So That Was June.......

Hello girls, how are you enjoying July?

Is it cold and foggy in your neck of the woods, or is the sun shining and the garden full of beautiful blooms?

Well, we're into the second month of Winter here.

There's still plenty of wood in the shed, so all is good.

I've been enjoying some lovely damp, grey days, they make this Pluviophile smile.......

Seeing posts here and on Facebook about Summery gardens in the Northern Hemisphere gave me some wonderful inspiration, so I stitched up a 

'Summer Posy'

We celebrated "World Knit In Public Day" recently and a post on our community Facebook page bought out a group of like minded women......and a few others!!

We met in a local cafe and over coffee and yarn we stitched and chatted, laughed and shared skills and

'Yack 'n Yarn'

 was born....

 I felt a couple of vintage cloths and a basket of wool and vintage needles were necessary to 'prettify' the table.

I got absolutely no stitching done,I was teaching a friend how to crochet.

That's my  ball of sock wool with 4 needles sticking out of it in the foreground......next time.

Friend and talented knitter Julie, not only knitted this gorgeous cardy, but she also spun the wool and if I remember correctly I don't think she used a pattern either.

Anyway, she is one clever lady and it's good to have someone with her experience in our little fledgling group.

So if you are in the area and feel like a Yack or a Yarn, we will be meeting on the 4th Sunday morning of the month in a local cafe and would love you to pop in......

If I ever needed some knitting inspiration I wouldn't have to look far.

These gorgeous Eastern Rosellas visit my property daily and on a foggy, grey morning, the certainly brightened up the view.

Loving the oak leaves still hanging on to these trees and the golden, coppery colours......

This pic was taken last Saturday, a damp Wintery day.

I  rugged up and headed up to our new block to take some pics.

The Manchurian pears on the right are still holding on to some leaves.

 It's quite a different micro climate.

 Our Manchurians at home dropped all their leaves weeks ago and there's less than a kilometre between the two.

Hubby has been busy in the vegie garden.
He's cleared all the grass and weeded the beds and added more.
They'll be raised beds, to make gardening easier.
I joke that we are going to be feeding our local community with all the beds he's putting in, but he's got it all planned out and is enjoying making that plan a reality.
If you read my March post, you'll be able to compare the difference and see how much he's done.

Wonderful fairytale,Fly Agaric toadstools which grow under Oak trees......

It's quite exciting when you stumble across them and it became the inspiration for the following stitchery.

I celebrated another birthday last month, so a rather large slice of lemon meringue cheesecake was enjoyed by hubby and myself.

It would've been rude not to share!!

Our Magpie family are quite the characters and this cheeky, young, thing decided to investigate the compost bucket which I was about to empty.

It picked out a few things and scattered them around, while Tigger slept soundly through it all!!

 Robins continue to visit the garden and this beautiful female, made a stunning picture against the blue, blue sky.

I love all the birdlife we see here and feel very privileged that we get to enjoy it.

The last of the green tomatoes were picked a few weeks ago along with the capsicums and I spent the day slicing, dicing and stirring.

By the end of the day there were 25 jars of green tomato pickles sitting on the kitchen bench

The second batch I've ever made and I have to say while they may not have matched the flavour of last years', they came a close second....

I used a couple of recipes  and merged them and added a bit of this and that and of course I was too busy cooking it all to write it down......

So next years batch will be interesting.....

It's so satisfying to turn something that once would've gone over the fence to the cows into produce for the pantry.....

So there's a snapshot of a few happenings in the

 Sweet Birdy Love  household.

While Winter is here, it's about cosy evenings  by the heater and enjoying the weather, whether it be a grey, foggy day or a blue sky and sunshine Winter's day.

I know that all too soon it will be Spring and then Summer and the temps will rise and rise and rise, so I'm not going to complain for one minute about the cold.

 I shall embrace it and run headlong into it wrapped in scarves, jumpers, tights, boots and gloves.

I'll throw another log on the heater and cook up some wonderful one pot meals in the kitchen.

 Snuggle under the doona and enjoy each and every day.

Righto, I'm off to bed, it's later here and I've taken way longer to do this post than I expected.

Thanks for dropping by for a catchup.

Always lovely to hear from you.....

Claire Xx