Australia Unites

Around 54 years ago, my grandfather bought a bush property in Taggerty, somewhere for his 5 growing boys to fish, go rabbitting and be boys. Over the years those boys will grow and have there own families, and they will continue to visit Taggerty and the surrounding towns of Buxton, Alexander and Marysville and share those experiences with there children. There were trips to the snow on Lake Mountain, blackberry pies to be made by Grandma with hand picked berries, and marshmallows to be toasted and games of Canasta to be played around the fire at night.

Now that I have my own little family, I had hoped to share the same experiences with them and last October I was able to take my little boy up for what I hoped to be his first of many visits. We stopped at the picnic grounds at Fernshew, we drove past the towns of Narbethong and Buxton (watching out for the Police cameras as always) and we took the turn off the Highway down Glendale Lane, and I found myself signing to him, the same song that I use to always sign, and drive my parents and older brother crazy.

"There's a track winding back to an old fashioned shack along the round to TAGGERTY"

We had wonderful weekend, on the Saturday my Mum and I walked up to the Achron (with Bastian in the pusher) and later that day I climbed the mountain up the back along with my brother and his 3 oldest kids. The next day we all walked up to the end of Glendale lane to the start of the national park. The whole time I was commenting to my Mum how much I loved it up there and how beautiful, lush and green it was.

Why am I telling you all this you ask, well I am sitting here tonight watching Channel 9 seeing all these wonderful people and companies not only from Australia but right around the world dig deep to help out others. We here in Victoria (and right around Australia) are feeling the impact of the recent fires and I am sad to say that my family have been impacted directly. While we were lucky enough to not lose any family or friends, we lost our beloved property on Glendale lane, the place were I spent many long weekend and school holiday is no more.

While the land of course is still there and we could always rebuild, it will never be the same, the house it self was just a shack, it was over 100 yrs old, had no running water, no phone or power and the toilet was wooden outhouse with a bucket that had to be empty into a freshly dug hole at the end of each visit. To many it sounds like hell, and I had many people screw up there face as if how that hell could I love somewhere like that. But love it I did. And now it is no more.

Don't get me wrong I know that compared to many, our loss is nothing, there was nothing inside the house of any value, all the furniture was family hand downs and I will always have the memories.

This post wasn't written for anyone else but me, I think in order to try and make some sense out of this tragedy I needed to get it down.

If anyone out there reads my story and is touched by it. Please if you haven't already, donate to the Red Cross and become a blood donor or shop at Coles on Friday 13th

Granny's Magic Bag - Block 4

I finally put all of this block together over the weekend.

I did all the checkerboard and sawtooth sections for Month 4 & 6 at the same time, along with applique sections. I just have to embroider the words for Month 6 and I will be able to assemble that one as well. I also managed to but out and iron down all the appliques for the remaining 3 months (7, 8 & 9)

Granny's Magic Bag BOM - Month 5 done

This is the centre block for Granny's Magic Bag Block of the Month. I actually finished this awhile ago but keep forgetting to post it, so here it is.

Best type of mail

Is squishy, quilty mail.

Before Christmas I decided to place my first order from here. I had being eyeing off a quilt kit for a couple of months, and once I discovered that there was actually some funds left over from buying Christmas presents, I decided to treat myself and buy it, because I need more projects to sit in my room un-started.

So finally after some moments of panic that the package had been lost some where over the Pacific it finally all arrived

This is the quilt kit, it even included the backing fabric

I got a couple of yards of this, which I plan to make into a play quilt for Bastian, I can just imagine him driving all his matchbox cars all over it

And this Fat quarter pack just happened to fall into my basket to make the postage worthwhile, not sure what I will do with it.

