A NEW COUSIN

It's been a big weekend in Milngavie with the arrival of Bryan and Allison's new baby girl.  With her arrival, Auntie Margaret and Uncle Louis are now grandparents and by the look of Auntie Margaret's face she is a very happy Granny!   I spoke to Auntie Margaret last night and she said that Allison and Bryan didn't have a name yet.  They have a few ideas but were waiting to see their baby before making a final choice.  I wonder what name they will give her.

Papa and I had a lovely day yesterday.  It was a beautiful day, not too hot.  I continued watering the plants and trees and finally finished around lunch time.  It's good to know that every tree and shrub has had a good drink after all the hot weather we have had.

In the afternoon Bob and Bev came for afternoon tea.  I had made some banana and walnut cake so we sat in the garden chatting and munching on our cake!

I found some more information on this painting which hangs in the Edinburgh Art Gallery.  If you click on the link WEE DUG Liliane, you will be able to read some more information about it.

I saw this painting on one of my blogs and it quite took my breath away.  It reminds me of how much God loves us.  That even though he created the Heavens and the Earth, he stoops to not only come to earth and live as a man, but to show how we should live - by serving and loving one another.  I wonder what Peter is thinking?

Today we are heading up to Mt Coolum to spend a few days with Auntie Emma and Fergus.  Auntie Emma and Uncle Michael are selling their house up there and because they are as they are going to have it for only a couple of more weeks, Auntie Emma decided to spend this week there and enjoy it while she can.  We are waiting for the TV man to come.  Once he has come, we will hit the road and head north.  Papa will make a lovely picnic lunch which we will eat by the lake at Kilcoy.

The internet at Mt Coolum is very poor but I will do my best to keep in touch while we're up there.

Love Nannyxxxxx

QUILTING DAY AT ROBYN'S

Hello my lovelies

It's 2.30pm here (Saturday) and I imagine you are both still tucked up asleep.  It has been a lovely day today with clear blue skies and the temperature not too hot.

I've had a busy 'home' day today.  Stripped the beds and did a big wash, bit of housework and made a banana and walnut cake with some bananas that were going decidedly ripe.  Papa and I have had lunch are now settling into a quiet afternoon.  I'm cooking tea tonight, the pasta/ragu that I didn't cook the other night!  That day I was really busy in the garden and when it came to 4.00pm I shouted "Oh! No!" and Papa said "What is it Connie?"  I had just remembered that I had to cook dinner and was way too tired.  Papa was lovely and said, "Don't you worry!  We'll pick up a curry from the take-a-way." which is what we did.  So I settled myself down with a nice G&T in the garden and looked forward to my lovely curry.

Yesterday, as you can see from the title of this post was quilting at Robyn's.  We had a lovely time with all of us working very hard on our sewing and periodically looking at our watches and saying, "Where's the day going?"  You may remember that Robyn has a cuckoo clock.  While we were sewing it periodically let out a very sick sounding cuckoo.  "That clock doesn't sound well Robyn?" someone said.  When the clock said it was about 11.30am, Robyn very kindly cut us all a yummy piece of date loaf and laid it beside us while we continued to sew. Then someone looked at their watch and said, "It's 1.00pm!  It's time for lunch!"   Robyn wondered why she felt so hungry!  Up she got from the table and wound up the clock and we all downed our needles and picked up our lunch boxes and a fresh cuppa and made our way out to the verandah to eat our lunch.

Wee Henri, Robyn's dog, loves it when we go outside.  This is a great opportunity for him to lay his ball at our feet and have us throw it over the verandah.  He sets off to get it even before it has left our hand.

Here are some photographs of our day.

Remember you can click on the photograph if you would like to enlarge it.  This is a small section of the quilt Robyn has been working on, the one that tells lots of stories from the Bible.  Aren't these Eastern head-dresses gorgeous?  I love the material Robyn has used as well.  It reminds me of Hebrew writing.

This one is of poor Jonah falling into the 'drink'!  Isn't it hilarious?

Here is the quilt all put together.  Robyn still has to do the borders and finish the edges off.  Can you guess some of the stories?

These two ladies are Bonnie (standing) and Robyn Eecen sitting.  Mummy knows Robyn Eecen. Robyn E wasn't feeling very well, so she didn't stay too long.  You may see she has a splint thing on her hand.  It is to help with the pain she gets from arthritis.

