OUR RECENT HOLIDAY TO QUEENSLAND.

PART 1.
Well, I suppose some may have noticed I've been a bit quiet lately.  We went away with our caravan at the beginning of August & I had limited internet access, so decided I'd do anything necessary & not worry about blogging, which I'd do as soon as we arrived home.  Alas, I managed the Scavenger Photo Hunt, then had both internet & laptop problems, so now I think I'd like to catch up with a bit about our holiday before the next photo hunt arrives.  I was "k.......d" (exhausted), when we got back, so even sorting the photos was delayed.  Now I'm halfway through quilting 2 customer quilts, which has also been frustrating me. 
Sunday afternoon, quite cool & with hubby watching car racing on the telly, I'm sitting here trying to work out what to write & which photos to use.  Here goes............

DAY 1
We left home early, headed out of Melbourne, making for Tocumwal on the Murray River which is the main border between Victoria and New South Wales.  Towing a caravan limits my photo taking, so not much till we reached the lovely small town of Tocumwal which sits on the NSW side of the river, where we stayed for the night.

A rest area along the highway, where there is shaded parking area & toilets. Convenient for travelers in Australia due to the long distances traveled.

Murray River at Tocumwal.

The BIG Murray Cod.

We have a passion here to have BIG representations of 'things"  & the one above is a native fish species that lives in the Murray River.

Some wonderful murals on the front of the local IGA supermarket in Tocumwal.  Very representative of our countryside from yesteryear.

I spied this whilst we were on our walk around town & just had to snap it.  Along the top (if you click on it you can see it better), it reads National Bank of Australasia Ltd.  When I started working in the bank in 1966, this is what it was called, though I was employed in Sydney & not this branch.  It is now called NAB.  Useless information, I suppose.

                                This beautiful old tree was near the park & displayed a plaque.

And then, wondering what this was as we ended our walk.............

 Nearing the caravan park, (our car can be seen in the top left of the above photo) & approaching the long fence I could see movement.  Was it a dog? 

NO!!!!  It was these 2 kangaroos, who seemed to be fascinated by me too, snapping away madly.  

DAY 2 & 3.

Only a few photos taken these couple of days, due to aforementioned travelling restrictions & most of my followers not knowing the geography of Oz.  We traveled up the Newell Highway, west of the Great Dividing Range (a range of mountains running top to bottom on the eastern side of our country).

Most of NSW & Queensland are in severe drought & I've tried to capture that.

Taken through the rather bug spattered windscreen, showing just how dry, flat & expansive it is out west.

 A dry creek bed, which by the erosion of it's sides, can flow well, when we've had rain.

Occasionally, there are places to stop, as long as you've not got a truck or other vehicle,"right up your backside", as hubby puts it.   There were many trucks loaded with hay on their way to drought stricken farmers.

Another view over ploughed fields, awaiting those first drops of rain.  The mountains in the distance are a small section the Great Dividing Range.

I'll post more during the week about travelling over the border into Queensland, our little mishap & seeing places new to me, as I've only been to Queensland once before, when I was 16 and that is, a long time ago.

A LITTLE EXTRA.......................

I've managed to finish the piecing on the quilt I designed and started at the Mystery Case weekend I enjoyed with my friend Joy, back in July.   Ahhhhhh!

Does anyone ever feel guilty about weird things?

Here in our part of Victoria, even though the rainfall isn't as good as it should be, we are definitely in the GREEN & not drought. This I snapped last week on a short afternoon outing.

Taken on a back road between Drouin & Poowong, it definitely makes the above photos look stark.

I was actually out to take one of the photos for the Scavenger Hunt.  Hmm!  Now I have you wondering.

I'll leave it at that for today & have scheduled in another 'holiday post' on Wednesday, I hope.

Thanks for taking the time if you read this.  Am I too long winded?

Take care all & huggles.

Susan.

SEASIDE

Just a quick post leading up to us going away.  Not sure whether or not I'll be able to post whilst away, but sure will try.  I'll do another over the weekend and we leave on Tuesday.

Last Friday, we had an outing to Geelong (again) to get something signed for our heating rebate.  As we had to wait for the person to return, we headed out to Barwon Heads to eat our lunch, but went for a walk first along the promenade, up the stairs to the lookout and then down and back along the beach.

 From the promenade..

The headland...

 The top of the stairs with signage...

 Looking out to sea.....

Looking west towards Torquay.

Walked back down to the beach and look what I saw.

 A molusc leaving tracks in the sand....

 Very white seaweed.....

 Patterns in the sand......

More seaweed....

 And more...

The cafe at the end of the pier.

 And what do we have here?  A blanket keeping the engine warm on our car.

No, our lunch heating up.  Lovely gooey ham, tomato and cheese croissants I'd made early in the morning.

Don't laugh, but it works.  It was a lovely day out, as we both love the coast.

Next, just a taster of what I hope to get up to once we get back from our holiday.  Over the years I've amassed many quilt tops which still need quilting.  So far this year I've only done one of the many, although I've quilted both baby quilts and 4 of the test patterns for Sue.

This pattern is from QNM no. 187, dated Nov/Dec 1986.  I made it a version of my own around 1997/8, as a result of my late cat Fluffy playing with the blocks laid out on the floor.  I was also going through a very colourful phase.(giggle).

This past week has seen me trying to get some sewing done.  I can't show exactly what it all is, but just a peek.

Well, that's all folks.  Oh, and I didn't make the doorstop.  It was my Xmas present from our youngest and family.  Take care and hope the end of the week goes well my fellow readers.
Susan.

BUSY WEEK.........

This last week has been a whirlwind.
Firstly, I would love to thank all who left comments and am sorry I didn't get time to reply.  Hopefully this week won't be quite as hectic.

I think I mentioned some time ago that I was crocheting another ripple rug, this time for Hubby.  It's been a bit slow going, but this is how far I've got.

Last Sunday saw us going to the Lake Goldsmith Steam Rally.  The day was very cold and somewhat showery, but what we saw was worth it.  Just a few photos, as hubby took lots.

Very large.

Very small.

Many moons ago, we owned a truck like this.

 Now for a few other happenings this week.
I had to go to the Doctor a couple of times as all my files had finally arrived from my last doctor and two blood tests were part of that.  All is OK.

Wednesday saw me at Joy's for a sewing morning and whilst there she finally got Emmi G up and going.
Yippee.  I even achieved sewing 2 blocks.

Joy's Gammill Classic.

Thursday saw us head back to Warragul to the solicitor to finalise the update on our wills.  Whilst there I went to see my friend Janette and to see her new toy.  This is what she now has in her sewing room and she is already getting the hang of it.

Janette's HQ Sixteen.

I needed to make another baby quilt, this time for a young lady who worked for many years at the Warragul Newsagency.  I thought she was having a girl, but everyone else thought it a boy, so I waited till it came, before I made the quilt.  Being on a tight budget, I found some scraps, like this.

Large scrap piece and a bag of odd shaped leftovers.

They have now become these, with another three to be made.

I t is amazing what you can achieve from leftovers.  I will add sashing and borders and voila, a quilt for a little girl called Macy.

This morning I quilted my granddaughter's quilt, which actually didn't take long at all.

Little E's quilt in progress and now off the machine and awaiting its binding.

All in all, a very busy week, with so much done.  Hopefully I will reply to comments this week and maybe do another post, instead of a whole week going by.  Now I am off to prepare our tea. (salmon tonight).
Hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend and take care.
Susan.