An Autumn Week

 It has been rather a quiet week this week, sorted a ton of paperwork, which then I burnt in the fire. How I love sitting by it, the kettle usually simmering on top, I am  so enjoying the cold spell we are having. 

 John has slowly each day done some more pressure cleaning and it is such a great improvement from before.

Attacking the back veg. garden.

 

Gives you an idea of before.

Steps down by the first hedge.

I finished and dressed two mice, which I forgot to take a  finished photo of,  for the CWA craft room along with some other dolls, which I put on consignment so hope it will be an outlet for selling as I love making them, but can't keep doing it or I will end up with way too many.
 

 

Last of his kind can't get fur fabric anymore.

Now at the CWA

My obsession with the African Violets I spoke about last week, now equals 4 plants. The purple leaves I propagated in water, and once they rooted, transplanted them, and they are doing well. Now I am propagating two white flower leaves and the roots on them have grown, just need to put them in soil and keep damp for a week or so while they take off. 

White ones now ready to plant.

3 purple ones now.

The trouble is I got these from my Embroidery Leader and can't buy any, anywhere so if you have some spare leaves do let me know. 

Breaking down the Mother's Day Flowers

While I was at it my Mother's Day flowers were 10 days old, so  I pulled it all apart, re cut the stems and distributed them around the house. I took some cuttings of the chrysanthemum, but not sure they will work at all, even though you can also root these in water as well. 

I am in a declutter mode and as I tend to spread myself around from room to room, taken to collecting everything in site and then sorting. Sometimes it looks like I oversorted or overcollected with bits in a circle around me but it is working. The dining room table is full of stuff to sell, with more adding, so fingers cross that actually happens. 

I spent a lovely afternoon going through all my embroidery books looking for a wool blanket project, as I have  many blank knee blankets ready to do. This is because of the days working at Spotlight, with bargains. In June our group is starting on wool embroidery. This  month has been Brazilian embroidery work.

Next week we are off to Port Macquarie  for 2 nights for John's eye operation.

Till Next Time 

 

Mother's Day 2020

Happy Mother's Day to all the mums who read this. Hope despite the current problems that you manage to have a special day. John made me a breakfast tray and included some Ferrero Rocher chocolates.
I heard from No.2 son, and our youngest daughter in America sent me a Bunnings Voucher, she knows me well,  but as yet I haven't heard from any of the other 3 kids, but it is only mid morning and no doubt busy. We can not visit mum in the nursing home of course, and the rule now is to have a flu injection before we are allowed in, when it is open that is. I have not had one since 1970 when I got very, very sick after it as a young girl with my first job, it was given to all of us at work, and I am undecided at what to do.

Queen Elizabeth Roses from the Garden.

 It has been a difficult week with my back, I am trying not to take too many tablets and the tens machine and hot water bottles have been great. My right hip is now down to a constant ache and have done a little bit of gardening  and picked some roses as sitting in the sun has been lovely. I have to sit now as if I get down on my knees, can not get up anymore. I was hoping the infusions I get would fix that but still feeling the arthritis too much. We shall see what my specialist says in July.

Coleous overtaking the rose, one of them needs relocating.

John went to Bunnings so I asked for some Parsley and Rhubarb, the Parsley died and so did my wonderful front garden Rhubarb both rotted out at the base, and were close to each other. The trouble is you buy these in punnets of 6 and who needs 6 parsley plants, even that many rhubarb is a bit over the top. Although rhubarb I can give away so will plant them all. Parsley though will pot up spares and see who wants them.

The pumpkins are still not ready to pick, I am waiting for the stem to die back but they are really yellow now, also have two other Jap pumpkins growing.

I planted some Stocks in the front corner and John cleared the Elderberry out also as the suckers went all over the area. I would like to plant the yellow frangipani there but the other has gotten quite big so not sure about that either.

No more Elderberry

Cleared weeds and old plants, bulbs coming up and planted Stocks.

Basically though I have just been sitting and making my dolls, really need to move faster with them, doing a bit of quilting, and listening to the audio books. Not a lot of housework either, everything just seems too hard at the moment.

Not finished need to add ribons in hair and shoes.

Till Next Time Stay Safe.

