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Well… yesterdays weather was appalling – so along with boring housework there was nothing to share that was interesting.

Today, I still had a long list of tasks so I figured the best thing to do was to go for a walk! (Which is why I am still up at 1am)

I got Shirley to go with me, as she loves walks. Shirley is a friend of Ruby’s and although nearly 80, is so sprightly and keen! She makes a great walking partner!

We decided to walk around the river track to see how far we could get and what flood damage there was.

This was quite stern:

We ignored it and continued. I told Shirley if anyone went crook at us I was telling them it was her idea!

We walked quite a way before starting to find where the track got tricky

It was at this point it just got too boggy and mucky to continue on – plus I wanted to bring Shirley home in one piece!!

So, having seen what we wanted to, plan B was to double back and go down to Fossil Bluff and enjoy a walk on the beach for a while.

I finally coerced Shirley into getting a selfie with me!

So – apart from trying to channel my inner housekeeping skills (poorly) I started a new facebook page for beginner gardeners.  I have been part of a page for “Family on a Budget” which is mostly recipes, but I post up garden photos to tell people if they are serious about saving money – grow food!

Well… a lady asked for some beginner gardening advice… which I messaged her about. Then someone else said “Me too” so I messaged that someone else…. then it spiralled a bit out of control and I had several messages on the go at once, and thought maybe I should just do a page!! Since it is spring here and most people are just getting going in their gardens, it seemed a logical move.

The page got about 70 members within two days – but I am not scared! haha.

THEN… A Japanese friend of ours, Yusuke, sent me a message to ask if we were interested in taking paid Japanese homestay guests via a company his friend is associated with.

Oh yes.. yes I am! So I wrote two word docs, complete with photos (of course) to try to explain how fabulous we think this area is!  Its actually quite difficult to choose images – you know – thinning it down to less than 1000!! haha. I tried to be not over the top.

I am now waiting to see if they like us or not! 🙂

Today I may have also rashly promised to photograph a wedding in Texas next year too. So my savings goals are rather significant as I have also promised to take my parents to Japan next year – also meeting my Canadian in-laws in Japan as well so we will do a double tour!!

All I can say is I hope my vegetable garden grows well and I sell enough to finance my jet-setting lifestyle!!!!!

OK – time for me to abandon this blog and do some dishes, bake some bread and be ready to wake early to greet the parents – Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed at about 7am. (yeah – that’ll be me!)(not)(OK I will be up, but I am a sorry sight early on)

Cheers!

Hello!

Friday is done and dusted – dusted being operative word as I was submerged in house work while Jeff mowed lawns here and next door.

I think I might need to write a list of things left to do before Monday morning!!  Mum said they will get off the boat and traditionally go straight to Ruby’s for a morning cuppa because in Ruby’s words “They won’t be awake yet!!!”

Huh!! I am SURE I would make the effort to get up early to welcome my parents in!!! 😀

But – lets be honest… I can’t deny Ruby the fun of early morning guests and a teeny bit more of a sleep in for me isn’t a bad thing.

Dad has simply requested a fresh baked loaf of bread and some plum jam when they arrive!  So easy to please!

Have a fantastic weekend everyone… I will try to do something more interesting than housework to blog about, but I am making no rash promises!

Cheers!

Today I was lured away from my crochet and a comfy spot with Pip by the fire with promises of rock hunting!

We just drove down one of the local roads (Calder Rd… Calder River & am am dreaming of Calder River Agate)

We even saw blue sky once!!

Actually, Jeff’s main ambition was to get into one of the pine forests and hack away at tree stumps looking for ‘fat wood’, which, if you are like me and hadn’t heard of that, is the resin soaked wood that isn’t good for any structural purposes, but it burns like a demon! (awesome fire starting material)

With Jeff in his manly element, I looked for photo opportunities and the river so I could look for rocks

I got to a sub river that was running over the ground before the real river – definitely no rock hunting here!!!

Still – I found some cool things – like this land jellyfish.

I found a few of these – totally no clue what they are. But the husband/wife conversation goes like this

Husband: Don’t touch it! (Still suffering from the ‘not ambergris incident’)

Wife: Ooookaay

Husband: You touched it didn’t you!!??

Wife: I couldn’t help it

Husband: Don’t come complaining to me if you break out in a rash….

🙂 He is so sweet!

I also found the weirdest fungi yet… a ball that emerges from a petal-like arrangement!

