The Mad Hatters Tea Party

I think I mentioned a while back about an invitation to all Naracoorte 'Crafters' to make a tea cosy of their choice out of whatever they wanted. There were three categories, Knitted and Crochet, Fabric and Wacky. All entries were put on display in the Naracoorte Art Gallery with little boxes beside them for visitors to use coins to vote on. 

A Mad Hatters Tea Party was held and all the cosies were judge by Trevor Smith a tea cosy maker extraordinaire, photos of his creations at the end. It was a brilliant fund raiser for the local Longridge Aged Care Village and by the end of the display they have raised almost $2000. The art gallery have declared the exhibition to be the most visited ever. All fantastic news, I thought I'd share the photo's I took of the display... quite amazing where peoples imaginations take them.......

This cosy was made from wool hand sheared by the makers husband, spun and then knitted by Leanne.

In the words of Schnozzle Durante........

'Spring has sprung, the grass has riz, I wonder where the birdies is.....'

Which is exactly what we felt at the weekend especially when Robert tried to point out a couple of Frog Mouth owls roosting in one of our gums. It took an age, and a lot of patience from Robert for us to finally spot them.

 

For ages now we'd spotted a few owl pellets around the place but have never seen the owls until now, what a treat. They stay like this, stock still throughout the day fantastically camouflage and the other birds leave them alone.

With Roberts help we also found two Magpie nests high up in the gums near the biggest shed. Hopefully if they do decide to raise their chicks here they will realise we are not a threat and won't dive bomb us in the spring!

And I spotted a couple of Galahs near the hollow of one of the old gums near the veg patch. One was supervising the other which was struggling to drag a recalcitrant leaved twig into the hole. As soon as they realised I was watching they stopped and watched me, so I left them to it. Later I noticed they had invited their mates over, perhaps for a nest warming party.

We've also taken Fred out for a run... he loves to run along side the car normally just ahead of it. It is amazing to see him accelerate.This day he just ran and ran and ran and finally signalling he'd had enough by laying down in this huge puddle. Happiness is....

Just ahead of the puddle two curious deer came out for a look... Fred was too puffed out to even bother looking at them...

But not too tuckered out to get stuck into a good old dig. Convinced he'd find something interesting and totally oblivious to any rabbits running away and possibly sniggering behind there paws. Freddie loves digging holes wombats would be proud of.

And we also spotted this little chap crossing the road. The Echidna the Aussie version of a Mrs Tiggy Winkle. Much bigger all round but still very cute.

There is so much more to tell but I'm going to have to save that for another time or this will never get posted.

Ooroo!

Out and about and The Adelaide Camping Show

Its been a wee bit of a busy time over the last couple of weeks. Surprisingly, none more so than me, we have not been put off of camping from our recent time in the Snow Fields. And as luck would have it a Camping and Caravan Show was being held in Adelaide, a great opportunity to source more suitable equipment and ideas. Having booked a fairly local (to the show) caravan park off we trekked back once again to the big city.

The grounds at Brownhill Creek are so pretty and even though it is close to the centre of Adelaide you can still here the creek and the wildlife above the gentle hum of the traffic.  Funny how you don't notice traffic noise when you live with it all the time.

Shopping list at the ready we headed off to the show, which turned out to be more about caravans and trailer tents then tents and proper camping.  What a difference to the last time when we were here, only two years ago. I think we counted just three tents at the whole show. It is just incredible what can be taken with you on holiday now far more about Glamping than good old fashioned camping these days... I think you can tell I am still in shock.

By the end of the day we hadn't done too badly and 'saved lots of money' with the special show deals. The best bit was finding someone who still makes traditional canvas tents, not quite like the ones we used in our youth. Now they are so much lighter, totally water proof for life and (we are told) easy to put up, ours just has one centre pole and a bit at the end and two guide ropes for the awning. There will be no excuse now and we will be off camping at every opportunity...

