Had a wee sleep in this morning which was nice. But still up at 6:30 to watch the sunrise. Then off to the men's shed where I spent a happy morning rebating the bit of moulding for the door and sharpening the chisels. Before i left home, however, my package of fabric arrived from the States. Supposed to be 21 fat quarters, it contained 23!! fat quarters so I was particularly happy. And since I had no say in the fabric included I was also very happy with their selection of fabrics as well. Much brighter colours than I had anticipated, which should make up into a really pretty quilt top. The packaging was a cardboard envelope that I was planning to use to light the fire with this evening. But then I read the side of the envelope: So do you think the CIA will come and 'get' me if I do that?? The sleeping arrangements remain contested, and last night the cats won. With the dog relegated to the fish-shaped cat blanket And tonight, despite the very paltry effort at rain overnight and sporadically during the day, we were treated to yet another beautiful rainbow. My interview has been deferred until Monday 10th which is a pest, but I supposed I can hardly blame the member of the selection committee who has suffered a bereavement ... (though I am curious to know who that might be ...). So tonight it will be reading a good book in front of a possibly not-lit fire due to the temperate conditions. Who knows? At least there is wood cut, and the fire is laid in case I feel the need to add a match.

A quiet day in, today. Did the first Block of the Month from that free online class I enrolled in. A log cabin with uneven width strips. Followed the instructions and yes, the method does certainly get me a lot closer to a square of the correct dimensions than my earlier efforts. Still a bit less than quarter of an inch under sized, but a lot better than my earlier efforts. I was able to do this as, although the fabric I ordered has not yet arrived, I have some from that collection already in my stash, so decided it would be possible to proceed using that. Tomorrow is Men's Shed day and I hope to sharpen all my chisels as well as cut a rebate into the moulding for the front door. Once that is also cut, I can prime both bits of wood and install the ones on the front door to provide a weathertight seal preparatory to all that winter rain that does not seem to have put in an appearance yet ...

well it's official. I have a job interview on Monday at 11:30 am!! In celebration I rushed out and bought this gorgeous wool and mohair overcoat. Felted wool so very heavy like a duffle coat. Good quality satin linings and very unusual asymetric buttons: It's a not-quite-black colour with white and grey flecky hairs on the surface. It will be spending the night in the deep freeze so I can get the chewing gum off the back of it. But at $12.00 I felt it was too good to leave in the shop really. Since Monday is due to start with a frost and struggle up to 12 degrees it will be welcome addition to the interview wardrobe, methinks. So at quilting today I sent off a cheque to pay the electrician who rescued me after the storm, paid in the paltry small cheque the insurance gave me to cover same, obtained a voucher from Workskills who apparently pay for the petrol if you are going for a job interview (woohoo!!) and sat and sewed more hexagons. This morning was not so much cold as foggy. The sun had difficulty clearing the bank of clouds and peering through the mists, but finally made it through to a nice temperate day.

we went for the Van Gogh effect last night (starry night) with associated temperatures. Brr. Electric blanket went on at about 1 when the temperature did a wee dive, only to recover itself until around 7 this morning when it decided to revisit that minus 3 feeling. All this before skyrocketing up to 8 degrees or thereabouts for the balance of the day. The fire was working overtime today. Commonwealth Bank is offering a 10,000 prize for a home renovation (well, one room to be realistic). I decided to enter, so here is the photo I sent, entitled 'cozy chaos' If I can con them into spending their 10k on new plaster sheeting, paint and render on the chimney I will consider the invasion of my privacy money well spent!! Mind you, I do need to sort out that roof gutter first!! lol. I had a visitor today. I have noticed him hanging around the place for a few days now, but today was the first time he ventured into my yard. Fortunately I spotted him before letting the dog out for his afternoon gallop around. The photo also gives you a good view of the point where the inadequacies of the fence, erected by Miss Congeniality, become entirely apparent. This is her answer to the brief to erect a stock-proof fence that is properly strained ... Oh well, If I get the job, I will get the lawyer to write to her once more and tell her I will be erecting a further section of 6 foot palings (which should take me down to that junction and allow the balance to be properly strained from there ...

Time to muse on the qualities of friendship. I have been very lucky with my friends. Being something of an introvert I am not that easy to befriend, and it takes a certain level of persistence to do so. Those who have actually made the effort have all proven to be exceptional people whose friendship and love has been a surprise and a pleasure to me every time I see it expressed. Today was one of those days. A friend emailed me a couple of days ago to let me know she had been going through her mother-in-law's possessions and had decided to send the craft bits to me. (the mother-in-law, in case you were worried, died five years ago). Today the box arrived and since i love a mystery gift more than anything else, I took my time unpacking it. The parcel itself reeked of fascination as it was in two parts ... The top box contained the crafty bits and pieces which looked something like this when I opened it and had a bit of a rummage Naturally the books were the first focus of attention and this one looks to contain enough projects to keep me off the street for some time to come Though this applique panel quilt looks very appealing also (found in the magazine!!) And then there was the tapestry (not something i have done a lot of, but once i unpick the green wool which Nonna apparently felt was a nice addition to the horses' necks) it will be great fun to finish this one. It is a picture of a European street in snow with a sled drawn by two grey horses carrying a couple with another couple in the foreground. I love the colours in it and what is missing from it can be pieced together using the remaining wool store that also came with the box And there was more .... The second box revealed a collection of odds and sods that will keep me feeling pampered for years to come. Three pairs of thick socks to keep my toesys warm. One pair of stockinette socks that they give you on a long-haul flight to keep your feet warm when you snuggle down into either one of the two pairs of sleeper sets (also from a longhaul flight). More toiletries than you can poke a stick at (lots of lovely cakes of soap, toothpaste and brushes) all from various longhaul extravagances in first and business class. Yum! Talk about living vicariously, but i love it!! Apparently the other half gets real toothbrushes and proper tubes of toothpaste when they fly!! Who knew?! Even in business class I only ever got half-size brushes. So more goodies than I can use in a year which will boost the budget very well. And a small brush and a nice tortoiseshell comb ... the list is endless! SO thank you Jeanette! For your friendship, your generosity and your thoughtfulness. I will be frequently reminded of your latest kindness as I go through my days ...

