Browning off

There hasn't been any rain for a while - and lots of wind - so the countryside had markedly dried off in the ten days I was away. I drove up to Sydney and parked at the airport, so had a three hour drive at both ends - which was lovely but I definitely got a good look at the scenery. And it was noticeably browner on the drive home than on the way up.

Our garden is also getting very crunchy on the grass and sad on the plants. Today I fed and watered half the roses and I'll do the other half tomorrow ... it gets too hot after about an hour, even just meandering about with a hose and some secateurs. 

The day lilies are flowering which is very welcome. Most of the roses have passed their first flush so I'm hoping we get a second. But I have no idea!!! Every day is learning.

There are two enormous pear trees that we didn't know about. They both have cherry slug, so I don't think there'll be any fruit, but we might look into maintaining them a bit better next year. Now we know they exist. 

This apple is also covered in fruit but I think the codling moth will get all that. Or possibly the birds. 

It was good to go back to quilters yesterday morning, and art class in the afternoon. We spent Monday in at the old house cleaning because WE HAVE SOLD IT TODAY. What a relief. The money has yet to arrive, but in the next couple of days we will be no longer in crippling debt. Phew. 

New Zealand trip

 I've spent the last ten days in NZ - a short trip home to see the family. Dad hasn't been well enough to travel over this year but now I'm retired I can just go any time I want! The gap between thinking "I'd like to go and see everyone" and getting on a plane is much shorter, with much less to organise. It was also quite the little treat to think about when the quilt show was getting me down. 

I went from Auckland to Hamilton to Tauranga and back; stayed with all my siblings and my dad; caught up with all the nieces and nephews who were in the country at the time; got acquainted with the sole member of the next generation who is now FOUR and very grownup and had lots of chats with family and friends.  

Dad's garden is looking lovely - this is an amazing rose - including the vegetables. I ate some very delicious sugar snap peas, beans, rhubarb and strawberries ... inspiration for us putting our proper vegie beds in some time next year. I tried to be helpful by cleaning out the pantry but failed to get rid of the pantry moths - we can't figure out where they are coming in from, they're not in any of the food. 

The weather was mostly gorgeous and I went for some lovely walks. My hometown is both much much bigger than when I lived there but also seems much smaller than when I was a kid ... a universal feeling I think. We went over to the main ocean beach for a drive but I wasn't tempted to swim - it was windy and cold! Just a few brave tourists (I'm guessing Europeans). I wouldn't move back but it is very very beautiful.

The drizzling of the quilts

Last weekend was the big quilt show - where the highlight is all the quilts flying from the old buildings and cute Victorian iron balconies. Except it - finally - rained all weekend. Just the kind of mizzling rain to make things miserable.

Nevertheless, the indoor quilt show went ahead, and we had a lot of people through. The outdoor quilts were hanging in the various churches, who also had their own quilt shows, and the quilt shop had something else going on and even the library had a book launch of a romance that, somehow, involved quilts. I think, I didn't go, I was too busy taking entry fees and doing coffee runs for the ladies. They also launched an old Dodge that had been restored - I think there is some history with the town but it was too damp to care much.

It all went well but it will probably be the last one this group organises - it's just too much physical labour. And mental labour, although there is probably a more efficient way to run things. I helped with the judging (turning the quilts over, not the actual judging) which was quite fun, although it's not like judging a 100m sprint. It's not exactly a quantitative process. 

This was my view most of the weekend. Very pretty. Overall no quilts were lost or destroyed and some money was made, so two thumbs up. 

Getting more summery ... slowly

We are happily noticing every part of the changing of the seasons. It's a very immediate experience when you're out in it every day. It's definitely getting warmer but not quite full summer - we had the fire on the night before last, it was freezing - but I'm in shorts today. 

We haven't had much rain so the grass is getting a bit crunchy and I've had the hose on the roses. There's no watering system here and it's something we might consider ... we have a bore so there's not the guilt that would come with using town water (or the panic of relying on tank water). One of our many longer term plans.

The roses are in full glory. If only it wasn't so windy! It has been a really unusual amount of wind and even our sheltered hollow isn't enough to stop rose branches snapping off. I've staked up a few of them but you can't do every branch on 104 bushes; every time I do a walk around there's another bit of damage. 

This aren't our roses but a garden we visited with the gardening club last week. We went to four gardens in the new subdivision in town which was really fascinating. They are all about five years old and it was interesting to see what they'd done with a blank slate. All keen gardeners of course and happy to share their knowledge. We got some good tips (and in fact Brad swapped phone numbers, went back on Saturday and got a bucket of cuttings, along with more good advice).

