Start off the week with freshly rained on grass and clean sky

Sometimes it helps to leave town for even a couple of days just to sweep out the cobwebs!
We didn't drive far, just 30 minutes out of town to camp at Wantabadgery on the banks of the very same river that runs straight past our suburb in town. It's the Murrumbidgee river.

I'd been out there once or twice as a kid to swim, but would never have thought or remembered to go there now! My husbands aunts, uncle and cousins from Sydney found it and came down to camp a while, so we joined them out there for a few days.

Our tent finally got an airing after a year or two in exile to the hall cupboard.
The campsite itself has no fresh water, BYO. A nice chilly walk to the long drop toilets! Oh my. (lucky they even had these really)
No shower, oh dear! But on the overwhelming plus side!
Happy hour each evening! Fruity wine and nibbles. Oh yeah!
Nice, yummy, comfort food - prepared and shared family meals cooked on a smokey wood fire and plenty of male-foke to tend it.

Birds, clean air, trees, everything freshly rained on before we we got there and green!

Cows mooing, and a bull calling out to his ladies each morning! Lazy mornings sitting around drinking coffee and flipping pancakes. Even the Paterson's curse is forgiven for its invasiveness because it looks so pretty.

Thousands of stars, falling stars, weird stars (no thats a plane), with hot choc and marshmallows over the fire along with campfire stories you would never tell at home.
A scarf that got crocheted start to finish on the banks of the river while others were out in a canoe.

Garry's cousins, two very nice, pleasant, chatty, polite teenage boys! Is this a miracle!!? It was wasn't it! They were lovely!
So, this is what 5 hours in a canoe does to you.

So now we return to town full of fresh air and a hell of a lot calmer than before we left and with a new scarf to wear on the cooler mornings.

*long relaxed sigh*

Lost my ability to sew

With everything thats happened in the past month or so, I've lost my ability to sew!

The very last thing I made, back in August was this sock monkey.

It was from a little book I bought while on holiday on the coast during the last school holidays. It's called Sock and Glove by Miyako Kanamori.

I know that theres thousands of variations and free instructions and so on on the net for making sock monkeys and all kinds of other sock creatures. While picking up essentials, I just was browsing in the bookstore at Bateman's Bay and giggled at it's pictures and story, I read it to my husband all the way along the coast road back to our accommodation. It is so very cute!
I made my first sock monkey ever! It was for my cousin's baby Taliyah, for her first Birthday.

As with all 1yr olds, the wrap was far more exciting than the present!

Then of course she cuddled all her toys at once.

And she looked pretty pleased with herself! So we think she liked the sock monkey.

She took it in the next day to visit great-grandma in hospital. Great-grandma loved it!
My cousin Kathleen, who is 21yrs old loved her niece Taliyah's sock monkey so much she grabbed it and wouldn't let it go. The sock monkey was finally returned to it's rightful owner, when Great-grandma grabbed it and and gave it back to a very grateful baby!
Today I am determined to kick-start my sewing again with a little project. I am going to make my cousin Kathleen a sock monkey. As most of it is hand sewing, I intend to find a nice comfy place on the lounge in front of the heater and stitch away.

My Beautiful Mum

My Beautiful Mum passed away 12th September 2010 at 2:10pm
This is Mum in a beautiful dress she made herself.

This is Mum and Dad on their wedding day.

This is Mum and Dad on My Wedding Day.

I can not express how much love we have for you and how much you will be missed.