I forgot to mention that when I came away from my friend's place yesterday I was clutching a bundle of one kilogram of jointed baby bunny which now resides in the freezer. I was disconcerted to see it putting in an appearance in the Harry Potter computer game this afternoon, but fortunately it left the screen before I worked out what i was supposed to do with it. It seems I may have a tenant once more, in about a month's time. No updates on that for a couple of days as they are having a bank holiday over there. But they sound good (married couple looking for long-term lease, keen gardeners and her mother lives around the corner)so that is one good thing to look forward to. In the mean time i need to find out what is going on with the boiler as BG and other british gas companies are presently having all manner of sales on the installation of new boilers to comply with their environmental ratings etc. So clearly the right time to act if it is in the least bit possible. We have had some very interesting atmospheric effects of late. This was sunrise a couple of days ago: And this afternoon this special effects rainbow appeared briefly in the sky: The rain, to which the bow referred, was a bare mizzle only spotted as it was back lit by the sinking sun. Still, very pretty I am sure you agree. The lamb neck was finally cooked last night and will be consumed (in part at least) tonight. It has prunes, port, cinnamon, cumin and cardamon seeds in it, so will presumably be good served with couscous, which is what I will be trying anyway.

So the plan today was to pop into town, make some phone calls, get home, pop the casserole on to cook slowly all day then return to town to have a sticky beak in a house that was having an open house today. What actually happened was all of the above apart from getting home to pop the casserole on. I called into a friend's place to see if she wanted to join me at the open house, was invited to lunch and just got home half an hour ago, replete with food, wine and a happy day of house inspections. The house in question is on the High Street and ridiculously cheap, so will undoubtedly go today, though the presence of a heritage listed well in the back yard may deter some comers. Otherwise, apart from some work at the rear of the place to rationalise the endless small rooms, it is perfect. What a pity I have no money to act. Fingers crossed the heritage listing turns people off and it is still around when and if I get the job and am in a better position to act. The concept would be to buy, rent and finish off this place, then move after this place is sold, which would all but pay for the other one. Nice theory, pity about the practicalities... The casserole, mean time has got as far as me printing off the recipe I found (mulled lamb) which sounds delicious. The fact I have no shallots or pomegranate I do not see as an impediment. The shallots are easily substituted with onion, and the pomegranates will simply be overlooked. Otherwise it sounds delicious. I will bung it on shortly, once i have prepped the veges etc, and it will presumably be tomorrow night's dinner as by then the flavours will have been wed and the fat can be skimmed. Today was wild and windy, but pleasantly temperate. But I have no faith it will remain so, and have lit the fire in anticpation of the temp going down. Though it is supposed to only get down to 6 tonight so no point in building it up too far.

Another nice sunny day - a little chillier overnight than forecast so the goose down went down well - very cosy, thanks very much. Tonight should be milder still as we peaked out at 14.6 here and they say 6 degrees. Will be nice not to get snow blindness when the sun comes up over the frost!! lol Today being Friday I ventured to the Men's Shed. This has been on the agenda for some time. I had a piece of wood left over from the last roofing exercise which I thought would be a good way of mounting three coat hooks in the laundry. The reason for the additional timber is that the studs are not equally distributed and so this will allow it to be more orderly. But being just a lump of wood, I thought it would be improved by routing along the edges. But I have to admit that routers scare me silly. So even though I own one I decided to go to the Men's Shed where at least there would be someone to call the ambulance when I gouged a hole in my leg. But it all went well and so the wood is now ready to be primed and painted before installation. Very happy. Next week I will go back with the other bit of wood and see about cutting a rebate so I can finish off the mouldings on the front door at long last. A hive of activity because I have found out I have an interview for the job in Glenorchy and these two are jobs I really would like to have under control before I start work (assuming I get the job). So a double incentive. Very excited about the interview too, of course - though what i will wear is a bit of a mystery ... At least, having phoned them to find out what was going on, rather than waiting to be told, I have rather better notice and so time to work it all out.

Nice sunny day today once the fog cleared. The frost arrived after the sun (though it was a pretty heavy dew before that), but the cold penetrated the bedroom at around 4 am and was not the sort of cold that a boost to the electric blanket would shift. So I stripped the bed today and made it up with the goose-down doona and hauled out the heavy-duty winter sleepwear. Of course now it is going to be five degrees tonight so I will probably wake up having nightmares from being too hot... The sheets were washed and are nearly dry, there is a lambs neck defrosting (but apparently not going to be tonight's dinner as it will not have time to cook unless I break out the pressure cooker), and all is good in the world. I called up to see Jean - she wants to make a table runner and needed some extra fabric. Since my stash-clearing activities I knew I had just the right colours so now she has them instead. Spoiled my diet with two of her fabulous cheese and chive scones. But that's ok as this morning i weighed myself and yes! I am back on track losing weight once more. Cut up some firewood then retired indoors to upload the computer game I bought yesterday (you will recall very cheaply at the Bargain Centre) and had a go at playing that. The graphics are amazing!! Now all I have to do is work out what I am supposed to be looking for, lol. Tonight's dinner is, I suspect, destined to be leftovers ...