House update
Back at the block our new fire has arrived.... hurrah AND the fan works on all speeds.... YAY..... just need to get it installed now. The fitter was due to come out this week but that didn't happen.... hopefully it will before the end of winter... fingers crossed. It's getting a little crowded having two fires in the sitting room. Oh and we had a call from the suppliers to say a spare switch has also arrived... none of us are sure why we need a spare.... hmmmm

We also took delivery of two beautifully crafted River Red Gum doors, they will be even more beautiful when totally finished. A chap came out to measure up, door jams and furniture were discussed as these two beauties are pretty solid and will need three hinges each. And then we realised they are actually smaller than we'd asked for. A quick phone call to the maker and we found much to his embarrassment he'd sadly misread Ricks instructions.

At this point both of us are beginning to wonder if anything we order for our home will ever be straight forward and 'good' from the word go.

The maker of the doors was so embarrassed when he realised his mistake and has offered to make another set of doors or give us a decent discount. To cut a long story short the ones we have may turn out to be ok... we'll see.


Fresh air
The weather this week has been more on the wet and cold side but everyday there has been an hour or so of sunshine. Sunday morning was so spring like we decided to go for a walk around the block. It was a beautiful though fairly short walk. Some of the roads around here are so pretty and, as I discovered coming home in the dark the other night, are easily mistaken for drive ways. The house lights were a bit of a clue I was on the wrong track!

There is a different spring feeling in the air. Camellias in some gardens are looking beautiful.

Rick spotted a Magpie working hard at stripping the bark off of our old man Stringy Bark tree the other day, useful nest building material we think and I saw a couple of Kookaburras checking out a tree hollow. Buds are beginning to appear on trees and shrubs, a wee bit early, hope we will be frost free now.

Tea Cosy Competition

To raise funds a local care home here has set a challenge to all 'crafty' people to make a tea cosy for their Mad Hatters Tea party. All cosies will be on display at the local art gallery for a week and then judged.

It took an age to find a tea pot in the local Op Shops, any pot being snapped up almost before it had reached the shelves. Eventually I laid my hands on one but was then stumped as to what to make although it was a lovely colour I found it a little uninspiring.  A few nights later and the idea came to me. I raided the yarn stash which for some inexplicable reason seems to keep growing, and started to make Rita. It was a challenge as there was no pattern to follow, much unpicking and time later and here she is. If nothing else she makes me smile as only a colourful eccentric tea post cosy can.

Rita the Rainbow Snail

Other than being eccentric I am not sure what she has to do with a Mad Hatters Tea Party theme, perhaps qualifies for the mad part. But she has now been entered and for the very first and possibly last time in my life I can truthfully say I will have an exhibit in an art gallery.

Catching up with the news.....

I know I've been a bit remiss with my house updates so hopefully this won't turn into a brain dump of information. Our work has slowed down a notch or two but we are still ticking along getting things sorted now where to begin.....

The log fire
Perhaps with the fire, which in itself brings great joy and warmth. There is nothing like a real fire and being able to watch flames during the chilly winter nights somehow makes you feel soooo much warmer. It works really efficiently but would (we suspect) be even better if the fan worked. Now we choose this particular model of fire because it's small and the heat is convected out of the front of the fire. So when we finally install our book shelves we won't be roasting our precious books every time we have a fire.


Fan number 1 - all started quite well until we tried to put it on to boost... nothing happened. We duly reported this to the suppliers, a new wiring loom was sent, fitted and then the fan blew up!

Back to the suppliers and onto fan number 2 - and various wiring looms later (thank goodness Rick is savvy with these things) we soon realised it wouldn't work because the wiring just didn't match up. Even I could spot that one....

Back to the suppliers and onto fan number 3 - which was never tested because it was exactly the same as fan number two!

Back to the suppliers this time with detailed reports and many photos and they kindly supplied fan number 4 - which could never work because it was completely different much larger than the original fans and would never fit into the fire. Hay ho...

By this time I was getting quite used to finding Rick laying on the floor beside the heater with his head round the back of it... air slowly turning various shades of blue as he offered the latest wiring loom or fan words of encouragement!

