Thursday, March 29, 2007

the truth will set you free




You all know that most of Oz is in drought. Serious drought. I mention it fairly frequently. Six drops of rain rates a mention, we get a half inch, you get a bulletin. If the water tanks are full, you get the Hallelujah Chorus.

Then I usually go and post a really carefully framed photo of my pocket handkerchief sized garden or a bush shot looking over the tops of the trees and I'm sure everyone thinks " Oh that doesn't look too bad. Okay, so it has to be hand watered with buckets of reclaimed water from the shower or somesuch, but it's surviving, right?"



weeeeellllll, I realised that I may have been guilty of gilding the lily a bit.

I've decided to turn the camera round in the opposite direction to let you see what approximately 9 7/8 ths of my 10 acres looks like.


THIS is the reality:















I was also going to show you a progress photo of the Challenge quilt . I realise I've been a bit slack with the posting on that one lately. You probably have to go back to early February to find the last one. Trust me, there IS progress. I decided that top fish was too bright and he now sports painted spots of brown, gold and purple which sounds foul but you'll see soon enough. The machine quilting is done and the bits I'm doing by hand sashiko style are finally underway. Once that's done, "all" that remains is to edge and attach the semi-attached [or detached ] flowers that I removed while I was machine quilting. Notice how I glossed over that ... slick wasn't it? I will admit that it is entirely possible that the flower part of the plan may need revision but at the moment I'm thinking flowers vliesofixed to jade backing piece, then cut to shape, a piece of water soluble underneath and then satin stitched in black rayon thread. In theory the soluble should make sure that the satin stitch covers the edge properly. I haven't actually tried this machine's satin stitch so we shall see.[ cue ominous music ]


Then binding and a hanging rod and label. The deadline is Thursday next week. [ more ominous music ]


Anyway, there was a slight technical hitch in the progress photos department:

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of course, those photos were taken just after some rain, so there's a lot more green in them then usual.

Anonymous said...

Ah, the cats love to help!
Yep, this drought is heartbreaking. I don't think people in bigger cities realise just how bad - if I hear one more whinge about how people are "ONLY" allowed to water the garden three days a week I may become violent!

Sheepish Annie said...

Now that is a kitty with good taste in napping spots! Too cute!

I've read your posts about the drought, but didn't really get the full picture until I saw the photographs. That is just horrid. Will the onset of the winter months make any difference?

catsmum said...

probably not a heck of a lot. Basically all the topsoil has washed away. What you are looking at there is baked like concrete. It may never recover.

Rose Red said...

cats DO have a habit of sleeping right on top of your UFOs don't they! I've become resigned to having just a bit of cat hair in all my knitting projects!

Tanya Brown said...

I am terribly sorry about the drought, and I wished that I had more faith that things were going to get better. It's looking a bit like my memories of Alice Springs. 8>(