Had a bit of a falling out with Aurora today. They wrote and blithely told me they were increasing my fortnightly payments from 75 to 117. Two things wrong with this. I am presently paying 92 and my power usage has fallen since this time last year. So I phoned them and they gave me the usual pap (we calculate it based on fluctuations etc). When challenged on this they went off and did their homework and my fortnightly payments have now dropped from 92 to 77. Quelle surprise!! Still, a good outcome and a significant bonus to my fortnightly income!! Quilting today and doing all manner of things, but mainly sewing more hexagons to other hexagons. Nearly there - at least for one side of the cushion. The hexagons on the other side will be rather larger I feel. And I found a Harry Potter computer game at the bargain centre for $6.00. Not to mention being challenged to a game or six of wordscraper on facebook ... and crime scene... There goes my download limit, lol.

Well the exit report for the tenant arrived today. I have spent the afternoon going through it, in comparison with the previous report and provided back a tabular feedback to the agent about who is responsible for what. I hope this new one acts on my instructions this time. I have however found the name of their supervisor now, so if all else fails I will call her. A separate staff member is handling the re-leasing of the place so I have sought her advice regarding a reasonable rent to ask given its depleted state. I will also be working up a table of works required so that we can get started on them as soon as someone is in place. The 'looks very nice' paint job the property agent suggested I pay for, looks terrible - at least the colour is ok but the finish is appalling, with great swathes of over-brushing onto the neighbouring white trim, and one section completely missed... grrr. Once a tenant is in position I will be thinking very seriously about changing agencies if I can find a competent lot in the area. Apart from that I entertained another tradesman coming to look at the damage and sorted through the woodpile for a bit of dry short wood, did a load of dishes in the machine and am now contemplating dinner. More stew I think.

You know it's cold when the ice is inside the windows. Despite this it was strangely cosy indoors, especially once the fire was revived. Then I checked onto Weatherzone: See that spike on the right hand side? The top of that line is minus 2... It started off at minus 4.9 which I think we can agree is a bit rich for this time of year. The sunrise (over the frozen wastes of the back yard) was something of a compensation. It was one of those times when the slight mist allows the tree in front of the sun to appear to be casting a shadow over the sun's rays. . A rather excellent result I hope you agree. The man who was scheduled to come at 10:30 turned up at 9:30 having overcompensated for the impact of ice on the road, so was well out of the way before the day truly started. So more wood was cut, more tidying up was achieved and a rather large stew, featuring a selection of root veges went into the oven at 3ish. It came out a few minutes ago, adorned with dumplings. mmmmmmmmmmmm

I think I may have to break out the goose down quilt early this year. Last night, despite a quilt and a blanket on top, I woke up feeling jolly chilly at about one in the morning. Tonight with a forecast of minus two may crack me altogether. We will have to wait and see. I signed up for a free quilting class online (did I mention this before?). The fabrics I ordered last week will be used, with calico as the base fabric. I watched the first lesson today and have already learned where I go wrong when making log cabins - great to know and I will be a bit more conscientious in future!! There are four to make for this quilt and they will, eventually, be used to flank a set of tumbling blocks on the top left hand side of the design. The latter should be an interesting challenge methinks!! I got stuck in and did the house work today so it is all looking fur free and moderately tidy at least in the public rooms. Other than that, I went into town to sign forms (apparently overlooked when I dropped the quilt off the other day) to allow them to house the quilt and which also tells me they have it covered for insurance, which is a good thing. Then home to finish off the work in the kitchen before the chill sets in for tonight. Might break out a winter nightie I think, to keep the chill off until I change the sheets, This will be done once the current two loads of washing are dry and put away and the airers freed up to hang the sheets on. While i was at the library I picked up a DVD which I may also break out, but not tonight. I think I will watch it tomorrow though. It will hopefully be OK as it has Judy Dench in it. Mind you it also has Cher as an actor, so that may lower the tone of the thing a bit. Called Tea with Mussolini, it should be good. Meanwhile i will struggle on a bit longer with the book I am reading at present, but suspect I will give up on it shortly ...

Made it to 8.5 but it seems to have given up the struggle now and is heading back downhill. Brr. The Pile of logs beside the fire is a large one, but many are a bit damp so will have to dry out before they can be used. Fortunately it is snug enough indoors to be able to do that. Fiddled with the smart phone today and discovered it has an app that turns it into a torch - clever idea and a good way to be able to find stuff when stranded without one. The rest of the day (once the logs were in) was spent loitering over some catalogues I picked up at the tip (well, actually while at the tip someone gave me some newspaper which included these catalogues in the (very neatly tied) bundles he passed on). The are for your average, but slightly better quality junk that gets peddled door to door and are called Innovations, in case anyone is interested. Found heaps of stuff to put on the 'never knew I needed this) list which seems to get longer when I have no money. When I do have money I go back to the list and discover that actually I don't need these things at all. Still, in the mean time it is nice to make plans ... I did think the solar lights that sit on the edge of your guttering would make a useful replacement for the light on the side of the house - at least till I can get the guttering sorted on that side and it stops leaking onto said light. I also found a large garbage bag of clothes which will go to the Bargain Centre. I rummaged through them, because I could not remember if they were rejects or things I might now fit into, but they were all rejects of little value, so off they go to the Bargain Centre tomorrow. I think dinner tonight will be a bit of junk food as I seem to have lost weight again this week (yay), so a celebration is in order. I was thinking chops and potato gems might go down a treat, since they are loitering in the freezer waiting to be used.

