It was a gorgeous day today - managed to get a few things done around the yard before getting sidetracked into a conversation with the neighbour's kids about life, the universe and everything. I had noticed some time ago that the goat has not been in evidence of late. Apparently it died. They say it was snakebite. I would guess it was a combination of starvation and kidney failure due to lack of regular water supply. But at least it is out of its misery now. The horses are widely scattered. Gypsy is in a paddock up the road where she wandered once too often so they kept her. Rosie has wandered off and they think she is with a lady whose phone number they don't have (and apparently can't be bothered visiting) with an injured leg. The rabbit is dead. The chooks are down for four having been eaten by the dogs ... I do hope they don't get any more animals ...

The kids, on the other hand seem to have had their lives brightened up. The boys have been signed up for cadets and are looking forward to a camp at Puckpunyal in September, which should be a bit of an eye-opener. The girls are all going to dancing lessons... The eldest girl is enrolled at a college in Hobart doing design. And the hoarhound seems to have lost its attraction as a daily activity, though they still have ambitions of making a big pile and setting fire to it. I suggested they invite the local fire brigade ...

And so off to quilting where I finished shadow-quilting the last pocket and cut out binding for all four to be applied tomorrow (at least the machining bit). And then I will commence cutting strips for log cabins as I don't have the right sort of wadding to finish the bag off, and supplies for that will not be forthcoming for a couple of weeks. The quilt i plan to make is called Log Cabins and Stars. It has some log cabin blocks, some Star blocks, some stripey blocks and some other bits and sods. Unfortunately most of the pieces are 1.5 inch strips which will make it a soul-destroying exercise in cutting up a jelly roll into smaller strips. The remaining one inch strips I will piece together and cut up into squares at some point to make a tiny patchwork of half inch squares which I am sure will come in useful at some point.

It was lovely to come home to a nice tidy house that looks like a house, and the fire still had some hot coals, despite me having failed to shut it down before I left. And the load of washing I did this morning is well on the way to being dry too - so should be able to iron it and put it away tomorrow, as well as get the towels clean and dry. So my intended routine of washing every second day should be feasible with the heat from the fire to dry things out. Especially if it is a sunny day like today to aid the process.