Beginnings

First butterfly I have seen this spring:

Not a great photo as I couldn't get very close to it. It is an Australian Painted Lady, Vanessa kershawi.

New lambs, born today:

I think the sheep on the left is about to give birth. The one in the middle had twins this morning (the second one is behind her - you can just see its tail).

Empty spool:

The one on the right has taken me 20 months (started in January last year) to work my way through.

I'm using this thread just for piecing, as I didn't have a lot of luck using it for quilting. Today I have started another 3000m spool. 

 

On the 1st January 2017, we planted a magnolia "Vulcan" which I received for Christmas the week before. Each year since then its flower buds have started, but not properly developed. But this year I've been watching as the buds have swelled up properly, and today the first one has opened:

It is gorgeous! And there are several more to come:

Happy spring! (Even though it doesn't start for another 3 days).

Creatures

 A few critters seen on long walks during our week of lockdown:

Cuties

Close encounter with cattle

Captive emu

Alert guardian of sheep

Walking

 Most days the dogs take us out for a walk, and although we walk the same roads there is always something new to see. 

Sometimes there are birds, like these two ibises:

Australian white ibis on the left, straw-necked ibis on the right. Just two birds, of different species, hanging out together.

 

There are horses to say hello to, and feed carrots if we have any to spare:

 

Today's highlight was this little guy:

A lamb, exploring the world, until his mother called to him and off he went:

Safe with Mum:

Feral Animals

Until a few months ago we had not had rabbits here. There were rabbits around, but they hadn't found our garden. Unfortunately that has changed, and after the initial sighting in spring, there are now often rabbits in the garden. They have obviously done what rabbits do, because in the last week or so there have been tiny rabbits in all corners of the garden.

There are foxes around. I don't know if they are catching any rabbits, but quite a few of our neighbours have lost chickens to foxes over the last couple of months.

When I came in to the loungeroom this morning I glanced out the window and was stunned to see what appeared to be giant rabbits:

Hares!

I've only ever seen a hare a couple of times before in my life. I've never seen one anywhere near here. But we now have two of them, and judging by the way they were behaving we are going to be overrun with little hares as well as rabbits in a couple of months.

Dashing

Dash the miniature pony and I take a slow trip up and down a neighbour's driveway:

I was reluctant to make such a little horse pull me around, but her owner assured me that Dash can pull 300kg. So no need to call the RSPCA!

In exchange for the excitement I sorted out a couple of sewing machine issues for the neighbour, so everyone benefitted.

Christmas in September?

At the supermarket today:

Christmas puddings, cakes, mince pies... It has started.

Even the reindeer are shocked, they haven't grown their antlers yet!

(Spotted on our walk this afternoon. Probably not actual reindeer.)

Logs, Lines and Llamas

Two tractors at work breaking up the last pile of tree-trunks:

This pile has the potentially usable logs, so rather than being cut up for firewood, they were cut into 3-metre long sections. They could become garden structures like arbours or gazebos. Just not close to the house!

I stitched some lines on my June UFO, a feathered star wall hanging begun in 2009:

After that I stitched some more in other parts, and now I might have finished the quilting. I've hung it on the design wall to consider if it needs anything more or not. Either way, it was good to make so much progress.

Earlier this week the dogs and I met some llamas. They sniffed each other through a fence. But I didn't have my camera with me, of course. So this afternoon we took the dogs and the camera to try to recreate that moment, but it just wasn't happening. There were llamas,

but they kept their distance:

It seems that having sniffed the dogs a few days ago, they didn't feel the need to come close again today.

Rural Lifestyle Expo

Volunteering on the TreeProject stand:

 where we met the TreeProject dog:

and talked to lots of people about what TreeProject is all about;

meant that we had free entry to the Expo, so we went early enough to watch the working dogs:

check out the chooks:

pat a pig:

 dote on some (miniature) donkeys:

and catch the judging of the highland cattle:

Very Happy New Year

Mystery reveal! At around lunchtime today, Bonnie Hunter posted the final instalment of Allietare, this year's mystery quilt. And I didn't even realise, as I hadn't expected the next clue before 4:00pm at the earliest.

Her final quilt looks spectacular!

After completing last week's clue I did some calculations, and this is pretty much the layout I was expecting. I discovered I needed to make a few extra of various previous units to have enough to complete a layout of 4 x 3 of those star blocks, so I made all of them earlier this week. I considered doing enough for a 4 x 4 layout, but decided to wait and see what I thought after the reveal. I'm still not sure. I need to see how my 3 x 4 version looks first.

I cut out the block centres (it was surprising that they didn't have to be pieced) and jumped in to assembling the blocks. It didn't take long to completed my six "middle" blocks:

Not showing them yet!

Then the "star" blocks - I carefully selected units so that no fabric appeared twice in any block:

Clips holding the components for each block so I don't get them messed up.

Started webbing them together:

By dinner time I had all but two of them webbed together:

Piled up, ready for pressing. Once I've got these all assembled, I'll lay them out and decide if that is enough or if I want to add an extra row to make it square.

When we were out walking the dogs this evening we met a teeny-tiny horse:

Is it a pony or a miniature horse?

A flock of yellow-tailed black cockatoos flew over:

It was a very nice start to the year!

Ours

As of 4:00pm today, it is officially ours, and we can move in to the new house. Hooray!

To make the house look as nice as possible for its final inspection (or second-last; there will be another in 12 months) I spread my Celtic Solstice quilt top on the bed:

Once I get myself organised, and it is basted then quilted, this is where it will live. Don't hold your breath, though. The sewing room is going to need a lot of organisational work.

Later in the day we took a walk around a different block, and this photo is for Dianne after her comment on yesterday's post:

Jack met some goats!

Meeting Some Neighbours

This evening we went for a walk around the block. Along the way we met a few interesting locals:

Jack was fascinated by all these strange creatures, but Dot was not impressed at all.