Visitors galore.......

My sitemeter tells me that there have been more than 50 visitors to this blog today - an all time record to be sure. I cannot say that fame for the standard of writing or my wonderful textile creations has been the attraction, but acknowledge that being the first in Sharon's list of Blogs beginning with the letter 'P' (despite not always being about stitching!) is far more likely to be the cause. Anyway, glad that they did, and hope they may return again - but be warned, this blog is not just about quilting or other textile stuff - that is only a small part of my country existence, so you will find other things that may be interesting........or not!

Today has been warm and sunny - so different from last week, and a walk round the garden this afternoon revealed more new flowers and busy busy bees on just about everything, but in particular on those with blue or purple flowers. I checked the hive a week ago, it is full of new brood but no honey being made and stored yet, so I will not be able to harvest any until the end of summer. I gave a lot of it away, and now have only two pots left of last year's bounty - 12 kilograms - and I plan to keep one until I can compare the taste with this year's batch. It will be interesting to see if it tastes differently as the bees may have been feeding on different plants.

These Common Foxgloves or Digitalis purpurea are a favourite of mine, they remind me of my childhood in Devon in the UK, where I could roam the local farmer's fields and they grew wild in the hedgerows every year. In Australia they need to cultivated until they become established, but will then self seed and reappear each Spring.

Love those speckled throats.......

Blogging Break

I have not blogged for more than a week – where have those days gone, and what do I have to show for it? Not a lot really. There have been things I needed to do that did not involve sewing, visitors and a house guest over the weekend, a visit to Melbourne, time spent with my kids on the way, and when the weather is good, lots to do in the garden. It is always a choice as to how my time is spent – sewing or gardening............. gardening or sewing, when I’m doing one, I’m thinking of the other........and sometimes I just think about both and do very little or read a book. That is one of the joys of being retired, independent and able to do as I choose.

I have not mentioned it before, but my career as an apiarist was severely challenged by the loss of all my bees towards the end of winter - I think very cold days, several with snow and many many severely frosty mornings caused their death. When it became obvious that there was no action around the hive during the early sunny days of Spring, I opened it and was sad to find they were all inside, but very dead. Perhaps they also had too little stored food, but I know from the Department of Primary Industry who licence all bee keepers, that many apiarists lost bees this winter. The really good news is that once more my hive is occupied and the garden is buzzing with busy bees, as my bee keeping friends from Melbourne came on Sunday with box of bees that had been captured in the SE suburbs somewhere when an unwanted swarm landed in a backyard tree. I’m very pleased to have them again, and will make sure that next winter they are able to be kept warmer.........little quilts for each one? Woolly socks and hats? I’m sure there will be a way!

I was surprised this morning to find that I had been tagged by Embellisher for a meme and not knowing what this meant, I googled and found this interesting site where there are definitions and many examples of the ideas and questions which spread on the Internet like a virus – their term, not mine. Anyway the rules of this one are as follows:-

1.Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Now I’m willing to share 7 facts about myself, though I’m not sure it will interest anyone, but not sure about passing it on – I shall think on that, after all, the Daily Meme says that rules tend to mutate as the memes go around.

1. I was born in Hampshire in the UK, and came to Australia as a migrant in 1960.


2. I went to 9 different schools before I was 14 years old. No - I wasn't expelled from them all for being naughty, I was an RAF kid and the family moved frequently.


3. I'm a list writer, so should have had no problem with September's TIF, but I am yet to start it.


4. It follows, I procrastinate!


5. I collect owls.


6. When digging in the garden I collect cockchafer grubs for my chickens.


7. The very first sewing machine I had was one of these, a Christmas present in 1954 when my family was living in Virginia Beach in the USA.