Weekly stills....

weekly stills: last ones for 2013, I have been a late comer to this meme, and quite sporadic, but thanks to Em for hosting over at The Beetle Shack, it's been fun putting together a few pics from my week.........

1. My new lights for our bed, soooo happy with these.....

2. Through the trees at Noosa, I have lots of holiday snaps to bore you with after Christmas, something for you all to look forward to! ( Tongue firmly in cheek!)

3. We went down lots of beach tracks....

4. And there was plenty of this, space, blue skies, and beautiful beaches, and some heat!

5. These beauties were waiting at home for me when we got home, all from the garden too!

6. Amazing sky last night.....

Catching up....

Outside the Dargo town hall

Hello!

I have a bit of catching up to do today, this week has been busy, busy, busy!  

Firstly, thank you for the lovely response to my colourful washcloths, so many kind comments! I will get onto a spotty pattern post very soon! 

It has been holidays all round at our place this week, the boys are home from school and Gary has been on holidays too, so normal routines have flown out the window!  We decided to take a day trip up to the hills to visit an old abandoned gold mining town called Grant, where Gary's ancestors originally settled when they came to Australia.  It was a very, very long drive and we happened to choose the day when the weather went mental, storms, winds at gale force and a real cold snap.  

We found the boys great-great-great-grandfather's grave in the cemetery which was quite an historic moment!  The bush has certainly reclaimed this place, the graves were the only real sign of civilisation left.  It is hard to imagine that a little over 120 years ago there were around 2000 people living up here working the gold mines and creating a community.  The town was abandoned when the gold ran out and all the people left for fairer pastures.  I don't blame them, it was certainly a very remote place to get to and I felt very isolated.  

 We did a bit of fossicking around and I added the little bits of broken crockery that I found to a collection that other people had left on a rock.  It was very cold up there, we even had snow for about ten minutes! It melted very quickly, but I can imagine in the middle of winter it would have been freezing!  I can't help but think that the people of earlier generations must have been tough, this place was hours from the nearest big town, built on the side of a mountain, very limited access and must have been very isolated, and yet they established lives, families and businesses here in the bush. Pretty amazing!  The lure of gold must have been very strong! Apparently our ancestor owned the general store and kept the records of births, deaths and marriages for the area.   His store was moved from the town of Grant (the abandoned town) to Dargo in the 1920's, we tried to pick it out when we drove back, but we weren't sure which house it was ( all the buildings in Dargo seemed very old!).

All in all, it was a good day for family bonding and Gary was pleased to show the boys a bit of their heritage.  It was a scary drive home though, lots of tree branches across the roads, and the wind pushing the car around a bit, I was happy to get home! 

I did manage to get a lot of crochet time on the drive I was trying to distract myself from the crazy conditions outside!  I did get a bit cranky though, the crochet hook kept slipping down the side of the seats and I'd be looking for it for ages, getting more and more frustrated!!

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......Look what was waiting for me when I got home, my new postcards for my yarn shop!  I am really happy with how they turned out, nice and bright and colourful, now I can send my customers a colourful little message with their order.  I used Moo printing online for these cards and I found it an easy process, I would recommend them, even if they are on the other side of the world!  I guess we really are a global village these days. :)

.....And look, my poppies are out! I had to pick a bunch when I heard it was going to be windy, it's a shame for them to be blown to pieces. 

.....Earlier in the week we had family lunch with my parents and sisters and their families, it was a very pleasant day, nice and warm and we could sit outside and have couple of bevvies!  The kids had fun with their cousins, and my city nephew really enjoyed playing with the chooks!

......And I had to pop a picture of the cat, he loves to relax amongst my crochet, and likes having his photo taken!

I think that is enough for today, well done if you stuck with me to the end! 

Are you on school holidays too?

Are you doing anything fun for the weekend?

Talk soon, have a lovely day!

Holiday ramble

Hello, how are you all today?  We are onto the last day of the school holidays here, the time with the boys at home always seems to fly, even when we are doing nothing much.

It has been lovely and sunny and clear the past week ( but very cold!) so my friend and I took our boys for a bit of a walk at the Cape Schanck National Park.  There are lots of different walks you can do from the carpark, but the kids wanted to do the Pebbley beach one which takes you down a long boardwalk of stairs and ends up down on the beach at the point.  We have done this walk before and it is fun and not too long.

