Hiding its light under a bush-el

The photos of the landscape in my previous post would seem to indicate that there's little of floral beauty in that wide expanse of sandy red soil and grey-green bush. It's there though. You just have to look closer to find it. My Dad loves to grow Australian native plants in his garden, and today I noticed that an Emu Bush (Eremophila) was flowering. I hadn't seen this particular one before, so I went to have a closer look. It's a fairly scrappy, sparse sort of bush with grey-green foliage. The flowers hang down, and I carefully lifted one. It took my breath away. There was the most exquisite orchid-type flower of a beautiful pink. It's only 5cm long - but look what's packed into that tiny parcel -



It makes me wonder just how much beauty I missed as we sped along the roads. After the recent rains there were lots of wildflowers on the road verges but I just wasn't able to keep stopping, as we had so far to drive in such a short space of time. Next trip I'll just have to factor in some exploration and discovery time...

Way out west

The best part about my new job is that I don't have to sit in an office looking at 4 walls all the time! I drove 1000 kilometres in 2 days this week to do site visits. From Dubbo, we headed for Brewarrina via Nyngan, then to Lightning Ridge where we stayed overnight. The next day we visited clients in Walgett, before heading back down the Newell Highway to Dubbo. It was a busy trip, with a couple of long days, but I did manage to take a few photos along the way.

Coolabah is on the way from Nyngan to Bourke, and is where we turned off to head for Brewarrina. There's not a lot there, except for the Coolabah Hilton!

As we crossed over the Bogan River at Gongolgon, the swallows nesting under the bridge flew up and swooped over the river, catching our attention so that we spotted a couple of pelicans obviously enjoying the extra water in the river brought by recent rains. Of course, by the time I'd found a safe place to pull over and walk back to the bridge, the pelicans had drifted further downstream, but one was still in sight

Rivergums are such majestic trees...


Away from the river, this is what the country looks like. Red soil, small trees and brush, and very very dry...

Grey foliage lessens evaporation in hot climates. This is the vegetation where we stopped for a lunch break, under the shade of one of the larger trees.


On the other side of Brewarrina, heading for Walgett, we spotted some larger birds than pelicans. I'm sure the farmer won't be impressed about them grazing in his crop, though...


Yes, they're emus
Spring is here and in Lightning Ridge that means that the Bougainvillea is in flower and looking fabulous.

I bags this one!

There were handbags for sale at the Toongi Quilt Show last weekend. I fell in love with the handle/clasp on this one. The fabric and the beads are rather nice, as well. I used my recent birthday as an excuse to buy myself a gift.

Strawberry Ginger Muffins

It's that time of the year when strawberries are in season, and a punnet costs less than $2. Who can resist? So, some strawberry muffins for afternoon tea seemed like a good idea. The last time I made them, I upped the strawberry flavour factor by adding some dried strawberries, but there were none left. However, there was some glace ginger, and it worked very well.



Here's the recipe -

1 punnet (250g) strawberries, washed, hulled and quartered
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 generous tablespoon strawberry liqueur (or brandy, or rum...)
90g glace ginger, chopped finely (or 90g dried strawberries, chopped finely)
Grated rind of 1 lime (or lemon)
Mix all this together and let it stand for about 30 minutes to an hour, mixing it occasionally.

Then mix up -

Juice of 1 lime
Add enough milk to the lime juice to make 1/2 cup (yes, the milk will curdle - that's good! It helps to lighten the muffins)
200g yogurt
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup caster sugar

Mix well together.

Sift the following into a bowl -

2 cups Self Raising flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Add -
1/2 cup dessicated coconut

Mix all the ingredients together. Spoon into greased muffin tins and bake at 200 degrees C for about 20 minutes. Makes 12-15 muffins.

These are light, moist, delicious muffins.

Toongi Quilt Show

I've been following other bloggers visits to quilt shows - Houston, the Festival of Quilts in England, even the Sydney Quilt Show... and have wished I could be there.
But, then again, those bloggers don't get to visit the Toongi Quilt Show, and I did!