This is a beautiful quilt that Bonnie is working on.

These three are Rhonda (with the red scarf), Robyn and Leigh.  Rhonda has been working on a Chook quilt.  Here it is.

If you enlarge it, you may see the fox.  Rhonda still has to put on another border which she was working on yesterday.

These are chooks that Leigh was working on.  Aren't the colours just wonderful?

I'm progressing really well with my Hebridean quilt.  Robyn was so helpful in getting me going on the next stage.

We found bits of material in my box and her stash that were the same as hills and grass on the top half of the quilt.  Robyn placed them and I sewed them down.

Between Robyn, the other ladies and me, we finally decided to lay the other two sections that I had already made like this.  I'm really pleased.  Do you like?  I'm thinking of making a fence to go between the field and the sandy soil.  

Well my dears I must away.  I've got quite a lot of paperwork to organise here on my desk.

Perhaps we'll speak tomorrow.

xxxxxNanny

A BUSY DAY IN THE GARDEN

No, not this one.  Not sure where this one is.  Somewhere in England I think, or maybe Scotland.  I think Papa may have taken this photograph.

And not this one either.  This is the back garden of Auntie Emma's first house in Brisbane.

And not this one either!

Definitely this one!

After breakfast, I gave the house a big tidy, put away all the boxes of materials which were strewn all around the house, tidied my office, gave the place a dust, then a vacuum and finally a mop.  Then it was into the gardening clothes, my lovely hat on, tools in hand and into the garden to do some weeding.

I had done some weeding the other day, but hadn't finished, so today was the day for finishing.  I also decided that since I was in the garden, I would make sure all the major shrubs and trees had a good watering.  Because we had some rain the other day, Papa switched the water over to the tanks.  I took the clock timer into the garden with me and have been giving the big stuff ten minutes and the small stuff five minutes.  I don't think I'll get the whole garden done today, perhaps half - that is the watering.  I've finished all the weeding and have raked it up so that it's easy for Papa to put into the bin for me.

Today I'm going to cook dinner and I'm going to make that ragu/pasta dish I made the first night you arrived here at Christmas.  Do you remember it?  It has lots of mushrooms in it and is just yummy.

Did I tell you our television isn't working very well?  It's fine with the normal channels but whenever we use anything that involves the internet such as Netflix it keeps cutting out.  The TV man came out yesterday and replaced something in the TV but before he left it was still cutting out.  He suggested we let the TV upgrade itself and see how things were in the evening.  Well in the evening things were just fine and we were cheering at the prospect of having full access to the internet again.  But no!  This morning it was doing it's cutting out thing again.

Don the TV man came after breakfast and has taken it to the workshop.  He says his internet connection is fine there and he will put on a couple of movies on our TV.  If it doesn't cut out, then the problem lies with our internet connection.  The only problem there though is that we have already been on to Telstra and they say that our connection is just hunky dory.  It will be a problem if he comes back with the TV this afternoon and says it's all OK down at his workshop.

Oops!  The bell has rung!  I'll away and moves the hoses.

Back again!

Papa picked me up a book at the library yesterday.

As you can see, it's called THE STORY OF A NEW NAME and is written by an Italian woman called Elena Ferrante.  Only, that isn't really the author's name.  The person who has written the book wants to remain anonymous so the world is having a whale of a time trying to discover who the author actually is.  Personally, I think if she wants to remain anonymous that people should let her.

She has written a number of novels.  This particular one I have here is the second novel in a series.  I finished the first one called MY BRILLIANT FRIEND a couple of weeks ago.  It was just wonderful tracing the story of two girls growing up after World War 2 in a very poor part of Italy.  Both girls are very intelligent but one of them who is extremely bright finds it difficult to keep up with her studies because of pressures from her family and finally leaves school and marrying very young.  This second book, I imagine chronicles the next stage of their lives.  The next in the series is called THOSE WHO STAY AND THOSE WHO LEAVE and the final one is called THE FORGOTTEN CHILD.   The writer has been described as "...One of the great novelists of our time..."  Perhaps Mummy would like to read the books when she has time.

Well I shall away.  Tomorrow I'm heading to Robyn's from my monthly Friday quilting group.