A friend came out on Monday and took this photo of us - woolly jumpers! That was a very cold day. Yesterday was much nicer when three friends took the day off work and came for lunch. It was lovely. This afternoon we got hot and sweaty cleaning down the quilt stands in the shed at the back of the hall (where they had been since last year, the shed is not weather tight and is filthy). 

Yes Dad, I am entering some quilts, for what it's worth. They are not really "show" quilts but I think it's good for visitors to see quilting can be done by anybody, regardless of skills and/or patience. We spent Saturday pinning on labels and matching them to the entry list, and yesterday pinning on little sandbags for the ones that are going to be hung outside off the buildings. I hope it doesn't rain...

And in even better news we have finally exchanged contracts on our house with settlement next month. After nearly a year! We had to drop the price a lot, which is a bit sad because I had already mentally spent the extra money several times over, but there's nothing you can do about it, and clearly it wasn't worth what we hoped. We have done some scrubbing already and a bit more to do but it will be SO GOOD to have that chapter over.

Crafty things

Here's a wrap up of some recent crafty activity. I knitted another pair of socks! These fit much better - I made them a bit smaller and they hold up better after a day's wear. The first ones stretched a bit and ended up enormous. 

The wool is also a bit softer and nicer on the foot. I will make more....

And I finished a little medallion quilt but it was too windy to put it on the clothesline for photos so I just did the kitchen floor. 

I started with that floral print and worked from there. It ended up quite pretty but a bit darker than I thought it would; the print has a lot of navy.

I quilted it in baptist fans - old favourite - and called it "Hiding from the party".

And here is the sofa at the moment - full of quilts for the quilt show next weekend. I am storing them all before the show; most of the quilts are from people out of town so we have a few drop-off places and I've been collecting them or taking delivery before they all go to the hall on Wednesday. Possibly. If all goes according to plan. 

Sketching in groups

One of the things I'm noticing is how different it is to draw in groups, rather than on my own which I've always done up until now. I tend to do things quickly but badly, and being with other people who do things slowly but well has reduced my pace, which is good. It's useful to get other people's feedback and see the way they've tackled a similar scene. It's also a very good vibe, everyone happily doing their own thing together. Sometimes with biscuits, or wine.

I went to urban sketchers on Sunday in Canberra where we went to the Kingston Foreshore, which is a fairly ugly collection of apartment buildings, canals off the lake and restaurants. Lots of lines and people, so I went a bit impressionistic. The bridge at least was curved. And I even went to lunch with them afterwards! Such socialising bravery.

On Saturday I went to drawing group where we did still life. I got out the pastels again - they are fun! mucky but fun - and did a fairly literal rendition of bottles and oranges. 

There were a few arrangements set up and I had some time at the end, so did a quick pastel of another table which had a flower and a coffee pot ... it's meant to be "free" i.e. a bit blurry. 

And at the art classes I finished the sunset which is OK. I don't like the headland but bits of the sea are acceptable. This is a technique where you do an underpainting of pastel then wash it out with a wet brush. The results are kind of similar to a watercolour underpainting but not the same, and you can't do wet into wet or anything like that. Then you go back in with more pastels for detail - you can add lights which is a different way of attacking it - and pastel pencils too. 

It's a fun technique so I used it again for this landscape, which I am much more pleased with. It doesn't look a lot like the reference photo (artistic license!) but I have put it in a cheap frame and it will be hung in the kitchen, where bad art belongs.

Yet more flowers

The garden is looking amazing at the moment with so many flowers out ... we are enjoying seeing what is blooming where, although I don't know if we'll be remembering any of it for next year. I'm attacking a few more beds rather than wait for winter. I know it's not good form to do severe pruning in spring but I know I need to do it while the enthusiasm is there. At least the camellias are meant to be pruned back after flowering. Here is the before.

And the after.

It has made a huge difference to the amount of light that gets into that bedroom! It's east facing but we've never thought of it as particularly sunny. Nor has the cat, but she figured it out pretty quickly. Nearly makes up for the lack of a constant fire (but not quite, she loves the fire).

About a quarter of the roses are blooming with more coming out every day. They are all sorts and shapes and sizes and - generally - pretty healthy. I gave them another fungicide spray because we weren't expecting rain and then it rained for 24 hours, which is typical gardener's luck. 

In the instruction folder for the house there is a collection of rose labels, and we might try and match them up to the plants. I'm not sure how accurate it will be. A rose is a rose is a rose, after all.

And here are the different rhododendrons, to go with the bright pink one that flowered first. The purple is particularly lovely, it's not a colour I associate with rhodos.