2021 - The Year in Review

 January 

Another Year that started with a Bang!

DD fell victim to a Grumpy Bee Sting ending up in Emergency

We received our own Girls compliments of a Swarm that settled nearby.

and I started a Year Long Challenge involving Half Hexagons!

February

Involved a Lot of walking... Combining our Hour of exercise with a trip to the Cafe (for Take-away) Gave us time to see the neighbourhood around us and take the occasional Shot of the Day Photo.

One of "Our Girls" perhaps?

March

I celebrated 10 Years of Blogging by condensing the last 10 years 

into 10 (OK 11) Photos.

I must admit some months it has been hard to fit in a Post but I enjoy it.

So I will continue my Journal (God Willing) into the next 10 Years

April

Was spent mainly fighting with my Laptop, 

finding I have way too many Photos of my Cat

And working on the Focus Cutting Half Hexagon Challenge.

April was also spent anxiously watching Covid Numbers 

and Borders that opened only to slam shut again.

May

We Celebrated Our 40th Wedding Anniversary 

with an Adventure. 

Melbourne, Perth,  Rottnest Island and the Indian Pacific Train departing 16th

all the Way to Sydney!

June

Posting about Our Adventures took most of June 

by the time I sorted photos, drew maps and checked facts.

July

I finished my 2019 Temperature Quilt

and continued with The Hexagon Mystery Quilt 

while still playing with Half Hexie Challenge blocks.

August

The Mystery Hexagon Quilt was finished and on the To Be Quilted Pile

Second Vaccine Shots were received

AND

Little Miss A Celebrated her 1st Birthday

in the only way we could ... Via Zoom.

September

Had me revisiting the Past.

Making a Wall-hanging from Scraps & Fixing a problem in the Linen Closet

Some restrictions lifted and we were able to meet DD half way for her Birthday

even if it WAS only in the carpark of a Shopping Centre!

(Takeaway Coffee and a Picnic in the back of Bessie)

October

Our Bees swarmed over the back fence 

triggering some serious maintenance for DD's Hive

AND

The Vic Government announced the end to ALL Lockdowns

just in time for Omicron to  make an appearance.

Only time will tell if this Variant is Worse than the last one.

November

My only November Post was to wish 

Little Miss H a Very Happy 1st Birthday

December

Was spent mainly with the Repair/Renovation of my Mother's Laundry

and getting over Some serious damage to my knee and shoulder.

(Curtesy of falling over Her Cat!)

and of Course Christmas!

God Bless All who Come here and join me each Month.

May 2022 be a Better Year for Everyone.

Christmas Time Again

 Sending Happy Aussie Christmas Greetings to All.

Isaiah 9:6

Between November and Now

 It all started with "There is Water in the Laundry"

Yeah - So?  
But it should not be Under the floor!

Somehow, (and it remains a mystery to this day),  enough water flooded my Mothers Laundry that it seeped under the Linoleum tiles and swelled the underlay causing large ripples in the floor.

We called a Plumber, who tested the area with a meter and declared there was indeed moisture present.

He advised us to call the Insurance Company who sent another Plumber who removed some tiles and the wet underlay to find...

Another floor under this one.

(I remember these tiles - a Blast from the Past when Dad laid the new floor over the old one.)

Taking one look at the subfloor he "Made Safe" and passed the problem to "The Assessor".

Who made a lot of measurements and discussed scenarios and sent Mother into a Panic attack by suggesting she move out for 3 weeks while it was fixed.

Now the next "Professional" to be sent was the Leak Detection Specialist.

He came to a conclusion and set to prove his theory come 'Hell or High Water'- Literally!

This is HIS photograph proving that Rain Water entered the Window through a gap in the TOP right hand corner.

The Green at the top of the photograph is a Shade Pergola that stretches under the Eaves from the brick wall to the neighbours fence 1.8 meters away.

Oh and it faces EAST. Very clever rain indeed!

This was deemed to not be a "Claimable Event" and we were to fix it ourselves!

Now I will not bore you with the details of the rebuild. 

We had a few issues but NONE were caused by leaking rainwater through the window!

When we stripped out the plaster - everything was dry with only a little evidence of damage that was decades old.

