Update on Graham's Quilt

I stayed up late last night and rose early this morning to get Graham's quilt started. I've Vliesofixed all the pictures to their backgrounds, so now all I have to do is blanket stitch around the pieces and then put it all together. Easy!!?? Graham will be 70 on May 23, so that gives me three weeks to get it finished. I should get it done as long as Farmer Phil lets me have some time off the tractor!

The "Inverloch" homestead.

Graham on his Massey Ferguson header.

The Bulldog Lanz tractor.

Graham and Aunty Eula.

A magpie and galah on a farm gate.

A bee with it's hive.

Chooks, ducks and rabbits.

The milking house cow.

Merino ram, ewe and lamb.

Sowing Time

As you can see, it's sowing time at last! We had 29mm of rain over the weekend so Farmer Phil decided to start sowing the canola. It's being direct drilled into last year's wheat stubble. The stubble is left on the padock from last harvest to try and conserve the moisture in the soil. It acts just like the mulch on your gardens.

I had to drive the seeder this afternoon while Farmer Phil went and dug the seed truck out of a bog! We use a GPS system called "EZ-Guide & EZ-Steer" which means that you don't have to physically steer the tractor. It is guided by satellites which then drives the tractor in a straight line.

The monitor shows you the paddock covered by the seeder so you don't miss any patches.

This is Farmer Phil filling the air cart with fertiliser from the semi. The pile of gypsum is to be spread in the paddock next door.

Lest We Forget.....

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Kiwiana

I received a parcel in the mail today which was a belated 40th birthday present from my gorgeous friend, Adrienne from New Zealand. Adrienne and I are friends from my 3 years at Pakuranga College during the 80's. We've kept our friendship going for 27 years but we've only seen each other twice in the past 25 years.

The parcel represents some Kiwiana which includes an apron featuring the world-famous Haka and it's words which will come in handy for the next Australia V NZ rugby game! The socks are really cute with the sheep baubles on the ankles. I can't wait to hang the Christmas decorations on the tree this year - the silver fern and pohutukawa tree. The "jandal" or thong as us Aussie's call them will be a great talking piece for my keys. And I've always loved the beautiful paua shell jewellery.

Thank you so much Adrienne - you're such a dag, and I love every single piece of Kiwiana!!

Spreading Gypsum

Farmer Phil is busy spreading gypsum today. It is supposed to rain this afternoon and tomorrow, so he wanted to at least get some spread before the rain so that it will settle into the soil nicely. He's also got about 250T of lime to spread before sowing of the crops start. Jack was acting like a farm dog today, taking a keen interest in proceedings!

Trees to Plant

Once we've got the pool finished off we've got all these trees to plant. We bought them about 7 weeks ago when the nursery was having a sale. Farmer Phil made up a corrugated iron enclosure to protect them from the wind and we've been hand watering them ever since. The plants include 8 Manchurian pears for around the pool, 3 silver birches, 4 olive trees, 8 willow myrtles, 5 liquidambars, a gorgeous lemon scented gum, 12 crepe myrtles, 8 chinese maples, and more coastal rosemary for around the pool perimeter. We'll be busy getting all these planted and the watering system set up too!

Charlie

What can you say!! .....................In my next life I'm coming back as a cat!!!

The Pool's First Swim

The pool is getting closer to finished now, but there's still a lot to get done. Ryan and Emma had a very quick swim today. Actually, Farmer Phil threw Ryan in! Emma was luckier and hopped in herself. Her expression shows the water temperature!

Pool Progress

We've been busy all week getting the pool installed. Having a large area makes it easier to use big equipment - the tractor was used to bucket in 8T of sand for the base.


The sand was screeded and worked to make a smooth base for the liner to sit on.

The liner weighs 130kg so it was a bit awkward to handle.

Here is the pool late yesterday afternoon. It is one quarter full of water. We're about to fill it to halfway this afternoon and back fill around it. It will then take another 2 days to fill it completely and get it back filled to ground level. Farmer Phil will then install the inlets and outlets for the pump and solar heating system. The fence will have to go up and the landscaping finished off, so there's still a lot of work to do!

Garden Show

On Easter Monday I went to a garden show around our area. There were some lovely gardens and lots were demonstrating how to be water wise due to the drought conditions at the moment.

This dam is typical of ones in the area because of the lack of rainfall. I bet it's been a while since anybody used the canoe!


This represents a dry river bed.


Some easy care livestock!

Ceramic flowers as garden art, instead of trying to keep the real things alive..

A lovely deck and pergola area to sit and relax or have a meal in Summer.

The Wedding

The wedding went fabulously well yesterday. Rachael was an absolutely stunning bride and Jess was the perfect, suave English groom. They both loved the quilt because it was made especially for them!

Camera Practice

Here are some practice shots with the new camera. The macro setting works really well! And yes, the roses are from my very own garden!

Wedding Quilt

The Wedding Quilt is finally completed! I finished hand sewing the binding on yesterday and gave it a wash. It's now wrapped and ready to give to Jess and Rachael today. It's a beautiful sunny, Autumn day so the wedding should be absolutely perfect! I took a photo of the card which I bought especially for Rach and Jess at a cute little gift shop in Beechworth last year. It's made in Holland and features really pretty embossed patchwork hearts.

My New Toy

I've been wanting a new camera for a while now, but just hadn't got around to doing any research etc on them. The camera I've been using for the past few years was just a super cheap Kodak Easyshare C310 which is only a very basic digital camera. Lisa has a Canon Powershot which she is very happy with, but that model has now been superseded. The camera shop told me that this Fuji Finepix S1000 would be fine for what I want - just taking normal, family photos etc. It has a 12x optical zoom which will be great for taking water skiing photos, and it's 10 mega pixels which should take nice, clear pictures. I'll try it out at the wedding tomorrow, and post some of those photos in a couple of days.

Singing Star

Emma is a budding singing star - or so we hope!! She had her final term assessment on Tuesday with her vocal teacher Cathy, and then she performed with the Junior Choir for a small end of term concert at the Conservatorium. She moves onto the Intermediate Choir next term which is for 13 to 16 year olds, and she'll also become a member of the Senior Contemporary Choir.

Wedding Quilt Update

Jess and Rachael's wedding is only a week away. I had the quilt machine quilted by Morganne from Fabric 23 in Griffith. She did a trailing vines design in hot pink thread. I think it looks very effective and the vine leaves look like love hearts which is just perfect for a wedding quilt. I've sewn the binding on by machine so I've just got to hand stitch it down. I made a label as well. I'll show you the finished product in a week or so, but I wish I was keeping this one for myself!