AUTUMN

Hello my lovelies!

Thought I would post some autumn photographs for you today.  As you can see, the sun has now moved to the north so we are getting some lovely sunshine on the side verandah.  I moved the carpet and the chair round from the back deck last week.

I took this photograph while sitting at the table on the front verandah.  Can you see the tree across the road - the pink one.  Well, that is a  golden rain tree.  It has fantastic yellow flowers in spring and what you see at this time of the year are the seeds.  I've got a feeling you can no longer buy these trees here as they are considered a pest.  It must be all those seeds - once they fall, I imagine they seed everywhere.

The tree on the other side of the verandah is one of the beautiful maples and as you can see, it hasn't put on its autumn coat yet. 

And...the camellia outside our bedroom window.  

And...some roses still blooming.  If you look closely, you will see buds still to flower.

This morning Papa and I were very busy around the place.  I hauled the ladders up from the shed, ran some hot water put some soapy stuff into a bucket, grabbed some cloths and set to and cleaned all the fans.  Now that we are well into autumn, I don't think we will be using them again until nearer the end of the year.

While I was doing that, Papa was outside putting finishing touches with his paintbrush to the front fence.  Over the course of the summer it had turned green with mould!  Through the week he's been busy washing it off with very special 'stuff' from BMS.  I'm hoping all the plants and grass nearby don't die.  Time will tell and I'll keep you informed.  The fence is all nice and white again.

Tomorrow, Papa and I are on 'tea duty' after church.  We haven't done this before so should be interesting.  We'll go up the hill a bit earlier than usual and set things up.  I've made a batch of shortbread to take with me.  

Did I tell you that Bob and Bev are coming to St David's now too.  It's lovely having them there and after the service they usually come back to our place for some morning tea.

Our minister Andrew usually sends through an email during the week saying what he is going to be preaching on and also what hymns we will be singing.   THIS is one of the hymns we will be listening to on the audio visual - we sometimes sing along as well.  We will be singing along with THIS one too.  I've just had a look at them and the words in the songs are beautiful.

Andrew has been preaching from the book of Mark for quite some time.  Tomorrow he's preaching on the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida written about in chapter 8.

Well my dears I shall away.  I've just taken wee Molly for a walk.  She's quite down at the moment; very quiet.  I think she's missing Spotty Boy.  I'm sure he won't be missing her as he's happy as long as he's getting attention!

Love Nanxxx

QUILTING AT KERRIE'S

Hello my lovelies!

Well quilting at Kerrie's began with morning tea and as it was a gorgeous day, we all sat outside.

Did I tell you I have new hearing aids? One in each ear!  At one point I had to say "Would everyone stop shouting!"  Can you believe it?  I can even hear when I have my head down sewing :)   

I managed to finish off all the little bits and pieces that needed to be completed on my Hebridean quilt and it is now up on the wall permanently.

In the evening, I pulled the blue log cabin over and gave some thought as to whether I would quilt it as usual with the small needle or try a different method - with a thick cotton and a longer needle. 

 This makes a longer stitch and after some sewing I think I will go ahead and use this stitch and cotton on the whole quilt.  I think it gives the log cabin a 'rustic' look.  I'm not sure if it's much quicker than sewing with the small needle and waxed quilting cotton as I can only do a couple of stitches at a time.

 Papa has headed up to the church to help continue with the renovation to the floor so that it will support our new grand piano.

There is a working bee up there as well at 3.00pm to prepare the church for the Good Friday service tomorrow.  When Papa and the other men have finished there is always a lot of dust to clean up!

I'm off to have some breakfast, give the place a bit of a tidy and settle down and do some more quilting.

Love Nanxx

WHAT AN AFTERNOON IT'S BEEN

Hello my lovelies!

As we're heading down to Brisbane tomorrow I thought I would make some biscuits for the boys.  "Now!  What will I make?" I said to myself.  "I know!  I'll make some Anzacs."  Out came David Herbert's recipe, out came the flour, butter, golden syrup, brown sugar, rolled oats, coconut, salt and bi-carb of soda.

