Treasures

How quickly are these weeks flying by all ready! It was just last Sunday morning that as Pete and I woke up he suggested we get ready and head over early to Barooga to the swap meet that was on.  It's about an hour's drive from here and we headed along the Riverina hwy (more like a country road) enjoying the morning drive.  Plenty of kangaroos grazing in paddocks on the way over! 


 Pete has often worked over this way doing various earth working tasks including some work on this channel which we drove over. I think he was doing the rock work.  The channels work well for farmers bringing water from the Murray River to help with irrigation in both Victoria and New South Wales.

Although a smallish affair, it was very well set out on the golf course and we found some great treasures to purchase, enjoyed a coffee while we chatted to various stall holders and had a really enjoyable couple of hours before making our way back home!  The first treasure was this lovely door knocker made by an old blacksmith. I really liked it, and the fact of the being made from melted down bits and handcrafted into this piece which will be going on our front door  in Qld!

Something else I really have been wanting made for some time now is a coat rack! Pete has been doing some slabs of red gum and when I made the suggestion while we strolled around he said we would need to find some old railway pegs ......... lol, he should have known that I'd already seen a pile at one of the stalls and the fellow there was happy to part with them as 50cents each so I was happy to take the pile!  Pete can make a few spares for gifts or to sell!  He also ended up with some small wood working tools, and he found this lovely bottle which is hard to see in a photo, but it can actually only old a single stem as the inside of the bottle is shaped inwards.

Another great find were these 2 old locks that Pete set to work on once we got home and managed to get the paint off and clean them up.  They came up looking fantastic don't you think!

And it was actually Pete who encouraged me to barter on a price to bring a travelling spinners wheel back home with us .......
While he managed to find a rather large jack that apparently is needed as well .....   Neither of us could believe how many treasures we found at such wonderful prices and with such friendly people!  It was a wonderful morning! 

Here it is now, a week later ...... Pete has been fishing up near Corryong the past couple of days while I have been here at home .......... where another treasure arrived ....... yep, a bag of yarn arrived in the mail from Deramores in the UK - all cotton dk

assortments to crochet up some various items!  

Since Friday was FNSI  I decided I might work on a smaller market/ shopping bag.  Summers are hot here in Australia, so I want to work them up with cotton rather than an acrylic or wool blend.  A 10ply would be better, but unfortunately you don't get the same colour selections with 10ply as you do with 8 - so yep, I'm working with 8ply (dk).  I'm making the pattern up as I go, starting with a round section which I then added some "wings" to make it a little more elongated.  So far it seems to be doing what I'm hoping for.
Yesterday late afternoon the temperature hit 50.7 degrees celcius here!!!  It's crazy burning heat is frying some of the plants and I've been spending a lot of time trying to keep lawns and gardens watered so the place looks good when potential buyers come to look!   February is usually our worst month for dry hot weather, so I hate to think what it might be like then!  I feel very blessed to have the air conditioner working to keep it nice inside at the least!  Since I've had the water going (and the

The Male up in the gum tree keeping watch

fact that the apple trees have small very unripe apples on them), these lovely red parrots (The Australian King Parrot) have been visiting us again.  They are always here once the apples begin growing - 3 apple trees and we have yet to get 1 apple to taste!!!  We did bird net them a couple of years ago which didn't go so well being in the chook run and under a large gum tree ...........  we haven't netted since that disaster!  Its usually almost impossible to get a photo of these guys, but somehow I managed to have my phone on me and get close enough to zoom my photo camera in ......... one day I will have a small, lovely little camera that does a fantastic job of zooming in! .......... one day ....
Till next time, take care,

The female Australian King Parrot.

Sharm
PS:  And for the first time, I'm linking up with Saturdays Critters because I just discovered it!