The nights of late have been relatively mild, in fact last 24 hours look like a flat=liner's chart from the hospital. Despite this, it has been blooming freezing once I have gone to bed. So the electric blanket has been given a bit of a work out, and not just the dog's! Today it has been coolish and we have had intermittent rain of a fairly non-committal variety. But it all helps as they say. I worked out how to activate the spring-loaded thingies on the back of the screws I was using on the hollow core door to fix some hooks for in the bathroom. Finally. This has been sitting half attached for about a year now, but finally I worked it out. Hollow-core doors are full of a cardboard honeycomb. This was blocking the thingies from opening which is why they kept failing to engage and lock the hooks in place. I now have firmly attached hooks on the bathroom door. I may try doing it on the laundry door now I have the hang of it (sorry about the pun). I took a quilt into the local art gallery to be sold. It is the one I made to raffle for the Hall but which was not raffled as the raffles were raising so little money I was not prepared to donate it for so little return. Hopefully its sale will raise sufficient funds to pay the nice electrician since, of course, I forgot that I had excess on the insurance and the check they sent me falls short of the mark ... ooops. I also have the dehydrator on the market - $50.00 if anyone is interested. I would recommend against it to be frank as it takes forever, sounds like a train and I worry about having an electric fan running overnight while in a small enclosed space. I am sure it is designed to be safe, but ... To make life even more interesting, my tenant in England has vacated the house, so no income from there either sigh. I have asked the agent to put it on the market silently while they seek a new tenant. I would then go with whichever option comes up first I think. Hopefully they will get a good offer and i can be shot of it once and for all though it is quite nice to have that bank account over there... So no more talking about pulling in my horns, now it is happening for real, lol. Remind me of this if I mention any random purchases in the near future ...

Today was 'venture into the big smoke' day so I set off early, planning to be back in the early afternoon. Well that didn't work ... First stop, of course was the vets so I could collect the cat's special prescription medicine. Unlike most times I have visited things were relatively calm there today so they took the time to ask if i had a loyalty card. It is so long since anyone has asked I had forgotten I had such a thing, so she inserted all the previous purchases. Oddly I still have two more full price bags to get before I get one free ... Then back to Bridgewater to go to the supermarket and Shiploads and the Reject Shop. The latter was targetted due to their online catalogue suggesting they had toothpaste for $1.00 a tube, but apparently not at Bridgewater. I enquired politely, and they actually went to the trouble of checking the online catalogue and tracking down something they could sell me for that price that sort of met the catalogue description. I was pleased, but could have bought some for $1.96 at Shiploads without all the fuss. I also collected a clothes rack. The clothes rack I have at present I broke last time I tried to move it to vacuum it, so it has been serving time in a state of invalidism and not doing so well. So vacuuming behind it has not been happening at all. This one is twice the length, has more bracing, includes a rack at the bottom for the shoes and has a double-height section for hanging skirts and shirts. And at $30 was a bit of an extravagance, but will save a lot of stress and hayfever. Most of the rest of my purchases were fairly mundane, but then I was left with the problem of what to take to a friend's place as a get-well gift as she is recovering from a knee replacement and has also had lapband surgery. So most of the usual suspects were out of the question as you really don't want your get-well present to make the recipient sick now, do you. So I ended up getting her a lavender plant which was not the healthiest plant, but at least it was something. Before I left Bridgewater I noticed a strange click click noise that I finally tracked down to the large (apparently roofing) nail in the rear tyre. Fortunately it was not causing a leak, so I just kept driving in the hope I might make it up to Oatlands before the tyre went flat, and at least grateful it would be daylight if I had to change the tyre. En route I called into the friend's place and we had a good catch up (it has been weeks since she managed to get to Quilting) and on my way home. Made it to the servo and Andrew removed the tyre, patched it from the inside (which apparently should last the life of the tyre, as opposed to the plugs that go in from the outside and last about 6 months) and sent me on my way only $15.00 lighter. Also ran into a familiar face at the servo who finally worked out where he knew me from, but it took me half an hour after I got home before i remembered where I knew him from (he is a local Councillor). So now the rack is installed (along a different wall as it is so long it did not fit where it had been), and the fire is lit and the animals are all fed and I am ready to pop tonight's steak and kidney pie in the oven and sit back and contemplate how much money I parted with today and how I will survive the rest of the fortnight!! lol.

