CATCHING UP, AGAIN, (this time with capital letters)

 Once again I have found out that "some" have been too polite to ask straight out when another blog post would be coming. Here I am AGAIN, playing catch up. So while I sort out photos, and think about where the first part of 2021 has gone, I also need to try and work out a title for this post, that doesn't say "catching up, again"!

I can't believe we are heading to the middle of March so soon. I know that the city people call it "Mad March" because there are so many events on in Adelaide for March, so perhaps I can nearly use the same label, although in reality it has been Mad January, February and now March. (Actually it goes back to part of last year as well!) Now to try and explain the reason for my absence and long gaps between newsfromjude. (At this rate I could almost fit a whole year of posts in one blog book, instead of the current one every 6 months book!)

Looking back I can see a few reasons for being so busy recently.

GARDENING

After lamenting a few months ago about the mess outside, I have been trying to get it to where it looked like someone lived here. I remember one reader said to take it a little bit at a time, and that is what I did.

There was a lot of renovating in various places, and lots of garden rubbish that was carted away, and then planting. At the moment I am pretty happy with how my garden looks, and have been taking quite a few photos. The weather has been very kind this summer, with only an occasional day of heat. Perhaps I shouldn't speak too soon, as autumn has been known to throw some heat our way. I won't post photos yet, and will devote a whole post soon to this subject, as I saw a few pics of the garden in years gone by, and need to find them again to show as a comparison. Stay tuned.

FAMILY OCCASIONS

Under this heading there have been birthdays, a funeral and visiting that have involved highway travel. Most of these have been blogged about. It was a holiday weekend here in South Australia last weekend and my Mr "almost 11 years" old grandson came to spend some time with his Grandma. 

We did the tourist thing and visited local places and each time I made him stand beside the sign. 

Bordertown is famous for it's white kangaroos which feature in the local wildlife park.

Next stop was the Lake, which is man made and not natural. When the highway was diverted around the centre of town, they had to build an overpass over the railway line and dug all the soil from this area. Later it was filled with water and made into a lovely area with lawns, a jetty and even stocked with fish.

He told me he liked old things, so I thought a visit to the local heritage museum would be interesting. The only problem was that this was a day that it was closed! But we took the photo anyway. Maybe another day I'll get it right, as this is a place I have not visited either.

Next stop was to Poocher swamp which fills with water in the winter, until it drains into the underground water system.

The tourist drive ended up at the Buckingham church which he thought was a very cute little building, and he couldn't imagine the days when this was also used as a school.

We enjoyed a brekkie of bacon and eggs one morning and then yummy pancakes on another day.

We did some work in the backyard that is needed since the recent trees removal. We watched some DVD's and "veged" out with feet up in the lounge. 

More time was spent at the computer and I made a file of photos going back over the almost 11 years of his life. I printed 98 of these and put them into an album for him to take home. It was good looking back and seeing how he has grown, especially as he was a prem baby and hooked to an oxygen tube for the first year or so of his life.

While I am on the subject of family, I will add this photo of Miss Billie cutting her birthday cake last week. While I was not actually there in person, it was special to be able to talk to her on Messenger and watch her open the birthday present that I had sent in the post. And I think DD3 is pretty clever making this birthday cake.

HOUSE CLEANING

A LOT of my time has been spent cleaning. And I mean a DEEP clean, attacking the spiders, the dust and all the windows in my house have been done in the last month. I guess I have let this task get away from me (does that sound like the garden??). Perhaps I shall blame Covid and Isolation as the motivation is not quite there when nobody was visiting and I don't go into the "other" part of the house when I am here on my own. I took some photos of the spiders that I attacked and thought about posting them, but friends said what happens in the house should stay there. Another excuse is that it is hard to move some of the furniture without emptying the shelves and drawers and so is not done often!!?? And those shelves and drawers had "stuff" stacked up on top of it, to such an extent that one friend, who shall remain nameless, told me that she never realised that there was a window behind it all!!??

Just so that there is a photo for this section I shall post the one of a clean window that is at the other end of the room? I don't often open the curtains here, but have been enjoying the view to the pergola garden which is also tidy at the moment. 

Who knew how good the feeling is when the house and garden are all "up to scratch?" And it's not even spring!! Note to self - make sure you keep it all "up to scratch" now.

TREE REMOVAL

Back in January I posted photos of the tree that fell down across the road in my back yard and exposed the mess to all. I can now say that the rest of the tree has been taken down and also another couple in the yard, the stumps have been mulched, the rubbish has been carted away, and the fence replaced. 

This is the tree across the road the day it fell, well only part of the tree came down.

The view from inside the yard, showing all the rubbish that had been sitting there waiting to be taken to the dump.

                                                           My squashed up fence!

And showing the rest of the tree that needed to come down. The one on the right has stayed, apparently not likely to fall down I am told.

Sometime later the Tree man came back with the cherry picker to cut it all down.

While they were here I asked them to remove a couple of trees on the other side of the yard. One had fallen a few years ago and was now covered in ivy from the neighbours yard and the other was some sort of "pretty" tree with itchy pods.

Now the rubbish had been removed and the yard cleared, except for the removal of the stumps.

Behind those other trees we found the remains of the builders rubbish, thrown behind when the house was built. Quite a few bricks that may become a garden edge one day?

              And lots of sticks and bark that will be good for lighting the fire in winter.

The stump muncher arrived and did it's job.

The fence was replaced and you would never know it was different.

An empty back yard, and all this space, what shall I do with it??

Now I have a view of the neighbours LARGE tree, and do hope it is not the sort to drop it's branches!

I shall just keep the space maintained and tidy for now, and perhaps try my hand at another vegetable garden next year???

25 YEAR HISTORY

As of today I have finished my part of writing the history of our Patchwork group. It is 85 pages long and documents all of our activities for the last 25 years. It has been quite a journey going back through the minutes and photo albums, although quite time consuming. We will be having some celebrations as the year progresses and I am sure you will hear about them. I think I feel a bit like I have been let out of school now that this is done!

VERY LITTLE QUILTING

Because of all of the above, and a bit more that I haven't reported on, yet, there has not been much customer quilting happening. I do hope to catch up again very soon though. And there has been absolutely zero stitching happening either, and I feel like I need a piecing fix. It is always good therapy. 

Another thing to fall by the wayside, that I have missed is blog reading and I am hoping to catch up on the lives of blog friends real soon. And with all that is going on, who has time to work anyway?

SOCIAL OCCASIONS

These have been scarce, but it was lovely to catch up with friends over the last few months.....

a birthday cuppa with friends...............

                             ........another to celebrate the special milestone birthday of the fella in the middle of this photo at the Mundulla Hotel..............(do we say he is the rose amongst the thorns, or the thorn amongst the roses??)

............and I enjoyed the visit of some friends who have not been able to catch 

up with each other for the last year..............

..............and celebrated the birthday of one while she was here.

There was another visit that I can't talk about yet, but it has been very special to have people staying again, and made me realise  how much I have missed this for the past year. It has been 12 months since the last retreat was held here just before the borders of our states shut. 

Well, that's enough newsfromjude for now, as I have to attend a meeting and it's time to get ready. 

Catch ya next time.

Blessings,

From Jude