perfect autumn weather to celebrate a birthday

A few months ago, I watched an excellent documentary on the ABC (Australia’s national broadcaster) called Making War Horse. I expected it to be about the movie and wondered why it was being broadcast so long after the movie‘s release. But it was the “off-season” (the non-ratings period over Christmas-January: Australia’s summer holidays) so I didn’t think too much about it.

However,  the documentary was about the stage production done by the National Theatre Company (England). I found the documentary fascinating (do watch it if you haven’t seen it – it’s 49 minutes well spent) so when I found out the production was coming to Sydney, I asked WM for tickets for my birthday.

We saw it on Wednesday night – it was breath-taking and deeply-moving. We hardly knew where to look, there was so much going on. At the same time, the puppets are so life-like in their movements that we soon forgot that we were watching puppets. One no longer sees the puppeteers/actors. We have not seen the movie so the story line was new to us; I was so pleased it had a “happy ending” but, even if it hadn’t, the whole production was just brilliant and I’d love to go again before it closes.

We live in the metropolitan area of Sydney but, as part of my birthday treat, we stayed in the hotel in the same complex as the theatre. We had been upgraded to a one-room apartment with views over Darling Harbour (one of the inlets in Sydney Harbour). What a great birthday present.

view seen at 10:30pm

almost the same view in the morning

Yesterday, was a national holiday in Australia. We call it ANZAC Day. It is a day of commemoration of all those who have served our country in war and is held on the date of the landing at Gallipoli (a beach in Turkey) by Australian and New Zealand forces in 1915 as part of the British forces. The Allied forces lost 440,000 lives, of which 8,709 were Australian,  in the ensuing campaign which lasted until 8 January the following year.


The flags on the Harbour Bridge were at half mast until early afternoon.


Because it was a holiday, WM and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and spent most of the day ferry-hopping around our beautiful harbour.


Firstly we took the ferry from Pyrmont Bay to Circular Quay

ferry coming in to Pyrmont Bay Wharf, taken from our hotel room

then hopped on a ferry to Mosman (and return), then the ferry to Balmain where we disembarked and went for a walk for a little over an hour.

Balmain Court House

We then hopped back on the ferry to Cockatoo Island and back to Circular Quay.

After a late lunch/early dinner at City Extra restaurant at Circular Quay, we hopped on the ferry back to Pyrmont Bay, collected our luggage from the hotel concierge, and caught the light rail back to Central and a train back to our home town! We had to wait quite a while for a taxi, a lot of people were returning home from a day of celebrations but we finally arrived home a little after 7:30pm, happy but extremely tired.

Here are some more of the myriad of photos WM took during our day away from home!

the city skyline from our hotel room

old wharves/warehouses transformed into very expensive apartments

the northern approach (road and rail) to the Harbour Bridge

Luna Park occupies some prime real estate on the north side of the harbour

Sydney skyline from the harbour

two icons that probably don't need a caption!

looks like a postcard, doesn't it?

some Sydney Water Police in their new boat

I’m sure it’s true that it’s one of the most beautiful harbours in the world! And we saw just a fraction of it!

a day at the farm

warning: photo heavy post!

In my previous post, I mentioned that we recently spent part of a day at Calmsley Hill City Farm. It was fun watching not only the farming activities, but the different reactions of members of my family.

Here is a selection of photos of our day out, mostly taken by WM.

Older Grandson's first feeding experience

This is fun!

Younger Grandson's not so sure!

Perhaps some petting is okay?

Look at me! I'm a farm boy!

I'm not touching that!

DD in her element (as a young teenager she did dressage and show jumping)

working dog demonstration

Older Grandson learns to crack a whip

This is fun; I don't want to stop!

Younger Grandson tries more sedate pursuits

Older Grandson helps the paramedics

life doesn’t always go according to plan

Here we are, twelve days into January and things have not exactly been going to plan.

I decided to run my Linky party on the first Thursday of the month which was 3 January. I thought I'd have plenty of time to organise it because mum, who arrived on 27 December, was going home on 2 January, and my sister and nephew weren't arriving until 4 January. That gave me all day on 3 January to write the post and set up the Linky!

But....

Older Grandson wouldn't milk the cow but was happy to brush her

We visited Calmsley Hill City Farm on Sunday 30 December. Mum was helping WM carry the picnic lunch up from the car and therefore had her arms full and couldn’t see the ground immediately beneath her feet. She fell heavily on some uneven paving and twisted her ankle. We spent most of the afternoon in the emergency room after an ambulance took her from the farm.

Mum's okay now but she ended up staying here until 5 January when the doctor said she would be fit to travel. As you know, I managed to get my post written so everything worked out okay.

Then ....