Things about me

I have seen this on many, many blogs over the last month or two, so decided I should add it myself to give my loyal (well hopefully loyal) blog readers some more info about me

Things you've already done: bold
Things you want to do: italicize
Things you haven't done and don't want to - leave in plain font

1. started your own blog
2. slept under the stars
3. played in a band
4. visited Hawaii
5. watched a meteor shower, the benefits of lost a camping as a child
6. given more than you can afford to charity
7. been to Disneyland/world
8. climbed a mountain
9. held a praying mantis
10. sang a solo
11. bungee jumped, no bloody way
12. visited Paris
13. watched a lightning storm at sea
14. taught yourself an art from scratch, cross stitch at age 16
15. adopted a child
16. had food poisoning
17. walked to the top of the statue of liberty
18. grown your own vegetables, the plan for 09
19. seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. slept on an overnight train
21. had a pillow fight
22. hitch hiked
23. taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. built a snow fort
25. held a lamb
26. gone skinny dipping
27. run a marathon
28. ridden a gondola in Venice
29. seen a total eclipse
30. watched a sunrise or sunset
31. hit a home run
32. been on a cruise
33. seen Niagara falls in person
34. visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. seen an Amish community
36. taught yourself a new language
37. had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. seen the leaning tower of Pisa in person
39. gone rock climbing
40. seen Michelangelo's David in person
41. sung karaoke (only when very drunk)
42. seen old faithful geyser erupt
43. bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. visited Africa
45. walked on a beach by moonlight
46. been transported in an ambulance
47. had your portrait painted, and entered into Archibald prize
48. gone deep sea fishing
49. seen the Sistine chapel in person
50. been to the top of the Eiffel tower in Paris
51. gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. kissed in the rain
53. played in the mud
54. gone to a drive-in theatre
55. been in a movie
56. visited the great wall of china
57. started a business (does making friendship bracelets to sells as a 12 yr old count)
58. taken a martial arts class
59. visited Russia
60. served at a soup kitchen
61. sold girl scout cookies.
62. gone whale watching
63. gotten flowers for no reason
64. donated blood, that reminds me I must go again
65. gone sky diving, ditto to No 10
66. visited a Nazi concentration camp
67. bounced a cheque, oops banks fault
68. flown in a helicopter
69. saved a favorite childhood toy, lots
70. visited the Lincoln memorial
71. eaten caviar
72. pieced a quilt
73. stood in times square
74. toured the everglades
75. been fired from a job (laid off.. all the same)
76. seen the changing of the guard in London
77. broken a bone
78. been on a speeding motorcycle
79. seen the grand canyon in person
80. published a book
81. visited the Vatican
82. bought a brand new car
83. walked in Jerusalem
84. had your picture in the newspaper
85. read the entire bible
86. visited the white house
87. killed and prepared an animal for eating (a fish does that count)
88. had chickenpox
89. saved someone’s life
90. sat on a jury, got called up for jury duty and then got picked for a trial, but excused myself due to work commitments (does that count)
91. met someone famous
92. joined a book club
93. lost a loved one
94. had a baby
95. seen the Alamo in person.
96. swum in the great salt lake.
97. been involved in a law suit
98. owned a cell phone
99. been stung by a bee

Books, Books and More Books

Well all I can say is Baa, Baa (hehe....). Seeing that all my quilting friends, here, here and here are doing it to I thought I might join in the fun.

Not that I need any more encouragement to read, I was one of those children that always had there head stuck in a book.

So 50 books by midnight on 31 Dec 2009

Finished to date

1. The Long Hot Summer - Mary Moody (Jan 09)
2. The Quilter's Kitchen - Jennifer Chiaverini (Jan 09) not sure if this one counts as it is more recipes then story but it is a novel so I am going to count it :)

Currently reading

3. Always and Forever - Cathy Kelly

I am a big Cathy Kelly fan, find her books easy reading but also interesting. I use to fly back and fwd from Melb - Sydney when I first met my lovely husband. (He lived in NSW, me in VIC) and I use to end up buying at least one book for the flight (sometime I finished it when I was there and had to buy another for the flight back) so needless to say I have a reasonable collection she was one of my favs to buy. I have read this many times before but when Ruth mentioned it I had to drag it out again.

Plan for 2009

I now have a plan of projects that I am going to do for 2009, well the start of hopefully. I have added a To Do List to this blog to keep me in check, of course my Baby Dear Jane and the Doll Quilts that I am doing in a class are on top of this. Humm me thinks that I might have to talk to work about dropping my hrs back down to 15 as soon as I can. I need more sewing time, maybe I should start by getting of the computer