Normal Blogging Resumes Tomorrow

but in the meantime:



Enjoy !!

blog hijacking in progress

Hi all, Nadie here.

Mum wanted me to let you all know that the reason for the lack of posts this week is that a couple of days after the wedding she came down with a rather nasty bug, which she initially thought was an exceptionally bad migraine. You really don't need the details, the main thing is that she is now on the mend, but still feeling too icky to be up for much.

If we look on the bright side, at least she didn't come down with it any earlier, since if she was contagious at the wedding I'd have it by now, and if she'd come down with it a few days earlier... well, lets just be grateful that she didn't!

Keep your fingers crossed for a speedy recovery!

xxx

Nadie

why I didn't have time to post this weekend ...

DIABETICS BEWARE: your weekly sweetness overload

Yes, Bear and I have been out to Emu Creek again.
Actually, he's still there ... having a wee holiday with his extended family until after The Wedding.
There have been no new goaty babies so far this week, but some due possibly this weekend [ which I'll get to snuzzle when I go back to collect his Beariness ]
So in lieu of more brand new kiddy cuteness, here's last week's lot again:
L. to R Hannah, Montanna, Madonna , Mitchell - the lone little boy so far - Susanne and Linni


and a Catsmum getting up very close and snuzzly with Madonna

and Madonna again with either Hannah or Montanna

yes ... I know ... you don't have to say anything ... one of PND's grand daughters named them

and Bear sizes up Ms Susanne so I can die content now. I have a goat named after me :)

4 days to go: gettin' there

Rather than show you an almost identical stretch of the 'quilt-inside-a-big-beige-and-black-sack-with-elephants-on', I'll content myself with telling you that I've just rounded the final corner of the hand sewing of the binding, so have one side, plus an equivalent length for the hanging sleeve [ or casing or rod pocket ] still to do ... and a label
Just as well it's nearly done because the phony gel nails go on tomorrow morning, and heaven alone knows whether I'll be able to wield a needle after that. Last time I had fake nails on I couldn't manage a needle if my life depended on it.

Today's completely unrelated pix are some of the [ mostly unidentified ] tiny wildflowers popping up all over the block.
Several of these I've never seen before ... maybe it's all that rain we've had lately.

This one I DO know - because they're positively everywhere at this time of the year ... known locally as 'Old Boy's Orchids', they are Waxlip Orchids, glossodia major.


This one is Common Rice Flower, pimelia humilis


The next three I have no idea - Marcie? Janine ? you've lived up here forever ... can you identify any of them ?
and gratuitous goats:

5 days to go

... and counting

Engage panic circuits:
Panic circuits engaged !

The quilt binding has all been machined onto the front and I've just rounded the first corner onto side two of sewing it down to the back. Only another 300 inches of hand sewing to go [ or 400" if I manage to get the hanging casing on as well ]


At this point some of you might well be wondering why I'm showing you a photo of a big beige sack with elephants on. A reasonably valid question.
The big beige bag is, in point of fact, a very old, ragged, past-its-use-by-date, doona cover [ sans doona ] which currently contains the wedding quilt.

Just the bit that I'm currently hemming is exposed

and the theory is that this will enable me to:

a] be able to blog about it without ruining the surprise of how it looks now that it's all quilted.

b] so that I'm able to work outside in the glorious spring sunshine while it lasts


c] keep the quilt as free of cat hair, as is ever possible in this establishment [ as evidence, may I refer you back to the first photo ? ]
Total absence of feline 'additions' is - of course - a physical impossibility, but I'm giving it my best shot.

That was the week that was

What follows are the somewhat disjointed ramblings that are about all I can produce in a fog of pre-wedding sleep deprivation.
6 hours sleep in 3 days
Wedding in one week.
Engage panic circuits!
Panic circuits engaged!
Gaaaagh!

So here's the overview of the last few days:
Thursday - After lunchtime visit from some old quilting friends from Melbourne

David and I drove to Lilydale for the wedding rehearsal, and a lateish Chinese dinner afterwards, with Chris, Nadie and Natty, the Maid of Honour [ other bridesmaid, DIL Christina, having a 5 month old in tow needed to head for home




[ Like the way I managed to work in some cute bubby pix there ? ]
Home at midnight.
[ Bear ecstatic to see me ]

Friday - after roughly 2 hours sleep - went to Bendigo to pick up the wedding quilt [ and we'll go into a bit more about that AFTER the wedding, so that I don't ruin the surprise for our Bride & Groom, eh? ] - then home, and almost immediately back on the Freeway again and down to Kyneton to drop David off, and onto the train for the rest of the way as the weather by this stage was truly appalling.
Spent the trip sewing the picot edge of Nadie's newest shawl ... much to the evident amusement and/or concern of my fellow commuters.
I tell ya, if you want to make sure the seat next to you stays vacant on public transport, start wielding a lethal looking 4 inch long crowbar of a needle.