Love Nannyxxxx

QUILTING AT KERRIE'S TODAY

Hello my darlings

Well as you can see with the subject title, I had quilting at Kerrie's today.  We had a lovely time together and I took some photographs for you of the various projects the ladies are working on.  I also took my Hebridean quilt for their comments on the two 'fields' I had made and they have unanimously voted for the first one!  I have my monthly quilting group at Robyn's on Friday, so shall take that one and get help from Robyn regarding the way forward!

Here are the photographs from today.

Here's Val keeking around the side of one of the blocks she is working on.  It is a block depicting a ginger vase and I think from memory there will be a number of ginger vases on this quilt.  Watch this space!

Kerrie J working on her diamonds.  This is going to be a fabby quilt.  Again...watch this space.

Darling Kerrie K who has been working on this quilt for a number of years.  Can you see some of the very small leaves, buds etc in this border?  Yes, this is the border for what is going to be a magnificent quilt.

Dear Lynne who is working with very small pieces of material.  We all gave our opinions on how best to create 'A'!  You could do it this way said one.  Or perhaps this way would be better said another!

And...here's a quilt dear Robyn is working on.  I'm pretty sure these two folk are Robyn and Alan.  Alan closed his eyes on this world some time ago and is now with Jesus.  But I love how Robyn has represented him in this quilt.  I'll send a photograph of it when it's completed.

And...here's dear Carol who has been working with Liberty prints.  Liberty is a company which is based in London.  They have beautiful printed fabrics amongst other things.  The company was founded in 1875 by Mr Arthur Liberty.  The fabrics are just gorgeous - very soft and fine.

And last but not least is what Leona is working on.  Look how she has cut out these hexagons!  Aren't they beautiful and the colours - wonderful.  She has hundred and hundreds of these to make and put together.  Imagine how wonderful it is going to be when it is finished.

Tomorrow is a stay-at-home day.  I hope to do some more weeding in the garden, some work here in the office and perhaps some more work on my Hebridean quilt.

Hope you are all having a lovely day.

Talk soon.

Byeee!

Nannyxxxx

PROGRESS ON THE HEBRIDEAN QUILT

Hello my lovelies

I've just checked the time your end and it's 7.30am, so you are either on the bus or still getting ready for school.

Papa and I are coming to the end of our day and starting to clear up a bit before Papa makes dinner.  The day has been quite busy with me doing some gardening and working on my Hebridean quilt.

I headed into the garden after breakfast and managed to do quite a bit of weeding before exhaustion and heat caused me to call it a day.   Before I came in, I raked up all the weeds I'd thrown on to the lawn as I went so that it was easier for Papa to clear up for me.  Papa in the meantime had taken himself off to do some shopping and a visit to the dump to drop off the huge cardboard boxes the outdoor setting came in.

After I came in, I had a shower and a couple of drinks of water but still felt awfully hot.  So, I settled down in Papa's chair in the library, turned the fan full on, got my book to read and settled down for a wee rest.  Papa brought me a wee cuppa too.  I was so tired from my gardening that I fell fast asleep and woke up with Papa calling me for lunch.

After lunch, I got stuck into my 'field'.  I am really pleased with it.

What do you think?    I've still to create a bit of a downward slope with the haystacks at the right hand side of the field and have a think about borders.

The renovations to the house next door advances by the day. 

 Today the roof went on.  Papa and I are not too happy with the roof.  The plans for the renovation said that the roof was going to be Colourbond but the builder has used a silver roof which is very glarey for us on the side verandah.  Not to worry.  Once our trees grow it should give us the shade we need.

Keith dropped in this afternoon for a wee cuppa.  He and Margaret are well.  The government has given him access to quite a lot of money to help Margaret get on her feet again.  He is going to have the Blue Care nurse come in each day and also get the physiotherapist to organise the exercises Margaret needs.  He can also access money if he would like to have their bathroom changed to suit Margaret's needs.  All this should help both Margaret and Keith as Margaret slowly gets better.

Well my dears I shall away.

Hope you have had a wonderful day when you read this.

xxxxxNan  PS  Remember you can enlarge the photographs by clicking on them.

IT RAINED!

Hello my darlings

Yesterday, we were very excited because it rained!  Yes it rained!  I can't remember the last time it rained.  We had around 29 mls which will really help everything to green up a bit and help the trees in the garden.  They have been under a lot of stress with the extreme hot weather conditions, many of them dropping their leaves in order to conserve their energy.

