Be Careful What you Wish for-storms in Perth!

No photographs in this post today-I was too busy trying to keep safe as I drove home from East Perth, through the tunnel, down the freeway during the "Perth Apocalypse Storm" last night.

It was a blessing to be stuck in tunnel for a while, as there were hailstones like large 'tombola' marbles falling at the entrance.

Later I had to dodge water which had closed off three lanes near Hutton Street.

Then when I got off at Erindale Road because I had heard that my exit had no traffic lights, I drove right into a storm which was overhead with driving rain causing visibility to shut down to less than 3 metres, high winds shredding the trees on the side of the road, and overhead lighting! I mean it really was overhead!

We had some water bank up in the gutter at the back of the house, where the patio roof meets the house roof, and that is a problem which we have every winter, so nothing too unusual there.

We had a large puddle by the front door which caused DS and DD some anxiety before I got home, but it cleared quite quickly.

My new veggies -planted last Sunday -all look in fine fettle.

Can't say the same for the rest of the northern Perth suburbs where I live. Our hospital is damaged, there are at least 6 schools and colleges which will not open today.

Across Perth we have over 75 traffic lights not working today and over 80,000 customers without electricity.

After 3 months of summer drought -the driest on record-this is a spectacular way to have the season break!

National Quilting Day!

Apparently the 20th March is National Quilting Day, according to the National Quilting Association
http://nqaquilts.org and even though it is probably an American idea, what the heck -I am happy to celebrate my favourite new hobby.

I have been enjoying my new project very much. It comes from this book: Material Obsessions by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke.



I am using a jelly roll like the one in the picture below. The fabric is Moda Botanicals from Jellyrolls2Go




This fabric has really inspired me to move out of my usual boring colour schemes. That is a good thing.
My DD commented that 'you could drown in that colour!"



I have done 5 blocks -there are six more wonderful ones to go, what fun!

Happy National Quilting Day everyone!

Waiting for rain

We had the hottest night on record for Perth in over 30 years on Thursday last week. It has been hot and hotter. We had a band of cloud mover over the city and it kept everything hot and humid, night and day. We have been longing for a change!

Is there a breeze out there yet? Is that the wind chime I can hear?

We have been watering this little tree in the park behind our house. The big trees are OK, but this little one needs support. So far, so good but I feel the whole park needs a good dousing with water.

The birds are now struggling to find food -the pink and grey galahs do a lot more ground feeding at this time of the year, digging into the soil for grubs. They look funny when they come up with grubby faces!

The birdbaths we have around the house are popular -we have birds visit regularly for drinks and for baths too. Yesterday I watched in great amusement from thekitchen window as a mudlark (a medium sized black and white bird) splashed about in the birdbath to such a degree that he was in danger of falling out!

I think I am now officially ready for autumn to begin. We have emptied the veggie beds and are getting ready for autumn plantings.

Wait! A few drops of rain are falling!

Hopefully this is the start of something good.

Water! It is getting harder and harder to get.

The CSIRO announced this week that the south west of WA is likely to see a 40-50% reduction in rainfall over the next 30 years or so. This is the continuation of a 'drying trend' that has seen the rainfall over the last 30 years reduced anyway. Predictions are that the climate bands are moving south, with Perth likely to look more like Geraldton's climate over the next 30-50 years.

Our government has been aware of this for some time, and has one desalination plant already in operation, with another to come on-stream by 2012.

Desalination is an expensive way to get water. If there was another way we would do it. There is also the worry of highly concentrated brine being discharged into the oceans, after the process is complete.

Water will be in short supply and expensive. That means we will need to be strategic in our use of water, especially as gardeners and householders.

I have just got my water use bill, and whilst we are shown as using less water than the average in our suburb, I am disappointed. There is a long way to go.

We have a spot for a watertank, as you can see, but no water tank there as yet. In our mediterranean climate, where we have summer drought and winter rain, it is very difficult to build enough water storage on a suburban block to carry us through the summer. The best thing to do with a water tank is to plumb it into the toilets, and use the water in the winter time (when the tank will fill many times) for toilet flushing, so that it can reduce the overall dependence on scheme water for a house over a year. This is a complicated thing to do in our setting, with an older house.

