More cards

When I came home there were some more lovely birthday cards waiting for me.  The one above is from Janny in the Netherlands.

Nel from the Netherlands made the top one, while Juliette from England made the lower one.

These two came from Ritva and Helena, both from Finland

This lovely card and beads came from Marja in the Netherlands and took a very roundabout route to reach me - the Post Office took so long to deliver it that Marja was about to make another one thinking this was lost! I am glad she did not have to.
Very hot and humid weather here, but we have been missing all the rain.  I am about to start trying to catch up with some of the classes from Lynda Monk's book.  I have rusted some papers and fabric so shall try to make a book later.  I was not very successful at shrinking some other stuff shall try that again too.  All this can be done in the air conditioned section of the house!

My sister's garden

I came home late yesterday from my visit to Buderim (instad of Bali).  Barb is making a good recovery and has now been officially diagnosed as having epilepsy.  She is on medication so should stabilise and be able to drive again by the end of March.  Thank goodness she didn't break any bones in this episode.

We were both very disappointed not to be in Bali, but I am glad not to have had the 9 hour plane trip.  We watched the wedding in a sort of fashion on skype.  Unfortunately the band width was not very good so the picture and sound broke up quite a bit, but we could see how lovely the bride looked.

The weather was pretty wet most of the time I was there, but I managed a few photos of her lovely garden.

This is a beautiful allamanda which I am thrilled to get such a good closeup photo with my new camera.

This is not a wonderful photo, but it was raining!  This is a magnificent climbing frangipani (Chonemorpa Fragrans) which I had never heard of before.  The perfume was glorious.

We managed to do a little bit of walking and this is one of the many Tibouchinas on the streets.  The colour is spectacular all round Buderim.

I have no idea what this plant is - in the front garden of  a house we walked past.   I would love to know a bit more about it as I really like it.

Here is part of Barb's very sodden garden before the really heavy rain started! Thank goodness she lives on the top of the hill so has no flood worries.  I travelled to Brisbane by bus to catch the plane and took over an hour longer than normal to reach the airport.  Flooding all round the place again today, now moving down into northern NSW.  I really feel for them.  I just came home to very sticky, overcast weather and no rain!

Birthday cards

Today I have been able to open my birthday cards from the Fibre Fever members.  The two above are from Anne and Helga, both in Germany.

These are from Ati in Norway and Ashenka in Russia.

These are from Margreet in the Netherlands and Peggy in USA.

This one is from Maureen in Australia, and she also sent me the wonderful collection of goodies in the next photo.

There are still another 7 cards to come - a fascinating collection from all over the world.

I spent a long, frustrating couple of days cancelling our travel arrangements and trying, with some success to obtain refunds.  I looked at a lot of blogs while I was on hold on the phone! Virgin have given me a credit for the amount of money I spent on the flights, less a cancellation fee.  So now we have to work out where we want to go in the next twelve months and book before the 3rd April!  Then I guess I hope we are all well enough to keep to our plans the next time!

My sister is recovering, home from hospital yesterday, not aching nearly so much now, but I will be glad to get down there to see for myself.

I have downloaded the first free online class from Lynda Monk's book, so shall gather together some bits and pieces to take away with me.  We should have some play time together while I am there and then I may have something productive to bring home with me.  It all looks very interesting.  I should be back on 24th, but may even post while I am in Buderim.

December book pages

Can only show the two pages now as Helga's did not arrive till yesterday.  She lives in Germany.

This was my December page to Kath in Greece. Her theme is the sea, and this was from a picture of a very stormy sea.  I love the way the internet connects us to people all over the world, we have a Russian in the group now and she has brought a very different perspective, fascinating.

I should be getting myself sorted to go to Bali for my nephew's wedding, leaving next Monday.  However I think I shall only be going as far as Buderim as my sister is back in hospital having had a major epileptic seizure (we think).  The doctors have ordered evry test imagineable so should know something definite by tomorrow.  I really can't see her being able to travel in a week, so I shall go to her for 8 days instead.  At least she hasn't broken any bones this time, and we can always look at all the photos and probably a video as well!   I may even be able to start work on Lynda Monk's online classes while I am there - who knows.

Summer flowers

Nothing much of interest has been happening around here.  I know I have showed photos of these trees before, but the Buckinghamia (Ivory Curl) and the Euodia are both looking magnificent this summer

You probably need to click on this to reach its largest size, then you may see the lorikeet gorging itself.  They have a wonderful time, but they are quite destructive, breaking off quite large branches sometimes.  they also make a loud screeching noise, but we still love having them.

Now this Clivea should certainly not be flowering now, but I was so amazed I had to show you.  I had to move them all after the tree fell over almost two years ago and this is the first flower since then.

I have actually been dong a bit of stitching, but I can't show you till the pages and birthday cards reach their destinations.  I am so pathetically slow with hand stitching - only stab stitch, that is all I can manage with my stiff fingers - that I have taken about three times as long as I expected to finish them off.  Now I hope to have a few days working on Lynda Monk's new book - it is so full of inspiration.

Christmas presents and a piece of history

When my mother moved into a nursing home about twenty years ago, we found a tablecloth which she had partially embroidered before sh was married and had never completed.  The threads were all still there with the cloth so I brought it home thinking one day I would complete it!  that was wishful thinking, but finally my sister took it to a specialist on the Sunshine Coast who suggested she cut out the two completed corners and frame them.  Here is the result, now hanging on my kitchen wall - a reminder of my mother every day!

Barb also added this cushion cover to the present - she made it up from a panel we did in a workshop with Lesley Riley earlier in the year at Textile Fibre Festival in Brisbane.

This is hard to see in the photo, but the buttons she added for the closure are enamelled and I seem to remember they were in Mum's button collection.  Buttons were never thrown out, they were unpicked and saved for future use.  We divided the collection between us when we packed up the house, and I have contunued to save buttons as well.

I hope you all had a very happy day yesterday.  We had a lovely time with our family, the weather was perfect, sunny and not too hot.  We even came home mid afternoon and had a snooze for a while without even needing the airconditioning on in our bedroom - the first time I remember that for many years.

Today I plan to do some stitching, listening to the cricket, then maybe relaxing with a book.

Carols and a birthday

Well, Blogger has finally let me load some photos - this is my third try in 24 hours!

Last Saturday night was the annual Christmas in the Gardens event and you can see the crowd was enjoying it.  The weather was balmy - till we were about to draw the raffle when there was a quick shower that sent lots of people home.

This is a very blurry photo but you can see the effect of all the children waving their glowsticks madly in time to the music - magic.

Two small boys were thrilled when the reporter asked to take their photo to appear in the local paper - and this featured both here and in the Rockhampton paper published by the same company.  We had several texts from friends down there who saw it.  They are becoming real media tarts, always seem to be in the right place at the right time. 

Hamish turned six at the weekend as well and of course had to have a party - and present opening is very important.

As is cutting the cake!

Christmas is looking good, even though I still have lots to do.  I had photos of my eyes today after the latest injection last week and there is a definite improvement, yippee.

I also had a session with the physiotherapist today - lots of massage and heat and some funny strapping on my leg.  My leg, and especially my knee feel so much better I am tempted to try for a short walk again.

If I don't get back before Christmas, I hope you all get everything you wish for, have a very happy time and we will be in touch again after the festivities.