Nowra Road Trip

Went down to the coast yesterday, and back today, stayed with my good friends Shayne and Brad who invited old friend and new neighbours of Shayne and Brad, Gayle and Tony and across the road neighbours - insert names here!! -  for dinner last night.  Fab bash!!  Good food, good wine and much fun and laughter!!

On the way home I stopped to take these photos in Exeter where I'd seen this amazing rose hedge the day before - glorious!!

Callistemons, lizards, snakes and Noisette

The Callistemons in the garden are putting on an impressive show, everything from crimson to scarlet :)

There are lots of myths about lizards and snakes, we have a lot of scaley backs as regular visitors to the garden.  They say if you've got lizards, you havent got snakes - we've definitely got both!!  And they say if you've got black snakes, you havent got brown - we've definitely got both!!  Scaley backs just eat flowers, and I'm happy to have them in the garden, munching on the kate weed!!

Noisette is getting bigger and more independent, she's also getting lighter!!  Think she'll be a bay when she's done!!

Get a bigger clothes line OR Make smaller quilts!!

Here are some pics of the quilt I got the binding done on at the Classic Yass weekend.  As you can see if doesnt 'fit' on the clothes line - really got to get a bigger clothes line.. OR make smaller quilts (as if!!)

And some detail shots:

This quilt was made with the fabrics I purchased with the prize money from the Canberra Quilters awards 2 years ago!!

Roses, chickens and ducklings

The roses in Yass were superb, but I have some here at Mt Tanga too, and they are pretty good - although they may or may not be competing with more weeds than their Yass cousins ;-D

Really like this rusty red one:

Betty (Black East Indies Duck) hatched 10 ducklings the other day, and 2 days ago her friend Bertha hatched 2 - and I gave them to Betty to raise.  I gave Bertha a 'must try harder' chat!!  LOL!!  They look like little ants scurrying around the pen, most look pretty good, some might have white eye liner :( but they are all thriving.

Ginger is raising 7 Modern Game chickens, 5 white/cream (ginger pile), one black (gold or silver birchen) and one red (hopefully silver duckwing), and whereas Betty is not keen to let me even look at the ducklings, Ginger and her brood always come out to meet me - sometimes I bring meal worms and that's worth being at the front of the queue for!!

Noisette and Superb Parrot

Noisette in the sun this morning:

And taking a bolt through the yards:

Have only seen superb parrots once before at Mt Tanga, when they flew overhead and didnt stop, but this one was feeding on the ground this morning.  We knew from the distribution map they should be here, and that what we needed to do was plant their favourite trees - red and yellow box - and they would come...  but pleased to find them already here :)  Will plant the trees and hope for increasing population.

Noisette at 1 week

Noisette is thriving :)  I took my phone with me this morning, but couldnt get it to switch from photo to video.  Then I came back for the camera and for the first time ever Noisette walked instead of boinging from one spot to the other.... but I think you'll enjoy the photos anyway!!

Classic Yass Weekend, Quilts and Roses

This weekend was the Classic Yass weekend, and the Yass Quick Quilters held an exhibition as part of the celebration.  I had a stall to promote Phoenix Quilting and so as not to be idle I took a big quilt to hand sew the binding down - took nearly all of the 2 days, but I got it done.  It was a lovely weekend and the gardens in Yass are full of roses, as is Banjo Patterson Park.

The quilts were pretty spectacular and very well received.  Because it was a viewers' choice competition, the names of the makers were not on the labels.  However, if they had been professionally quilted the name of the quilter was given.   This quilt won 1st prize.

This is one of the quilts in the exhibition that I quilted.

This is another:

And this is the Wedgewood quilt, after the exhibition I delivered it to Peter, when Karen got home from work she rang to thank me and to let me know she is very pleased with it - on the bed already :)

This quilt won 3rd prize:

The Wool, Wine, Water challenge blocks - again viewers' choice, winning block was the sheep one on the bottom right.

The raffle quilt :