Thanks to a lot of help from my Nephew, My Mother now has a new Laundry Room that is safe and suitable for her. 

And she didn't have to move out while it was done!

Happy Birthday.

Where has the year Gone?

In a Whirlwind of Firsts!

A lot of which we have missed

But not this One.

 Today it is GD#2

Little Mis H's FIRST Birthday!

It's Over.

 No more Lockdowns - or so they say...

Time to dust off the tables and press your Work Gear.

It's been long enough.

NOW after 84 days - We are out of "Lockdown No. 6".

It hasn't been the longest, last year Lockdown #2 went for 111 Days.

120 if you were caught in the #1.5 Postcode lockdown that preceded it by a week.

We kept our Sense of Humour and made friends over Takeaway Coffee.

And between these times we must not forget that we had 7 months when life went back to almost normal, as we watched the numbers drop.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could bring back all those Zeros by the 27th November again?

These announcements can then become just a Memory and the Government will have other things to Tweet about.

In the meantime - I am happy to be able to GO shopping again. 

I will still prefer to do my shopping when it is quiet.

Maybe not THIS quiet. 

But it will be a while before I venture into the crowds again.

And that is OK.

Still Busy

Lockdowns come and go and Life also goes on.

Yes, we can now go out for all the 'Important' things like Coffee & Cake, Haircuts and (my favourite) a Massage!  

The Shops are still to Open when we get to our 80% Double Vaxed but that is not far away. 

(I can wait a week for new Shoes.)

In the meantime I am reminded of my Grandfather saying

 "Spring has Sprung, The Grass has Riz, 

I wonder where the Birdies - or in this case Bee Hive - Is?"

We were somewhat interrupted during our January inspection when DD was Stung, and have not dealt with the hive since. 

So time to deal with it!

Extreme Gardening is Required.

Just as well the Greens Bins were emptied this Morning!

Bees don't like Power Tools - Noise, Vibration and Fumes get them irritated, so this job had to be done 'Old School'. 

Pruning Sheers and a Rake!

With the Workspace cleared and before we can Inspect the Brood Boxes it was time to lighten the weight of the Flow hive Which meant Harvest!

No fancy jars this time - just Get in and Get it done.

And the Result?

Not too bad.

This is what 10 Kg of Honey looks like!

And THIS is what Little Miss A Thought of her first taste of real "Home Made" Honey!

(She only got a little taste. As this photo was taken she dropped the spoon into the bucket - 'never to be seen again'!)

I am a little concerned though. She got very excited when seeing a picture of someone in a Bee suit.  Having only seen us in Bee Suits recently she thought it was Grandma and Grumpy! 😂

… and then the Phone Rang

 "Hi Wendy.. You know we have that trailer down the back well there is something odd going on..."

At that point the no visiting the neighbours COVID rules went out the window  - or in our case Over the Fence. 

From her description I knew the Girls had swarmed.

And as a registered Bee Keeper it is my responsibility to deal with any swarms that may or may not be from my hive.

Under Covid regulations I am permitted to "Tend to Livestock - Including Bees"

The last swarm I dealt with was back in January when I helped remove one from My DD's friend's garden.

It was a little swarm and we brought them home to our place.

This one was far from small.  

There is an estimated 20,000 Bees in this cluster all hanging out on the Magnolia Tree

And as I had no desire to start another hive or had any friends who wanted their own.

I needed help.

Fortunately it was just a phone call 
(and a 90 minute wait) away.

This was the easiest capture our new Bee Keeper Friends have ever done.

Move the table underneath, 

Put a - no make it TWO boxes underneath and Prune the Tree branch. 

Done!

While the stragglers were joining the swarm I had the offer to check the health of my Hive.

It is a 'Good Strong Colony' with heaps of Bees left and TWO new Queens ready to hatch! 

"We will take one of those as well, so they don't Swarm again."

Last I heard they had settled in nicely and were already drawing out Comb.

They will be relocated to happily forage in a Farm in Gisborne.

On another note to the day - 

It was Our Neighbours Son's Birthday and he happily told EVERYONE that he had 20,000 Visitors to his Party! The backyard was a 'Hive of Activity' and he got a real Buzz out of all the Puns.

Applique - what happened next.