... and the reason for this second trip down in 24 hours? Had tickets to see one of our favourite musicals, RENT , with Nadie and #1 son. Possibly the only time ever that the three of us have been to the theatre together. The timing could've perhaps been a little better but the overall experience was ... just ... brilliant.

Thanks to some great driving by Nadie, I made the last train home by the skin of my teeth at midnight, then picked up the car, drove another half hour, and got in the door at 2am.
[ Bear ecstatic to see me ]

Saturday - back out the door at 2 pm for yet another 2 hour drive down to and through Melborne for Nadie's Hen's Night [ or Batchelorette party for my trans Pacific friends ]


I probably don't need to go into too much specific detail about what the show would be like at a theatre restaurant called Dracula's. Right ? You can probably make an educated guess.


Oh! Did I mention that dessert was choc chilli mousse in a little chocolate coffin complete with Dracula logo on the lid ?


home at 2.30 am.
and yes, Bear was ecstatic to see me. He is nothing if not consistent.

Went back to Kyneton today to pick up Dave, followed by supermarketing, dinner, a modest modicum of housework, and right now I have an appointment with my pillow.

I promise more coherent posts when I've caught up on some of those missing zzzzzzzs

and if you see one of the living dead shambling around Castlemaine this week, don't panic.
The zombies are not invading.
It'll just be me.

Kids In The Kitchen

Bear and I have come back from Emu Creek covered in baby goat dribble, milk and other less savoury bodily fluids.

Do we care ?

Well, I certainly don't,
and I'm pretty sure Bear is only going to start caring when he discovers that there is a B-A-T-H in his immediate future.

The theory was that I was going over to:
1. Meet the three little does born earlier in the week
and
2. Help PND and Brenda to feed those three, plus the eight from a few weeks ago, whilst simultaneously conducting a guided tour of the farm for a busload of kindergarteners.
and
3. Check in with Bear's little half sisters

#1 & #3 happened but due to the torrential downpour of the last 24 hours, #2 was put on hold until next week

probably just as well too says I

because [ 4 days overdue ] Ms India decided she wasn't waiting any longer.
Ten minutes before I arrived - inconsiderate animal - she produced a tiny wee girl followed, minutes later, by a whopping big boy - so I was met by Brenda and a box full of wet, mucky kids, which we proceeded to bottle feed their mum's colostrum while PND helped deliver another tiny little sister.
Here she is at about 3 minutes old


pause for collective awwwwwwwwwww

here's the boy about 2 hours old and already up on his feet, and able to climb out of his box


These are the little does from earlier in the week [ twins and a singleton ]

and just so I can't be accused of one sided caprine favouritism, Bear's little sisters who have grown exponentially
[ and yes I know that's to be expected in 2 weeks but I still get a kick out of it ]
Don't you just love Misty's harassed new mother expression ?

feel free to insert another awwwwwww here

sometimes my life sucks beyond the telling

it's been such a lo-o-o-ong week
some good stuff happened
some not-so [ which you largely don't need to know about ]

What I will tell you is that Ms Gwen [ introduced to you in the previous post ] celebrated her 90th birthday with a full-blown myocardial infarction [ that's a heart attack to we lay people ] and underwent double by-pass surgery 48 hours ago.
She has come through okay - so far - but I'm sure you all get why I haven't been exactly bubbling over with the zumba classes, birthday lunches with friends, the quilting and knitting et cetera, or even the wedding that is now only 2 weeks away!!

I definitely needed to restore my equilibrium:


My self prescribed remedy was tea-and-book-in-the-garden-with-animals. Friend Robyn dropped by and bought flowers ... red ranunculas ... and also lunch [ which we had in said garden with said animals ]

so today? Definitely not so suck-y

A Treasure

I thought you might like to see this: an incredibly fine filet work crochet bedspread designed and made by my talented godmother Gwen in the early 1980s and passed to me about 5 years ago

As it happens, this week G [ who was my late mother's best friend from a very young age ] reached a fairly significant milestone.

The big 9-0.

So I marked the occasion appropriately
by passing into HER keeping the quilt that I made 20 years ago for Mum's 70th birthday.

Gwen and I are in firm agreement that it is the thought that counts, so I know that this particular piece means far more to her than anything else that I might have newly made, and I can't imagine a more fitting custodian

and you probably thought that it was the bedspread that was the treasure ... which it IS of course ... but really ...
I meant Gwennie :)