The good news is that I hvae worked out what the problem was with my design. The bad news is that i have been at quilting all day so did not get to work on it. The reason i don't take it to quilting is twofold. One is that all the chatter is too distracting when I am trying to concentrate. The other is that the loathsome friend of my charming neighbour is prone to try to dominate all conversation and most certainly eavesdrops on all my conversations to report back to base. So private conversations are no longer an option. I deal with this by simply ignoring her existence, but today she was making a point of drawing attention to me all day, to the point where i found a reason to leave early. It certainly takes the fun out of things when you have someone like that in a group. She is, of course, trying to make people see that she is making an effort to be friends with me. As I have privately pointed out to others, if that were the case, she would walk two doors up and pop in to visit me, not make a big production out of it at quilting. Short of shouting at her, there is nothing i can do other than try to ignore her since it would create an unpleasant atmosphere for others. Nasty little apology for a human being that she is she is making it hard to remain pleasant and continue to enjoy my time with the girls(rant over). It is raining today, alternating with sunshine. The fire is on, but more in anticipation of a need this evening than an actual need at present. The cats have discovered the dog's electric blanket, so he may find it necessary to sleep elsewhere if they decide they like it. Braised steak on mash tonight.

By bedtime last night I was feeling pretty smug as I was sure I had 'cracked' the design for the foundation piecing. Today I tried to implement it using some of the 'what was I thinking?!' fabric found during the clearout. Two of the three subunits went together like a dream and came out looking like they should. But when I added the third one I found i had an acute triangle where I wanted an obtuse one. I suspect this came about as I tried to reduce the elements down to too few and that last triangle I added should have been a reverse of the one opposite, not the same as I have made it. Will get back to it some time when I have some thinking room. The other factor to consider is that this is actually a potential money maker. Why muck about with 60 degree corners when you don't have to? Why go to the bother of strip piecing ( which only works for those whose seams are perfect) when you don't have to? Copyrighting it and marketting it to appropriate end-users might be a useful exercise. I will have to ask the one person in the quilt world who is likely to know and who is also trustworthy (not a common combination) to get ideas as to how to go about it. Failing that, i could always make up some kits and distribute them to some of the shops and see how they go (crib size, not huge ones). But I am rather getting ahead of myself if I can't make this last element work out properly. Awfully chilly here though the promised rain seems to have been a bit half-hearted. Still, just think of those lovely steak and kidney pies waiting to be reheated for dinner!!

The sorting out continues, with all those bags of scrappy bits now either ironed and replaced, or discarded as I have concluded that applique is unlikely to be high on my agenda any time soon. The pie is presently going through its early phases of cooking (i.e. the meat and suitable flavourings are presently slow cooking so they are soft and tender and flavour-some), and the dog is presently demanding to go outside for some reason. Whatever it is it appears to be the same invisible atom that required a flurry of barking and permission to use the front door about half an hour ago. Once outdoors he tried to make a break for the front yard, but is now safely heading downhill to the orchard and freedom of another sort. But he is back in now. Last night i tried to buy a bundle of fat quarters on Ebay. You may well ask 'why?' but the process of sorting through the material I have was sufficient to point out to me that i do not have the right sorts of colours to make the BOM I am enrolled in, and the kits of the 'right' fabric are unavailable. So onto Ebay I ventured and bought myself a bundle of civil war fat quarters so I can make it up using calico as the background fabric. Long story really as the BOM is part of a free craft class I enrolled in when joining Craftsy.com which is a huge website covering off on a number of crafts of which quilting is but one. The pattern for the class is actually a rather modern a-symetric layout sampler quilt which was to be done in bright polkadots and sherbert gelatos. So the civil war fabric is completely at odds with the original design, but there seem to be a number of people using their own colour-ways.I personally err toward natural tones (though there are clear contradictions to that statement in some of the stuff I have made) and these will go nicely with the calico background which I would otherwise have to buy in addition to the fat quarters. So, getting back to the point, I tried to buy these on ebay but the credit card was refused which was silly as there is money available, so we (the vendor and I) concluded the bank had stopped the payment as it was overseas. But no. I had given the wrong expiry date. So all is now well with the world and I have 21 civil war fat quarters winging their way to me for about $1.50 each (which is a lot less than the 4-5 dollars they would cost here in case you non-quilters are having conniptions. and I DO have enough spare bits and pieces of the same fabric ranges to make up any shortfalls. Today, while sorting that lot out, making the steak and kidney pie fillings and so forth, I also continued the sorting and so have only two more piles of fabric (red and brown) to sort through and find a home for. Now it is all neat and ironed, it kind of fits better so hopefully these two piles will fit in comfortably and continue to allow access. A small pile of stuff is also to be taken in on Wednesday and sold at discount rates to anyone interested. And I have printed off some isometric graph paper so I can try to work out how to foundation paper piece the six-pointed stars that I want the blue and white quilt to be made of. I suspect that since it has not been done before it can not be done, but if I fiddle around a bit, maybe I can work something out. The foundations papers I have found to date only make up to a solid star, and I would like the arms of the star to be half midblue and half dark blue so you get the optical illusion of 3 dimensions.