Finally giving up on the idea of FMQuilting the Istanbul Wall-hanging Experiment I opted for a simple all over cross hatch.  

It took time but gave a finish that I was happy with.

I had always considered that the Quilting would be my Nemesis - But never have I had so much trouble and issues with a BINDING! 

It just would not work.  

I pulled it off, put it back on and I even remade it. 

The problems seemed to keep multiplying.
And when I got it all right...

- I cut the tails off on the stitching line instead of the cutting line! 

It is times like this that DH comes in and gently removes me from the project for a nice l-o-n-g walk!

Several days later I was able to once again sit at it and calmly remind myself that it was an experiment and also not going to be subjected to the wear and tear that a quilt is.

A minute seam, a bit of glue, some reinforcing, a tug or two and quite a few short Prayers later the Binding was on and stitched down.

It was then into the Wash. 

Shoving it into a lingerie bag to make sure it got as creased and crowded as the Quilt would be in the machine.

The result: 

It did take up a bit as all quilts do, but each fabric didn't shrink nor did the colours run.

The applique was not quilted (as in the original) and Puffed up which may settle with a good steam but I will leave that until the DS & DDIL see the result.  

The intention after all, was to show them what will happen IF they have to wash their Quilt.

Footnote: I only did this because it was a Custom quilted, hand appliqued quilt -  The everyday pieced quilt I made them can be washed to their heart's content!

Revisiting Raw Edge Applique

I started off not caring what it looked like - It was only a Quick Sample.

The Idea was to see how "My Istanbul" (that I made back in 2016) would fair being washed. 
Better to ruin a Sample than an Award Winning Quilt!

But, before long my Father's words rang in my ears "If a job is worth doing - It is worth doing well" -So it has taken a little longer than I initially planned.

I found left over pieces of the Applique in my Scrap Stash and decided to make something 'Useful' in the process.

A design emerged and I was on my way - revisiting the past. 

It was amazing how I went from 'Not Caring' to "Where did that stray stitch come from?' so easily.

Eventually the Last Stitch was done and with the help of photographs, Border fabrics were found.

Now, I am in the process of (fighting with my machine while) trying to learn FMQing - a skill that eludes me! 

The Original Quilt was professionally quilted.

Once that is done, I can then throw this project in the washing machine and see what happens!

31 Years Later . .

Once upon a Time when I was a lot younger and had newborn Twins we embarked on an extension - renovation to our home.  

One Friday, the builders decided that they were done, and just threw together 2 days worth of work in an afternoon.  

It was a rushed job and it showed.

2 Weeks ago, I opened the Linen/Coat Cupboard and "Lost it".  
I had had enough! 

 

Why oh Why did they leave it like this?  
And Why haven't we done something about fixing it?

In houses built when ours was, the Frame was built into the floor joists before the Timber Floorboards (in our case Tasmanian Oak) were attached.

When you remove walls there is a 90 mm gap between the rooms.

A Good Tradesman would source similar floorboards and repair the gap properly.

We Clicked and Collected some Carpet to go inside the cupboard and cover the unsightly board.  BUT the door wouldn't close.  

More work was required.

The scrap of Structaflor they used was basically thrown onto the bearers and only screwed down because it didn't lay flat. It was noticeably higher at one end and the door barely cleared it without the carpet.

I discovered it also wasn't glued down - which made getting it out an (almost) simple procedure.

Which apparently involved drilling a LOT of holes, and then hitting it with a hammer.

(OK - Point of  no return!)

When that was removed we discovered WHY it didn't lay flat.  

One Joist was over a 1/4" higher than the others.  And attached to that - was an electrical Junction box.

What would have been a 2 minute job for a Chippie with a sharp chisel took DH Half an Hour to fix. 

Mainly because he couldn't find his Sharp Chisel and the need to be careful around that junction box.

We did have pieces of Tasmanian Oak Floorboards (doesn't everyone keep offcut timber in the roof?). 

And DH was able to sand 50 years of Dust off them before he broke not one but THREE of his tools in the process.

We deliberately decided to not fix the boards down and leave the junction box accessible.. 

And when we are out of lockdown I will line those linen shelves.

Now FINALLY the inside of the Cupboard is presentable and I found somewhere to keep the Step Ladder!