Wandering around in New Spaces

Howdy! Well the big news here is it has rained..... we've had over 100mm since Easter, which I am pretty sure is more than all of 2018! We have water in the Paroo, and more coming from the northern floods and the campground, usually sporting views of the dry river bed is actually 90% under water! The SES is continuing to monitor the situation with the river, and we are getting very regular updates about the peak flood being expected to come in just under the 3m mark middle of this week or so. The roads are all still closed, and so I hope they are opened soon (so as not tin interfere again with travel plans!). If not just good for the soul to see the rain, it has been a very timely, valuable and genuine learning lesson about the water cycle, rain, where rivers flow from and to and how even though there is so much water at the moment, it still is a drought. Morgan even linked his knowledge of early Australian Exploration into the conversation, which tells me one thing - we are ...

Hello again! What a busy month or so we have had! It started with our last trip to Cobar. At homeschool group the children acted out the story of Burke and Wills. If your memory of primary school history lessons is good, you'll remember that in 1860 there was a race, with a grand prize for the south to north crossing of Australia. Well, the Burke and Wills Expedition was one of the teams that started (and the only one that actually completed the crossing) but all but 1 member of that Northward Party perished somewhere around present Innaminka on the Cooper Creek. There is a famous tree - The Dig Tree, where the waiting party buried supplies then left on the same morning that the northward party returned. They had carved the tree with instructions to find the supplies, and they did dig them up, but then stumbled around a bit more before dying a few days/weeks later, or in the case of Mr King, being rescued and cared for by local Aboriginal people until the search party located him...

Hello Again, And another week has passed... seems like this one was a few days short of the standard... Between sickness, possible allergies and not one but 2 last minute visits by Simon's colleagues, there was some serious finishing of some works-in-progress... and maybe I started some new ones too ;) I've been testing a crochet pattern for the talented Emma Wilkinson Designs. I finished that one off, but no photos cause that's still a surprise. I also finished this beauty. A baby blanket for a dear friend who has recently moved away from Bourke. It's of my own design, so no pattern but, it was great fun to create. And a project started and finished in a week! how cute is this little butterfly! She's colours chosen by her new little friend, and comes from this beautiful book. I love how the patterns work up easily and the colours can be easily changed to make a whole raft of different friends. So this week, there is a...

Recently Mum and I went on a Crafty Adventures cruise. While the craft aboard was great fun, we did come away with some unfinished projects. In fact, my 'purple' Mayan crochet blanket is a crafty cruise project, started with Shelly and probably taking this whole year to finish. I say 'purple' because I didn't have the Bendigo Woolen Mills colour chart at the time of ordering. I ordered Grey Mist thinking it was more grey but it is definitely more purple. Oh well, Simon will have to be content with a Purple cotton blanket for the spring (It will not be done for the Autumn that is for sure!!!) But, I also did Sewing classes with Paula Storm and I'm not real great at sewing but mum loves English paper piecing so we did the class. I've been making an effort to get these projects finished. And while they are not quite there yet, here is a bit of an update on them. The first is a bag cover. While we were aboard, I re-gigged the design from what Paula had done....

Hello, This post has been a long time coming. I've been thinking about it, wondering what I might do and if I really want/need/have energy for a blog. And here I am, with a new improved blog and a bit of a introductory and starting post. Now, if you know us you'll know there was no way we could have predicted all of the 'things' that happened in the past year. I struggled to think of the good things, and I was feeling a but regretful, until I realised that even though, for the most part, there were pretty awful situations and experiences, they also taught us a whole lot, and led to the decisions that we make now which we wouldn't be freely making had we not had those experiences. Not everything was bad - we swam with a dolphin named Tallulah at Sea World in October and that was an amazing experience, not only for Simon and I but the kids too!!!!!!!!! So, in no particular order, last years lessons: 1. Speak up - even if your voice shakes (thanks Dolly).  You s...