Last week at Quilting we were talking about the fact that the Tuesday group is temporarily meeting at the home of another friend while Caroline (their usual hostess) is away. We thought it would be a great idea to go out there en masse to check out her new girl-shed and spend a happy few hours sewing. Due to one of us having commitments that would keep her busy till lunchtime, we were going to go for the afternoon only - perhaps three hours. The bit of the conversation I missed (or rather failed to factor into these plans) was that Tuesday group was meeting on Mondays to suit her appointment schedule. So you can imagine my surprise when a few friends turned up at the back door ready to carry me off today. 'Isn't it Monday?' blinks me, having horrors I might have missed a day somewhere. Once we had that sorted out, I picked up my counted cross stitch and away we went.

The weather has continued cold, though this morning was so sunny I was nearly lulled into doing a load or two of washing (which would not have been a good outcome given the way the day panned out), but by the time we got to our destination it was more cloudy and a few flurries of snow put in brief appearances. Then some of that gorgeous miniature hail we get here in Tassie. The three hours dragged into around five hours, however - and would have gone on longer when our first drop-off suggested we all go in for a drink -  so by the time I got home I barely had time to re-light the fire, take the poor dogs for a quick gallop around the oval and off to clean the bank. The fire is now chugging away nicely, and hopefully tonight will not be quite so chilly as last night. I will, however, lay in water supplies before bedtime as the windscreen of the ute was already freezing by the time i came home.


The dead vacuum cleaner has been replaced by one that would suck a hole in the carpet if you left it still for too long. Takes a bit of getting used to I have to say as the last one was rather leisurely. But the carpet has not looked this good in some time. The down side is it has replaceable bags (the other one had a cloth bag you just emptied from time to time), and they neglected to leave a supply of replacements. I expect the current one will last some time since it at least has an open mouth for easy emptying, but give the quantity of paperclips, staples and other sharp objects I pick up each evening, I will be needing a replacement at some time in the future so will place an order now.