The Week So Far

On Monday Dot returned to the vet for a check-up on her eye. It was still looking bloodshot, and it turned out the reason was that there was still a large grass seed in her eye. Poor Dot! We are continuing with the same medication regime for a bit longer, but after only two days her eye looks normal - not bloodshot any more.

My car when we got home:

I had my camera ready to take a photo when it clicked over to 100,000 (after pulling over to the edge of the road, of course!). I'll probably forget about it next time I go out, so this might be it.

I don't know what to say about Tuesday's breakfast:

Someone has bought a lot of quirky stuff online recently. 

Today I moved one step closer to meeting my sewing goal for the month. I finished quilting Frolic yesterday, and now I have machined on the binding:

If I hand sew down one side each day, I could just get it finished by the end of the month.
 

Easter Already

 This came home with the shopping today:

Easter buns. I guess that means Christmas is well and truly over! But look at the date on that package:

They definitely won't last until Easter if they should be eaten before the end of this year. Of course, if people didn't buy Easter buns in December, the supermarkets wouldn't sell them, so I can't really complain.

When I showed the potholders I made last week I mentioned that I had cut more strips than I needed. Today I made myself a potholder with the extras, adding in some colours to match our kitchen:

That's probably the last project I will complete this year. It has been a year of not achieving much at all.

Trip to Melbourne

It was my son's birthday on Tuesday. The last time I saw him was in the middle of February, when my mother was in hospital and thought unlikely to recover. Since then, of course, there have been lockdowns and travel bans and the desire to avoid places with lots of people. But now Victoria has gone 27 days with no new covid cases, there are no active cases anywhere in the state, restrictions have lifted, and the prospect of sitting in a train with strangers for over an hour isn't as worrying as it was earlier. 

I drove to Ballan station, and got quite a surprise when I drove into the carpark:

Normally all those spots are taken! One of these three cars is mine. There are some other cars behind where I am standing, but there are about 100 empty spaces, where normally I would expect less than 10.

While I have been not travelling, upgrade works at the station have been in progress. There are now two platforms, although the new one isn't operating yet. They are expecting it to be in service by the end of January.

This sign is new. I thought it might be warning of swooping magpies, but the subtitle, "About the artwork" had me looking everywhere for the art.

It turned out I had already walked over a part of the artwork. It is in the concrete pathway:

The train to the city was not crowded at all. There were about 6 people in my carriage, so it was easy to maintain social distancing. The city was also not crowded:

I took that photo at about 1:00pm. A normal lunchtime would see hundreds of people just on the tramstop. I was sitting waiting for my son, who had said he would meet me at 1:00. I had finished my city shopping early, then found this shaded spot to wait. It was good to see that more than half of the people walking around were wearing masks, even though masks are not compulsory outside any more.

This was the shopping I did:

A few mainly Japanese items that are not easy to come by out in the sticks! The matcha-flavoured KitKats were an impulse buy after Pamela recently posted about Japanese KitKats.

Eventually I met up with my son, and we found somewhere with outside tables to eat lunch. It was good to see him again, and under far less stressful circumstances than our last meeting. We had a good talk, then headed our separate ways. 

The train home was much more crowded unfortunately. Until we got to Melton every pair of seats had one person in it, but at Melton many school children boarded the train. I ended up with a tiny little girl sitting next to me. She looked like she could only have been in Prep or grade 1. I took comfort in the idea that very young children seem less likely to spread covid. I was happier sitting beside her than some of the blokes I saw on the train who were "wearing" their masks under their chins!

Groceries

Since the virus struck we have been keeping away from shops as much as possible.  The major supermarkets said they would be doing deliveries for elderly and vulnerable people, so I tried to get it set up for my father. I don't think someone in their 90s should be going anywhere near shops at the moment.

However, every time I checked the Coles website it said the priority service would be starting "soon". Fortunately Woolworths were more efficient at getting their system going, and we were able to sign up there. Deliveries are still difficult, as orders have to be done a week in advance, but the pick-up service is much more flexible.

Today we did the first pick-up order:

It worked really well. We placed the order, specified a pick-up time, and paid online. When the order is ready they send a text message. You let them know you have arrived via the app, and they bring the groceries out to you, all bagged up. It worked brilliantly!