We have instead opted for re-jigging the reticulation in the garden to go entirely to dripper irrigation, which has proved effective. It guarantees less evaporation, and our front garden is showing the benefit in particular.

One nice surprise is that the pomegranate we thought had died in the heat, is this week showing signs of sprouts at its base, which is a great result.


The next task in our drive for water efficiency will involve removing our 1970s versions of toilets, to make way for much more water efficient models. We are saving up and hope these will be installed before next summer. After the garden, the toilet is the next most water hungry place in a suburban home.

I wonder if the rains will come on time this year? We usually look for the break of the season at Easter. Fingers crossed!

I've been busy

I have just finished my first ever BIG quilt top.
I call it "east meets west" because it started with two fat quarters my daughter gave me for Christmas. One has a Japanese lady and one had old English phone boxes. The red of the phone boxes was right for the lady's gown, but how could I put them together? Like this!

Quite a lot of the fabric came from the Op shop. I always browse in the fabrics and am often delighted with what I can get for $2-3. I bought some half price fabrics to complete the quilt, because I wanted it to be big enough for our bed.

I learned a lot in doing this -I enjoy the challenge of trying to find fabrics that go together and producing something which is quite unique. It was hard to sew as it got bigger, and I have decided to send it off to a professional quilter as it is too big for my domestic sewing machine. I will make the back today from some other op shop fabrics that I have in my stash.

It is interesting that up until last year I was convinced that I could not take on any projects like this as I did not have a sewing room where I could leave things when half done. The way I got over that was to put my sewing machine on my desk where it is always available, and then I just use the dining room table for cutting out. There are boxes under the bed where I store my fabrics and other equipment. It really only takes 5 minutes to take things out or put them away.

I am amazed at how a barrier like the one I had in my mind prevented me from having so much fun. This project has been so good that it has kept my busy even when the weather in Perth has been so hot. We have had the hottest and driest summer on record! Roll on autumn!

By the way, today is St David's Day, so in honour of all my Welsh relatives I wish you all a good day. Cymru am byth! (Wales for Ever!)

Giving it all away (well, some of it!)

Lent is a special time in this house -one we look forward to with enthusiasm.

Rather that punishing ourselves by giving up treats and such for the 40 days, like I used to do when I was a child, we challenge ourselves in a different way -not to give up but to give away!

Lent is a time when we choose new charities to give to, and enjoy the fun of discussing what to give and to which charity. This year I am thinking in particular of UNICEF as one of the candidates.

Lent is also a decluttering time, when we go through our possessions and give away the things that are still useful to charity shops, Freecycle and the like. Last year DH gave away his beloved SLR film camera, and was delighted to find someone who would love it and use it.

The result of all of this is a cleaner house and gives us a great deal of satisfaction.
If you would like to know what brought us to this point, this blog might explain it

http://the-go-between-god.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-do-you-think-god-is-like.html

This weekend we are off to a retreat at one of the 'thin places' here in WA -New Norcia, the Benedictine town. People have been praying here for almost as long as there have been Christians in WA. The picture above is of the town from a distance...that will get closer in a few hours!

It will be quiet and restful, and I imagine also inspirational.

I wish for you some of the same!

I am so stingy that...(part 3)

......I turn out nice new hankies from old shirts! I found out that men's hankies are a lot bigger than women's hankies, so when mine turned out to be about 10" square, I got some nice new hankies with lovely strong but soft fabric.


......I also make muffins out of leftover pasta sauce!

The recipe is infinitely adaptable....


2 cups self raising flour (I sifted mine to add lightness)

Mix the following wet ingredients and then add to the flour:

1 egg
1/2 cup oil or melted butter
1/2 cup milk
add leftover pasta sauce-in this case it had about a cup of veggies and liquid together.
Sprinkle with something savoury -salt, or parmesan cheese or herbs or something.

Bung into muffin cases and cook at 175 degrees C for approx 20 minutes.

If that wasn't thrifty enough, I then take them to work for lunches!