I can't tell you how wonderful it was listening to the thunder and the rain on the roof and see it pouring down the street.  Today of course was the big mop-up which wasn't too difficult, especially as the temperature had dropped quite considerably.

So, it was up with all the windows, open all the doors, get out the blower and then the bucket with hot soapy water to wash the verandahs.

Also today, our new table and chairs for the back deck were due to be delivered and delivered they were -  just before lunch.  It was quite a job taking off all the wrapping on everything.  I was exhausted by the end of taking off the wrapping from one chair.  But together with Papa we managed to get all the wrapping off the chairs and table, then the legs on to the table.  Here's a photograph not long after the delivery.

At this stage I had taken off most of the wrapping from two of the chairs.  Papa was dashing around the garden with his mower so that he could put all the clippings in the bin before the bin-man arrived. Once he had completed the mowing, he came up on to the verandah to help me with the rest of the unpacking.

We finished off the unpacking by 12.30pm at which time, I had to leave for my Bible Study up at the church.  By the time I arrived back home, everything was unpacked and Papa had prepared a lovely late lunch.  We are very pleased with our new table and chairs although there are a couple of dents in the table.  Papa telephoned the store where we had bought them and they said they would organize a new table.  By the time we had finished our lunch, we decided we could live with the couple of dents and Papa telephoned the man back again and said not to worry about getting us another table.

While Papa was at the library

and before the table and chairs were delivered, I had a lovely time doing all my household chores, especially as the weather was much cooler.

I had planned to do some more sewing on my 'field' for my Hebridean quilt but haven't managed to get to it.  Hopefully I will do a bit more tomorrow.

My new 'field' is supposed to represent a field that has been harvested.  I am on to my third go and I think this one will be a goer.  My first two attempts just didn't work out.  Every time I tried to do a new 'strip' it wouldn't sit straight or wasn't big enough.  I was nearly tearing my hair out yesterday with it. I had drawn an image of what I wanted to do and it just wasn't working.  In the end, I cut up the image I had drawn and am slowly doing one field strip at a time.   With the first couple attempts, I used beige, gold and dark brown colours, but on this third attempt, because I'm so tired of the whole thing, I moved to different colours with the main colour green and am really pleased.

This afternoon, I had Bible Study up at the church.  The minister's wife Simone takes the study and she is so lovely.  We are doing a study on the book of John.  One of the main verses we looked at today was when Jesus said to his disciples "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.  No-one comes to the Father but through me!"  What an amazing thing for anyone to say of themselves.  The ladies in the group are just lovely.  We start the study with a cup of coffee or tea and some cake - of course!

Well my dears I must away.

Hope you have had a lovely day today at school.

Love Nannyxxxxx

I'M HOME AGAIN!

Hello my lovlies

I'm home again!  As you know I went down to Brisbane on the bus on Tuesday.  I booked to come back to Toowoomba on the bus on Friday but on Thursday, after Auntie Emma and I came back from picking up the boys from school, I got a big surprise as I was climbing the stairs from the garage.

There at the top of the stairs was Molly!   "Molly!" I shouted.  And then Papa popped his head around the corner!  "David!" I shouted again.  Papa had decided to come down and surprise us all.  We were all so pleased to see him, especially Fergus.  "Papa!" he said and Papa gave him a big hug.

It was lovely visiting Auntie Emma.  We didn't do anything terribly special, just the day to day stuff, taking the boys to school, taking Fergus to his new Kindy, shopping, cooking and all the other jobs that need to be done each day.

Fergus has started at a new Kindy.  It is the one I sent photographs of the rainforest at the bottom of the garden and the bridge.

Fergus has been finding it a bit difficult settling in as everything there is new - new teachers, new friends and a huge new garden to play in.  To help him settle in, Auntie Emma and I had along chats about ways we could help him.  We thought up lots and lots of ideas such as taking him a bit later in the morning and bringing home a bit earlier.   This means that in the morning Auntie Emma takes the boys to school and then comes home again with Fergus and has a nice quiet hour or two with him before he heads to Kindy for a couple of hours.  He is nice and fresh and enjoys his time with his Mumma.

