To Market, To Market

So I packed the Austin Healey and headed off on my weekend adventure!

No, that's not quite true, my personal maid packed the car.

Oh, all right, I packed the car but not the above pocket rocket, the good old Holden.

I headed off on Friday morning and the further I got the gloomier it grew, hmmm, not looking too good.

The weather forecast was for loads of rain across the State and most of it falling in my corner of the globe.................

Anyway, I headed off full of excitement that goes with having an adventure.

I stopped in every little town I passed through and visited their Op shop hoping to find buried treasure. The first town I stopped in was Broadford and their Op shop was SHUT ON A FRIDAY.

Now, what's that all about? And it looked like the style Nazis had been there as well.......

My preferred Op shop doesn't look like an upmarket boutique.

My preferred Op shop is a bit jumbly with shelves and racks overflowing with 'things' .

I mean where is the thrill of the find if it's displayed on the wall with matching this and complimentary that.

You need to rummage and search and dig deep to find your treasure, well I do!

Saturday was wet, see above picture!

Main street of Daylesford mid afternoon, before the power blackout!!
I came prepared, you know how much I love this sort of weather (As long as you are prepared) but I managed to leave my umbrella back at my accommodation!

Grey and gloomy, but there were still plenty of people out and about.
There was a power blackout around 3pm! just as I was feeling the need for a coffee, hmmmmmmmm, bad timing.

The rain was very heavy and the friends I was spending the weekend with took me for a drive to see how much rain had fallen. This is the overflow from Daylesford Lake, a couple of days earlier it had been little more than a trickle.

There was a torrent of water gushing down the hillside, I felt a little nervous standing there watching it, such a powerful force.

In between showers I managed to take a couple of pics of local residences that appealed to me.

Love the blue and white of this little cottage

Not sure of the history of this one, but it has a school house/ church look about it, very cute and they certainly would've appreciated having a wood heater this weekend!

Now where are we?

France?

Italy perhaps!

No, still in Australia.

Daylesford has quite diverse architecture, once you start looking
I could have taken 100's of photos but it was a bit too wet and I didn't want to bore you (too much!)

I used to holiday at my aunt and uncles farm many (more than I care to remember!) years ago , so I am quite familiar with it. But there have been many, many changes over the years .

I attended the Makers Market on Saturday morning, oneof the reasons for my visit. Due to the rain only half the number of usual stall holders were there, which was a bit of a shame, but I do understand.

There were some fabulous, clever, crafty people there, displaying their goods and I was very impressed.

I did feel a bit self conscious about taking photos just in case they thought I was some sort of 'Craft Spy' so I left my camera in the depths of my bag. Here's a link to their website if you want to check it out http://www.makersmarketdaylesford.blogspot.com/.

I had a lovely weekend, despite the weather and lack of buried treasure! Thanks to the lovely, wood heater where I was staying, we had heat, a warm dinner, a cuppa and some nice mood lighting during the blackout.

A lesson learnt that I would like to share:- if you don't have candles get to the shop quicksmart before they sell out, as birthday candles really don't last very long at all !!

All up 80mls of rain fell in Daylesford, so it was quite damp.

I stopped at the Hepburn Springs General Store on Sunday morning for a bit of a look. It has all sorts of bits and pieces in it and I found this saying on a blackboard, click on the photo to enlarge. Next time you are planting vegies in the garden, you might consider some of the above . I thought it very clever and quite thought provoking.


I also picked up a couple of loaves of bread that they have baked one of them being Polenta and Pumpkin.

Made the mistake of cutting it when I got home and of course then I had to toast it and eat it ................

What else was I to do.

My little adventure has come to an end, it's nice to be home, by my own heater, toasty and warm (sorry 'bout the pun)

Whilst I was away alot of rain fell here. There was 117 mls in my rain gauge and there are floods nearby, I would venture to say that the drought may very well be over!

If you would like to check out some photos here's a link to the local newspaper http://www.bordermail.com.au/

I know two furry little people that were very happy to see me after being locked out of 'their' house all weekend.

If you received some of this torrential rain I hope you are safe and dry. I certainly feel for those folk who had flood water running through their homes and hope that things can get back to normal as quickly as possible.

I hope you all had a good weekend and maybe even an adventure or two. Thanks for stopping by, if you have time to leave a comment, I would love to hear form you.

Have a great week, till next time,

Claire X

Short But Sweet

Yes, you guessed correctly it's another tea cosy. I finished the fun part, now I've got to assemble it and that's the fiddly part hmm..................................

I love little English villages and couldn't resist putting one on a cosy. I would love to live in the cottage on the left with the grey door.

How about you?

Click on the photo to enlarge.

Remember those cute little hearts I was crocheting last week with the idea of making them into a garland? The lovely Lee at http://www.killiecrankiefarm.blogspot.com was also hooking way unbeknowns to me. She has blogged about her pattern and has been making them into cute little book marks .......... now there's a great idea. She's a whizz with a crochet hook, so pop over and pay her a visit and say "hi" from me.

Today was a gorgeous, sunny day. A day to get outside and enjoy sunshine on your skin, throw off the jumpers and jackets of Winter. Put on the gardening gear and.......................... clean out Cluckingham Palace our chook house.

So I swept, raked, shovelled, barrowed and got it looking all spick and span. Then I put fresh straw in the nesting boxes, much like fluffing up your doona.

The girls thanked me by laying 5 beautiful brown eggs.

The Violets have been flowering away and supplying me with enough to put a posy in a vase on my bedside table. I loooooooooove these beautiful little flowers, with their heavenly scent. The thing is it takes quite a while to pick a bunch, but so worth it.



The Snowdrops are flowering under the Japonica, I love the combination of pink, white and green.

Enjoying the last rays of afternoon sun is Tigger, surprised he's even awake at this time of day!!

I am heading off on a little road trip come this weekend. I am making my way to Daylesford to visit some friends and also to go to the Daylesford Makers Market (http://www.makersmarketdaylesford.blogspot.com) which is on this coming Saturday Sept. 4th. I have been wanting to attend it for some months and have finally got myself organised. I spent quite alot of time there when I was younger, having wonderful holidays with my aunt and uncle. Auntie Margaret was amazing, she could turn her hand to just about anything, making bread, sewing clothes, beautiful cakes to put in the Royal Melbourne Show, even casting her own concrete pots to grow plants in !! So Daylesford, holds lots of wonderful memories. If there are any bloggers going to the Market perhaps we could plan a catchup and coffee, just let me know.

So, I am planning to do a little Op Shop Crawl along the way, why not. Perhaps even sample some coffee maybe a sweet little something to go with the coffee....

Ooh, I've got it planned, haven't I.

I'm hoping to take a lot of pics along the way and pics when I get there, so make sure you come back and visit me next week to read all about my adventures.

Thanks for dropping by, so nice of you to come and visit, if you'd like to leave a comment and tell me about your recent adventures of the householdy or crafty kind I would love to read about them.

Until next time , take care

Claire X