One Sheep, Two Sheep

It's just soooo wonderful to be on holidays at last!  After those couple of days in Crows Nest visiting the Gardens in Toowoomba, we unpacked and repacked the car to head off down to Vic .....
Back on the road again!  It was Sunday and we seemed to catch every wide load that was on the Newell!  This particular one we ended up having to stick behind for 20kms of road work - I guess we were lucky in a way as you should have seen the huge line of traffic that was sitting on the side of the road after the works, waiting for this wide load to come through!!

We are on our way to Melbourne for Daughters 30th!  However, first we had a planned stop in with friends in Boorhaman for a few days where we used to live (its also quite close to Bundalong where we moved from).  A few days spent in the country with friends is just what the Doctor ordered!! 

 Our second day was spent with some woolly therapy of  a different style ........  moving and  drafting sheep. 

Keeping them from running through the cross roads in the wrong direct

Pat and Judy had over a thousand sheep that needed sorting and putting through a foot bath so we had a great day out on the roads and in the sheep yards!


 I found it very therapeutic working with the sheep - they don't complain like people do!

Pete up the other end

We had a fabulous few days with our friends and caught up with quite a few others while we were there,  and unfortunately the time just went way too quickly!  Judy and I have missed out times sitting together chatting and knitting, but we sure did try to make up for lost time while we were there lol!  I have no doubt we will be back down for another holiday before too long! 

I love this photo of Judy looking rather amused that during the busy bits of moving sheep, I was busy taking photos as well lol!

For now, its time to hit the road again and travel down the rest of the way to Melbourne where we will catch up with family and other friends ....... See you soon!

Hugs Sharm

PS:  Thanks to those who checked out the comments problem for me, it seems to fine from this end! 

Whats THis???

One of my lovely blogger friends tried to leave a comment on my last post but was redirected to a "sordid" site rather than the comments window.  She emailed me privately to let me know - I have checked the HTTPS setting is already on which should avoid this and when I clicked on the comments I had no issues??  Can anyone give me any extra info on this??  My email is sharmshere@yahoo.com  ........ perhaps if I change my email account with my blog I wonder if that might work???

Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers

Is it seriously this long since I've posted here on my blog!!!  It's certainly been a year of change for us and I've really felt the difference working full time and having Pete retired with how much (or how little) I seem to achieve now on my days off work!!  Anyhow, lets hope now that i'm getting used to my new laptop that I can actually work on a few more frequent posts!  I am pleased to say that I have appeared to have worked out how to download the photos off my phone and ipad without it taking forever!!   Technically challenged!!  Anyway, I'm currently on holidays ....Yipee!!! 








 The very first day of my holidays we took off with the

neighbors to stay at Crows Nest so the men could go fishing at Cressbrook Dam, whilst Martine and I headed to Toowoomba for the the Carnival of Flowers!!  I have to say after wanting to visit this for a number of years, I was not disappointed.  It was wonderful. We spent the whole day looking at a few of the private gardens that were open and also a visit to Picnic Point and Laurel Bank Gardens - Laurel Bank is a must for anyone planning a future trip here!  So onwards with the flowers .....

Thanks Lyn

This morning we had a lovely surprise when our friends Lyn and Rob popped in on their way back home to home on the Qld/NSW border where they are having such a drastic time waiting for much needed rain! Lyn is a dear friend I "met" through pen-palling many years ago.   It was such a delight to have them drop in for a quick cuppa and very quick catch up. 
 I'm sure we could have chatted for hours, but with a 6hr drive ahead of them, that just wasn't possible ....... it did however give me the nudge I've needed to get back to my blog which has been neglected since my working life has increased to  what is currently full time! 

Sunrise on the Mary River - View from the end of our street

 Well, that, working out my new laptop and dealing with some chronic lower back pain that has had me feeling more like I'm about 90!  HOpefully that situation may be finally improving after 3 months of it!!! I'm pleased to say I'm back to walking again (when I get the chance to fit it in - usually early morning or on the weekend before the day really gets going). Daily stretching has been introduced to my morning ritual and I've also been using essential oils much more ...... I have a roller bottle made up with a carrier oil together with Lemongrass (an anti inflammatory), frankincense, Lavender and Copiba. (Just

using Lemongrass and a couple of drops of Lavender in carrier oil sometimes).
  I've also been adding Magnesium to the morning vitamins and found a wonderful lotion in the supermarket .... Magnesium and Anica!!! Wonderful stuff!!!  Of course, it probably hasn't helped that I've spent most of Winter here trying to get on top of my new garden beds..... but they are beginning to take shape and come Spring they should have lots more colour!  I thought you might like to see a bit of the garden and how it's developing .........

 Given there were no flower beds here a year ago, I'm pretty happy with them!  Not much in the way of finished projects happening right now although I have been working on another knitted top which I hope to get completed this week if all goes well ..... I'll show it to you then!

Pete has redone the roof over the deck, this time doing a complete cover which gives us a rainproof area underneath as well!  Nice job Pete!

