Waiting and Watching

Here is our front paddock having it's last cut of hay this Summer.

This has been my view this week as I sat finishing this blanket on the window seat,

watching the activity going on outside, and waiting

and wondering about the new baby that will very soon be wrapped in this blanket.

This is not the blanket I started in my last post, but rather the one I started thinking about last year. I started crocheting this last Summer, and then put it away when our daughter had a miscarriage.

Now Tamsin is about to give birth any day and the baby blanket has been finished with lots of love hooked into every stitch.

I can hardly wait !!

High Tide

It was a very high tide on Saturday afternoon and Ian and I thought that my Mum might enjoy a sea view as we pushed her towards the Beach Cafe in her wheelchair.
People were stopping their cars on the side of the road and jumping into the sea practically from the pavement.

They didn't let the chains stop them .....

I took in some beach sculpture...

and the wonderful atmosphere of a late afternoon at the beach,

and wondered what it would be like living here in this retro style home overlooking the sea and sky.

New Growth

I am thinking about making another baby blanket, maybe a zigzag knitted one, and I am going on a long car trip tomorrow, so it would be the perfect time to start.

I don't like bending down and looking at the knitting on my lap or checking pattern repeats when I am travelling in a car or bus....I sometimes feel sick and then I don't feel like knitting at all !

So today I shall wind these skeins into managable balls and work out how many stitiches I need for a generous sized blanket. I will decide on a very simple pattern.

Then I shall be ready to knit and gaze out the window as we whizz along.

Little Pots of Gold

As you can see this post is much the same as the last one...sorry about that !


But this is what I have been doing ........

Jam making.

Mixed berry jam, greengage plum jam and apricot jam.

Apricot is Ian's favorite.

I have never made the greengage plum jam before, even though the greengage tree has been in our orchard forever, and I have to say that it is truly scrumptious. Sweet, but tangy.

Tomorrow might be the day for scones and jam, I am thinking...

Tasting and Seeing

That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.............Emily Dickinson

Sounds of Summer

In the afternoons lately I have been coming in from working outside in the garden and spending an hour or two quilting this quilt that I first started several years ago. Because this is rather monotonous work I have been entertained by watching past episodes of TV shows on the laptop.

Today, whilst wondering why I could hardly hear the verbal exchanges between Donald Draper and his band of merry mad men, I realised that the cicadas have arrived ...whole colonies in fact.

I have all the windows and doors open because yes, it is a beautiful summer's day here...but hey, I can't be outside all the time can I ?

I think February the 1st must be the official birthday of the cicadas here in the 'Top of the South'.

They have quite an orchestra up there in the gum tree. I would love to know the decible count.

I thought I would show you their hazardous route from under the ground. They crawl from a hole in the ground, climb their way to the nearest tree, shed their crunchy brown skin, and become very noisy green little creatures.

I remember when I was eleven and it was the first day back at school after the holidays, my friends and I would spend the whole lunch hour collecting as many cicada skins as we could find and attaching them to our school uniforms...their little leg skins have tiny barbs that would stick on to the fabric of our uniforms. Those were the days !