I did over do it, a bit.

I have blistered feet and am a bit sore.  I have never had blisters on the soles of my feet before!  But, I did walk for over 4 Km.  That is the first time in 22 months that I have made it that far. Up until now about 700 metres has been the best I could manage.   I think that blistered feet are a small price to pay.  It was beautiful walking through the Melaluka forest, if a little dry.

When I reached the beach on the other side of the island there was a strong North Easterly blowing. ( Strong for here, everything is relative.)

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It has been the Queen's Birthday weekend here and there have been lots of visitors. (For us.)  Some of the locals were complaining that the beaches were too crowded.  Again, it is all relative.

Some of the Stone Kerlews are raising chicks.

I saw the two that live out the front of our house put on a turn when Larry the lizard walked out under the sprinkler.  They must have eggs somewhere.

This was also the first  "Artisans Collective's" exhibition.  They have about 40 members and the exhibition was a great success.

It was held at 'Mudlo' which is a local residence.  They have a beautiful drive up to the house.

As night fell the paper barks were lit up by spot lights and they waved in the breeze against a dark blue sky.

There are lots of places to sit in this beautiful garden.  (Although I know there are lots of pythons in the bush.)

There was quite a range of art available, from Metal Sculpture to Oil paintings. This beautiful knitted shawl sold quickly.

And I have to say that the beadwork pieces were my favourite.  (Most of these also sold.)

We also have some very talented professional musicians who live on the island. The music took one away.

Walking home I saw that lots of gardens had their Iris in bloom.

Now I must get back to stitching.  I have some ideas for brooches.

 

I hope I haven't over done it?

I find that I am able to almost walk normally.  Up until now it has been a struggle to stand or sit or to stretch out as I walk. Since November 2018 it has been just shuffling along.  But after this time in hospital I can walk to and from the ferry.  Get up the stairs, sometimes without the help of the bannister, and even lie in bed with little pain. SO, I thought I would do a little gardening.  It wasn't as easy as I thought.  Weeding the garden is difficult, I haven't done that for nearly 2 years.  I  have been swinging my small pic to loosen the weeds.  But now I am feeling a bit stiff and sore, especaily across the shoulders.  I will have to see how I pull up in the morning.

But I have changed the flowers in some of the pots, replanted one flower bed and watered the garden.  (It is super dry here.)  Then I found that some bulbs have flowered through the back lawn.  They must have self seeded from next door.  They are very pretty and might make a nice embroidery?  I do hope this progress keeps up.

Some New Threads

You know, I foolishly gave away all my Appleton Crewel Threads.  I thought I would never use them again.  But no, now I need them, and I had a full set.  So today I started buying some more.  Just a few. 

I think I might buy some Renaissance brand wool threads as well.  I do like that they are naturally dyed and the colours are so muted.

What I am looking forward to experimenting with are the metallic threads from DMC.  I haven't always had a lot of success for metallics as they tend to split and break but these one have a good review so we will see.

We are taking our grand daughters to the theatre this weekend to see "Sleeping Beauty".  That will mean that I will not have a lot of time of stitching whilst they are around.  Still, childhood goes so quickly and these are special times to be treasured.

Going Home

The Doctor says I can go home tomorrow but I have to come back on Thursday to see him.  Thank Goodness.  It is not that I am not well looked after but I just want to be in my own bed, with my own things.  So Coochie look out for me.

This is the first time I will have missed a Children's Class ever.  Some things just can't be controlled.

Boring,

I came into hospital for a simple procedure and i’m Still here.  I didn’ t think o bring any sewing with me but I do have some knitting.  Not that that is any good  I keep getting mixed up with counting.

i have a room over looking the river,

And although there is double glazing the noise of the low flying jet as it flew up the river for the “river fire” celebrations rattled the windows.  I did get a fairly good view of the fireworks.  The let me walk down the hall to where there are fixed windows.  When there are no fireworks there isn’ t a lot to see.

Now all the photos have gone up sideways @#$&

 

Hooe they let me out soon.

I

The Weather

It has become quite hot very quickly here.  Almost like summer.  But with the drought everything is bone dry.  I have put out extra water containers for the birds and they are being well used.  One day this week we became lost in the fog.  The barges and ferries had to close down until the fog lifted. A really weird feeling being enclosed in that mist.

Once the ferries started to run again I headed off to the mainland.  Everything just sunk back into the fog as we progressed towards the shoreline.

And boats and marker poles loomed up out of the mist.

