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 Lisa has a Canon Powershot which she is very happy with, but that model has now been superseded.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!

Ag n Chat Trip

Last Thursday our Ag n Chat group went to Leeton to have a look at the SunRice Rice Mill. It has a very interesting display there with a video about Australia's rice industry. The lack of water has severely affected this industry and many jobs have been lost in the area because of it.

We had a tour of the packing shed to see how rice is packaged into it's plastic bags. This process is all automated now and each production line can be operated by two persons only. As you can see we had to wear coats, hairnets, earplugs and steel capped shoes before being allowed into the factory area. We all looked lovely and I was threatened that I'd better not show this photo, but I had to so that you all got the full effect of the story!!!

A quick tour was then had at the Yanco Agricultural Institute. John showed us rice in the paddocks which is ready to harvest now.

100 Years

Yesterday our local primary school celebrated it's 100th birthday. It was a huge day for our small town of Marrar. There were ceremonies at the school with morning tea for the masses. A street parade was held in the afternoon and then our tennis club catered for the evening meal at the hall which 280 people attended. Farmer Phil and I have just come home from the clean up at the hall this morning and as you can imagine, everyone in the town is exhausted! Here are some photo's of the street parade.

Marrar Primary School float.

The local carriage drivers.

A vintage Case tractor.

A vintage Fordson Major tractor.

A vintage Lanz Bulldog tractor.

Marrar Tennis Club's float.

The Mighty Marrar Bombers Footbal and Netball Club.

Farmer Phil driving our sowing rig.

My father in law, Noel driving our little 1963 Massey Ferguson tractor.

The original Maple Leaf fire truck from the Marrarvale Rural Fire Brigade.

The local polo crosse club.

Here is the local hall ready for the dinner. The 26 students from the school drew all the place mats.

Rustious Roly Poly

I bought this barb wire ball at the Gala Day auction. It was made by a Yanco parent and is supposed to be made from original McCaughey wire. This is the blurb that came with it:

Botanical Name: Rustious Roly Poly

This very,very drought tolerant and frost hardy plant is a delight to grow and is a must for the lazy gardener.

This rustic, year round flowering plant has very prickly petals. It battle on regardless of dry arid conditions.

It will also grow successfully in higher rainfall areas but is susceptible to all forms of rust: stripe, leaf and stem!!! A fungicide spray of CRC or WD40 will give a short period of control.

Despite low rust tolerance, it rarely affects growth and flowering ability.

I recommend this plant to gardeners EVERYWHERE.......

PS: This plant has a poor root system and may require staking in windy open areas.......!!!!!!