Those of you with (very)good memories may recall that when I first started going to quilting I became terribly ambitious and designed my own lattice quilt. the inspiration was the fact that i had randomly picked three fabrics that I rather liked, and decided that i really should make something of them. Since the Bernina was still in the shipping container and I was still in the caravan, I became even more ambitious and decided to do it all by hand. So I designed and embroidered a central medallion (which I think we can agree is just a bit too subtle and needs a lift) and did all the blocks by hand and by the time I was done I was so sick of hand sewing I took it all up to Caroline's and pieced it together with the machine. But when I came to put the two halves together (it being 'on point) I discovered that the second half was not doing the lattice thing. Or so I thought. So the whole lot was bunged into a plastic bag and I have not looked at it since then. Today I decided I really should move my 'organising' into the spare room. (Remember the organising? I kind of lost interest once I could get into the rooms i usually use). So of course the first job was to organise the Stash as all good quilters will understand. I found one half of the quilt, but not the other half. But rather more rummaging unearthed that too. As well as various bits of fabric acquired with the thought they may be useful for borders, or whatever. So the 'organising' was put on hold as I decided to see if the lattice looked any better now i a not cross-eyed with looking at it. Surely three years should be long enough!! And sure enough, once it was sewn together I struggle to see what my problem was. Perhaps you can spot it? Clearly it is not, presently large enough to do the queen size bed. It needs an additional 30 inches, well 15 inches all around. So borders are the order of the day. I have these fabrics, but none in sufficient quantity to achieve the 30 inches I need. I was thinking the white on green which is also used in the quilt, could make a 2 inch border, to match the proportions of the remainder of the quilt, then perhaps the solid green for a slightly wider strip, but that still leaves me with at least 10 inches to go. The pink is, I feel, rather too pink and needs to be muddier, so I think I will need to take a couple of bits of fabric to Spotlight with me to see what I can work out. I bought a green gingham for the back which is a bit too limey at present, but I recall I had planned to teabag dye it and it should work out OK once that is done. So once that was all organised, I moved onto the fabrics... The idea was to have them grouped by colour. So muddy blues, clear blues, china blues, reds/pins, neutrals (how do I have so many of these, but still can not find the one I need when making something up?), browns, greens, and another group loosely termed yellow which includes oranges and mustards and various other forms of the colour. The three inch strips are ironed and bundled, as are the 2.5 and 1.5 inch strips (you never know when you need a log cabin in a hurry) the orphan blocks all have their own designated part of a drawer. The batiks are all together. And so it goes. Now all I have to to is work out where to put them. They were previously strewn between various locations (and I suspect more are lurking in the bins I have not looked at yet) and those bins and other containers are assigned to 'tops that are almost done but need finishing off', tops that need to be unpicked and re-sewn due to inaccuracies that even I can not cope with', collections of fabric (as opposed to my own collection - these are things that have been picked and grouped by people who know about these things) and so forth. So no prizes for guessing what happens tomorrow. Thought tomorrow I will hopefully be able to spare the time to make those steak and kidney pies that were not made today (individual ones in ramekins I have decided). After sitting up till midnight last night I have, however, finally worked out how to make the quilt top I want to make using the blue and white fabrics - which I have more of than I thought I discovered today. basically dark and mid tone six point stars separated by light hexagons (white with a very light blue pattern or self-patterned). Turns out that what I needed to be looking for was a pattern for Tumbling Blocks. Once I worked that out it was easy...

The overnight temperature forecast for tonight is only marginally lower than the daytime temperatures we endured last week. All very confusing, and making the addition of flannel sheets a bit premature. Still at least they are nice if they are all you have on the bed (until the wee hours that is). This week we agreed to book ourselves in for the quilting and craft fair which is to be held at the Entertainment Centre. The group will be attending on the Friday which could be tricky if I happen to get lucky with the job but the group ticket bookings do not oblige one to attend as part of the group, so I can always go on the Saturday. I missed it last year as it alternates with Launceston (Tasmania being a land of two halves). The previous year when I managed to get there, I found there was so much temptation in my path that I did silly things and bought things I am still looking at and wondering why I did that. So this year I have a plan... lol. I have always rather fancied making one of those blue and white quilts. No idea why as white is not a colour likely to survive in my household, but they do look quite lovely and i can always wrap it in tissue paper and put it in storage for some beneficiary to find in future years (meanwhile gloating over it's beauty from time to time). As a consequence, whenever I see fabric of the right shade of blue, I buy it. No idea what the pattern should be, and not great plans yet. But I do fancy making one. So today I trawled the web for free foundation-pieced patterns of stars on the principle that if they can be blown up to 12 inch blocks (or shrunk down, depending ...) they can be put together with little 3 inch blocks at the intersections and sashing between each block. Whether the sashing will be blue or white remains to be seen. Whether it will work remains to be seen. Anyway it kept me off the streets for the day as I waited for washing loads to finish and made phonecalls to prospects who may or may not actually buy something one day. Once i work out a pattern, I can then get someone who knows that they are doing to work out the fabric requirements and then head off to the fair confident I know what I should be buying. This assumes, of course, that I actually have an income by then. If I don't then it will not be a complete waste of time as I can get in touch with my favourite quilt shop (in Lilydale) at some future date and order the fabric in as I know Deb will get it right if I scan copies of the fabrics I already have so she can do a colour match. Soon to go into the oven is a chicken and potato and leek and preserved lemon pie which will hopefully taste as good as the recipe sounds. Tomorrow is steak and kidney pie time, assuming I remember to get the meat out this afternoon.