I was keen to walk down to the bridge, so Jeff chucked all his fat wood into the car and we wandered down

Luckily this bridge held up to the flooding… one not so far away ended up in a farmers paddock…. the sheer force of the water and whole trees smashing into it did the trick!

Clearly we are not the only creatures using the under-the-bridge-not-quite-a-path way…

We ended up fossicking by the roadside… I suspect a lot of the gravel has come in from the local quarries. I found a couple of really nice pieces of agate that I have high-tumbling hopes for!! (Photos at later date)

Oh – just to give you an idea of the height of the flood waters… have a look and see where the grassy debris is caught in the trees above Jeff’s head!!! Insane!!

By this time we were pretty soggy and getting slightly cold, so it was time to bail out, go to Ruby’s for a cuppa, then get home and get the fire roaring!

We did make one final stop on the way home as I had spotted this old shed that was surrounded by the beginnings of spring!

Hope your weekends are brilliant!

Cheers!

So… life at Norwich House these days is all about dead rats and maggots. Really really stinky rats. Really gross maggots.

Best I spare you the details! (and photos) (only got 10 people coming to stay in around two weeks… brilliant!!!!) erk

I just need decomposition to hurry up a little! (The joys of a 100 plus year old house huh??)

On a brighter note:

Remember yesterdays unexpected potato haul?

Well… we wrapped the two biggest ones in foil and put them in the fire to bake – they turned out pretty perfect!! Def. going to do that again!

I also made chocolate chip biscuits (cookies) which really helped make the house smell a LOT better. No photos yet… 🙂

And I finally went back and put that black edge around the multi-coloured shawl which I think finishes it off rather nicely!

Hope your day is less stinky than mine!

Cheers!

Hello!

My day turned out completely different to plans!  It was meant to be a wool shop outing with Ruby, Margie and Shirley, however Ruby remembered in the nick of time that her God-Daughters were coming over to celebrate an early birthday for her as they are away on the big day. So it was just Shirley and I frolicking about the wool shop making the most of a 30% sale.

We dropped in to Ruby to deliver a dessert that Shirley had made and accidentally crashed the party!!! I told Margie we weren’t staying (after-all, Ruby sees me all the time) and her face fell about a mile! So, being that both Shirley and I are not bound to schedules, we didn’t rush off! I am glad we stayed – lovely to meet more people from Ruby’s life and the stories were so funny and interesting

AND I DIDN’T HAVE MY CAMERA!! Sigh.

Anyway – onto today’s post!

I keep seeing facebooks ‘timehop’ or whatever they call it photos coming up and was surprised to see our plum trees much more advanced in the blossom department than what they are now. So I thought it might be interesting so see how everything was comparing.

AUGUST 2015

The Plum Trees

The photo below was taken exactly one year ago – the weather seems similar, but the blossoms are way ahead!

The Garden

I got keen early and put in snow pea seeds and tomato seeds (failure as usual on growing tomatoes from seed…)

As you know -the strawberry patch has changed a ‘little bit’

Weather? 

The usual – rain, hail and shine!

Knitting

As you know right now I am obsessing with shawls, but here is what I was making a year ago

Have a great day!

Cheers

I spent a delightful day yesterday slothing in front of the fire with my crochet. Very pleased to have quite quickly finish off the shawl for Ruby’s birthday. I know she will growl at me, because there is a ‘no presents’ rule, but I did manage to get her to agree to a ‘home made’ loop-hole! 🙂 I will still probably get into a little bit of trouble! 😀

I need to write a list. We have all the family arriving at various times at the start of next month so we are all here to party on at Ruby’s 100th birthday gathering! It was with a bit of horror that I realised we are halfway through August!! How did that happen?? I clearly have not been paying attention!

Since the weather continued on its abysmal track, (Dark, rain, wind, rain, sun, rainbow, rain, wind) we decided to clear out the library, as it needed to fit two mattresses in. (I say library, as that’s what we want to properly kit it out to being, but its more the room where you browse-for-a-book-or-put-stuff-in-here-that-doesn’t-have-a-real-home-yet room.)

We very much want to get in and completely cover this room in floor to ceiling bookshelves… we are probably a little scared to start such a big project, but I am getting increasingly sad that a lot of our books are still in boxes, or not well set out.

I also took time today to start a new batch of rocks tumbling. This entails grabbing one of the many buckets of previously collected rocks…

Then a container of water with a towel, so you can dunk the stones in to see potentially how they will look when polished. The dry rocks are very uninspiring really –

But after a quick dip, the colours come up startlingly different!