Once more back to the suppliers who by this time were getting quite embarrassed by the whole debacle. But this time they sent Ricks detailed report and photos onto the manufacturers and within half a day we got the news that we would be supplied with a brand new replacement fire AND the manufacturers would pay for installing it. YEAY ... well that was a week ago and we are still waiting in anticipation... hoping it might happen this side of spring.

What does work very well is the heat ex-changer fan which we turn on once the fire is going and it very quietly and efficiently circulates air into our bedroom and warms the whole place up.

The water tanks
And finally the second water tank was sorted out, Rick is tenacious as well as being very patient and has finally worked out why our second water tank wasn't filling when it rained. The inlet pipe turned out to be just about an inch above the guttering, it was a great shame the plumber hadn't noticed this when making the connection. No matter he was finally persuaded to come back and drill a hole in the side of the tank. I have to say it is a wonderful sound listening to the happy trickle of water filling up the tanks when it rains and even after a heavy dew.

And now both tanks are almost full inspite of the rainfall being a lots less than is expected for this time of year (about 100ml down). With this amount of water we should have more than enough to keep us going through the dryer months. Fingers crossed

The weather
Well even though it is the middle of winter most days have had sunny moments and amazing blue skies. Which of course leads to beautiful night skies, stunning sunsets and amazing sunrises,  There have been hardly any gloomy grey days which I was so familiar with in the northern hemisphere during the winter months. Even the grey clouds seem to sit higher in the sky.

We woke up to this beautiful sky...

The other morning we awoke to a fantastic crisp white frosty morning, the poor old fluffed up birds didn't look too impressed. But there is something magical about watching the long fingers of sun stretching out and slowly thawing the crispy grass.

I still haven't quite got used to being able to hang out washing even in these temperatures and it drying AND not being stiff when you get it on off the line! Oh the joy of that gorgeous winter fresh air smell of the dried washing on days like this.

The garden is also quite amazing, I am sure broadbeans in my UK gardens would never have ventured to have flowers in winter let alone the strawberries continuing to flower. Yes really. I was so surprised when I went to tidy them up the other day, fully expecting them to have had the vapours cos of the frosts only to find they are still flowering and even producing strawberries! Incredible. I am also growing 'traditional' winter crops of all seasons carrots, beetroots, turnips, spinach, silverbeet (aka chard) and brussels sprouts. The herbs are also going gangbusters, I've a trough full of very tough seedlings, parsley, dill, coriander and mint.

And I am very proud of my first ever crop of lemons. These little beauties are quite sweet and very juicy almost like they have been crossed with an orange. I thought a celebration of Gin and Tonics was in order, deliciously easy to drink but not so good the next day! Groan......

I think I've mentioned before that we've been busy planting natives along a windbreak along the west side of the house. It will take a little while for them to become established but will hopefully have many benefits, stopping the harsh cold winds which blow straight onto our verandah. Great in the hot summer months but not so welcoming in the cooler parts of winter. It should be very pretty with the plants flowering at different times of the year, give our neighbours a wee bit more privacy and the wildlife lots of lovely things to eat.  Happiness all round.

This little gem is a wonderful Grevillea called Loopy Lou, great value for money as it has not stopped flowering since we brought it in February. Since we planted it as part of the windbreak the birds have loved it. One day I counted 5 New Holland Honey Eaters hanging off and feeding on one of these beautiful flowers.

After two years of biing in the ground and what felt like almost a year of watching buds slowly forming our first Banksia, called High Noon, has started to flower. I think it was worth the wait. Every day I've noticed the nectar eating birds having a feed. It's a shame they all seem to know when I've got the camera in hand and disappear into thin air before I get a chance to capture them.

Mats

We are still lacking sand and dirt catching mats by our doors, old towels are very useful but not quite as elegant. So I've been busy with my latch hook and a bag of rags from the Op Shop and made this.....

Which is a joy to walk on because it is thick but doesn't fit under any of the doors! Back to the drawing board then. It works very well as a bedside rug though and Fred discovered how comfortable it was to sleep on when he came for a sleep over the other night and spent the whole night there quietly curled up beside my side of the bed.