However if Dad didn't have someone to do all this for him, the service wouldn't be of benefit to him. He doesn't have a credit card to pay for things online. He doesn't have a mobile phone to get texts or to use an app. Of course he doesn't have a car, so he can't use the pick-up service anyway. And he doesn't seem able to think of what he might need a week from now, so the delivery system just won't work for him.  I wonder how other elderly people who don't have family nearby are managing to get their groceries?

Retreat - Friday

My room for this weekend's retreat:

Just a fairly plain motel room, brightened up by my Carolina Chain quilt. The retreat actually started this morning, but I work on Friday morning so didn't get here until later in the afternoon.

Notice my computer optimistically plugged in. The "free wifi" didn't work in my room most of the time, and my phone had no signal for most of the weekend. "Emergency calls only" or sometimes, "No SMS connection". I was in a communications black hole! So much for my plans to blog as the weekend progressed. This and the following posts are being written after my return home.

I had asked for vegetarian meals. Here's tonight's dinner:

Definitely lots of vegetable matter! Roast veges, and salad. (Subsequent meals were more balanced, fortunately.)

I made a start on one of the projects I brought with me, photos tomorrow.

AQC

The Australasian Quilt Convention opened today in the Exhibition Building in Carlton. I volunteered for white glove duty, which meant I could get into the show free, and also get up close and personal with the quilts.

This is me getting my hands on a quilt I never expected to see in real life. It was made by Cherry, a blogging friend in the US.  I watched this quilt being made on her blog. You can see her inspiration here, some early progress here, more here, and the finished quilt here. I was very excited when I found out that Cherry's Van Gogh entry was in the group of finalists that were touring to AQC. I was planning to get a photo with my hands all over the quilt, but that was thwarted when it was hung in the top row!

There were lots of amazing quilts on display, but by the time I had done my 2 hours duty, I was too overwhelmed to think sensibly about taking some photos. 

The only thing I was interesting in looking for among all the vendors was a thimble. I was looking for the leather stick-on ones which a couple of people recommended to me. But no-one seemed to have them for sale. However, I did find the one in this photo at one of the Japanese vendors:

The needle threaders were not from the show - I popped into Daiso on the way back to the station to see if they had any thimbles. No luck, but I've been having a lot of difficulty threading needles lately, so these were a good find.

My only other purchase for the day, apart from refreshments, was these:

I do love mochi! I've only found one shop in Ballarat that sells them, and the price there is more than double the city price, so I like to stock up when I'm in town.

Lunch and Dinner

If you make a full size batch of dough you might have to make more pizzas than you intended, and then you have to eat pizza for both lunch and dinner.

First of a few.

The oven was hot. The dough was made. And apparently making them and putting them in the freezer wasn't an option! They were yummy, anyway.

Gifts from Friends

Today I went into Melbourne to meet up with some quilting friends, and came home with a couple of goodies:

The catalogue because Ikea don't deliver them way out here in the sticks. Last month after my quilting meeting I went to Ikea to get one, and they didn't have any in the store, either. So thank you to the quilting friend who brought one along for me today.

The marmalade (yum!) was because of a comment I made on the maker's blog when she spent a busy day producing 22 jars of it. Now she will only have to eat 21 jars!

Sweet Things

A lovely cooler, grey day today, complete with rain! Very refreshing after the hot day yesterday.

Daylily Huckleberry Candy flowering:

The last time I blogged it was five years ago, and I really don't know if it has flowered in any of the intervening years or not. But it seems quite happy in its new home, with multiple buds developing behind this first flower.

Rescue daylily flowering:

The garden where it used to live is now under concrete, so it is nice to see it flowering here.

The first gladiolus to open is white:

Today I planted a few more that were part of a Christmas gift. They are supposed to be purple with white stripes, but it will be some time before we can know if they really are.

Vireya Chayya is covered in flowers:

There are nine trusses of flowers like this, and several buds still to open.

It occurred to me this afternoon that yesterday was Jack's third birthday, so here's the little sweetie a couple of days ago:

Perched on the back of an armchair, keeping an eye on the little lizards out in the garden.

Tonight one of our neighbours and his young son brought us a plate full of sweet things they'd made, including these really cute little teddies in cars:

Very sweet!

Mineral Water

Stopped off at Ballan mineral springs to pick up some mineral water:

It is not bad mixed with cordial, but it doesn't taste great on its own. It's like soda water with extra salt.

I'm not sure why the shire council webpage about the springs is in the past tense:
"Adjacent to the Bostock Reservoir this small 1 ha reserve had spring water comparable to that of Hepburn Springs."

