Happy New Year

Look at this, the first post for 2026!!! I don't make resolutions, but after the massive changes of 2025 I am looking forward to a gentle, settling year of quietly seeing what is what. 

We are continuing to learn about summer in the country. The flies were driving us MENTAL so I bought some fly screens to wear under your hat. Or over your hat if you cut a big hole at the top (of the screen, not the hat). Either way, it is an absolute lifesaver, we were going crazy with flies on our face the second you started to sweat. They love a bit of moisture.

Here is a very scrappy quilt - called "Voodoo doll". I had made a few dozen of the scrap blocks so decided to use them up in this bold extravaganza of dots and purpleness.

I got in a car to go to the hardware store today and it was the first time I had been in a vehicle for ONE WEEK. Can you imagine? I had been down to the quilting premises a few times (we are having a tidying / sorting / decluttering effort) on my bike, but nothing else. The rest of the time has been at home on a project to clean, mend and re-paint the inside of the garden shed ... shocking no-one it has taken much longer than we thought. I will post photos when it's done but - fair warning - it is the dodgiest set of handy tasks ever done by anyone ever. 

In the neighbourhood

We're not doing much but the days are flying by. We went into Canberra for drinks at friends and overnighted at other friends, which was a good chance to catch up and, probably, buy a car off them. Many birds, single stone.

It hasn't been very hot in the mornings so I took the chance to go for a bike ride around the neighbourhood - although not down the main street which was insanely busy!!!! After twenty years of driving through the main street at this time of the year on my way to the coast I am now Shocked and Horrified by the number of Canberrans on my roads. 

This is the way that google maps keeps trying to get me (and visitors) to come to our place. It thinks this is a perfectly normal road that your average sedan should go down. We haven't had significant rain for a couple of weeks - so the creek is very low - and there is NO WAY I would take my average sedan (or my new shiny ebike) over this crossing. When I give people the address now I have a copy-paste sentence I use about ignoring google maps if it suggests this route. Apparently it is one minute quicker. 

I spent most of one day dealing with this apple tree - yes, that whole lighter green part is a single apple tree, and the red thing is a normally sized wheelbarrow. The tree is enormous and absolutely covered in apples. Gosh the grass is brown isn't it, we do need some rain. Unfortunately the apples are full of bugs, and the birds are starting to get them, and most of them are dropping on the ground, so I went in to rake them up. 

Once you get under the tree you can see that most of the branches in there are dead, so I went back in with the reciprocating saw and secateurs and gave it a solid chop. Just the dead stuff, which should be OK. 

We've chipped it now, it took an hour, and in winter we'll think about how best to prune the living branches. And perhaps do some spraying - it is so incredibly prolific I'd like to figure out how to keep some of the fruit.... they are small and green but going slightly red on the tree, so could be any sort. 

Lovely quiet christmas week

It's been a very delightful few days here with number two - who is now safely back in Melbourne to party on and also move flats I believe, one suburb over and a slightly more lively house. We didn't seem to do much during the visit; just one trip back into Canberra to see friends and also briefly hit up the Braidwood shops (doesn't take long).

Christmas day itself involved a few presents, a bit of food, quite a few drinks, the new Knives Out for entertainment and reading many books. As a freelancer? hustler? person-trying-to-make-a-living-in-theatre? number two can work from anywhere any time, and took a few calls and spent some time on email shopping scripts and making connections. I think, I don't really understand how it all works. Sounds fascinating ... and there was still time to make the christmas pav. Perfection.

Number one is having a lovely time in Europe - we had a video call from Lubeck where they spent Christmas - and photos of selected highlights across Paris, the Hague, Hamburg... (museum d'aerospace! the ICJ! minatur wunderland! everyone has their own highlights :))

Frequent flyer

No, not me, I am very happy to be an infrequent flyer these days. But that was the name I gave to this quilt because it is made up of lots and lots of flying geese blocks. Hilarious play on words, I know.

It was meant to be a scrappy quilt but could actually have benefited from using fewer fabrics, because then there would have been more surprising shapes. You do it in rows of flying geese that are offset, so then if you use the same fabrics in adjoining blocks you get odd shapes ... but I used almost too many scraps for that to work.

Nonetheless, I do really like it, the colours are lovely and it's gone straight on my bed because it looks good with the gaudy ikea curtains that I love. 