When it's time for Kindy, Auntie Emma packs him a yummy morning tea and off they set for Kindy.  Once there Auntie Emma stays with Fergus for most of the time, helping him and other children who are new to the Kindy.  After the indoor play, Fergus usually goes outside to play in the sand-pit and that is when Auntie Emma leaves him, but not for long, only an hour.

When it's time for lunch and an afternoon rest, Auntie Emma picks Fergus up and brings him home where he has a lovely bath to wash all the sand off.  Then he lies under a wee blanket with his lunch and watches Play School.  Once Play School is finished, Auntie Emma takes him upstairs for a wee rest.  He calls his time on the couch his 'relax time' and his sleep upstairs his 'rest time'.

Auntie Emma and Fergus have a rest for about an hour when it's time to pick up the big boys.  This seems to be working very well and no doubt this new routine will change as he gets a bit bigger.

This week Auntie Emma bought a vitamiser thingy so the boys could make themselves smoothies.  Each morning and when they come home from school, out comes all the ingredients for their smoothies.  They use milk, yoghurt, and fruit - if I liked milk and yoghurt I would make some too!

The painters were working at Auntie Emma's.  She was having some walls painted and the back fence.  The walls were painted in a cream colour and the back fence a lovely bluey grey.

Andrew, the man who helps Auntie Emma with her garden popped in during the week for a chat about planting.  Auntie Emma has just about finished the main work in her garden and is ready to finish off with plants now.  It looks as though she and Andrew have picked some gorgeous tropical plants for the garden which, once they are planted and established will create a lush landscape for sitting in.

On Friday, after dropping the boys off at school, Auntie Emma, Fergus and I popped into Bunnings to see if we could find a swing for Fergus.  A visit to Bunnings is probably Fergus's favourite outing.

When we arrived, he grabbed his wee trolly and skooted up and down the aisles.  He was most disappointed that he couldn't buy the sign which said AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY which he had been pushing around while Auntie Emma and I were looking at swings and screws.

There was a bit of a three year old tantrum when we were leaving, when he threw himself on the ground and cried but Auntie Emma and I just wandered off and looked at something and he decided he wasn't achieving much so lifted himself up and came to see what we were looking at.

Once home, Papa got busy and hung the swing from Auntie Emma's new pergola.  Fergus just loves it and because it has a baby seat, he can give his teddies a swing too without them falling off.

Here's a photograph of Fergus washing his bike.

You can see his new swing hanging from the pergola.

Friday night Uncle Michael's office had a big party to celebrate the renovations to their offices.  Michael's company decided to extend their office space to the floor below and have created a beautiful staircase connecting the two floors.  As you can imagine, this involved a huge renovation and the party was to celebrate the official opening of the new offices.  Over four hundred people attended including judges too!

Auntie Emma was supposed to meet Uncle Michael at the office in all her party clothes but because she had a terrible cold she decided to stay home.  She had been taking cold and flu tablets but was still feeling pretty sick.  It's a good job she didn't go because Uncle Michael didn't get home until nearly midnight.

For dinner that night, Auntie Emma ordered some fish and chips and Papa went to collect them.  We set up a wee table and chairs in the garden and had a fish and chips picnic!  Fergus is getting to the age where he loves to be asked to do things.  "Fergus!" we would say.  "Would you mind getting me some tomato sauce?"  He would down his plate, climb off his chair and run to get the tomato sauce and with great care squeeze some on to each of our plates.

In the evening we all cosied up to watch a movie in the front room with wee Fergus between Auntie Emma and me.  The boys kept us all in the cinema atmosphere with a steady supply of Smarties and Maltesers from the fridge.  Because Fergus had had a wee 'rest' in the afternoon he was quite OK to sit through the movie.

The movie we watched was THE COMMITMENTS which is just hilarious.  It is about a band in Dublin around 1990.  There's quite a lot of bad language but it fits in with the story, and  Auntie Emma felt the boys would handle the language OK - and they did.  They were laughing and laughing through the film.

While we were watching the movie, we recognized one of the band members who is in one of Auntie Emma's favourite films which is called ONCE.

If you click here you can hear Glen Hansard singing one of his songs from ONCE.

The doggie picture is nothing to do with the film ONCE.  I can't remember where I saw the painting, but I thought it was just gorgeous and that you would like it too.