Tomatoes, Tomatoes,Tomatoes

Only a short blog this week as it has been such a hot week that I have stayed in our  air conditioned lounge room for most of the time. Good news is I am feeling much better and finally given up the prednisone tablets, which was a real worry for me. Slowly I am getting some energy back as well, although being careful not to go mad and do too much.  The methotrexate is finally starting to work thank goodness.

My Little Nest Area

I have been working on the dolls, mostly, but also the tomatoes have been picked, and one bed cleaned. Soon it will be time to think about cabbages again, in fact I could plant them now, well seeds anyway, but with water restrictions might hold out till February.

Left two tomatoes that started to sprout again and cut the rest back. Basil is very healthy.

These  two areas  also need cleaning up.

 

So this week I had better sort out the tomatoes, trouble is I have enough puree, bruschetta, relish, and frozen and I don't need sauce.

Still in the fridge

Picked yesterday

Bought home by John  from the community garden today.

At this stage I am thinking of blitzing 2/3rds of them, adding citric acid, and boiling the mixture down a bit, to thicken. Then bottling it in my small jars seeds and all. This I can then use for anything that requires a tin of tomatoes so to speak.

Have to laugh at the potatoes, John has been bringing this amount home weekly so I haven't dug all of mine up, I have a feeling some have sprouted again. Never before have I had so many potatoes.

Other than visiting mum every week, I haven't left the house for anything else, since Christmas, so today we went and saw Jumanji at the local theatre as they had a special of $9 on the tickets. Really enjoyed it. There was a hint in the credits with a trailer that there will be a No.4 as well, which is something to look forward to.

My sister found out there is an Embroidery Expo in Brisbane next month so we have lined ourselves up to go. If anyone is interested this is the web site.

https://www.embroideryconvention.com.au/


So that's it, for now.  Till Next Time

A Slow Week

It has been a bit of a struggle this week to find the energy to do anything. I cannot decide if it is my health or just the weather or a bit of both. It is still taking a couple of hours first thing to move around and my kness are still painful. Will be interesting to see what my blood results will produce in 2 weeks. What a worry all these fires have been as well. My Brother in Law  and wife are still hovering in Bega and thinks his house is ok in Quaama  NSW as the fire came up to the walls,  but definitely knows he has lost a 2nd car, caravan, trailer and all the land on his large block. Hopefully this coming week they will be allowed back in. Luckily there has been a cool change, that has calmed things down a bit, but NSW and Vic are still in a lot of strife.

This lack of energy and going to our TV room where there is air conditioning has given me a good chance to work on the dolls for the shop. I finished one and really pleased with it.

It has taken a while with embroidering the face and getting to know this pattern with not much time over Christmas/New Year, but finally getting to spend every day doing a little bit.

Over the past 4 months I have been trying out a lot of different body patterns, the heads are the hardest to make a doll cute and saleable, but slowly getting to what I like. I am adding ears and a bit of sculpturing to this particular pattern.

I like using the embroidered eye system so will try doing this on different shaped heads on different bodies I have experimented with, and see how that goes.

One of several experimental bodies.

 The smoke is again over the garden today and we are now only watering on odd number days. We are picking approximately 12 tomatoes every 2nd. day to the point I think I  had better do something with them but can't think what. We have enough puree,relish and bottled ones now from last year. Also the chilli plant which is only small has been producing well. They are really hot too, and I think John will make some sweet chilli sauce with them, hopefully a tomato one lol. Anything hot or super vinegar pickles is his domain as I don't eat it. 

I really don't enjoy this time of year the heat and humidity gets to me, especially now while I get control of RA. When I get enough energy, the tomato plants can come out. Once the temperature gets to over 30 they don't produce any as too hot. I could still put in some young ones just to grow but will wait till February for that, which is also the time to think about cabbages, more carrots, lettuce, bok choy. The potatoes aren't all dug up yet as they stay fresher in the ground till we need them.

I also have a long list of projects to do from decluttering, clothes,books,objects to big renovation projects, but it is all too hard at the moment. 

Mum had another fall this week, and I think both my sister and I are just waiting for her to go. We visit every week, but she is getting weaker and weaker and needs help just to stand up to hold her walker, then she is off constantly going round and round the halls. Her eyes though show nothing.

Prayers go out to all those who need it in these fires.

Till Next time.