122

Just look at this family, they are so pleased to have a fine day to prine themselves. Mum & Dad Magpie are on the fence - can you see the baby one in the tree ... well he is as big as his parents but his grey colour tells you he is their baby ...
Thankful... for the lovely song that the Magpie sings of a morning ...

121

What a wonderful surprise... When I was young we lived on a dairy & agriculture farm, meaning we milked cows[for cream & butter], that lead to left-over milk to feed pigs. We grew corn [maze] for Mr Kellogs, sudan for the cows to eat to keep them going in the dry spell & of course we had chooks & grew some veggies. It was a fun life but a bit lonely as my sister & brother were so much older than me so I always longed for company. I remember when I was very young, our windmill run out of water so we had to get a diviner in to find the channel again & drill down for new water - this is what watered the cows & other animals - we survived on rainwater at the house but in bad times we had to drink the bore water too. So it was rather urgent that we find this windmill/diviner & we went for a long drive one Sunday & found them in a paddock living outta their truck & a lean-to & they had a daughter my age... whoopee I has so delighted.
Anyway they came to our place in a couple of weeks when they had finished that job - in the meantime we had to cart water from the local windmill about 7 miles away but I couldn't wait until they could come to our place. I remember having the most wonderful time with someone to play with everyday - they didn't stay with us as they had family near-by & it was so close to Christmas by then but the man would bring his little girl[I can't even remember her name now...] so we could play in the sandpit under our big pepperina trees. They found water on Christmas eve - great celebrations & the new drillhole was all fixed by new year & all the neighbours came over to help move the windmill over to the new hole using tractors & ropes - we sat up on the hill & watched but it heralded the end of the best Christmas holidays I think I ever had as a kid.
These rain lilies remind me of the farm as I brought these little bulbs with me wherever we lived - they will lie dormant in a pot until it actually rains on them & I really thought I had lost them after plating them out in the garden, in this last year with the dry so bad so you can imagine my surprise & pure delight when I went for my walk one morning & there they were to greet me - it took them a day or so for the flowers to bloom but the rain brought them back. It really is strange how somethings will not grow without the rain - you can keep them alive with tap water but the rain bring them into bloom ... pure magic...
Thankful... for the magic of Mother Nature ...

120

With the rain about, the weather has been so humid & hot that working in my Gyrlie Shed has been 'hot stuff' ... sorry - sick joke ... anyway it's that time of year where I need to get in & do some work on Christmas Presents.
I love a Christmas where you make the presents & I've challenged my sister to make me some little thing for Christmas this year as we all have to watch our money spending... more than usual, this year... I don't think a Christmas has gone by in the last 45 years, that I haven't made something for someone in our family.
I think the first Christmas presents I made was homemade lollies. I remember Mum was so impressed she even bought me those wax paper cups, with Christmas motifs on them, to put them in & she showed me how to wrap them all up pretty - if the truth be known she no doubt had nothing else but she made it sound like a very special treat/idea. Plus she taught me how to make a few more different sorts of lollies I didn't even know she knew how to make. I had made chocolate fudge a couple of months before at Domestic Science [now that ages me eh?] & my sister who was married by then & lived in the big smoke came home that w/e & was in raps about my fudge so I asked Mum if she would get me the ingredients to make them & some other lollies, of which she did. I can remember standing at the wood stove stirring & stirring so the fudge would be nice & smooth & come out just right ... man did my sister love it. Mum told her not to eat it too fast as it had taken me a long time to make & it had only just made enough for everybody to have some [think she thought there might of been some hidden away... ha ha] Our family have always had a sweet tooth. This is what I'm working on at present ... it will be a cover for a purse diary.
Thankful... for family & all those happy memories...

119

Myyy... I'm just so thrilled with the visitor we had the other night ... isn't he lovely ... we have often heard him but have not sighted him or one of his kind, in ever so long ... maybe because of the drought but with all the rains I guess he was becoming rather waterlogged ... he was only too pleased to pose for me while I took these photos.
We didn't have green frogs, when we came to live here but our eldest daughter did where she lived - she had so many they were a very big nuisance &... well lets just say she was only too pleased to give me whatever we could catch.
It was like comedy show... we found a box with a good lid then lined it with old newspapers & garbags as we had been told if they sit in their urine it will burn their skin. Then we set about collecting them - well they only come out at night but we got a few ... into the box with a spray of water to keep them happy. We are sitting out on her verhanda having tea/evening meal & she quickly gets up & goes into the laundry then comes out with a silly smirk on her face. You see we hadn't told the men what we were doing nor had we told the kids - just would of got all outta hand if so many knew... Well apparently while we were eating tea she could see the frogs making their escape out of a very small air-hole in the old fruit box so she had gone into the laundry & the only thing she could find to plug the hole was an old saucepan...lol Anyway kids off to bed, men watching TV so back to it again & we found about 12 frogs - stuffed the holes & went to bed. By morning we had lost one or two but there again we might of counted wrong so we prepared them for the five an a half hour drive to our home. It was dreadfully hot weather so we had their box on a couple of ice packs & had sprayed them well. They really did travel well & that evening we opened the box & let the jump out just as a sprinkle of rain came. That was about 5 years ago now & we only see the odd one here & there but not for ages this last time so he really was a welcome visitor. Why don't we have green frogs here in our suburb ... well that's because the [introduced]toads kills them, sadly. If you look at the photos at the bottom of my blog that show my Gyrlie Shed you will see them in our water feature.
Thankful... for the beauty of nature's little creatures