I decided to double the recipe so pulled out a really big bowl. Got out the measuring cups and measured 2 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 2 cups coconut, 2 cups rolled oats and a pinch of salt.  Mixed all together with my hands in the sink as I'm not that tall and I need my bowl a bit lower.  Then it was time to melt the butter and golden syrup.  Once that was gently melting its merry heart out, I measured 2 tsp bi-carb into a cup and added a couple of tablespoons of boiling water.  Mix the two together, carried the cup over to the little pot where the butter and golden syrup were melting, poured in the bi-carb and watched a volcano erupt all over my stove.  I quickly lifted the pot up, thinking I would take it to the sink, but as it was still frothing like billy-o I couldn't and so I managed to spread melted butter and golden syrup all over the stove.  I wish I had had thought to run for the camera for you to see the disaster.  You will just have to imagine it.  I stood there looking at the mess, not quite sure what to do next.  I decided to pour what was left in the little pot, into the dry mixture and see if it brought the dry ingredients together and of course it didn't.  "What SHALL I do now?" I asked myself.  Well, I actually didn't use these exact words but you can imagine.  I took my large bowl of mixture over to the stove and started spooning the stuff off the stove into my bowl until it came together.  Then I prepared one tray and put that in the oven to get things going.  While the first batch of biscuits were cooking, I started pulling the stove to bits.  I have now managed to get the kitchen back into some semblance of normality, all before Papa came in from the garden thank the Lord.  He is really starting to worry when I head into the kitchen.  "What happened to the stove?" he asked when he came in and I slowly and wearily went through the whole story. 

The metal things that hold the pots etc in place are now in the dishwasher and I've washed all the bits and pieces that produce the flame for cooking.  Hopefully when all goes together again everything will work.

And the biscuits?  Turned out beautifully.  Papa says they're delicious.  I shall have one with my afternoon cuppa.

Love Nanxxx

WASHING THE HOUSE AND PRAYING

Hello there my lovelies

Here's a photograph of Papa taken the other day.  Today, at this moment, he has the gurney going and is washing the northern, western and back deck areas.  I shall move in when he's finished and give the floor a mop and clean the windows.

While he's been directing the powerful gurney hose out the back, I've been sitting at the table doing my Bible Study for Monday.

We are still studying Chronicles which I'm really enjoying - all about Solomon and the Temple.  I love this verse where Solomon prayed to God at the dedication of The Temple after all the building work had been completed.

Then Solomon stood before the alter of the Lord in front of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands.  Now he had made a bronze platform, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had placed it in the centre of the outer court.  He stood on the platform and then knelt down before the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven.  He said:

...But will God really dwell on earth with humans?  The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you.  How much less this temple I have built...

What a beautiful verse - and to think that a thousand years later, God did dwell on earth, not only with humans but as a human being.  

We have been loving all the photographs that have been coming through from Italy.  It looks absolutely gorgeous.  What a special time for you all.

Well I must run and see how Papa's going.  I must make sure he doesn't overdo things.  

Love Nanxxx

A WEE POEM ABOUT SOCKS

THE SORROW OF SOCKS

Some socks are loners -

They can't live in pairs.

On washdays they've shown us

They want to be loners.

They puzzle their owners,

They hide in dark lairs.

Some socks are loners -

They won't live in pairs.

I've been cleaning out my office.  Went mad, even dragging all the files out of the filing cabinet.  Some were torn at the corners because they were too full, so I hopped to it and headed down to Officeworks.  Had a wander and bought a box of new files, some folders, a new mouse pad and some more plastic boxes.  I love my plastic boxes.

While I was tidying up the books on the bookshelves, I found Wendy Cope's poetry book "If I Don't Know".  I loved this poetry book so much that I bought a few copies for gifts a few years ago.  Now I can't remember who I've given one to so have decided to scatter the remaining ones around the house.  

Note to self..."Remember to write down what gifts you give to whom!"

Love Nanxxx

HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN, CLIPPITY CLOP!

Woo hoo!  Mummy sent me this photograph.  There is nothing stopping you both now!  I can see a lot of sewing of all sorts of things will be done on this machine.

And what could be better that to do some repairs on faithful 'blue sheet'?  You look a natural at the machine Liliane.  

And Freya!  This look absolutely fantastic.  What era is this village set in?  What fiddly work but so well done.  

