Woohoo it's Festival time again......

Welcome to April......Autumn....cooler days and even cooler evenings.

We've had lovely rain these past 2 weeks and the warmish days have seen mushrooms popping up in the paddock.

I cooked some up with garlic, butter and parsley this evening, absolutely delicious.

The respite from the heat and dryness of Summer has been refreshing. The garden has revived somewhat, the clover is shooting and the surrounding hills are covered in green.

The vegie garden is putting forth the last of it's produce.

 I'm cooking up pots of tomatoes, making veggie soup and enjoying the last of the pears and apples.....

There's still some stitching going on and I've enjoyed making some cards.

 Small projects.

Plus a little hanging, inspired by lots of lovely Spring pics I've seen on UK blogs...... 

Up at the new block, trees around the dam are colouring up beautifully.

 Love the contrast between the greenery, the dry grass and the Autumn colour.

The previous owner had a wonderful plan and started planting English trees when he purchased it 12+ years ago.

We now get to enjoy the beauty of his foresight. 

Old gate at the cattle yards.....love the splash of green.

There's a fair bit of work to do fixing fences etc. but they'll hold up for a little longer.

We're going to be busy for a while

Hubby has been busy weeding the overgrown garden beds.

It's been a time consuming chore, but he's making headway and the recent rain will definitely make the rest of the job alot easier.

The cockies have been enjoying, the berries in the Chinese Pistachio tree.

 They've eaten the berries and nipped off the sprigs dropping them on the ground.

They can be quite destructive and noisy birds, but I do love seeing them take flight with a stormy sky behind them.

  

Well 2 weeks have passed since our Folk Festival.

This was the main street on the Thursday before it all kicked off.

Fairly quiet, not too many people around and lovely weather.

Come Friday along with the visitors, the storm clouds rolled in to town.

We had it all, heavy downpours, wind, thunder, lightning, blackout and even a fire started by a lightning strike just down the road.

But the marquee went up, people pitched their tents at the camping ground and the sun showed itself in time for the opening parade.

Richard enjoys playing for a home crowd, but does find it a bit nerve wracking.

It was great to hear the new songs he'd been working on.

Love the 'guitar face'.....

This year we had the gorgeous Mezz Coleman (on the right) from the blog

 Mezz Makes Stuff playing at the festival.

I have been enjoying her CD since I won it in a giveaway she had some time ago.

It was so nice to see her actually perform.

She's one talented gal with such a beautiful voice, lovely personality, generous spirit and check out those gorgeous red sandals.......op shopped of course.

Also joining her over the weekend was Taz her SIL who blogs over at Butter and Buntings

. Taz is wearing a thrifted vintage tablecloth' skirt she made.....gotta love a pair of red sandals as well.

 I'm holding the 1st copy of the great,little magazine they produce called 

100's and 1000's

Mezz was also kind enough to run a ukulele workshop for the festival......her first ever workshop and if she was at all nervous she didn't show it.

 Everyone had a great time at it and got the opportunity to perform with her at her last gig.

Thanks so much Mezz and Taz and the gang ( Byron, Pete and the super cute Percy) for coming up to Yack for the weekend.

It was great to meet not one but two bloggers and share my little piece of paradise with them........

I hope you'll come back and play again Mezz.....

The weekend was a huge success, our biggest festival in the 17 years it's been running.

It takes alot of time and effort to put these events together and it's all done by volunteers.

A great effort for such a small community......

So now that it's behind us, what's been happening?

Well, we've had rain and it's been lovely.

Beautiful, gentle soaking rain.

Autumn is really starting to put on a show for us, I love it.

I have my 2 nieces from the UK coming to stay in a week or so.

It's going to be alot of fun, there'll be family dinners, day trips here and there and lots of laughter. 

They're only here for a week, but it will be a rather busy week, with Easter in there as well.

There won't be much stitching done, might have to pull out my granny square blanket and finish it off to get my creative fix.

So what's been happening in your neck of the woods?