Camping..... in the middle of winter!!!

Now coming from the Northern Hemisphere I learnt from an early age how to keep warm in wintery conditions, generally by staying inside rugged up by a warm radiator sipping hot chocolate and eating comfort food. Never had I ever camped out in it!

It turned out to be a wonderful adventure and such a beautiful area to visit, due to the time of year there was hardly anyone else around a bonus which meant we saw more of the wildlife...

As soon as the decision to go was made Rick and Deb set too and made a couple of brilliant 'kitchens' for each of the vehicles. Debs opened up and ours slid out, both working from the back of the vehicles a very neat way of carrying most of our food etc., There was a flurry of vehicle maintenance, food preparing, map and thermal gear purchasing and  in a blink of an eye we were off to the snow fields. The plan being to meet Kay and Mick there the next evening. They are experienced campers who had been there before at this time of year and so hopefully knew what they were doing. Fred was left at home with Uncle Pete and his two dogs.

Very early Saturday morning with our vehicles packed to the gunnels Deb, Robert, Rick and I set off for Rushworth in Victoria, wanting to spend a night there to break the journey up a bit.

With the 'help' of our GPS systems both giving us different advice... mainly Turn Around! and the use of a map we eventually found a quite spot in a glade to camp. A tarp was strung between our two vehicles for sleeping under and we set up our first camp.

In no time at all and with night falling we'd built the fire, got some tucker on the go, stretchers, swags, sleeping gear at the ready and (for some of us) hot water bottles filled.

I think the local wildlife were relieved we managed to resist the urge to sing Kumbaya around the campfire. It was magical and so very peaceful.

We awoke to a stunning misty morning and the beautiful eerie sound of the Currawong call. It was a little on the chilly side... Ricks swag was covered in ice!

After a quick brekkie and vehicles reloaded off we headed into Rushworth, via the cemetery, which told many tales of the hardships endured by the people who lived here. Established in 1853, Rushworth was a gold mining town and by all accounts a very tough place to live then.

Onwards then to the Blue Mountains, wanting to arrive in enough daylight to set up camp, this time with the luxury of a tent! We headed off to Tabacco Flats, which according to my map was bush camping with no facilities. Eventually after driving through some beautiful countryside along plenty of unsealed roads we found the 4wd track we needed only to discover it was closed. With nowhere to turn around we headed through the open gate and had to go quite a way down the sticky steep muddy track to find a place to turn. That got the heart rates going and luckily we made it back to Sheepyard Flat, got ourselves sorted just before nightfall.

The beautiful soothing Howqua river right next to where we put the tents

Our village of tents.... some a lot more basic than others

There is nothing like campfire cooking, everything tastes delicious.

There were so many best parts to the trip, enough to outweigh any discomforts and challenges of camping. We were on a mission for Deb to see snow but sadly we only caught glimpses of the snow topped Alpine Village of Mount Buller which we discovered had been man-made! We had a couple of really cold nights, a wee bit of drizzle and mainly cold but sunny days. 

We visited old huts, which offered protection from the elements for hikers, graziers and anyone needing shelter. Found some amazing ice formations, had a day of exhilarating four wheel driving, hats off to the chaps for getting us back to camp safely and made friends with the local bird life. 

There is so much to tell best perhaps to let the photo's tell some of the story......

Australian Tree Ferns very happy in the cold and damp

On top of the world above the clouds

And then the sun came out

One of the four wheel drive tracks. No worries for any of the vehicles or their drivers Dora managed it all very elegently.

Some fungis

The Howqua river along the track to Frys Hut

The hut at the top of the Bluff

Fry's Hut, named after the chap who built and lived in it.

Tomahawk Hut, high in the misty mountains

A young Kookaburra 

And his mates, keen for an easy feed...

The male King Parrot

And his Mrs

Enjoying morning smoko with us and our dehydrated apples

Our final camp site beside the great Murray River at Echuca. 

It was amazing and but oh so good to get home to a hot shower and a real bed.