Citizens' Jury Day Two

Today was an incredibly full-on day, as 80-odd people tried to reach consensus on our final "asks". Hated that term "ask", but I guess it is bureaucracy-speak for request or recommendation. Consensus was defined as more than 80% of the participants being able to at least live with it. (Other possible levels of approval: love it, like it, live with it, lament it, loathe it.)

I promised pictures of the food, so here you are. Morning tea:

Not much of a picture, but the items were inside the paper bags. There was also tea, coffee and juice to drink. Not just water!

Lunch:

Sushi, rice-paper rolls, salads, fruit, and some sandwiches which didn't show up in the photo. It was all yummy, and healthy! No cakes, no chocolate (although to be honest, by afternoon tea time each day I really wanted some chocolate. It was so stressful!)

I didn't get a photo of afternoon tea, but it was mainly fruit.

One one side of the room there was an eye-opening display:

And the winner was Solo with 17 teaspoons of sugar in a 600ml bottle. Coke wasn't far behind with 16.

The first half of the day was for writing up the "asks" in small groups. But the noise level in the room where all the discussions was going on was too much for me. The group I was in had the hardest "ask" to work on. It had had about 10 other suggestions rolled into it, and distilling it all down into something concise and precise was a huge challenge. At one point I just had to leave the room and try to find some quiet. I went for a walk around the small park across the road, where I envied the calmness of this lady doing tai-chi exercises:

After lunch there were some more small-group discussions where we could "reality-check" our "asks" with members of the steering group (representatives of various organisations with interests in this area), and then it was time for the final vote to see which "asks" achieved 80% approval. That was a stress-filled process, as you might imagine. Early on people wanted to debate and refine and re-word the asks, but by the end there wasn't time, and we just had to vote on them "as is". I was very disappointed that one of the asks I really was in favour of was voted out at this stage, despite having received over 80% approval at earlier stages (previous votes a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday). But there was no time to find out why suddenly its approval had dropped to about 75%. Perhaps we could have re-worded it slightly to get it over the line, but there wasn't an opportunity. Several of the jurors who felt strongly about that issue have added it as a "minority report" to the final submission.

So then it was all over, and time to go home. I gradually relaxed as I left the city behind, and am very happy to be home again in the quiet!

Random Pie Truck

We've driven past this van parked in what seems like the middle of nowhere a few times:

but today it was just about lunchtime, so we stopped and sampled a couple of "Wiz In Highway Pies". And they were pretty good pies!

Moving Day

Bright and early, this arrived:

Compare and contrast - the front of House A:

the front of House B:

Slight difference! Not much garden to be seen at house B just yet. The dark area is the new soil covering the completed dispersion field. And that's Dan the builder ensuring it is clearly marked so no-one will drive on it.

Then Dan moved on:

which was a bit sad, as he has been a big part of our lives for the last 6 months.

Then the movers moved in:

And when they also moved off, we ate our first "meal" in the new house:

Picnic pull-apart and chocolate. Maybe not the healthiest meal ever, but it didn't need plates or cutlery!

Multicultural

Found in my local Asian grocer:

"Kangaroo" brand "American" baking powder labelled in Chinese and Vietnamese. But on the back it says "Product of Australia". Very multicultural!
From what I can find on the internet, American baking powder is the same as Australian baking powder, so I don't know why it is labelled this way.

Market Stall

An attractive stall at Vic Market. Someone with an eye for design has used an umbrella, some galvanised vessels, and blackboards for prices to create a unique look.

From Canada

When someone recently asked me what I would like from Canada, I remembered the maple sugar treats I enjoyed there so many years ago:

And here they are! Many thanks to the traveller who found them despite not really knowing what he was looking for.

I hope they will be as good as I remember!

Huckleberry

Reading Huckleberry Finn, and watching Huckleberry Hound, it didn't occur to me to wonder what a huckleberry might be. But these goodies made me look it up:

So now I know! Haven't tried the chai mix yet, but the jam is very yummy.

Fun with Food

Christmas cake boat on a custard sea.

Regional Speciality

Central Victoria's signature dish:

Chips and gravy!

(Unfortunately the motto "Good food" on the side of the box isn't visible in the shot).

Tiny Pud

At a quilting group break-up today lots of gifts were exchanged, including these tiny puddings made by one member. The puddings are about 2.5cm across, and very yummy as well as cute. I wonder if any will last until Christmas?