A New Adventure Begins.....

A year full of 

possibilities,

 opportunities 

and creativity

 stretches ahead of us girls.

Are you excited?

I am and I look forward to sharing 2013 with you all.

The weather is warming up, we're looking at 40 deg. tomorrow eek!!

  Sulphur Crested Cockatoos  have been making their presence heard out in our paddocks for the past week. 

 Circling the house and screeching loudly when disturbed.

I'm worried they have their beady eyes on our ripening nectarines!!

Today, I stayed in aircond. comfort, plugged in the sewing machine for the first time this year and turned one into a pincushion!!

 I think there might be a flock of them here by the end of the weekend. Thankfully these aren't the noisy variety!!

With neither map nor compass I am heading in to new territory this year.....I think it's called an adventure!!

I'm enjoying the process and finding my way slowly.

No rights or wrongs, just following my instincts.

The holidays have passed and things were very relaxed in the 

SBL household.

 Christmas week was very pleasant weather wise and Boxing Day was spent with family relaxing by the Ovens River at Mt. Beauty...

 Home grown Nectarines were picked to share with friends.

Stone fruit would have to be my Summer favourites.

Sun warmed and eaten straight from the tree, what could be tastier?

The excess will be poached and put in the freezer to enjoy later in the year.

Let's head outside to see what's happening, grab your hat......

As the temps rise and things slow down in the garden, Gardenia Radicans come into their own.

These sweetly perfumed flowers find their way onto my bedside table and into the bathroom.

I love the pure white of these little gems.

Daylillies....here today and gone tomorrow, but a stunning

colour to enjoy whilst in bloom.

They don't seem to mind the heat at all.

The Hollyhocks, continue to flower and this lovely pink bloom reminds me of delicate, crepe paper flowers made in primary school.

Two big, fat buds behind the bloom are waiting to burst open.

Love the little 'frill' running vertically on them.

The Cherry Toms are ready.....

A few roses I picked to avoid burning in the heat.

Apart an initial burst of flowering they have slowed down, so it's nice to be able to pick enough to bring indoors again.

The first Zinnia of the season popped it's head up on the last day of 2012......

I've been thinking about the new year and what it might bring quite a bit.

I set myself a few goals...

 One of them is to to knit a pair of socks this year and I see that I'm not alone in this goal. 

I've been inspired by Alison over at Tweed Delights  who knitted two pairs of socks recently and can now join the 

'Sock Knitters' club....

Using time wisely and being more focused is another.....
it will be interesting to see how I go with that one.

I now have a 'Sweet Birdy Love' page on Facebook.  
If you would like to visit take the link, 'Like' my page and you will receive my updates.
I will put a Facebook buttony thing on my blog once I have figured that one out.....all tips gratefully received.

Well, here's to the start of something wonderful, thanks for visiting and I hope you are all well and enjoying the new year.

Take care,

Claire x

Sewing and Growing

Is it Friday all ready?

Half way through November and Spring continues to delight us.

It's the most beautiful day here, lovely and sunny with a light breeze and between the warmth of the sun and the cooling breeze it's the perfect temperature outside.

 If only it would stay that way......

I had a frustrating start to yesterday.

I had planned to plug my Janome in and sew the last makes for the market on Saturday. It was all sorted in my head.

 I was going to be very productive .....then the power went off about 8.15am and didn't come on for a little while.

 We often get what we call 'brownouts' where it goes off and comes back on within the minute...not this time it would seem.

So, I thought I can deal with this I will finish stuffing and stitching my softies and if it's still out, well I could tidy the sewing room......all sorted.

.

Just before 9am it comes back on, great, let's do a complete about turn and go with the original plan.....make another tea cosy.

I had ideas and started drawing and cutting and placing and no it wasn't working. 

Let's try idea no. 2, half an hour in, no, that's not working for me either.

 Let's go back to another idea and see if that grabs me.....

Two and a half hours later and the morning  was just about over before I could get into it, grrr!!

What a lot of faffing about.....

Do sudden changes to plans throw you off course, or do you roll with them and keep on going?

So finally another tea cosy for the market and something different......Pansies.

I love their sweet little 'faces' and the colour they add growing in amongst the Silverbeet....

The Sweet pea cosy is finished, if I can't have them in my garden this year I will just sew up a few......unfortunately this variety have no scent!!

I forgot to share  a little bit of exciting news after last months market.

The Alpine Shire put out some new advertising material for the area including, Bright, Myrtleford Mt. Beauty and Harrietville.

One little booklet "Retail, Dining & Experiences" has a pic of my work.

 The photo must've been taken over  a year ago, looking at what I was selling.....I was chuffed....

Of course there has been coffee and a catchup with friends this week and 20 mins before I was due in town I 'needed' to whip up a Bumble Bee to go with a posy of flowers for a friend.

Why does this desperate need to make something in particular always arise when time is limited ?

Do I work best under pressure? hmmm!

Come on let's go outside and enjoy the sunshine...

Garden fresh peas, have been picked, shelled and cooked to have with dinner. 

Sometimes they make it into the saucepan and sometimes they don't. 

Depends who picks them.....

Another 'newbie' flower to my garden are Larkspurs, they have just started flowering.

The garden bed is raised about 8 inches even so this plant towers above me......

The berries in the back orchard and coming along nicely, 

lots of flowers = lots of berries.

