donated 226 quilts in the last 3 months to a range of recipients including the Fiona Stanley Hospital Neo-Natal unit, Oncology and State Rehabilitation Unit, Foster Care Services, King Edward Memorial Hospital (our local maternity hospital) Solaris and Renal Units and Multiple Sclerosis. 

I chose a UFO from a pile waiting to be worked on, which turned out to be a very pretty top made with blocks in a a variety of colours with a lot of white and blue, so I created a back to go with it, and cut out the binding.

At lunchtime we saw some quilts that had been donated, and were given the instructions to make the quilt above, which they called "Square in a Square" in a variety of sizes. It looks pretty easy when you know that the only trick is to only partially sew the first seam, so that you can complete it when the other 4 blocks are sewn on. Hard to describe but easy when you have been shown.

I rather shyly handed over one of my previously made quilts (read about it here) , and I am pleased to say it was well received. This is a picture of it below.

The community quilting group was having a sale of fabric for the price of $10 a kilo! I was thus able to improve my very bare collection of greens, with a nice bunch of new-to-me fabrics. Later I bought a 'surprise bag" of things in blue -which included some nice fabric and some thread too. So it was a nice addition to my stash.

I enjoyed the group and the sewing, and it feels so good to help someone else, so I am sure I will be going there again.  

My sewing room tidy up has just about finished, and took a surprise turn when I saw an appeal on a local group for a sewing machine for a young person learning to sew and whose residence was with her grandmother. They didn't have a lot of money to spend on the sewing machine, so I gave them my Singer 328 sewing machine as I do not often use it. I hope the young person is enjoying it and taking care of it! In honour of the space thus liberated in my sewing room, I tidied up underneath the sewing table! 

I now have discovered a LOT of fabrics  I had forgotten about. Everything is now sorted into colours and is easy to find. I even discovered a lot of 4 patches I had made, and got an inspiration to use them with a bundle of charm pack squares I had never used, so that looks like a very easy baby quilt which I could put together with a flannel backing, for the community quilt group.

I am slowly progressing withe 'bricks and stepping stones" quilt made of shirts. The fabric is a bit challenging, but I am about 2/3rds of the way through the blocks. It will go together quickly when I get the black and white four patches done. I really should try to move this along -it has been a bit slow! Mind you, I have been spending a lot of time in the garden lately- the weeding is mostly done, and we have done some pruning and propagating.

I am off on another adventure later this week. Our third grand child looks like arriving early, and I will be travelling to Victoria to offer a bit of a hand with the other two, and then travel back to Perth a fortnight later with them and their mum. Should be an exciting time!