Hard to believe they are the same rocks!

My sister, Michelle, said my nephew, Riley was VERY keen to go collect rocks for me to polish for him!! Apparently he reckons he will be taking the final product home with him. He may be a tad disappointed to find out its a 4 week process!! 😀

Can’t wait for all the family to arrive! It will be like one giant slumber party!!

Hope your weekends are going along fantastically!

Cheers!

Having a week of no rain kept me outside a lot more – consequently happily ignoring housework!

The floor was getting a bit manky – having a wood fire will dust up the place and the floor gets woodchips all over it pretty quickly!

Oh – and I was totally living on the edge today!! THREE loads of laundry and it didn’t start spitting rain until 2.30pm!! Clothes finished off drying easily by the fire – with me happily in front of the fire as well adding a few more rows to Ruby’s shawl.

Lots of other things got ticked off the mundane list too. Yay me.

Hope your Monday was painless!!

Cheers

Hello!!

We ended up with a gorgeous sunny day today and it was so nice to soak it up a bit. The day before was filthy – so I spared you a blog of me sitting about in the gloom feeding the fire and crocheting stuff!

I know its supposed to be Ruby Tuesday – and I am falling down on my Ruby-Gathering stories the last couple of weeks!

We did have a meeting yesterday afternoon with a couple of ladies from the church guild, who are organising food for the big party!!

Its hard to believe that in little over a month Ruby turns 100 years old!! So amazing!

So we were working out a few loose ends about food, times and things that needed to be done.

If any of you who follow Ruby’s stories would like to send birthday greetings – please feel free to do so. I may get a chance to read a couple out at her party  – I am sure there will be a number of messages from people who can’t make it.  If you do write, please let us know where you hale from and even a bit about your garden etc.  I promise I will sit Ruby down one afternoon over a cuppa and read them out to her. I know she will get a kick out of that! She likes to know that more people are learning about her beloved Tasmania!

I went on a wool hunting mission today – I picked up some nice blue wool which I think may make a nice shawl for Ruby – she loves blue. We are not allowed to give her birthday presents apparently. I pouted a bit and asked “What about making something??” Well… that’s ok. 🙂 So now I am in the middle of three shawls again, having made a little start today on the new blue one!

Jeff and I went out Star Trekking tonight!! The movie was great fun! Then we got home to clear skies and wow – stars!!! We stood out in the cold for ages watching the skies, spotting shooting stars and marvelling at how clear the milky way is tonight.

I got a couple of photos, but I really have to do some googling about settings to get it right. Still… you can get the basic idea –

Hope you all have had a lovely day!

Cheers

Sunday! And it didn’t rain!! Bonus!

I convinced Jeff that we needed to not be in the house and a stroll along Sisters Beach would be good for us.

The small creek that runs into the sea, cut a new more direct path to the ocean. Usually it winds its way down.

The tide was on its way out and the wet sand was giving up some nice reflections in the sun

The landscape of the beach had changed a bit, just like we saw at Anniversary Bay – sand eroded back, exposing new rocks and burying others

It was so refreshing to get outside again! We took the back road off the beach back to the car – just to be different

Which was rather nice as we could admire some of the wattle that was starting to show its cheerful yellow fluffy flowers!

How was everyone else’s weekend? Hope it was great!

I got a bit excited about trying out the other new yarn I picked up a few days back … so have been enjoying seeing these graduated colours appear in this new shawl project.

I had to reluctantly leave my new love alone and get back to finish the original one. So I popped over to see Ruby and asked Margie to teach me how to do an edge.

Ruby kept the naughty Macca out of the way as he was on an attention-seeking high this afternoon!

Ruby had a good night with her foot and is hopeful it might finally be turning the corner. She ruefully admits it has done a fine job for nearly 100 years and she ‘hasn’t treated them kindly’

Anyway – was great to hear some positives today!

After I sorted how to do my edge, I spent some time teaching Margie the basics of the shawl

If anyone out there is keen to give this one a go, here is the link to “Viral Shawl” A lady does a very clear video tutorial. And you only need to be at a basic level of crochet to tackle this one!

And – tonight I finished my first one! Pretty excited about it, although I am less excited about the quality of the photo, which doesn’t have the best light/colour. Will try another snap in daylight tomorrow!

On a side note – I also managed to get back outside and finish stacking that wood!! A round of applause and a hot bath please! 🙂

Roll on the weekend!

Cheers