FRIDAY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT. - EARTH

 Linking with Astrid for this week's hunt.

I found this one quite hard and have gone a little off piste and tied it into a wonderful place we've visited several times now, the first just before we went into our first major lockdown in March last year. 

My initial thoughts were:       Earth - soil.          Earth - our planet.

Taking all this into account, I hope this isn't too weird.

Heading into the hills north-east of Melbourne there are parks, where we stopped for lunch on one of our forays in December & I snapped this gorgeous dogwood in flower, which of course is connected to the earth by way of soil here on our planet.  OK, the other photos will not have so much silly info.😉

An old plough to turn over the soil.

And this is where we were headed.

Somewhere we'd passed many times over the years and it was either not open or we didn't have time to stop.  For someone like me who loves old, quirky & just browsing it's a wonderland and we've now been a few times  after we've been "let out" again.  In December we basically had the place to ourselves, except for the owners.

Definitely connections to the earth for the next two photos...................

Good old push mowers and I can remember my parents having one of these when I was really young & my late brother and I trying to push it through the grass..........we didn't have lawn.(lol)

Another connection, embedded by shrubbery to the earth.
Keith really thought this would be a good doer-upper, but we don't have anywhere to do it.

And now for some of the fun things made from old junk.

To be sold as "Garden Art" or maybe props for photographers etc.

My favourite, a donkey, but he didn't come home with me.

Other bits'n'bobs to turn around yourself.

Inside we came across a wall with some amusing signage.  No, I know that we are off the track of earth now, but this lot could come under the title of "What on Earth?"

In no praticular order, just hope you all had a giggle and then this one below, came as a surprise.

Can you imagine him in your front yard..............

Now, one last little bit with a story to it. and I do hope I don't offend anybody, but we laughed a lot.

Checking out this lovely table & chairs, a lady who was looking at it too, started talking to me about all the wonderful quirky pieces that were there.  Suddenly I started to giggle and she looked around to see what had caught my eye and her reaction was "OMG, he's mine..." Off she ran in the direction of her young son, carrying around the torso (in the truck below), with each hand holding onto a protrusion,  grabbing it and depositing in said truck and shutting the window. 

OK, not offended?  It was funny.

Hope you haven't been bored by my wafflings & weird sense of humour.  I'll link this later as I was interrupted and now I'm off to make us some lunch.  Cold again today, overcast with a few showers and very windy.

Have a great weekend all, take care and stay safe.

Hugs from down under, Susan.

MISERABLE......WEATHER & MOI!

The sky today from our front garden.

Yes, our weather has been dull, dreary, cold & damp, not necessarily pouring with rain, but just so bleak & wet underfoot.  Not much happening in the garden & trying to stay focused & motivated on anything is somewhat hard to do at the moment.  I'm way behind on both my own blog & reading others, so finally sitting here doing this one. 

Finding & finishing a few bits'n'bobs.

A child' jumper.

A summer cardi & I no longer have the dress I was going to wear it with.

PARTICIPATING IN A MYSTERY QUILTALONG.

            The quilt is now waiting till I can get some backing to put it on the big machine & quilt it.

I fussy cut some of the 2 1/2" squares.  This QAL was hosted by my friend Joy in Ballarat who blogs at Days Filled With Joy.
Another crafty thing is slowly coming together too.  I bought & showed an old picture frame I purchased at a vintage market earlier this year & it has now become the frame for these, but still needs a fixing for hanging it.

DH made these musical cutouts after finding them photocopied (by me) and thought I'd done them for him.  Anyway, I loved them & I just fancied them in a frame.  I've quite a bit of blank wall space, so once done & hung I'll show them on a blogpost.
IN THE GARDEN.

                                                                Pottering about.

Some waiting for repotting & others for the garden.

A bit of colour on the plant stand & retaining wall.

The first fully open flower on my camellia - Volunteer.

One of my dark hellebores with the darker one on the right, which always flowers last.

One of my white/green ones.

My Garrya, after not flowering for the first four years has "ONE" flower & going by it's length, it's the male variety..
Yeah!!!!!

Lastly, a bit of nonsense.

Can we call this "snail mail".  How I got it from our letterbox and only about an hour after the postie had left it.

Well, that's about it from me and with Melbourne now being in lockdown once more, we have limited access, so can't venture far.
Oh for some sun and to feel somewhat normal, rather than being on edge all the time.  Hopefully I'll post a little more often and show what we've been busy with during this next half of "weird" 2020.
Everybody please take care and stay safe.
Huggles from Susan.

NOVEMBER SCAVENGER PHOTO HUNT.

Linking up with Kate for the final hunt of the year.  Once again, I wondered with our words, then found way more than I needed.  The hardest this time was My Own Choice, as I just didn't know where to start looking.  Here we go.......

1.   BLUE.

The Neerim Bower at the entrance to Neerim South, a small town here in West Gippsland.  It represents the male Satin Bowerbirds' chamber/passage he builds from twigs & grass, to attract females & is usually adorned with many "blue" objects, including feathers, berries, glass & plastic.  They are a native bird of Australia & when we lived in Cambewarra, NSW, we actually had one built in our backyard for a season.  It was fascinating, watching him pinch my blue pegs & also bring lots of blue drinking straws from goodness knows where.

2.   ME.

Not much to say on this one.  I took it accidentally one day at the beach.

3.   STARTS WITH W..........

Weeping Willows in the park, where our Car Club rooms are located, this Spring, which I'm sure we haven't had with very cool temperatures into early November & now sweltering in 30+ degree heat for 14 days straight.  Definitely not normal.  Just realised that was 2 Ws.

4.   RAINBOW.

A Rainbow Lorikeet sipping nectar from Banksia flowers.  I know I've shown this before, but some will not have seen it & I'm trying to think outside the box.