I can see the little wheelbarrow and the 'market cross'.  

I'm so looking forward to talking with you both today but you must talk first Freya.  We don't want you running out of time like last time.

I've been very busy today.  Did a huge washing, sheets, towels, dark wash, light wash;  you name it and I washed it.  It has been windy and quite warm, so everything has dried beautifully.

I also brought up the ladders to bring down my 'summer' clothes which were up high in my wardrobe.  I told Papa when he came back from U3A this morning that there's quite a bit of ironing to be done.  I've hung all my stuff from the baskets on to hangers and have hung them in the laundry for Papa.

While I was bringing down all the summer clothes and packing away all the winter woolies, I decided to give our bedroom a good cleanout too.  So all those dust bunnies have been shaken out the window and perhaps some of the birds that are flying around the place will pick up some of the little balls and feathers and use them to make their nests.  I love recycling dust bunnies!

Love Nanxxx

CLEANING AND QUILTING OR WEDNESDAY MORNING 10.55AM

Hello my lovelies

Well, yesterday was the day!  What day you may ask?  The day to CLEAN THE OVEN, my most dreaded task in the house.

This is the first time I have cleaned it since we moved here three and a half years ago, so well overdue.  

First of all, I went on to the Internet to see what I needed to do to clean the inside of the oven door.  Lots of information using bi-carbonate of soda which sounds quite scientific but ultimately proved to be quite pantryish and saw me finally grabbing the Brillo pad and getting into it regardless of whether I would scratch the glass or not.  So long as it's clean, I'm happy.

Anyway scrubbing away, I noticed that some of the gunk wasn't coming off and after calling for Papa's help discovered that the door consisted of three, yes THREE panes of glass.  As if one pane wasn't bad enough.  Papa took the door to bits and I carefully got stuck into each pane one by one.

Then it was taking the inside apart and spraying the shelves in the garage just in case the dogs decided to roll all over them once they were sprayed with the ACID.

After the acid stage, I decided it was time for a cuppa and a wee read of my book.  I went out to the side verandah and promptly fell asleep, waking up with a start and wondering where I was!

After lunch, I brought the rails up into the laundry, grabbed a new Brillo pad and scrubbed the rails until they were dazzlingly shiny.  

It is now a new day and I haven't had the strength or the burning desire to put the lot all back together again.  Papa very half-heartedly picked up one of the side pieces this morning and then put it back down and said, "I'll look at it all when I get back from U3A."

I have quilting today up at Kerrie's.  After breakfast I decided to cut up some more strips for my NEW project. 

 I've decided to make my first ever log cabin quilt which is a very old quilting design.  The centre piece is usually red and is supposed to represent the fireplace in the log cabin and the pieces of material that go around the red piece represent the walls of the log cabin.  

I now have two baskets filled with strips.  One with blue strips and the other with lighter strips.

And here is the first block.  I'm really quite pleased with myself.  I think this may be something I'm quite good at.

I think my fire has gone oot!

Love Nanxxx

BUSY CLEANING OUT THE SHED

Hello my lovelies

Papa has been taking a good look at his shed and has decided that it needs some de-cluttering.  "David!  Let me into the shed!  I'm good at this!" I said.  But no, he said he will do it himself.

I think he's going to get rid of the old desk and filing cabinet behind him.  The garden tools are going to go under the house near the water tanks.  Talking of which, there is a very strange smell coming from that area.  We've hunted and hunted but can't find the culprit.  I imagine it's a dead rat, slowly rotting away amongst the insulation under the house.  Time will take care of it, but in the meantime, we have to take a deep breath when going upstairs or when we're using the toilet next to the laundry.

Moving on!  He is also planning on making himself a good sturdy work-bench which will sit in the middle of the shed.  This will enable him to walk all around the bench when he's making something.

"Stay there!" I said and rushed to get the camera.  While I had the camera in my wee hawns, I took a walk around the garden, snap, snapping for you both.

This photograph is taken from the shed looking into the garden.

Here's the Camellia in full bloom at the moment.  Isn't it gorgeous?

Remember you can click on the photograph to enlarge it.

Photograph of the front steps.  The Salvia needs a bit of a cut-back but we're leaving it until after Easter.