Toongi Hall is 26km south of Dubbo in Western NSW. For any of you who watched the show Outback House on ABC TV, you may like to know that "Oxley Downs" is only a couple of kilometres away from Toongi. The hall is in the middle of paddocks, and has served as a meeting place for the surrounding farms for many years. Here are some shots of the surrounds -



And this is the hall...

A group of quilters from the area hold a quilt show every couple of years. The hall is packed with quilts, local shops and craftspeople set up stalls, and they serve absolutely delicious scones with jam and cream for morning and afternoon tea.
This is inside the hall...


And here's a closer look at some of the quilts. I love the chooks with boots! And if you need a translation of "chooks", they're chickens in the rest of the English speaking world. Chooks is a much better name for these, though...
The photo doesn't do justice to the beautiful applique on this one. It's covered in flowers and fairies.
And this is a very pretty cot quilt. The centre of each block has been embroidered.
So, I've had a lovely day with a couple of friends and can claim to have visited a quilt show that most of my blogging friends will never have the opportunity to see (grin).

Memories of Japan

The walls of the kitchen / dining area have finally been painted, so I'm going through the process of working out what's going back up on the walls, what is being added, and what is going to be put away.

One of the pieces that's definitely going back up is this quilt which I made after my trip to Japan about 10 years ago to visit my son while he was living there. It holds memories of the time I spent with him in Matsue, a fairly small town on the west coast, where he was teaching English in a junior high school and I spent days exploring the town and the outskirts of it. I caused a minor sensation almost everywhere I went, as a middleaged non-Japanese woman whizzing along on the bike he had borrowed for me! I loved exploring the local shops and this quilt contains some of my finds - the traditional indigo fabrics, the fish motifs and the samurai helmet motif all made from fabric. The kimono are a reminder of the night spent at his supervisor's house where we were treated to a wonderful traditional dinner. The supervisor's wife explained to me that she was currently training to be a "dresser" at weddings. The traditional wedding kimonos consist of a number of layers, which all need to sit "just right" on the body, and the tying of the obi is an art in itself. She suggested that she could dress me in some kimonos, so that she could practise and we could get some photos. It resulted in quite a bit of hilarity - and some photos of me looking extremely fat - as we put the kimonos on over the clothes I was already wearing!

Torben (my son) and I then spent two weeks backpacking, travelling by a mix of bullet train and local transport, and staying in ryokan (the Japanese equivalents of B&Bs). So the quilt contains new and secondhand fabrics (silks and cottons) found in places such as Kyoto, Nagasaki and Hagi. It was springtime, and the cherry blossom was at its height, especially in Kyoto where an afternoon spent following the Philosopher's Path beside the canal and under the blossoming trees is a vivid and favourite memory.

This quilt has used only a fraction of the fabrics I found - it's amazing how much can be stuffed into a backpack that already looks full to bursting! One day I'll use some more of it...

Get Ready, Get Set...

The bride approved! So, the baskets are now finished along with the two garters (one to keep, one to throw) and my part of the wedding is all done. Ben (my husband) is still slaving away over the montage of still photos that they have requested for the start of their wedding video. The photos are of the bride and groom growing up in different parts of the world and he's matching them so that each set of photos shows them doing similar things. He's doing a great job, and I'm sure that they'll be thrilled with it.
As for me, I'm just so glad that I bought this gorgeous ribbon edged with hearts when I spotted it in Sydney a couple of months ago. I had a few minutes after a meeting and before I had to dash to the airport to catch my plane home. So, I went into Kinokuniya bookshop to have a browse. Kinokuniya, the Sydney outlet of a Japanese chain of bookshops is one of my favourite Sydney CBD shops. It and David Jones Food Hall call a siren song to me every time! This ribbon was waiting for me in the stationery section and I just couldn't resist it. I thought I was going to use it to wrap the wedding gift, but it proved ideal for both the garters and the baskets.
I had a lovely time making these - I had a hard time stopping, and the top edge of the organza on the baskets has been beaded as well, and I really like the organza ribbon roses on the sides.