........this is looking to the right of the point and starting down the stairs.....

....then the path turns and and you head down the left side of the ridge.......

....and you end up on this stoney beach.......

....the boys had fun doing a bit of rock climbing, and we went for a bit of a clamber around the cliff bases checking out the rock pools and jumping from boulder to boulder, it is a great area to explore.....

....more rock climbing......

.....I don't know how they managed to get up there!  Adventurous boys!  It made me realise how safe our everyday lives have become, I was having a quiet freak out seeing them so high up on the rocks, but I tried to let them have their fun without too much interference from me, I think it is good for boys to learn how to take risks within reason, ( although I couldn't help myself telling them the consequences of slipping would not be good!  I got the ' Don't worry mum we'll be careful' line in return)

 It was a really pleasant way to spend a couple of hours, and the boys enjoyed the bit of extra freedom, even if I had to bribe them to come with fish and chips for lunch!  This area is really spectacular and rugged, you can see right around the coast line, it was good to visit mud week, as the weekends can get very crowded and there is not the same sense of peace and islotaion.  I think we might do a longer walk next time and visit some of the other secluded beaches along the coast.

.....in other news, we had a new little character join our family last week end, this is Attila the Kitten! 

(Andre named him)  We promised Andre that he could get a kitten for his birthday, so it was time to make good the promise.  I have to say, I didn't think I was a cat person, (they used to give me hay fever so I'd steer clear of cats), but this little guy is very cute!  He has a real personality, and does lots of funny things that keep us amused, I think I might be converting!  The boys love him already, Andre especially.

We got him from the RSPCA centre in Pearcedale, so it feels good that we can give him a home, otherwise his future might not have been so clear.  He seems to really like people and likes sitting with the boys on the couch and fighting with my scrap box of wool, many hours of entertainment to be found with a box of wool!

So what have you been up to this week? 

Getting any crafty action?  I've been doing a bit of crochet, but I haven't taken pictures yet, so I'll show you all next time.

Have a great day!

xxxxxxx

Summer days....

Hello.

So, what's been happening at your place?

We have been enjoying some lovely warm days and evenings here, and making the most of the late sunsets.  I hear it is freezing in the Northern Hemisphere, very hard to imagine with the heat we are having, I hope everyone is staying warm and dry!

Max got a new game for Christmas called Finska, it is a Scandinavian game I think, a bit like bowls and bocci, you play it outside and lots of people can play, and you can pick up the rules in about 2 minutes. It is easy, fun and good for all ages

I was looking for something a bit old school for Max, as we have a very techno focused house and the boys spend a lot of time playing Xbox and the like, so this game was something a bit different.

I have to say it has been a big hit!  We have been having games of Finska after dinner, and it has been a great family time.  The game is surprisingly compelling, easy to play, yet taking some skill to be good at, so it is feeding our competitive spirits, and the boys are getting into the challenge. ( So am I, my boys have to play well to beat me, I am discovering that I am quite competitive!! lol)  We have also taken it to the park and played it with friends in teams, which was fun too.

Have you heard of this game? I always like it when I find something new to me that is a hit in our house, often Christmas presents are 5 minute wonders.

...the chickens like that we are outside in the evenings at the moment, they have found a new spot to keep an eye on the action.  (and just to prove that I 'keep it real' on this blog, check out the amount of crap we have in this part of the garden, it's my 'dump everything that I don't want to look at' area.  Must clean it up one day!)

The Summer holidays are nearly over (sob), the boys are starting school next Wednesday, so things will be back to a routine, so I am trying to soak up the last few days of non-routine, I really like no routine!

We are spending a lot of time at the beach and my parents place ( who have a pool that is lovely on windy days), so plenty of reading and relaxing going on, not so much crochet and crafting.  I am trying to write down ideas for things I want to make this year, to get more organised and be more productive and less procrastinate-y.  I'll see how well that works out for me!

Hope you are enjoying the last days of school holidays if you're in Australia and have school age kids!

If you live somewhere else, I hope life is just as good for you too!  :)

Talk soon, see you later!

PS.  Happy Australia Day for tomorrow!