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

May Musings............

Hello everyone, how are you all?

Life here at Sweet Birdy Love, is bubbling along nicely, like the big pot of soup I have on the stove......

This Autumn weather, has me thinking of one pot meals.

 Stew and dumplings, hearty soups and casseroles.

It's the season for cooking and freezing meals and using the last of the veg from the garden.

My little Janome has also been very busy stitching up new designs.

I've had alot of fun putting them together.

Here are a few of my favourite things in the one stitchery....

Chookies

Twiggy wig wams with Sweet Peas

Hollyhocks

A sweet, little red Robin

Polka dot wellies 

....and to stop those icy draughts sneaking in under the door, I've stitched up some draught stopper/excluders.

Of course there had to be some chooks on one of them.....

But there have been outings as well.  

A couple of weeks ago we headed over Jamieson way to catch up with family who were down visiting from Queensland.

We went prepared to help out with some chores around the family property and raking leaves was one of them.

Easy enough to do, but my goodness those Poplars drop alot of leaves.

These handsome little fellas continue to visit my garden, on a daily basis.

This fella was puffed against the cold of the morning.

He was  quite daring and came right into the courtyard looking for worms on the pavers after a rainy night.....

Now, I have to tell you about my new polka dot wellies which arrived the other week.

The timing couldn't have been better.

I had just posted a WIP pic of this stitchery on Facebook and decided to check the mail before having lunch.

Surprise, surprise there was a rather large parcel shoved into the letter box which is actually an old cream can, so quite roomy.

I was sure it would be for hubby or son, who often order things on line.

 But to my surprise, my name was on it and there was a Customs Declaration sticker, so it's come from overseas and  the contents was listed as 'Wellies'

When I opened up the parcel, these gorgeous wellies were inside.

No note to indicate who they were from, ordered online and sent to my address, hmm!!

For a split second I wondered who and then realised they would probably be from my gorgeous nieces who visited recently. 

They had found out my shoe size and obviously knew my postal address.......mystery solved.

I was quite overwhelmed by such a lovely and very useful gift as my other gumboots had just sprung a leak before they arrived.

Autumn continues to enthrall me with gorgeous colour.

These trees are at our new block.

The previous owner had great foresight and planted alot of English trees around the property.

 We are the beneficiaries of his vision and feel very fortunate to be able to carry on where he left off.

I'm standing on our proposed house site, looking back at

 Sweet Birdy Love HQ.

Our 'Wild Wood' of Silver Birches are glowing golden in the afternoon sun.

It's hard to believe that just a couple of months ago, everything was brown and dry and crunchy underfoot!!

Hubby has been very busy bringing the vegie garden at the block back to life.

He's been digging, weeding, planting and getting ready to put new beds in.

I think he must be planning to feed the whole community somehow, but he's enjoying the change of scenery and it's so lovely to be outside while the days are still reasonably mild.

Another little stitchery, I finished last week.

This was something a little different as I incorporated some hand embroidery as well as free motion embroidery, which gave a foreground and background feel to the cottage garden.

Love the old fashioned Bee skeps......

I'm also enjoying making wire hangers which have a rather rustic appeal I think.

....and last but not least, yesterdays stitching, inspired by the Zinnias in my garden.

The fabric I have used and they way I've stitched them has given  it a decidedly 3D effect.

I just need to add a couple of bees, make a wire hanger and I'm done........but my Zinnias aren't done yet.

 They are  flowering their heads off and despite the blooms getting smaller they are still lovely and bright and cheery.

It will be a shame to have to pull them out shortly

Phew!!!

Hope you're still with me.....well done if you are.

So life ticks over nicely and the days run into one another and become weeks and  then it's a new month.

Nothing particularly exciting happens and that's fine by me.

Ideas for stitcheries keep popping into my head as fast as I can stitch them up.

I have my wood heater going and things are lovely and cosy in the evening. I so love the cooler months.....

Hope you are enjoying the season where ever you are.

Thanks so much for visiting and taking the time to read my ramblings and comment. 

It's always appreciated.

Take care,

Claire Xx