A Bientot

I thought I would post a little bit of Autumn colour (albeit Austrian and French Autumn colour) as I won't be around this week and I thought you might like something colourful to look at. See you soon!

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Of presents and dwagons

I had to nip on here quickly (I'm supposed to be practising FME today) to show you what the postman brought me this afternoon.

My friend Dilly St George sent me a parcel and as she is a princessy croco-dwagon she decorated it with princessy stickers! I knew Dilly was sending me a present because she blogged about it here but I didn't go and look because I wanted a surprise.

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When I opened the envelope this is what I found,

A lovely sparkly box and a very pretty, sparkly pink card - well it has to be pink from a princess, doesn't it? The box is decorated with skeleton leaves and glitter but it was hard to get a good picture in the bright sunshine today.

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Inside the box, wrapped in a tissue which I think maybe Bob T Bear had isshooed was this lovely soft, pink, pwincessy brooch,

It is absolutely lovely, Dilly, thank you very much and thank you too to Mummy for helping you make it. If you'd like to see how Dilly made the brooch please do have a look here. Dilly's mummy had a great idea to get the shape!

Inside the card Dilly had written me a special note. I'm glad to be your friend, Dilly, you are a very special 'wagon :o). Oh, and, I love your self portrait Dilly, it's great!!

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On the subject of dwagons, we did see one or two on our travels thro Austria.

These chaps were waiting to be adopted and taken to their new homes (some of them were only babies and were having a little nap!).

If you look very carefully at this photo of a beautiful Austrian house you can see one of Dilly's friends peeking in at the bottom.

I think this beautiful rusty sculpture is just pretending to be a dwagon. (Oh, It's got a bit stretched, oops!)

And, unfortunately, these dwagons are being a bit rude as they are spitting water everywhere in a fountain in Innsbruck!

Oops! This is a better pic, the previous one was blurred. Well I was in a moving carriage at the time!

Well, I had better get back to my sewing. See you all later and thank you again, Dilly for my lovely present. I am going to wear it when I go to the Festival of Quilts next month.

Post and patterns

Before we went away Kate offered a swap with some ATCs she had made. As I like Kate's work I offered to swap with her and yesterday I received said ATC from her.

It was very prettily packaged in a little parcel tied up with assorted yarns in my favourite turquoise and blues.

Inside the lutradur-like outer wrapper was the ATC I had chosen. The centrepiece looks like part of a brooch and I love the colours and the "wish" sentiment.

Also from Kate, from a giveaway on her blog, I received a bag of scraps which I had put my name in the hat for. As Kate has come to the end of her marathon giveaway we all got a bag. There are some lovely pieces in this collection which are tempting me to play. You can just see the top of a batik tree in the foreground which I love as I do all the pieces uppermost in this pile.

Back in Austria I was up to my usual tricks, taking photographs in the 'Ladies'! This fossil was on the surface of the counter round the washbasins in a hotel in Aachensee. I think the rock must have come from the same range of mountains as the Steinplatte, it's a beautiful surface.

This building, also in Aachensee, houses a fitness centre and echoes the shape of the surrounding mountians. I loved the reflections of the clouds in its glass.

It's funny what takes your eye, isn't it? This sandwich was at my feet where the wall of the mountain top cafe met the floor. I like the different textures from the cement wall through the lead flashing to the base surface (not sure what that's made of).

More interesting textures here from the play of aerated water over stones in a pool outside the fitness centre. Must be able to do something with this in Photoshop!

Rain beautiful rain

It wasn't all sunshine in Austria. We had plenty of sunshine but we also had our fair share of thunderstorms and rain.

This was the view from our balcony after a rainstorm.

I always like to see a rainbow, they are so beautiful!

You should be able to see that the rain was falling here at Walchsee which would otherwise be a lively seaside-style resort (even though it's nowhere near the sea! The Austrians love to enjoy their lakes in the summer)

Another storm pursuing us back to the hotel!

Talk about a downpour!

I've never been to the tropics but this rain put me in mind of it.

I thought these covers for the windowboxes were very nifty (useful).

The hills are alive........!

Did I say we were going on holiday? Again?! For blogging break read holiday! After our wonderful holiday in Austria last autumn I really wanted to go back to see the flower meadows in the summer. Fortunately our friendly local coach company A & P Travel had decided to run a trip this summer so, as DH deserved a special treat for his 60th, we were the first to book on.

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If you look back here you can see some of the photos I took last year. We went to several of the places we went to last year so I won't repeat the photos here. We were based in the same hotel as before and it was lovely to see the family again.

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On the Sunday, with some encouragement from my DH and some friends, I took my courage in both hands and went in a cable car, yes, a cable car!!!!!, to the top of the Steinplatte mountain. This from a person who hates lifts and has sworn off the London Eye! Actually, apart from one or two colly wobbles when I looked down at the wrong moment (help, I want my mummy!), I really enjoyed it!!! The views were amazing so inevitably I was busy with the camera so I didn't have a lot of time to think about the drop below.

This is the village of Waidring spread out below.

Still on the way up, a view up a neighbouring valley towards Kitzbuhel of Ski Sunday fame.

You might recognise DH sorting out his lenses at the top.

This is the amazing view across not-quite-the -top of the Steinplatte. The actual top is a strenuous walk uphill which we left to younger, fitter people - on bikes!

There were a lot of these with lovely clunking bells ringing out when they moved, very atmospheric!

We walked up here

and came to these amazing rocks which are popular with fossil hunters.

This beautiful specimen was in a large boulder at the side of the path - deliberately placed there? Not sure.

Gulp! What a tiny box! Don't think about it!!!

I got my wish to see beautiful flowers growing wild.

It's really difficult to photograph flowery banks below you!

These beautiful flowers were growing beside an artificial lake.

I'm not sure what this flower is called but I'm sure I've seen it growing in gardens.

My DH photographed this lovely little harebell which I missed. (I think it's a harebell. Please correct me if I'm wrong).

Austria again

Oh! It's still Friday! It's been a long day! My DH is fortunately improving well today and is now simply worn out so fingers crossed that that is the end of the dreaded lurgy bug. Thank you for all the well wishes. It's lovely to know people care.

I was hoping to get onto the embellisher today with the lovely new fibre but I figured the noise would disturb my DH so I settled for some hand sewing instead. Unfortunately I can't show you exactly what I was doing as it's for a swap with a certain Dot -tee lady downunder. Bet you can't guess what it is........? I'll post it when I have actually posted it off to Dot. I have to make something else to go with it yet so it may be a while........(back to the embellisher again).

I am a bit nervous about tomorrow. I should have been enjoying a textile workshop but instead I have to take DH's place and try and sell some of his cards at a celebration party organised by the coach company that took us to Austria. They are a 2 man band, father and son, who have been in business for only 2 years and their trips are great. They take really good care of their passengers and put on a little party each year in January to promote their new tours and to thank all their customers. DH can't go as he may still be contagious so I hope I can't pass it on to anyone! If I don't go DH will have wasted his outlay in making up the cards so hopefully I'll sell enough to cover his costs - I'm not such a good salesperson as he is.

These were the distant Alps photographed from the Steinplatte Mountain above Waidring where we stayed.

This is another view from the mighty Steinplatte Mountain.

These horses were patiently waiting in Salzburg to take us for a carriage ride under the castle you can see in the pic below.

Wish me luck!