Wow! What a glorious day. topped out around the 18 mark, but after the mist burned off it was just glorious - blue skies, gentle zephyrs, birdsong, everything you might want really. I spent the morning indoors despite the temptations and finalised the application, submitting it electronically using their on-line process. Tricky really as they wanted particular file names so they could work out what was who, but this did not allow for distinction between CV, cover letter and selection criteria. In fact you could only attach two files, so I merged the letter and the selection criteria and sent the CV separately - phew. Then I carefully studied the two pie recipes I wanted to make and ventured into town to get the balance of the ingredients. But I forgot to get the leeks, so the pies remain unmade. I could have made the steak and kidney one, but the meat has not been defrosted yet, and microwave-defrosting kidneys does not sound like a good idea to me. So, wood is cut, recipes are ready to rock and roll (albeit on hold till tomorrow) and the fire is laid. Not that it is likely I will be lighting it tonight I have to say. Tonight will be last night once more, since the pies remain a distant dream. My Le Creuset casserole dish appears to have developed some flaws in the internal enamelling which is a pity. I may have to invest in some of those el cheapo cast iron pots from the Reject Shop or Shiploads if they carry them. Will check it out next week while I am down that way getting dog and cat food and some other of the more exclusive grocery items (like a tray of tinned tomatoes since it is casserole season once more). They are probably made in China, but the Indus civilisation (and from them the Chinese) did invent cast iron, so presumably they know what they are doing.

Spent the afternoon snoozing on the couch, much to my embarrassment Should be writing that job application. Must get onto it. It was supposed to be 20 degrees, but I gave up waiting for that by 11:30 and lit the fire. Surprise surprise, it warmed up after that, but not enough to make the fire redundant, so all was not lost. Remade the bed with flannellette sheets - a decision I will doubtless regret for the next couple of nights, but there you go. The braised steak was subjected to another hour and a half in the oven which vastly improved both the texture and the flavour, so no prizes for guessing tonight's dinner. And i have found a tasty sounding steak and kidney pie recipe which I may give a work out to tomorrow. Not sure where in Oatlands I might find some stout, but I will give it a try. And the anchovy essence will just have to wait in favour of your actual anchovies. Allegedly it will be 20 degrees tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see if it achieves it. Meanwhile the other two of the three disasters have arisen. The starter motor of the ute appears to be on its last legs, judging by the sound effects it causes when I try to start the motor. So hopefully no frosty starts for a few more weeks so I can save up to get a new one fitted. And the pump of the hot water cylinder appears to have sprung a leak around the gasket. Was particularly worried due to the electrical connection, but have realised this is off to one side, whereas the leak is running straight down. Fortunately I overpaid the plumber by a couple of hundred quid while I still had money so that one should, hopefully, be fixed as soon as I can get to him (unless it needs new parts in which case I may be boiling the kettle for a while). It never ends does it?

I have been trotting out the same CV for the last 20 years - duly updated with the latest job of course, but otherwise only with minor variations. So today I had an independent third party look at it - someone with no experience in the profession, but some in job applications. So now I am re-writing the CV and adding in stuff I had dropped off over the years for the sake of brevity. And having the final charge at finishing off the selection criteria so I can hopefully email the application tomorrow. Quilting was interrupted by our travelling quilting supplies saleswoman who happily had nothing for me to spend my money on. I did however succumb to the Mancey's sale and bought a pair of bamboo socks which promise all manner of foot comfort not to be expected from lumps of grass woven into fabric. Sunshine and warmer climes today, and tonight, but the casserole is back in the oven, both to reheat and to serve as tonight's dinner. After I have driven back into town to buy dog food (or the dog will be demanding the casserole).

Tonight's dinner will be braised steak and onions. Not out of a can, but out of a casserole dish. The recipe is in the CWA Soups and Stews recipe book. Mine has been marinading for an hour and is presently waiting for the oven to heat up so I can put it in to slowly simmer for another two hours or so. I have thrown in some peas as well, so I get my greens. I would love to have some fluffy mashed spuds, but sadly the potato situation is a bit grim around here at present. I might manage it, but don't hold your breaths. My new client, who lives in a remote community served by one mail plane per week, is going to be difficult to organise a deliver for. I am hoping she will respond to my text and email and let me know which of the various unsatisfactory options she is willing to go with (if any) as I don't feel it would be appropriate to make an expensive choice for her. I will never again complain about the remoteness of my present location, now I have seen where she is living .............

Woohoo, we made it into two figures today and a nice sunny day to boot. The assessor arrived at the crack of dawn as promised and saw the damage, asked me to send photos and wandered off promising to send a builder. Then I popped into town to do some phone calls and returned to find Eric loading the last of the weatherboards onto the back of his ute. A quick exchange of weatherboards for cash was transacted and he went on his way smiling while I went on my way smiling too. I do liked a business deal like that! Funds now deposited securely in the bank, thank you very much!! I had a serious need for junk food which the local junk food purveyor failed to satisfy as they now do chicken strips, not the bits with bones in them which give you that satisfying gnawing experience. And the chips leave a certain something to be desired too. Pity really. If you are going to break your diet, you should at least get some pleasure from it. So tonight's 'dinner;' will be a shake now. wrote several more paragraphs of the job application before deciding I was repeating myself and so retired to reading the book I am presently engrossed in. Getting quite crisp now as the sun approaches the far side of the sky, so its a good thing there was time to cut some more wood as well.

Temps in single figures all day were somewhat mitigated by the lack of wind, but not much. I ventured out to the Market this morning, but even there the stallholders were reduced in number, so I decided to be a tourist in my own town and had a look around. The exhibition at the mill is of interest to locals, with each of the outlying towns spotlighted with a glimpse into their history. Always interesting to learn a few more bits and pieces about the district. Then a wander down to the pancake parlour where i discovered they do take-away coffee!! What a pleasure! So that came home with me, along with the fetta and spinach quiche i bought at the market, which will provide dinner tonight. Some more wood cut up and taken indoors which will hopefully allow the house to become cosy enough to withstand tonights zero degrees comfortably.

