Second week of January already

 Time once again is moving quickly, to catch up once again

Shane and Rilla came and stayed the weekend after Christmas, we had a good catch up, although more time would have been great!

We went over to Sorrento on the ferry and then drove to Harmers Haven near Wonthaggi to visit David's sister and bro in law

We had one beautiful sunset looking over the horse paddocks.

We drove to Grantville one day so David and Ellen could do a painting over looking the water - the tide went out fairly quickly, so we were looking over the mud flats

I went for a walk along this path and then onto the football field, behind the trees in the left of the photo - being very vary and looking out for snakes (I an very scared of snakes!)

I managed to get a stick caught in my sandal and it dug into my foot, I had to sit for a while and put some pressure on it as the combination of hot weather, aspirin and mild panic made for a lot of bleeding. After a while I wandered back to the others and got David (bro in law) to tend to my wound and clean me up. Luckily I had a new first aid kit in the car!

nearing the end of the clean up and wrap up mission

Bro in law explaining something to me!!

Hubby fully engrossed in painting

still painting

Not long after this the wind got up, David's easel was blown off the table three times, his sandwich container was blown off and the seagulls enjoyed his lunch!

No fun here in the howling wind so we headed home.

The next day Ellen took me to emergency to have my foot checked, the nurse was very impressed with the care I had received and the way the wound was dressed, I explained my sis in law had horses and she said say no more! 😀 She re dressed the foot, gave me a compression bandage and sent me on my way. 

We headed home two days later, we were going to call in on Ondrea but as I felt I was getting a cold we though better of the idea and how lucky was that! After being home a couple of days I tested positive to covid! My third bout. So we have been housebound as hubby now has it too.

In between feeling very average I have finished the Peas in a Pod quilt top

and finished a KOGO blanket

Sorry about the messy photo.

I found a place on line PixxiBook who print blogs, so I have ordered up my 2025 book, later on I will go back and do 2024, Looks like a nice book, we will see when it turns up. 

My foot is slowly healing, takes while for the inside the inside to heal, the bruising has gone down since this photo too.

I bought this bag before Christmas online, wasn't quite what I thought it would be, so now I have plans of sewing fabric strips onto it with big stitching, lets see if that happens!

I have been seeing lots of orangutan things on FB and Insta, this one took my fancy!

I have just remembered I have the hose running on the banana passionfruit, so had better go and turn it off!

Best wishes for a very Happy New Year, here's to lots of creating and having fun.

Happy stitching.

Christmas and the end of December

 We had a family gathering at the house of Adam and Beth on Christmas Day, Adam cooked a wonderful dinner, I just got to take a pavlova, cream and fruit to go on the top.

It was a first for Finn

Mmmmmm Finn likes this pavlova and cream plus blueberries

Happy to be fed for a bit!

On Dec 27th we went over to Wonthaggi to see some of David's family, that meant we went over to Sorrento on the ferry, and as it was a windy day it was a bit rock and roll there for a while.

We had a great meal at Tessa's house (David's niece)

Our two sons and partners and Finn, plus Ellen's (David's sister) and David (Bro in law) daughter and son, partner and toddler. Always so good to see the cousins together, they get on so well and even if they haven't seen each other for ages, just pick up were they left off.

Ellen and I went out to follow and Adventure Lab along the dinosaur trail from Inverloch to Eagles Rest

First stop was this model dinosaur in a park

Not far away was a mural Ellen painted for a lady who missed being on the farm

We stopped in at the RACV establishment at Inverloch to look at their dinosaur display and came across the Qantassaurus, so named at Qantas funded searching for this dinosaur along the Inverloch coast

lots of wonderful rocky coast line, the Eagles Rest landmark is off in the distance

two explorers trying to take a selfie!! 😁

interesting rock formations, 

from the car

this was taken at Cape Paterson, where we stopped to find a regular cache, Ellen wanted to see one so we walked back and forth until I found the direction we needed to go in and just off the path we found the container, signed it, put it back and headed off.

coming back on the ferry we were the very last car loaded on and boy it was squashed, luckily I was directed as to how to park the car

it was a beautiful calm day and a good ride home.

Back home I got out a kit Beth's Mum gave me for Christmas

I had to do quite a lot of unsewing but finally got it done and am happy with it.

Very happy to have it done and not sitting awaiting attention.

I am off to compose my list of 10 items to get working on this year, Deana has kindly offered to host us again this year

Off to get organised.

Happy stitching.

Beautiful sunny day today

This morning I checked my emails and saw Chooky was having a zoom for an hour so quickly got my things together and joined in.

It was lovely to catch up with everyone.

 Summer has returned again today and it is quite hot. I did some gardening this morning and came in for lunch looking like tomato face!! 

I cleaned off the table on the front deck and sandwiched two quilts out there, it was a bit breezy but not too bad

I can hear many boats and jet skis out on the water.

Yesterday I went to the quilt shop in Gisborne and did a class with Irene Blanck, she is a wizz with applique. I have had a project of hers for many years so decided it was time to relearn applique and get it made.

Irene helped me with the curved seams and did the beak as a demo, there are a few more circles to add before this part is finished.

I have also finished the binding on two quilts

Such a good feeling to have them finished.

Last weekend we went to David's niece's 30th at her place in Wonthaggi. We stayed in a cabin at the campground at Kilcunda. Sometimes, well most times, this is a very windy place as the southerly wind hurls straight of the ocean, but we struck a beautiful weekend.

Friday evening I had a beach walk

Saturday morning we went for a bike ride along the rail trail

me following hubby

we stopped to look for a cache and found some kangaroos watching us

and I finally found the cache, thank goodness!

I had another ride, early afternoon before we went out, the trail went inland away from the coast, I was looking for caches but saw a snake so that changed my mind pretty quickly!

View to the ocean heading back.

The figs are ripening on the tree and I can't do much with them, but I did see a recipe for fig vodka, which was a bottle of vodka put into a large glass container, then you add three cups of washed, chopped figs, give it a swirl around and put it in a dark place. I was supposed to swirl it each day, but often didn't remember. It was in a  cupboard for 7 days, then I took it out and strained it off. I had a taste the other day and it is pretty good!

I think that is enough from me for now 😄, it is fish and chip night at Adam and Beth place, hopefully by the time I get there the footie will be nearly finished 👍.

Happy stitching and have a wonderful week.