Today was exactly what an Autumn day in Tasmania should be like. Started off with a very heavy dew and a dense mist over the ground which cleared soon after the sun came up to make a beautiful cloudless wind-free day. The lake was so still the reflections were perfect and the sky was so blue ... The cats were out sitting in the sun enjoying the change of weather. As you can see from the second photo, this has been how they have been spending their days of late ...

I had to go to quilting today (well, I really did have to ... I had the key!) so got there a bit early to set up when our new member arrived. She started talking before she got in the door and went on relentlessly all day. I moved into the ironing room and she followed me. I went into the kitchen, she followed me aaaargh!!! Still, I got well along the way to getting the fourth pocket started - only about 10 more stems of barley to go before all four of them are done and I can finish quilting the last two.

Last night I tried dying that shirt with the new dye from Spotlight. Clearly I am fated not to get good results from dying. Still, I threw i about a metre of calico to make up the weight that could be coloured with the dye and that turned out a beautful saffron yelllow. The shirt on the other hand is perfect - apart from the unfortuate tye-dye effect on the right front panel ....

One of the skirts i took i had frayed edges on the sheer fabric that hangs down at the hem. I thought I would be clever and ironed on some freezer paper to stablise it as I restitched it. Unfortunately freezer paper is plastic coated, so even washing the skirt did not release the embedded paper. So I spent a patient hour this morning picking little bits of paper out from between 3mm zigzag stitch. Still, it is dry now, along with the lap quilt that I also washed, as I took them into quilting with me and hung them on the clothesline.

Jean, having overheard my dramas with the chainsaw instructed her son to pick through the wood heap for some small bits of wood, which were duly delivered this evening. So I sent her home with two cabbages for dinner. My two are being shredded and added to the soup I plan to make with a salted ham hock this evening, for consumption tomorrow when the flavour has had a chance to develop, and I have had a chance to pick and shred the meat, remove the fat and the skin and bones etc.

I have transferred the wood heap to the right hand side of the fire, regardless of the unfinished state of the woodbox, and it is amazing the additional space this has provided in the loungeroom. That will be filled tomorrow as I embark on the task of clearing out the 'dining'room in anticipation of getting a bloke in to give me a hand with lifting some of the heavier stuff and generally getting briefed on his future gardening duties.