Exchange.....

Haighs has been fabulous with her egg donations. We've had quiche, hard and soft boiled eggs for breakfast and eggs in sandwiches and salads.....and, count our lucky stars, one more each day. Joe took 1/2 doz into work the other day and in exchange he brought home something equally yellow. Sensational citrus! Gorgeous lemons that will be juiced and consumed as part of Joe's daily regime! Oh how I love a good produce swap!

Breaking records......

I live in a city famous for its Christmas Pageant, it's old fashioned fantasy and has an extensive history. More to the point, it marks the arrival of Santa. I never went as a child but I participated as a teenager through school. We used to watch it in black and white on TV. So for me, the first time I ever went, I was in it! However, having children ignited the passion for attendance. This year I was lucky enough to attend as part of a corporate facility.
It certainly made up for every year this past decade and a half that I've marked out the family territory at 6am, sitting in the freezing mornings with nothing more than a folding chair, picnic rug, thermos of tea and a newspaper under the shadow of the CBD only to end up sunburnt by the end of the parade. All worth it though to see the happiness as the children draw on the road in chalk and wave back at silly clowns and of course, the big man in red! (Equally special for us as this is the route to L's school, where we seek out the longevity of his artwork as he's convinced he can still see his name and drawings on the road.)
For a few years now the organisers have attempted to come up with promotional ideas to break a Guinness Book of Records record. (What? Being one of the best and most historic street parades in the world is not good enough for them? LOL!) For a couple of years they tried the longest mexican wave....to no avail. I think it was too hard to keep it moving and count the participants. However, this year the attempt was the biggest crowd wearing red noses for 10 minutes and with a theme of 'discover the clown within' there were red noses a-plenty. We had to beat a soccer match in Portugal of 15,000. Guess what? We did it....16920! Yey! I'm one, so is R, so is L, so is J, so is S, so is L, so is A, so is little L.....and about 16,912 other Adelaideans!

Swoon...

It's finished! And at 80" square, by far the biggest quilt I've ever quilted. It's so big I struggled to come up with a spot to take a full length photo but seeing as necessity is the mother of invention I'm thrilled I worked out the hanging spot from the batting under the verandah porch! I'll be using that little trick again for sure. So the quilt? I love the pattern. The blocks are large and simple to piece and their beauty appears before your eyes as the piecing comes together. I don't have any favourite blocks....they're all lovely but I do wish I'd been a little more adventurous in my fabric selections. Next time! The pattern is Swoon designed by the very clever Camille Roskelly. You can buy the pattern from the link on her blog. The fabric is Denyse Schmidt's Picnics and Fairgrounds from Spotlight in Australia and Kona Snow. And the quilting is free motion stippling by me!

Deliverance....

If you've been reading my blog for a bit, you may have read about the chook that pops over the fence into our backyard and spends her day poking around and feasting on snails, dropped figs, our compost scraps and pretty much anything else that takes her fancy. When we first discovered her in our yard 18 months ago it was around Easter time, so we named her Haighs after the famous Adelaide chocolate brand that come into their own around Easter and produce lovely chocolate hen shapes (and fish, frogs, bilbys, eggs, truffles etc...). I don't think she has a name where she lives...but who would know, she doesn't say much beyond the occasional cluck. Lately she's been arriving first thing in the morning. It's rather satisfying to see her at 7.30am....kind of settles us in for the day. She also recognises our blue compost bucket and starts to chase us around the yard before it's deposited. Joe will attest to the pecking of one's foot just because he had the bucket! There was even a day when she gorged so much at our place I had to lift her up to the fence because she was too heavy to fly up to it! However, about two weeks ago we found her nestling in some plants one afternoon and making quite a ruckus. Joe was right onto it. He spotted all the signs. Yep, pretty soon we had an egg. Warm and fresh. Since then we've received a perfect dozen. (Sorry, picture shows eleven but we ate one!) They're picked fresh each day and popped into the carton. It's quite a ritual. I often wonder what her owners must be thinking about her lack of presence and/or lack of laying. My only hope is that her owners don't get onto it.....!

Out of whack....

A year ago we had a fabulous Halloween party. Seriously, it was THE BEST! The house was decorated to the enth degree (well let's face it...any spider web hanging from the cornice is perfectly placed...isn't it?). The kids dressed up, the friends arrived and everyone was amazingly ghoulish... Needless to say the ghoulish revelry was enhanced by a couple of very over-priced imported pumpkins that we carved for the party. After carving, we chucked the insides into the compost...lamenting that you didn't actually get much on the inside....but I learnt, that that's the sort of pumpkin that it is. I kept some seeds but didn't hold much hope that anything would come of them....after all they're bred for one-off Halloween events and have probably been kept in a fridge for 6 months before arriving for our October. However, pretty soon the mulch we threw into the compost started to produce sprouts. I kept them going as it was summer here, and the sprouting plants were green and fresh looking. After a while we had an abundance of divine orange pumpkins. We stacked them up....you could dance around them if you were that way inclined. But alas....that was six months ago. Way too soon for October Halloween celebrations and with these imported varieties, there was no way they would last too much longer beyond the time they were actually harvested. So we picked them. We looked at them. We took photos but they soured. So we've buried them. And guess what...they're coming up again. How about Halloween in June?