Didn't quite make it down to the minus degrees last night, though they seem to be going for another try tonight. Instead it settled for sunny and bitterly cold with a good strong wind straight off whatever snow is lying around on the highlands. Must be a fair bit of it judging by the razor-sharp winds. The promised snowfalls did not eventuate either - sad really as I was quite looking forward to that. Two loads of washing done though, and some work, and the rest of my freezer goods collected from Gordon's. Settling in for a chilly night, so logs in, pjs airing in front of the fire, dinner planned and ready to go on once it is a suitable time, and no intention of going outside again if I can avoid it.

The electricity is back and I am feeling quite smug to have survived two nights without it. Still, it is good to have it back again. The freezer bottom is once again invisible (though I took advantage of the opportunity to defrost it). I am astounded at how little it looks now it is back in the freezer, but how much space it took up when spread across three other people's freezers. Mind you, I still have the two shelves of stuff to collect from Gordon, but even so. I tried to make the storage a little more coherent, so chicken in the back left, pork on the right middle and rear, lamb in the middle and beef toward the front. Though that will probably last until the next frenzied search for the rolled pork belly, or whatever that special recipe calls for. Apart from that, not much was achieved today - the new electrician is excellent and anyone who needs one need only ask me for references. He also has a cute bum as he goes up the ladder (lol). He's based at Claremont so any southerners might be interested to know of his availability. The dog will be pleased to get his electric blanket back, and I am thrilled to have the washing machine back (was running out of clothes and thinking a trip to the laundromat might be required), so all is well with the world at present. Touch Wood.

The bulk of the ice appears to have cleared from the roof, but more is apparently still there as the condensation it is causing is dripping merrily into the loungeroom once more. Half the the hall ceiling is ruined - similarly the loungeroom ceiling (though it, fortunately, has yet to get the treatment). More buckets are piled in the loungeroom and the electricity remains off. The contents of my freezer are distributed between three local households which fortunately had varying degrees of spare space in their freezers. I seem to be the only local with quite this amount of harm, but Vera tells me she had waterfalls in her sunroom and Kyle up the road had fishbowls rather than light fittings. My insurance company (Elders) has been fantastic, actively urging me to pursue a claim and to get various people in (at their expense) to provide quotes for damage. I am only getting the electrician in at this point, because I suspect the damage to the plaster will be more apparent after any ponded water has a chance to soak through as well Fortunately with the hard plastering, once it dries out it should be fine, as long as mildew does not get in. To help avoid that I have left the covers off both manholes so the heat from the fire can go into the roof and speed things up. So today it looks more like this: So from top to bottom we have: the computer sitting on a kitchen chair recharging from the power point that serves the water pump. I realised the cabling for this ran down the side of the house and so should be safe to turn on. It is now turned back off again due to the fire alarm being out of commission at present. Next is the quantity and depth of the ice remaining in the wheelbarrow this morning after about 3 hours of sunshine. The next three are the ceilings showing the damage, which in the hall is primarily staiing, but as you will note there are a number of light fittings in the way of it all The contents of the freezer that had already melted by the time I started distributing stuff this morning. The contents of the fridge which will hopefully be fine if I can turn back on tomorrow (though it occurred to me I might run a cable from the tank stand if I am not permitted to turn on tomorrow.) The last is just the bottom of the freezer (taken more for the insurance company's benefit than anyone else's. Gotta go now as running out of power.

Had a bit more excitement here than is warranted unfortunately. A hail storm hit this afternoon, fortunately after I arrived home earlier than usual from quilting. In minutes the entire neighbourhood was under deep ice that seemed to be struggling to work out if it wanted to be hail or snow. It settled into the internal gulley of the roof with the inevitable results. First a drip drip drip. Then a loud shriek from the hardwired fire alarm. That was continuous until I got the SES out here (in the form of one council employee) who managed to work out how to turn the thing off. Then a call to the insurance to give them a heads up they could expect a claim... and so it went on. Just to make life even more exciting ... last night I was checking who has been watching the blog, which I do from time to time, and found a website that had attached the blog link to itself. So, rather foolishly, I guess, I clicked on it. And was taken to a website showing child pornography. Charming. What is worse, it tried to colonise the computer, opening multiple tabs to show more and more unacceptable images. So shut down and got rid of it, then called the police. We are all told how the police take a dim view of this sort of thing right? How they have international cooperation to stamp it out, right? Well apparently no-one mentioned this to the PC plod who answered the phone. No not him! He first told me he couldn't understand why people maintain blogs in the first place, then told me these website may not be based in Australia (well- who could have thought!) and so the endless litany went on. So I gave up on him and called the Federal police and was asked to call back in the morning. I was getting to the point were a phone call to the Mercury was sounding pretty attractive by this stage! Anyway this morning I gave the police here another chance and called once again. I was bemused to discover that since I live here, the Hobart police would not deal with it, but they told me they would ask Bridgewater police to call me. By around 2 this afternoon I was once again thinking a call to the mercury was in order, but fortunately they police did indeed call back. A female police officer this time who at least had the wit to recognise the issue. She arranged to send around a local officer to have a look at the computer. He came around saw the website, agreed it was nasty, took the serial number of my laptop in case I ever get arrested for looking at sites like this so his report will clear me, and went on his merry way. In the mean time, I have discovered that the Feds have a crime reporting form you can fill in accessible on their website (in case you ever need to know this). Gotta go before the computer goes flat.