Will away.

Love Nanxxxxx

IN BRISBANE

Hello my lovelies

I'm in Brisbane at the moment, all tucked in in my lovely white bed.

I caught the bus down here this morning and arrived at the bus station around 1.00pm.   After I collected my suitcase from beneath the bus, I made my way to the lift to head down to the car park where Auntie Emma was to meet me.  When I arrived at the car park, I didn't think I was in the right place, so made my way back to the lift and tried another floor.  I did this a couple of more times and then finally when I was waiting for the lift to open and try somewhere else again, who do you think was in the lift when the doors opened?  Yes!  It was Auntie Emma.  Thank goodness!

We gave each other a hug and then walked to the car.  Auntie Emma had packed a picnic for lunch and drove to the park opposite the B&B you all stayed in when you were here at Christmas.

After lunch, we drove to Fergus's kindy.  As we walked up the street chatting, Fergus must have heard us because Auntie Emma heard him say, "That's my Mummy!"

When we climbed the stairs on to the verandah where all the children were having their lunch, Fergus came running to welcome us.  He looked very happy with his friends and he looked as though he had had a very interesting morning as his hands, arms and face were all a light shade of blue.  Apparently the children had been making play dough with food colouring. I think Fergus had been more interested in the food colouring than anything else.

As we left all his friends shouted "Bye Fergus!" and one little boy kept lifting Fergus up and giving him cuddles.  Finally we made our way downstairs to the sounds of someone shouting "I love you Fergus!"

IT'S NOW WEDNESDAY...

I was finding it very difficult using my IPad in bed last night and had to give up and finish this post today.  I am now sitting at Uncle Michael's big computer.  Fergus has gone for a wee rest with his Mummy.  He has had a lovely day so far.

We began the day with Angus not being very well organised for school and Auntie Emma giving him a 'loud' telling off!  After dropping the boys at school and shouting out the window, "Have a great day!" as we drove off, we made our way to the swimming centre for young 'ns in Rosalie.
This swimming centre has been designed with very young children in mind and Fergus had a teacher all to himself whose name was Ben.  Ben was wonderful with Fergus and managed to get him to do all sorts of things in the water.

On the way home, Auntie Emma stopped to buy Fergus a chocolate, sprinkle marshmallow which is a regular treat after his swimming lesson.

Once we arrived home, Auntie Emma's gardening man Andrew arrived to talk about plants for the back garden.  All the major work has been done in the back garden and all that's left is the planting.  Auntie Emma and Andrew chatted about what to plant and I think they have made their final decisions.  Most of the plants are going to be tropical plants which will suit the Brisbane climate very well.

While Auntie Emma and Andrew were chatting, Fergus, Spot and I went for a wee walk to the park where we all, including Spot, played on the swings.

Once home, we had some morning tea and Fergus settled down on the couch in the front lounge and watched some television.

After lunch, Fergus started going through the birthday cake book deciding which cake he would like Auntie Emma to make him for his birthday which is still months away!  He seems to have settled on a green car with lots of smarties on it.  He took it with him to look at in bed.

Well I shall away.

Hope you are all having a great week.

Love Nannyxxxx

Papa is in the process of making Nicoise Salade for dinner.

We've had a bit of rain, probably 2mls which isn't a lot to write home about but about which I'm writing to you about!  It's very cloudy, but I've checked the radar and we've missed all the rain.  It's now on its way through the Lockyer Valley and down to Ipswich.  Papa's just opened the doors and turned off the air-conditioner and there's that humid smell there is after the rain.  Oh loovly!  I can feel cooler air coming in.  Here's the thermometer from yesterday.

This morning our new vet telephoned to see how Molly was.  Wasn't that kind of him?  Papa told him that she still didn't seem her usual bouncy self.  He said it may be a good idea to discontinue the Cortisone tablets.  She had one this morning, so hopefully in the next day or so she will begin to be her old self again, running down the verandah and barking at every Tom, Dick and Harry who decides to walk past her fence.

