Monday Murals

I haven't posted for a while as I have not had the chance to go mural hunting. But here is one I did find on one of my rare trips to town. It is on the side wall of a cafe in Norwood.

I took this with my mobile phone so the quality is not as good as I would like.

Liz Needle  -  linking with "Monday Mural".

They're Back

Several years ago we were lucky enough to have a pair of White Faced Herons nesting in our pine trees and raising a family of two.

Fledgling plucking up the courage to take off.

The following the parents returned and chose a nesting site, but they were so harassed by the local Currawongs, that they took off and did not return. They did not return last year either much to our disappointment.

However we were very excited last Saturday when it became obvious that the pair had returned and made a nest in much the same spot. Today we are a little concerned that only one of them is visible and is sitting on a branch not far from the nest and calling.

He/She sits there for a time calling then flies off. It may be that the other one has started sitting, but we are concerned that something may have happened to one of the pair. I guess that only time will tell.

I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Liz Needle  -  linking with "Wild Bird Wednesday" and "Outdoor Wednesday".

Sepia Saturday 2

Thanks for all the nice comments about my sewing. I have made a few wedding and bridesmaids dresses in my time, but not for my second daughter - the last photo in that last post.

Here is another family wedding photo that I was sent.

My aunt and her husband in 1944. The flowers are gorgeous.

And when you take the plunge, the consequences are usually children. Here are the bride and groom's children 10 years later, having a play wedding of their own.

And I couldn't resist adding this 1977 wedding.

Don't you just love the groom's white suit.

Liz Needle  -  linking with "Sepia Saturday".

Sepia Saturday

Our prompt this month is this rather elegant wedding photo. I don't have a lot of wedding snaps in the family albums - not old ones anyhow, but I have been able to find a few.




This one is of my great grandparents, taken in 1877. It is a pity that the details are not clearer as the dress she wore looks very intricate.








































These two are the parents of the bride on the occasion of their Golden Wedding Anniversary

I am not sure who this couple are - probably friends of the family, taken in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Edwardian dress style I think.

This happy pair are my English Aunt Mildred and her husband, taken around 1920. This is one of the very few photos I have of my father's family. He was cut from the family and sent to Australia as a Remittance Man to come to his senses and stop embarrassing the family. What he did, we have no idea. All kept very quiet.

Moving along to 1939, this elegant couple are my uncle and aunt. I really wonder how she managed to walk in that dress.

How fashions change. This is another photo from the English side - one of my cousins taken during the 50s.

And my own wedding in 1962 in a gown made by myself.

The 70s saw a great change in wedding gowns judging by this photo of one of my cousins, taken in Darwin in 1970. The gentleman is my husband who gave the bride away. It looks as if the bride is being propped up here.

In the 80s my eldest daughter was married in a gown made by her mother - me. In fact I made all the wedding dresses. How on earth did I find the time.

And finally to the nineties when my second daughter was married.

So a parade of family weddings  over 120 years.

Liz Needle  -  linking with "Sepia Saturday"

Getting off my Butt

One good outcome of the wet weather is that I got so bored with myself that I got off my butt and went back to my sewing. A lovely new Bernina 750 helped get my quilting mojo back.

So I have been having a fruitful couple of weeks.  I completed a quilt for a cousin's new baby boy - he's only 8 months old, so I am not all that late with it. Hope he and his family like it.

We have  a pair of 3 year old twin boys who belong to a friend of my son. We are courtesy grandparents and as they are into superheroes I made them a cushion each.

And, in my boredom I got out the knitting needles and scrap wool and knitted a jumper for our step great grand daughter.

Now I plan to get out some of my UFOs - Unfinished Objects - and get a move on and finish them - in between watching the Olympics.

Liz Needle

Raining Cats and Dogs

Well, we needed rain this year and we got it in bucket loads. It has been the wettest, coldest winter in years - very like the winters we used to get 30 or 40 years ago.  I can remember the first year we were here - just down from Darwin - and in a cold draughty house with hardly any firewood and just small bar heaters to huddle around. It rained and rained and was freezing cold. We wondered whether we would survive. We had 3 small sniffly children (one in nappies), 4 siamese cats, one dog, no clothes dryer, no TV, little furniture, bare floors, no curtains or blinds - we were very close to chucking it in and going back to Darwin.

This winter is a bit like that - except we have a warm and welcoming wood fire to sit around, comfortable furniture, rugs, a clothes dryer - all mod cons. Outside there is water and mud everywhere and the mulch on the top garden beds is now all over the lawns and the patio. Everywhere there are trees down, some causing really severe damage. Our dams are overflowing and take up most of the paddocks, but the rain means less watering this summer.

These first shots are of a winter we had in the eighties. The creek - normally dry - is on the left, the side paddock on the right.

The dam is normally about half this size.

The next photos are this winter.

Water pouring across the neighbours property then over the road into our front paddock

From the front paddock it streamed down the side paddock into our dam which then covered most of the side paddock.

The storm drain on the other side of the road blocked and the water banked up in the drain the poured over the road and across our garden. It then flooded the patio and the sewing room/ Mark's bedroom.

The front lawn and the side lawn became auxiliary dams - in case we ran out of water!!!''

I really think I have had enough winter this year. I almost want to go back to hot, dry. waterless summer - almost. Why can't we have the best of both?

Liz

Linking with "Our World Tuesday"  and "Outdoor Wednesday" and "Wednesday Waters" too.