I would love to hear about them?

Thanks so much for popping by to say 'hi'.....

It's always great to hear from you.

Take care,

Claire Xx

Not Such a Bright Idea.......

Hello girls, how are you all?

Hope you've had a great weekend and enjoyed some lovely weather

wherever you are.....

I've been a busy stitching away, aiming for my first market stall at Bright this year to be held on Saturday.

  

For a change I stitched up some gum leaves,nuts and flowers on a sewing needle book. I loved the end and result and the final touch..... a native blue banded bee....

I've been having fun stitching up little brooches......

Some garden scenes and flowers in polka dot jugs.

Some sleepy time, blanket bunnies waiting patiently to have their nether regions stitched up.

Whilst I'm warm and cosy stitching away inside, it's been quite damp outside this week.

I had to race and grab the camera before the view changed.

The sun was filtering through the cloud, it was quite spectacular.

Wee birds nests have been discovered now that leaves have dropped from trees and shrubs....

This one belongs to the Mistletoe bird. 

It's made from matted plant down and cobwebs. 

I'll take my creative hat off to the gal who made this....the time and effort that went into making this is amazing. 

It's like felt, quite strong yet pleasingly soft.

 It looks like  a small bag suspended from the twig and this pic was taken 10 days ago, when we were having lovely, sunny days after frosty mornings.

Back to the stitching.......

My friend and talented artist  Ella asked me to make some soft toys in the style of the "Woodlings', as gifts for her friend who recently had her second child.

One was for big sister Meadow.....she loves the outdoors and appreciates the beauty of her natural surroundings

A little colour in the cheeks and lips made all the difference.....

Diamonds or a birds nest?

Which treasure would you prefer?

The second was for new brother Geordi,his dad loves the bush and  

no doubt will share his love of it with his son, as he grows.

Possum and gum trees

Now you see the reason behind the native flora inspiration ....

A closeup of the Echidna, funny little creatures that they are.....

As is my way, things came down to the last minute in preparing for the market.

When the alarm went off at 5.30am Saturday it was raining, but I was ready to go whatever the weather.

 Would've been too disappointing not to.

The river in Bright was a ranging torrent after recent heavy rain.

It looked like melted milk chocolate.......

Underfoot it was wet in areas of the park, just as well I packed my gumboots........

I set up my stall along with a few others

.

There was laughter and chit chat and a warm welcome back from stall holders.

Shame the weather wasn't quite as welcoming.

The sun put in appearance and people ventured out, but when it was obvious more rain was on the way,

I packed up early and headed off to have a coffee and catchup  somewhere warm with fellow stall holder Sandy.

Still, I enjoyed my trip to Bright and what do they say?

'Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to dance in the rain' ......

The past week, we've had some very stormy weather and 4 inches of rain and during that time 3 calves were born.

Great timing girls!!

These little bundles of energy are such great time wasters.

I love watching them take their first wobbly steps, gaining confidence, learning to run and  playing together.....  

So the mayhem that ensues preparing for a market is over and I can relax for a bit.......

This week I will be packing away the sewing machine and giving my  sewing room a good tidy up as well as giving the garden a bit of a spruce up too

Then I will be packing my suit case and next week, I will be flying over to Canada to join hubby and son on the last leg of the tour ........

I will be there for the last 3 festivals in Canmore and Calgary Alberta. Then a gig in Kelowna and the last festival in

 Salmon Arm BC.....

So I am wondering if any of you Canadian bloggers or those who have travelled to these places have any suggestions on places to visit or things to do while we are there as the week will be free between festivals......

I'm looking forward to some Canadian hospitality, seeing some of your beautiful countryside and some warmer temps....but of course I will be missing out on some of our Winter!!

So what's going on in your neck of the woods?

Are you enjoying Summer or Winter weather?

Staying put or heading off on holidays?

Hope you have time to stop and say 'hi'.

Thanks for visiting and have a great week,

Take care,

Claire X