Bye Bye Annual Leave ....

Tuesday this week I finally had to head back to work (the paid type of work that is), and I have to tell you it was tough! It's been nice being able to take some time to get back to some of my embroidery.   The 3 weeks  "annual leave" I took has been a pretty busy time, even with that little holiday away in the midst of it all.   Before I get started on all of that I want to say Thankyou  - a couple more "signature hexies" have arrived........... well, almost hexies, lol the lovely embroidery has been done and I'm more than happy to sew them into the hexie!  Thankyou to Lynda from By the River , Jo at ButterZ  and Ruth at Green Twiggy 

 

  The start of the leave gave us a few days to begin to get things done around the yard and home, and 2 days post arriving home from our holidays I had to fly out to Brisbane (yes, it was all previously organised).  The plan was to fly up  on the Sunday to help Dad who had the removalist booked for the next day (well, admittedly I had done the booking so everything would be streamlined ...... and it was thankfully).  Dad had decided he didn't want to be up there on his own anymore, so is buying a little unit down closer to us.  I helped him with the last of the packing, cleaning out his retirement village unit and then we drove his car back down here.  We had a pretty good trip all up (I'm sure we had somebody watching over us, as we didn't realize till the end of the first day when we pulled into Narrabri that the fuel gauge was faulty!  We made it to the town with around 3 litres left in the tank and gauge showing half full).  We made it the rest of the way on the 2nd day, even with a detour due to an accident on the highway.  Dad will stay with us for a few weeks until settlement on his new unit, which also gives time to sort out all the bits and pieces involved with an interstate move, and some medical bits and pieces.  He seems to be very pleased with the decision he has made.

Once home again I was able to get stuck into the garden, and also have a good look at our 3 new chicks!  You may remember the 2 chicks we purchased at the market a few months ago ..... that grew into roosters.  When the first one started his crowing - the stripey one who grew up quite lovely ...... I noticed he had a passion for Scarlet the white Silky hen and constantly demonstrated his love for her!  I managed to get away with keeping him for about 2 wks before I had 2 crowing roosters that I knew would create bad neighbour issues - lots of suburban type blocks around here with city attitudes (Roosters crowing - No!  Boat, Motorbike etc noice - no prob!)  Anyhow, both the silkie and Henrietta went broody a couple of days after the roosters went to the freezer - I had been keeping the eggs from the Silkie to "try" ....... 3 wks later and Henrietta (red hen) had 1 chick and Scarlet (white silky) hatched out 2 chicks ...... they all stick close together and the chicks seem to be almost identical with the yellow  bodies and stripey wings.  Sure hoping they grow into hens ....
In the kitchen I managed to get the plums and tomatoes out of the freezer to get some jam and relish made up.  The tomatoes are still producing, but are almost finished.  I should get another nice big batch of relish from them.   We also got 11 Jap pumpkins from the vine that started with some pumpkin seeds Dad was drying out on his last visit here ...... they blew into the garden and we left them to see what would happen!   Hope you have an amazing day!  Hugs Sharm