Not all that far away from ripening, yum

Then I looked a little closer and discovered our 'friends' from last season were back!!

At least they are easy to see against the darker berries.

So once again we will deal with these bugs by removing them by hand and feeding them to H.M. Mrs Brown, our only tame hen.

You just need to call "chook, chook" and she comes running, knowing that you will have some tasty morsel for her. 

The Nectarine tree has a lovely crop of fruit and I hope we get to eat it all this year.

Brown Rot ruined most of it last season due  to a damp Summer....

So one of this mornings jobs, was to finish off stitching these

softies...Owlets and Sleepytime Bunnies......

Now I am done and everything is packed ready for tomorrow's market. I have tidied, vaccumed, hung out the washing and it's all happening today....

Here's the changing view from the great room window.

Green turning to gold and eventually brown paddocks.....

I love hearing the tractors rumble down the road on the way to slash and bale the grass.

No. 1 received a hammock as  birthday present this year and we hung it in the orchard. I think I might just be spending a bit of time in it this evening after work.

 I hope you've all had a great week and it was productive and not frustrating.....
Thanks for coming over and have a great weekend.

 Take care,

Claire x

Of Flowers and Feathers......

I knew the little crocheted flowers from the last blog post, would come in handy for something.

I had an end of year catchup with a friend recently and we exchanged gifts.

I made her a cover for her sketch book.

It was something she had asked for, unfortunately I didn't take a photo of it.

When I had wrapped the pressie I knew just what needed to be added and was very happy with the look.

Might crochet a few more in different colours to add to gifts throughout the year
My friend's gift to me, is one of her beautiful paintings.

A very special one which I shall blog about when it's framed.

I 'll give you a little hint what the picture is about.

The subject is red and feathery, yes, you guessed correctly.....

The nectarines this year may be just a few, due to the wild storms we have been having BUT what we do have are ginormous.

I hope the birds don't sneak in under the netting and get to them before we do, they are pretty cunning...............

Love the rich red in amongst the greenery....

Does it remind you of anything?

My Sunflowers are blooming........

Love the rich burgundy, dare I say Autumnal tones, of this flower.

I had seeds in an envelope in the shed and actually didn't read the description so I have been pleasantly surprised by the colour and size of the flowers.

The chooks love eating the seeds so they serve a dual purpose.
I barrowed loads of cow manure into this garden bed and I think all the effort has paid off. One of the plants is well over 2 metres high.....

The Buddleia is also putting on a lovely display. The butterflies love it.

I just love the rich, dark, purple and the scent, mmmmm.....

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to last long when cut and bought inside, but that won't stop me...

Recent storms have weighed the branches down and I will need to have a serious pruning session, but not till it has finished flowering.

As you can see there is still quite a tinge of green to the hills in the background. It's nice that everything hasn't browned off and gone crunchy underfoot....

The weather is finally starting to warm up a bit, but more rain is forecast for the weekend. Hopefully not in such great amounts as we have experienced recently.

Another photo shoot for mum and bubs. They are growing quickly and beautifully marked feathers are sprouting. I let her out each evening so she can forage and have a dust bath. It's so much fun just watching them.

I love hearing the chirping noise she makes when she has discovered a tasty morsel. The chicks come running over and then there's a tussle over the tucker.

Well, that's just a little bit of what's been happening here.

I would just like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and all the best for a happy, healthy and creative 2011.

Take care wherever you are particularly if you are travelling.

Thank you all so much for visiting my blog throughout the year and commenting..

It's so nice to connect with people near and far, I hope you will keep visiting in the New Year.

Till next time, take care,

Claire X

Home Grown and Hand Made

Don't they look, nice and juicy and luscious? Our nectarine tree, the fruit is just about ripe. It's quite pretty to look at with all those rosy baubles hanging on it. The fruit is lovely and juicy and sweet and often is eaten straight from the tre. On really hot days it tastes as though they have been cooked, just need to add a scoop of icecream to them!


My recipe book has obviously seen better days, but was a Chrissy present from my parents when I was expecting No. 1 son. It's full to overflowing with recipes cut from magazines and newspapers. It has hand written recipes from
friends and family in it and needs to be held together with a rubber band.


It also contains sayings and quotes I have found over the years and want to remember, so where else would you put them? In a recipe book of course!!

Click on the picture to zoom in and read some of the quotes. Just for good measure I have stuck in one of Leunigs cartoons. For O/S readers, Leunig (Michael Leunig) is an Australian cartoonist and every Saturday one of his wonderful cartoons appears on the back of the A2 magazine in the Age newspaper. He is very, very clever, witty and sees humour in the most mundane things.

Does anyone have recipe books falling apart at the seams, that they can't bear to part with? Please tell me I am not the only one!!

Just to finish off a little crafty goodness. These "creatures" have been made from recycled materials .An Op shop woollen blanket and woollen jumpers that I have felted.

They are just little characters that came to life and

have that much loved and mended look about them.

They remind me of the soft toy that starts of as a brand new gift for a new baby and then

years of love and cuddles see them being patched,darned and even handed down to siblings as they are too special to discard.

It's interesting to watch people's reaction to them when I have my market stall. They either love them, or are not too sure about them. As they say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"

Thanks for dropping by for a visit,

Till next time,

C x