July 21, 2009

A land of contrasts

We are back on the road again after having our campervan repaired. Australia is such a wonderful country with incredibly different landscapes. It certainly is a land of contrasts. We have travelled through the Great Stony Desert with hardly a blade of grass to be seen anywhere and now we are in the midst of rainforests!

We try to bushcamp wherever we can and have found some fabulous spots to set up for the night alongside waterholes or creeks.
Tonight we are at the Kauri Campsite in the Danbulla National Park overlooking picturesque Lake Tinaroo. We haven't had much access to the internet for a couple of weeks, but amazingly tonight we are in range of our wireless broadband. It was too dark to take a photo of this fabulous spot when we set up camp, but it is the priority tomorrow morning before we go exploring the surrounding bush.
We continue to see some amazing wildlife, especially birds. There were many brolga on the side of the road during our travels around the Gulf of Carpentaria. We love watching them.

I have to confess I haven't done much stitching, mainly because the light is not very good at night and we are so busy bushwalking and being lazy during the day! This is the fabulous Konabay panel that I have brought with me. I intend to do a lot of embroidery on it and make it into a wall hanging.

I had a lot of fun finding all sorts of threads to use.

Meanwhile I sit and wonder what my project looks like in the Country Threads Kids Special which should be out in the shops now. My loving daughter, Janelle, is looking after the mail for me while we're travelling, so I haven't seen the magazine yet. I had such fun making The Refrigerator, so I hope people will enjoy making it.
Happy stitching!
Val

July 7, 2009

Block 3 - Free Pattern

We're in outback Queensland - a bit of an enforced rest while we wait for parts to arrive from interstate to repair our campervan after we did some damage on the notorious Birdsville track!

That has given me time to download e-mails and update the website while we are in civilisation and have internet capabilities. So here is where you can download Block 3 of the Free Block of the Month Pattern.




It's a challenging sentiment, isn't it, to think what Love is really about. I hope you enjoy stitching this little block.

Happy stitching

Val

July 5, 2009

In the Outback

My husband and I have been travelling the Outback for the last couple of weeks. We travelled up from our home in South Australia through Marree, Birdsville, Boulia and on up to Mt Isa. The highlight of the trip was a flight over Lake Eyre which this year has water in it. It is a huge lake of nearly 10000 square kilometres but mostly it is just salt encrusted earth. Once every decade or so it fills with water, so we decided to take the opportunity to see it while we can.



Australia is such a land of contrasts and variety and we have seen wonderful sunsets and fabulous night skies.
One of the things that amazes me in some of the most arid regions is the amount of wildlife present in such inhospitable country. Some of the birds are brilliantly coloured. We were very excited to see this beautiful white-winged fairywren.
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I brought my stitching with me of course, but amazingly I haven't taken it out yet. There has been just so much else to see and enjoy.
We just arrived back in civilisation tonight so are back in e-mail contact. I will upload the next block of the BOM in a couple of days. We have been camping out in the bush and tonight are in a caravan park so I am looking forward to being able to WASH MY HAIR!

Regards
Val