Another day in Paradise

Today was a gorgeous one where I live - temperature about 16 degrees, blue skies and sunshine. We have had about 90 mls of rain in the last month so everything is growing - particularly the grass. I spent a couple of hours today mowing with both my big orange ride-on (for the first time this season) and my new push mower, so now the place looks very groomed and polished. The daffodils are finishing their golden display but are being replaced by other new growth - the silver birch are getting leaves, viburnums, camellias and japonica are in flower, I spotted the first cherry blossoms today, and my tulips are blooming in wonderful colours of dark red, scarlet, pink, white and soon to open mysterious 'Lady of the night', a very dark maroon.

A great time was spent with quilting friends this weekend in Castlemaine, and we even got some sewing done. I actually misjudged the amount of time we would be working, and ran out of things to do by Saturday night. There were eleven of us and we took over a small hotel that was built in the 1870's - a little bit shabby by today's standards but full of character and the occasional echo of Fawlty Towers. Mine host and his wife could not do enough for us so we were very comfortable. The breakfasts were extraordinary, one hardly needed to have anything else during the day - but of course, we did! We ate out a couple of times, did some shopping in the town and at the wonderful quilt shop there, nattered, sewed, laughted, exchanged ideas, admired each others work, ate cupcakes made by one of our number and generally had a splendid time. We plan to do it all again, next year if not before - in my opinion the best possible way of spending the AFL Grand Final day.