Very basic meander quilting. In other news, I had another lovely day at the beach, we went in to Canberra for drinks on Saturday (very fun) then back on Sunday to pick up number two from the airport for a few days! It is very lovely to have a child at home and we are trying to make sure the countryside isn't too boring. Also, a few months of bar work is resulting in some excellent christmas cocktails - this is a caipirissima. Icy and rum and lime and delicious! Yay for kids with random part time jobs. 

Busy christmas things

There seems to be the same number of christmas events that there used to be at work - but without the joy of slacking off work at the same time ... because every day is a slack off day! Haha, retirement, the only downside is constant leisure. 

We had our usual long boozy christmas lunch with friends (31 years and counting) - we even managed to get them out to the countryside. Some stayed over and a good time was had by all. I'm not sure if you can see the christmas stockings hanging from the mantel - that was the quilt shop challenge for the show this year, I did one to be companionable but ended up doing two left sides so had to do two right sides to match and ended up with two stockings. And now they hang over the mantel (not to be filled, far too old for that nonsense, purely decorative at this point).

We still have enough roses to make a bunch. Maybe we'll get a second flush? I don't know how roses work. The garden club christmas lunch was fun - met some new people who (like all new people we meet) were very interesting and terrifyingly well qualified in random ways. People have such interesting lives (not us). The art class christmas lunch today was also fun but it was 37 degrees so I did not have a cocktail with my meal and scarpered down the beach instead. Where I went for a swim at 5.30 when it was still 30 degrees but the ocean was COLD. Same again tomorrow apparently. 

We did a run into the city for shopping (presents, food) and did not miss going to the old house to clean it one bit. Our old cleaner still works for the neighbour so rang yesterday to report that there were eight tradies' utes outside the house doing various things (air conditioning we think). We agreed that some works were probably over due but (a) some people have more money than sense and (b) young people today have no stamina. 

Browning off

There hasn't been any rain for a while - and lots of wind - so the countryside had markedly dried off in the ten days I was away. I drove up to Sydney and parked at the airport, so had a three hour drive at both ends - which was lovely but I definitely got a good look at the scenery. And it was noticeably browner on the drive home than on the way up.

Our garden is also getting very crunchy on the grass and sad on the plants. Today I fed and watered half the roses and I'll do the other half tomorrow ... it gets too hot after about an hour, even just meandering about with a hose and some secateurs. 

The day lilies are flowering which is very welcome. Most of the roses have passed their first flush so I'm hoping we get a second. But I have no idea!!! Every day is learning.

There are two enormous pear trees that we didn't know about. They both have cherry slug, so I don't think there'll be any fruit, but we might look into maintaining them a bit better next year. Now we know they exist. 

This apple is also covered in fruit but I think the codling moth will get all that. Or possibly the birds. 

It was good to go back to quilters yesterday morning, and art class in the afternoon. We spent Monday in at the old house cleaning because WE HAVE SOLD IT TODAY. What a relief. The money has yet to arrive, but in the next couple of days we will be no longer in crippling debt. Phew. 

New Zealand trip

 I've spent the last ten days in NZ - a short trip home to see the family. Dad hasn't been well enough to travel over this year but now I'm retired I can just go any time I want! The gap between thinking "I'd like to go and see everyone" and getting on a plane is much shorter, with much less to organise. It was also quite the little treat to think about when the quilt show was getting me down. 

I went from Auckland to Hamilton to Tauranga and back; stayed with all my siblings and my dad; caught up with all the nieces and nephews who were in the country at the time; got acquainted with the sole member of the next generation who is now FOUR and very grownup and had lots of chats with family and friends.  

Dad's garden is looking lovely - this is an amazing rose - including the vegetables. I ate some very delicious sugar snap peas, beans, rhubarb and strawberries ... inspiration for us putting our proper vegie beds in some time next year. I tried to be helpful by cleaning out the pantry but failed to get rid of the pantry moths - we can't figure out where they are coming in from, they're not in any of the food. 

The weather was mostly gorgeous and I went for some lovely walks. My hometown is both much much bigger than when I lived there but also seems much smaller than when I was a kid ... a universal feeling I think. We went over to the main ocean beach for a drive but I wasn't tempted to swim - it was windy and cold! Just a few brave tourists (I'm guessing Europeans). I wouldn't move back but it is very very beautiful.