And with that, I'll say goodnight and hopefullly it won't be soo long before I get another post up again!.  
Hugs to all
Sharm

Woolly Weekend

Saturday was Winter Solstice otherwise known as the shortest day of the year! In Brisbane that means

 a difference of around 3.5 hrs daylight from the shortest to the longest day and further south in Melbourne it accounts for a difference of around 6.3hrs!  It also means that as from today (Sunday) the days will very slowly begin to increase and point us towards Summer ....... but for now, and the next couple of months we still have Winter ....... so I'm taking advantage and knitting with my scrummy warm wool I have here in stash! 

 Joining in with FNWF, I worked on my Sirracco ..... this is worked on the side and I'm now past the halfway mark with part of the back done and another arm seam to go and then the edges to put it all together.

But I found we had some extra cooler mornings with some of those cold winds and figured I could use a cowl when walking to and from work ........ I decided on Valkyrie Cowl by Laura Aylor (Fogbound Knits) and I wanted to use this lovely soft worsted weight Tundra but there won't be quite enough of it .......... The Slate Luxury left over from the crocheted blanket I finished a couple of weeks back seems to be a close match

so I'll do a little bit of striping with them both ........ it seems to be working well so far - hard to believe it was such a close match.  The Tundra is just a delight to knit with and I can't wait to be able to wear it! I managed to get into the cables section and had planned to keep doing that while watching some TV, but I wasn't too good at being able to keep track of the cables and the show so I didn't get as much done as I had planned
Yesterday as Pete was going around the yard he came across a fruit bat (still alive) but obviously got lost or was unwell ...... they carry disease so we didn't tend to play with it!



The garden is beginning to flourish and I was surprised to find that one of our summer glady's decided to flower ........ this is our favorite one - I dug it up before we left Bundalong and I'm pleased to see it has flowered here in the garden.

A couple of other things were found in the garden ...... a little bat stopped for the day to sleep it off .........

And we found these crazy little beetles climbing on the stems of the passionfruit - we have no idea

what they are and neither it seems do the neighbours so we don't know if they are good bugs or bad bugs ........anyone out there know what they are?  Well it's Monday morning here now and I'm needing to get breakfast and get to work - have a great day everyone
Hugs
Sharm xo

One for Us

Last year after moving here, I decided that come this winter up here it would be nice to have a ripple
 blanket for our bed ...... so I started on a Queens Size Ripple Blanket using Luxury 8ply (dk) yarn from Bendigo Woollen Mills.  Its lovely to work with, but was way to warm to be able to continue over the Summer months.  Once it cooled down I was able to pick it back up and Ta Da ........ all finished!  I decided to put a lace edge on either side of it to hang down and kind of finish it off.

Now, I had thought this had posted at the start of the week, however I've just returned and found it still sitting as a draft .........

And now I'm working on another knitted top ....... the photo has come out sideways so you may have to turn on your side to actually see .   I'm amazed that the self striping has actually worked so well in this particular pattern!  I had no idea it work like that when I started this and had expected pooling rather than striping!  Hope you all had a lovely weekend!  No long weekend up here, so its back to work this morning for me ....... catch you later!

Back on Line at Last!!!

"Tillandsia" completed

I'm finally back on line after a number of months struggling with a failing lap top, an IPad that kept freezing on me and lots of "life"!!! (Including Hubbie having an accident with a 9inch Grinder cutting into his thigh - thankfully he didn't loose his leg and the leg has healed well, although it's been a bit of a treck with it).
  Today I managed to purchase a new laptop and I'm so, so happy!!!  After taking the old one to get fixed and not even being able to get back up on line before it crashed again (I was busy trying to download all my stored documents and photos onto a portable harddrive whilst it was working as I'd been told the motherboard may not last much longer ...... I got to turn on my laptop 3 times before it just would not turn on at all ........ and so I've been

hanging out for the June end of tax year sales Whooo Hoooo!!!! It was worth it as I've saved almost 50% off what it would have cost! ....... Anyhow, that's enough of that as I have quite a bit to catch up on it seems ...... and apparently the March post I thought had gone through was still sitting in a draft box and hadn't published.  So here is the abbreviated version:  First of all OPAM ........
March Finishes:  These 2 Verandah Throw Cushions I had fun crocheting and I finished up a test knit "Tillandsia" which I'm really happy with!

April saw me finally finish "Brookhill " Shawl and I worked on cutting up some stash I had here (with the backing fabrics being around 20yrs old!) ....... I managed to work up a nice quilt for our bed

As for May ....... well I was busy working on the crochet blanket for our queen size bed and got as far

as part way through the border when I ran out of yarn ....... more has been ordered and I'm waiting for it to arrive ........ meantime I'm working on this knitting project which will be another top!

May was a time for celebration as I had my birthday; and we celebrated being in Maryborough a whole year together with Pete having been 1 year retired (and before you ask ....... I'm actually working 4 days each week so a little more than I was before our move).
During my time without being able to blog we had our 2nd eldest son land in hospital with appendicitis (going from the mine site out West Qld to Cloncurry hospital to Mt Isa Hospital for the opp); our daughter has had severe back issues; Pete's Accident, a nephew died ........ and amidst all that of course - I've been working ........ things have been just a tad busy around here.  Of course heaps has also been happening in the yard and garden area ........ but I might keep that for the next post ........
In the meantime its great to be back ......I've missed blogland and I do hope to see some of my old bloggie friends drop back in again.

Hugs Sharm