While my guests were here, I decided it was time to finish the Sideways Striped Baby Jumper that I had started in November 2011. All it needed was a collar knitted on and the seams sewn up -- one evening's work (or so I thought)!

But ...

Knitting the collar wasn't as easy as I thought and after four attempts over two days to get the collar right, I gave up! In the end I frogged it because the head hole seemed too small to go over a baby's head easily. No worries, frogging is a "finish" for that project and the yarn will some day become a cardigan knitted sideways to retain that vertical striping that attracted me to the pattern in the first place.

this used to be a baby sweater

And then...

One of my top priorities for this month was to finish the Hearts and Squares quilt. I had finished all the blocks and just needed to trim the 6.5" four-patch blocks down to the same size as the 6" heart blocks. I hadn't been in my sewing room since well before Christmas but in my head the quilt top looked great!

It took a long time to settle on a layout for the four-patch blocks. I knew the finished layout had to be 9x7, because there is a particular size I have to make for our community quilting group (roughly 56" x 64"). I had a large number of blue blocks, and almost the same number of brown blocks, and a few others in green, red, pink and yellow. I finally came up with a layout that I was happy with and started to add the heart blocks.

But....

The layout was okay but the squares seemed too “hard” for the hearts which cry out for a “softer setting”. It occurred to me that the squares made an attractive layout for a "man quilt" (we have to work harder to make those because of all the floral scraps we are given). But that's okay, I have plenty of fabric (that belongs to Caring Hearts Community Quilters) and I'm not adverse to making two quilts.

The question was which quilt to make first because it's unlikely I'll get two finished this month (given the goals I've set for myself and the time remaining). I settled on the four-patch blocks; after all, the layout is already on my design wall.

Then the question became: what blocks to make to enhance the four patch blocks? I don't have enough of any one fabric to use plain 6.5" squares nor do I have the quilting skills to make a 6" block look interesting!

I settled on square on square blocks, the central square being the same size as one quarter of the four patch (that is three inches finished) with a light neutral border around it to make it up to the correct size.You might not have noticed, but I've made further changes to the layout of the four patch blocks.

I must make up my mind which way those four patch go!

So despite the fact that yesterday was forecast to be 41°C (106°F), I took myself to the garage to find some suitable fabric and then to my sewing room to re-introduce myself to my rotary cutter and sewing machine! I think it actually got to 37°C (98.6°F) but the air-conditioned kept things at a comfortable 24°C (75°F). I got slightly more than half the blocks made, pressed and trimmed.

I think it’s shaping up to be a good unisex quilt, don't you?

How are your plans for January shaping up?

day out

Yesterday I Had a lovely day out with my DD. We met at Strathfield station in the mid-morning and caught a train to Newtown for a day of culture and fun [and a little shopping].

At Newtown station we turned left into King Street and walked for what seemed like miles [but was probably a kilometre] before crossing over and walking back up the other side of the road. We had looked in the windows of a few shops but our first real stop was The Fiji Market [591 King St] which we had first visited on a Gourmet Safari tour. We loved the smell of the Indian spices and the feel and colour of the silk in the saris. But, pretty soon, all the aromas became overpowering to The Pregnant One and it was time to move on.

And so continued our slow ramble up King Street before a stop for lunch at Arabella Lebanese restaurant. The food [hommous, tabouli, fatoush and majadra] was some of the best Lebanese we've ever tasted and the serving sizes were more than adequate! We had to wonder why we were the only ones in the restaurant at lunch time!

Then came a visit to an ever-interesting shop: All Buttons Great and Small. We spent ages inside, ooh-ing and ah-ing over the cuteness/beauty/wonder of the buttons before continuing our ramble northwards, in and out of boutiques, second hand clothes shops, and shops selling artifacts from all over the world. After a long walk for The Pregnant One [henceforth known as TPO] we finally arrived at 47 King St - the supposed highlight of my day! Can anyone tell me what happened to Champion Textiles? Have they moved or gone for good? How disappointing, especially for TPO. It was a long walk in the spring sunshine with a full belly from that delicious lunch [at 489 King St]. And it seemed, for her, a long walk back to the station.

The day drew to a close with a cool drink at the Bank Hotel conveniently located quite near the station [our ultimate destination] and some comfortable lounge chairs a mere ice-throw from the ladies' conveniences! For non-drinkers, I don't think we've ever visited so many pubs [well, the ladies' rooms anyway!] in one day - luckily, pubs are abundant in King St.

We had visited Fiji, India, USA, UK, Africa, Lebanon, Himalayas, Turkey, Afghanistan, Thailand, China and Japan during our travels and never left King St! What a fabulous place - I encourage everyone who visits Sysney and is interested in cultures from around the world to visit Newtown at least once. And spending the day with my DD was the best treat of all!

But what happened to Champion Textiles?