118

We have had some beautiful rain of late ... some folks have been a bit less fortunate & the rain/storms were very destructive & my heart goes out to them. I'm trusting that they are getting the help they need & will be back in their homes very shortly & have them repaired quickly.
I love coming getting up & finding my buckets full- this is just outside of my Gyrlie Shed where we don't have gutters on the awnings. This water means I can water my pot-plants when they dry out, we only have a very small tank on the side of the shed. Here it is still raining & the buckets are very full. Last week we got over 15inches[370-400mls] of rain which is a miracle - we are lucky if we were to get that much in a year & that with a great emphasis on 'lucky'.
Thankful... for good soaking rains - rains that are filling dams

117

The Bougainvillea's are looking spectacular at present, a real summer flowerer - here are some of the lovely colours I've seen around my neighbourhood whilst doing my morning walks. Reading up on them, I see where the plant was named after a French explorer, scientist, Louis Antoine de Bougianville and the plant is originally from South America.
I remember when everyone used to have a Bougainvillea growing around the tank stand at the back of the house, or at the side ... now when you go driving you will see a large bougainvillea in the middle of a paddock & you know that was where the old farm house used to be ... sometimes the old tank stand is still standing minus the tank & it is totally covered by the plant. They do have dreadfully sharp thorns on them & one must be very careful with the disposal of the trimmed branches as I really don't think the thorns ever disintegrate - they will even penetrate right through your rubber thongs & if the tip should break-off in your foot it will fester for sure so no wonder they are left to do their own thing. These days they have bred them down to a pot-plant size plant[dwarf] but the flowers/leaves are still the same size as the mother plant & I think they are called bougainvillea bambinos & they come in all the lovely colours but I can't find if they still have thorns...
Thankful... for having eye-sight to see such beauty...

116

Myy I sure have been AWL of late ... I've been fine just told myself I would not blog until I got a swap I'm in done ... it seems to have taken me months to do but I think all it was was I got a bit disheartened along the way but never mind they are done & in the mail so they should be arriving as their new neighbourhoods this week & O/S in a week or too...
So here is what I've been doing creatively ... In This House swap...
1st select material & make patterns for the cutting out of...
2nd Cut out material & do the fusing to felt[batting]& fuse backing material to visofix/vilene
3rd start the fun stuff ... sewing then embellishing...
4th sew the back & front together & finish the embellishing ...
This House is my House or Home ... inside the door it says 'a House is not a Home without Love at the Heart'

The second one is 'My Castle' ... behind the 'welcome' drawbridge it says 'My Home is My Castle'
My Castle is a bit of a tongue in cheek go at that fabulous 1997 Australian movie "The Castle" ... starring greats like Michael Caton, Anne Tenney, Stephen Curry, Sophie Lee, Anthony Simcoe, Eric Bana & Bud Tingwell. We have several friends that liken DH & me to the Kerrigan's in The Castle. A great movie to get out when you are wanting a good Aussie laugh.

115

Gosh it's already 11/11 which is a very special day here ... today is Remembrance Day at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month of each year. People will wear a red poppy in their lapel or pinned to their clothes as memory of those that have fought in our wars... I read today that some folks wear a white poppy as remembrance + a hope of world peace ... I was brought up with the story of the poppy being red & that was how they grew after all the fighting on the Fields of Flanders, WW1, signifying all the blood that had been shed.
When I was 13 my parents & I went to Melbourne to see my sister & family who were living there at the time - I clearly remember Dad taking us to the Shire of Remembrance there even though it was not in November he was fascinated in how they had built the Shrine so that at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month that the sun would shine on the special plaque... It was a very special place & building erected in 1934 [I had no idea it was that old until today]...
'Lest We Forget'
Thankful...to live in a free land ... appreciate our freedom ...