And a lovely picture taken on the side verandah.

Love Nanxxx

WORLD POETRY DAY

Yesterday was World Poetry Day.  No-one told me but apparently Katyboo1.wordpress.com knew.  She posted this fantastic poem which I think is very appropriate what with it being the Spring equinox in the northern hemisphere.

Spring Cleaning

de Lord is my shepherd

I shall not want

an she scraping

de las crumbs

aff de plate

knowing ants will feed

maketh me to lie down

in green pastures

leadeth me beside de still

waters

and she han washing clothes

spotless

lifting dem outa de water

drying she han careful slow

pon she apron

restoreth my soul

she mixing

sugar

water

lime

she filling she favourite jug

de one wid de cool palm pattern

yea though I walk

troo de valley of de

shadow of death

she opening de fridge

de cowl stapping her breath

for a motion

I will fear no evil

she put een wah she want

tek out wah she want

shut de door

for thou art wid me

thy rod an thy staff

dey comfort me

an she looking wid a far eye

pon de picture a de children

side a de almanac

pon de wall

surely goodness an mercy

shall follow me

she pick up de broom

an she sweeping

all de days of my life

an she sweeping

an I will dwell

in de house of de Lord

she sweeping out

sweeping

out

shake de broom

in de wind

dus fly

she beat it gains de fence

dus fly

she cup she han

unda de pipe

an she sprinkle water

roun she

stan up

hans akimbo

she watching

all de dark spirits

departing wid de dus

sunrise in er eyes

forever

an ever

Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze

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

CLEANING, GROUPING AND SHOPPING

Hello my darling girls

It's been quite a busy day so far.  This morning I gave the house a big clean, dusted, vacuumed and mopped - including the verandahs.

Because it is so hot at the moment, I was fair exhausted at the end of it all.  Papa arrived home from dropping his guitar off at the guitar place and could see I needed a sit-down and a wee cup of tea. After we sat down, he told me about the different places he had been to whilst out doing his various chores.  The guitar of course was dropped off.  Apparently the strings had lost their zing and were a bit dull.  He's just gone to pick the guitar up again so I'm expecting great zinging to come from his office soon.

While I was at church yesterday, the minister mentioned a group which had started up last week but was still open for folk who wanted to attend.  It was a KYB group.  KYB means Know Your Bible. He said if anyone would like some information to see Simone, his wife after the service - which I did. She gave me a book and said I would be very welcome to attend.

The group meets on Mondays at 12.30pm.  I wasn't sure whether to have lunch before I left and decided in the end I would have it when I returned home.  However, the class didn't finish until 2.30pm which was pretty late to be thinking about lunch.  I really enjoyed the class - there were about 12 other ladies there including a lady called Tania who has just arrived from Texas three weeks ago. Her husband has taken up a position at the University here in Toowoomba for six months.  Needless to say, she is finding the heat quite difficult.  She said that she and her husband are taking off at the weekend to head south for a few days.  On the way home the temperature showing in the car was 36 degrees.

After the Bible class, I decided to head down to Harvey Norman and see if they had anything in the way of side-tables.  They did have a few but none that I could say, "Oh!  I like that one!"

Left Harvey Norman and walked across to have a browse in HOWARDS which is a store that sells all things to do with containers - which I love.  Anything that helps me organize my stuff better is a goer for me.

I came away with a two-tier cake stand thing which I thought would be good for my fruit. I'm a bit fed up with bowls all over the place so the plan is to have some fruit on the cake stand and the rest in the fridge and each morning I will refill the fruit stand where necessary.  Good idea?

Keith the builder next door is going great guns with the joists for the extension and back deck already up.  I'm really hoping that whoever buys the house, are nice people as I can see everything on the back deck from my kitchen window.  Papa keeps reminding me that even if they're not, our trees and shrubs will eventually screen them out.

Wow!  What a time you all had on your birthday Freya.  That blizzard looked amazing.  I bet Mama and Dada were glad to get you all home again.  And the fondue looks fabulous too.  And...cake and champagne.  What a day!   You're next Liliane!  Any ideas?

Well I'll away for now.

Love Nannyxxxxx  PS  Don't forget, you can click the photographs to make them larger.