In the afternoon I started coughing.  My eyes just wouldn't stop running and I had the sniffles.  Then the smoke and dust from the bushfires settled on us.  More and more birds have been flying to refuge on the island.  Some I have never seen here before.  We then had stories of huge fires burning on the mainland.  Some in places like Binna Burra which is in the rainforest. 

This is how we normally see the lodge there.

Now I see on the news it is gone burnt to the ground.  This is an image from the news from nearby.

I think that the wildlife through these areas are in for some terrible times. This mother and joey were rescued but many others have perished.

I must say I am looking toward summer with some trepidation.

Besides Stitching....3

Besides stitching I just relaxed.  I am having trouble walking again but after nearly 2 weeks of restricted movement I was able to get around a bit.  I took my camera around the site and saw all the familiar scenes.

Looking out over the escarpment into the morning mist.

The trees against the bright blue of the sky.

A pee wee singing a song.

And other birds up high in the trees.

There was quite a wind blowing and this beautiful nest was dislodged.  Poor bird will have to start again.

And although there is a drought and everything is dry and dusty still there was beauty in what was left of the gardens.  Some of these photos I would like to use as inspiration for my thread painting,  (that is progressing very slowly.)

Here are a few shots that are contenders.

And some details within shots that show promise.

I could smell this Star Jasmine long before I saw it.

And the bees were very busy.

Now that I have the images I want I can put them into a drawing program and trace them off, or, just trace them using tissue paper.  But how am I going to work out what all the colour are?  Guess what?  I found an App which will do it for me, then I can match the international colour numbers to DMC threads.  The App is called "Color View Finder".

Isn't that cool.  You can buy the app from the app store.

Besides Stitching .....2

Besides Stitching I also spent time with my dear friend Angela and the ladies of the Zinnia's Quilting Group.  These ladies are super stitchers.  Quilts to die for, many of which they design themselves.  (I should have taken more photos but didn't want to seem rude and pushy.)

I thought I might sew this house block into a place-mat.

And, I loved this Outer Space Quilt.

And the quilting was very inventive.

Lots of doylies to use as quilt labels.

Not to mentions the wonderful food provided.

Angela has just returned from overseas and she gave me this superb supper cloth she bought in an Op shop in Ireland.  What a find?  I think that it is hand woven linen and it certainly is not worked in Irish embroidery, rather Italian, Sicily I suspect.  It features;

drawn thread work borders,(look at that stitching, right down to the spiders web in the corners.)

Retino a Tessitura  (I don't know the English for this.)

And some white work, for good measure.

Whoever stitched this wanted to get all kinds of techniques into the piece.  (It cost 6Euros)

An interesting napkin from a market in France.  Interesting because the edge is all worked in chain stitch not crocheted.

The program for the upcoming "Wool Week in Shetland".  (If only I could fly away!)

And the pattern for a Shetland lace scarf.  I'm sure I have some 2ply stashed away that I could make this in.

Besides stitching.. 1

Besides stitching there was shopping.  Of course there was shopping.  I was rather careful with my purchases.    Fabric for future classes,

fabric for the girls,

Embroidery fabric for the stash. 

See, not out of control at all.

But, when we visited the Danish Flower Shop, I almost lost control.  What I wanted from here was charms to add to the children's Xmas decorations and they had heaps.

  But, they also have these gourds.

But they had done other things with some of them and made planters with lots of succulents.

I don't think they are strong enough to hang but they sit prettily on a table.  I limited myself to just two pots and a few succulents.  Then, when I got home I visited a neighbour , Kurt Buckley, who grows succulents and does great Bonzai type plants.  Just love this miniature Geraldton Wax tree.

This is a full sized one in someones garden.

The plants I bought need to grow into the pots but I now have them sitting on my balcony.

I didn't go away looking for these things.  They were just an added bonus.

 

Back Home and Refreshed

I had a lovely time away but I am so glad to be home in my own space.  All the washing and ironing is finished and stored.  I have a tidy room to work in, although I still have to clean out all my fabric.  I am going to to do a bit of culling this time.  Last time I emptied draws only to find they mysteriously filled up again !

So I will put up a bit each day of what I saw and did.

Embroidery - Marlene Lambert from the Toowoomba Guild, showed us some yummy stitching. 

These are all patterns from these Japanese books, (which I bought from Amazon Japan before they were available in English.)

She also made a lovely little bag which I am going to make a pattern for.

This day we went out to lunch and hit the patchwork shops.  More to come.