114

Don't you just hate those day where you just have to & I mean HAVE 2 do some house chores ... mine that has been poking me in the eye for days is the fridge ... the freezer needed cleaning out & you know it took me all of about 30 mins. so while it is freezing up again I thought I would add a post ...
My girlfriend Jean lost her Dad the other week so I made her a card - Jean is a great card-marker so do have a looksee at her blog ... now Jean just loves flowers so I had my flower stamps out but it wouldn't come together & then I happened upon my bush hat stamp & I just knew I had to make her a card with that as her Dad was a great bushie & now that she has the card I can show you.
Thankful...for pain relief - I should take more notice of my pain as it tells us days ahead that we are getting rain ... gosh I'm sounding so old cause I remember when I was a child [just the other year...lol] the old fellows all riddled with 'arthur' would say 'It's going to rain next week I can feel it...' - one should not scoff at such things ...

113

We have had the most glorious rain this week getting 30mls [well over an inch in the old scale] overnight - the garden so needed it, now I'm hopeful that the folks out west will get some too, as I know they are in dire straits...
I found this little guy while I was walking this week, poor thing must of been nearly hit by a car or something as he seemed to be OK just winded cause when I came back past he had gone - I hope the water I gave him helped & that our little Mr Kingfisher is doing OK now.
Thankful... for the wonderful rain we have had...

112

I've had two great finds of the day ...
While blog-surfing today... well really I was doing a bit of a clean-up of my emails on Gmail & that's when I got to do a bit of blog-surfing & I found Manxgirl & she has a lovely idea on her blog ... at the end of each post she lists 3 Gratitudes - I so love this idea that I'm going to do something like that on my blog from now on - maybe not 3 but definitely 1 cause we really have so much to be grateful/thankful for in our life...
I also popped on by a local PostCrossing girl's blog & Katy sent me looking at Where the Blog are You? where Louisa is featuring Australian, Folks living in Oz or ex-pat Australian Blogs ... you should pop on over & have a looksee...
Thankful ... for having the time it takes each day to blog-surf...

111

I have finally finished something creative... when I went to the Craft & Quilt Show the other week, one of the WorkShops that I did was this hands-on Vintage PostCard workshop put on by Lace Cottage an internet lace & braid business here in Qld. It was a fun W/S and I got some of it done but I was a tad busy talking & looking at the books that Ann & Lorna had to show us but I have finished it all now & I'm very pleased with it - although I do need to learn to cut the frayed threads with my rotary cutter 'before' I set to sewing around it ... still in my learning curve but having a great time ... thanks Ann & Lorna...

110

Jacaranda trees don't they just put on the most beautiful of display ... my girlfriend always saw the Jacaranda tree as an indicator that end of year exams were here so she called them the Exam Tree ... & true, the kids are all moving towards their end of year exams soon so I wish them all the best with them.
It won't be too much longer before the flowers will be making a beautiful carpet under the trees. I always thought that the Jacaranda was a native of Australia but I've read where is it actually a native of Brazil.
Grafton, Northern Rivers in New South Wales, Australia celebrates a Jacaranda Festival every year since 1935 - they had their festival this weekend just gone & they have avenues of Jacaranda trees - they do make for a lovely sight. I've also read where Pretoria, just north of Johannesburg in South Africa is known as the Jacaranda City laying claim to having over 70,000 trees in it's city - now that would look spectacular. Everybody used to have a Jacaranda Tree in their house yard in years gone by so it's lovely to drive around the older suburbs & see them all in flower now... Our late but famous painter D'Arcy Doyle always painted a Jacaranda in his landscapes - it became his mark. Jacaranda is such a lovely colour too & a true jacaranda colour is neither blue nor mauve if you were to try & match it - me Mum taught me that little pearler...

109

I've had a sleep-over at my girlfriends place in the last few days - she has moved into a lovely new place overlooking a beautiful big seawater lake ... not quite the same as living near the lighthouse but still lovely. We went & saw this guy play at one of the local clubs, man, he can play a mean guitar & sing too.
Of course we had to do a wee trip to MooBall & of all the times we have been there we've never got to the place the same way twice ... ha ha but never mind we do get there as they have a great little patchwork shop in town - well that's about all it has really besides the cafe & pub [what Australian town doesn't have a pub?] but as for the first time it wasn't raining when we went, we could stop & take a photo of this sign which I just love.

108

Gosh I think I've transformed this blog into a gardening blog ... ha ha...not really. DH loves nasturtiums so he has them all over the place in the back garden behind my Gyrlie Shed ... well a couple of plants have come up near the carport in the gravel & they were growing well then we had a couple of mls of rain and they went mad & here some of them are growing up through the fence, actually up inside the pipe & here is how they look when they find the sunshine ... When walking I found this fence all covered in bougainvillea & kept well trimmed - sure puts on a good show & added privacy for the occupants.