Papa had a very busy morning this morning.  He had an appointment with our Bank Manager, Charlie who has just finished building a new home for himself and his family.  Well, he didn't actually build it, the Builder built it but he asked Papa if he would check that all was OK before he paid the last payment to the Builder.  Papa met Charlie around 10.30am and spent about an hour and a half with him going over the house which Papa says is really big.  There weren't too many issues.  The main one was the one where when you come in the front door and look down the hall, the door at the end hasn't been centralized on the wall.  I think this will be quite a fiddly job to fix but when fixed will look much better.   I was going to go with Papa but then I thought I would probably be hanging around for ages and would start crying and crying in the gutter "I want to go home!  I want to go home NOW!" and I really couldn't be doing that what with the Bank Manager and all.  So I made a good decision in not going as I didn't imagine for one minute he would have taken an hour and a half to go around a house.

After he left Charlie, Papa said that he went to the library to drop off some books and then on to Betros Brothers to pick up some fruit and vegies and then on to Coles to pick up some more stuff.

I was really wondering where he had got to as I was supposed to leave the house at 12.30pm for my Bible Study up at the church. He rolled in about five minutes late which wasn't too late as the ladies tend to have a wee chat before they start the study.

After the Bible Study, I headed off to Copylam which is a company that does photocopying of difficult stuff.  On my Hebridean quilt I had made the grass-type stuff below the cottage but I wasn't happy with it.   I kept biting my bottom lip this morning while Papa was out wondering "Should I try something different?  Should I leave it?"  In the end I drew a different idea - kind of strips representing crops being cut and will have a go at that.  The drawing was really small and after the Bible Study I took it to Copylam and had them enlarge it to the exact size for my quilt.  That way I can use my light-box to cut out the material to the size I need.  I'll take photographs as I move along.

This picture is what I've made already and I'm not sure about.

This picture is of the view through the window in the boat. It was originally the colour of the sea and then I realized it was positioned in such a way that you would have seen both the sand and sea so I appliqued a bit of each and I'm very pleased with the result:)

Also took this photograph of Papa while we were sitting out on the back deck.  I like the picture in the background in the kitchen.  And I like Papa too of course!

I noticed on Facebook that the lost dog at Auntie Emma's has been rescued by its owners.  I'm not sure how happy Auntie Emma is as she really loved that dog.  But I'm sure she will be happy the dog is home again with the people who love her.

I'll find out more when I head down to visit on Thursday.

Well my dears, I shall away.  It's 10.00am your end and I am thinking of you both at school as I type and hope you are having a wonderful day.

Love Nannyxxxx

IT'S LEONIE'S BIRTHDAY

Happy Birthday Leonie!  

IT'S ALL I'VE EVER KNOWN

Hello there my lovelies

I know I sound like a broken record, but it is HOT here.  I just checked the temperature out on the verandah and it's 39 degrees!  There's a huge heat-wave thing happening across Australia just now. Tomorrow is to be the same, but we're all hoping that Monday will see some relief.

Papa and I got up early this morning - well, Papa did!  I was a bit behind the times and woke up with the sun shining into the bedroom.  It was up and at it as we knew it was going to be a hot one.  Papa got the mower going, then the whipper snipper and I got going with the blower.  Pot plants received a nice drink and I even sprayed all the weeds growing in the paths.  Then it was lock-down!  All doors and windows closed, fans and air-conditioner on.  Papa is now sitting with a coffee and his ear-phones on watching a movie.

I have my sewing machine here on the table.  I have been working on the 'grass' for my Hebridean quilt.  I'm hoping that my strippy idea works as I haven't been able to find fabric that I feel would work.

Did Mummy or Daddy mention that Auntie Emma put the 'lost dog' on her Facebook page.  The Council have picked it up and will keep it for a few days after which, if Auntie Emma would like to, she can adopt it.  She sounds very keen.  It sounds as though it is a lovely dog.  Here's a photograph Auntie Emma took.

And...to keep the doggie theme going, Keith down the road sent photographs of his son's new dog. She is called Adelaide and they got her from the pound.  Don't you think she looks gloriously happy?

Here's another photograph I thought was gorgeous.  It's from one the blogs I occasionally pop into - DOWN TO EARTH and they have just recently bought this dog.  Her name is Gracie and apparently she is gazing longingly into the wheelbarrow which has a chicken poo and straw mix inside.

Keith has just popped in for a cuppa so I'll close for now.

If you click on the link below, there's a lovely story about a lady in Ireland.  The story is called IT'S ALL I'VE EVER KNOWN

click here

Love Nanxxxx