Winter's End

 

According to my calendar, winter finishes around September 11th. This was the date of the coldest day of a school year that I can remember. A cold front must have come through that day as we spent the day freezing at Gayndah State High and nobody had a coat to put on. I wait until this date to welcome spring. Mind you, this year a couple of cold fronts have snuck through after this date so my latest motto is "be ready for anything." I did do a few swimming laps of the unheated pool at work last week so am ready for summer.

I found a kookaburra enjoying the Drunk Parrot Tree before all of the leaves had emerged from their brief winter sleep.

2 weeks later and the leaves are all out. The many blooms will soon be fully open and the birds will have a field day.

This is the corner of the orchard with the latest gadget. The wallabies have been eating the new grape shoots so we have erected an electric fence around the edge. This photo shows how the drought is still continuing though our mainstream media doesn't seem to care. 

I have been busy at work once again covering unexpected staff shortages, (think this may get worse as there is now a policy for mandatory covid -19 vaccinations and some people genuinely object to that) but I have found time to make an entry for a juried show. This is the close up photo I sent in. I used strip piecing, applique, double and single stranded quilting. Waiting to hear if I have to send the quilt in for the show.

I made this small one to send into SAQA's trunk show.  I really liked the Purple Night piece I sold at Wondai, November 2020 and this piece is similar. I called it Midnight Garden, so hopefully it arrives in the USA before the deadline. If not, I wonder if it gets returned to me. 

Our yellow clivia bush has rewarded us with its first flower. 

An orange one also popped up beside it.

Over the last 2 weeks, we had contact with, and subsequent visits from the grandsons of  Thomas James Scott who was the first lessee of "Ivanhoe" in 1905. He married his wife Constance in 1916, and they lived here until 1939 when they sold and moved to Kalinga in Brisbane. We have discovered there was a tennis court here as well which we didn't know about. They were both pianists and some of the stories we have been told about dances being held here seem true. This photo seems to be from the 1930's and shows the side of the house where I currently drive my car in to park underneath the house. We are enjoying discovering snippets about what life was like in the old house 100 years ago. There have been some amazing co- incidences discovered between the Scotts and the Wagners so far. One, that interests me is that one of the brothers was a medical scientist in pathology just like me, and the other is a horse/cattle person just like my husband. Interesting looking at the old photos and family history.

Will keep you updated on any further happenings, in both my textile art world and Ivanhoe history.