5.   ARCH.

A rather lonesome ARCH, in the churchyard at Whitehaven, Cumbria, somewhere we stay when visiting my friend Jayne in the Lakes District.

6.   TOY.

The rocking horses, hubby made our 2 youngest granddaughters' many years ago.  Missy Moo & Little E turned 10 this October & are probably way to old now to use them.  We are very proud of his woodworking skills.

7.   SWIRL.

SWIRLS on the old fencing & lawn roller.  Taken last year at Chiddingstone Castle in Kent, which we didn't get to go into, as we were to early, but the gardens were open & lovely to stroll around.  Oh, & take lots of photos.

8.   BRUSH.

A pink BottleBRUSH (Callistemon) in flower a few weeks ago.

9.   NAIL.

A rusty, crooked NAIL, snapped on our walk at Lang Lang Beach, which I posted about HERE, a few weeks ago.  Hubby noticed it & quickly said "Nail", & I had to work out why he'd pointed it out, but then I remembered too & thought how lucky I was, as it was the day after Kate had posted our words.  I take my list everywhere & had been reading it in the car on our way.The photo above of BRUSH, was also taken on that walk.

10.  MY OWN CHOICE.

Anyone of my AGE group, may remember these hands used for giving signals on trucks, way back when....... No blinkers in them days!!!!!!  A few Sundays ago we visited the Historic Commercial Vehicle Show at Yarra Glen Racecourse & we were delighted with what was on display, although there were no Mercedes Benz 1418's which is what we had in the late 1970s.

My lot is done now.  I'm off to make some lunch & put the cooler on, as my fingers are starting to stick to the keys.  I'll be around again, proabably next Friday, as I will do the Xmas Hunt in weekly parts, due to a busy month coming up.
Take care all, have a great December & silly season.
Susan.

WHERE'S SPRING.

Well, here I am finally at the computer & writing this post.
It has been very miserable here, with cold, wet, windy weather and it is supposed to be Spring.  There are plenty of bulbs & blossom trees flowering, but the last month or so has been atrocious.  Maybe it is my age or just the lingering winter making me feel rather down. I've had a few health niggles, but seems that it all boils down to my scoliosis & weird ribs & with DD & family  away on holidays, so can't just ring & chat, plus I'm still dealing with all the paperwork etc. for my brother. That seems to be an ongoing hassle, brought on by our Federal Government, so do hope it means that more services will be forthcoming.  Enough moaning and groaning!!!! Let's see what else we've been up to, as life doesn't stop with all the above happening.

TODAY.

 A little sunshine................then...............

Rain with hail.  These 2 photos were taken within about half an hour of each other.
It has been like this for, it seems like,   WEEKS.

CRAFTING.

 Hubby has been busy in his shed.  A lidded container, box & Adam Ant.  Isn't he cute & after he named him, I said he wasn't very like the punk rocker, to which the reply was....."Who is he?😊

We went off one day last week to a large Woodworking Show and there were some amazing things there.  I took many photos, but we'll just stick to a couple of faves.

                                                             I'd love one of these!

And can you imagine this, with a wonderful painting of The Dales inside it.  Can't imagine that it would suit this house, but maybe a beautiful converted barn would do it justice.

I've been playing too.

This  is  Dotty Custard, made from a jelly roll I had in my stash & quilted with a pattern called Twigonometry by Naomi Hynes.

A very old strippy style I quilted with a simple custom job.  Two quilts on at once is great, especially when one is trying to finish up some UFOs.

                           The other half of the jelly roll from Dotty Custard is becoming this!

 I designed this myself, although the centre is a Paper Pieced pattern from the internet.  I've come to a standstill, as I've run out of grey fabric No.2, so watch this space for an update once I work out a solution.

IN FLOWER.

My poor little neglected cyclamen.

COFFEE AND CAKE RUN WITH CAR CLUB.
One Wednesday in August, we set off on the monthly CC run & our first stop was at the Gippy Goat, a cafe on a property that breeds milking goats.  Below, we have a few kids in a shed, who after I took this photo came for a cuddle.  One decided that the sleeve of my jumper was tasty & wanted to chew on it.  Finally it let go & off we went to one of our member's properties.

 A dairy farm with a rotary milking machine.  The whole setup is amazing, with solar panels galore, cooling & heating exchange pumps, dams & tanks for collecting water and piped waste to the paddocks.  Very, very eco friendly.

A few of calves which were ever so cute.

THE FUNNY BIT!!!!!!
I do hope no-one finds this offensive, but I'll understand if you do.  I just couldn't stop laughing, so maybe it's my Ozzie sense of humour.

Hubby & I were out and about one afternoon, hoping to have a good walk, but alas the weather was against us once again.  We stopped at a small cafe near Blue Rock Dam to at least have a cuppa.  In we went & whilst hubby ordered the drinks, I browsed the cake counter.  Next I hear him say, "That's silly, it says -don't bounce the balls".  I had no idea what he was talking about & looked towards the counter & suddenly couldn't stop laughing & asked why he'd said that.
This is what he was talking about. (Photos aren't good as they were taken on his phone).
I couldn't see these................

But I could see this!!!

Sorry, but it still makes me giggle.  Luckily, I don't like bubble gum.
When we got home, I checked some blogposts and noticed that Kate had put up her word list for the September Photo Scavenger hunt, and No. 5 on the list is 'It begins with C' & the first thing that came to mind was the above, so that set me off again.
Hope you also get a bit of a laugh from this, as there is so much tension in the news, and I feel bad just plodding away in my own little bubble.

I'll try not to be away as long so that I don't have such a disjointed posting.  It's a case remembering everything & nothing.  Have a good weekend all & take care.
Susan.
Whooooo!  The sun is shining again.