One of my favourite things – Pumpkins!

I like pumpkins! While some people think they are just cattle food, here in Australia we have an absolutely delicious range of pumpkins for the table.

I only have to think about the wonderful crispy caramelized edge on roasted pumpkin and I will start salivating!   

Most of the time I have pumpkin on my shopping list. They are full of seeds and so it is not surprising that quite often I will have pumpkin plants appearing in the vegie garden after I have dug in some compost. I allow one or two to grow as the plants take up a lot of room, but I train them to run up and down outside of the actual garden.  

Here are a couple that have grown so far this year. Butternut is a great variety with firm flesh and a lovely sweet taste. They are golden yellow when they are ripe.

Kent pumpkin is a softer variety and is great roasted. This particular one that I grew was quite large (garlic clove for comparison). Thankfully I have plenty of friends who happily took a good sized piece each so that it wasn’t wasted, as it is not a long-lasting variety once it is cut.

We even have our own Aussie heirloom pumpkin – the Queensland Blue, which grows in the sub-tropics. I have never grown one of those as they are HUGE and would feed an army!

The bonus is that pumpkins are good for you, so it is win-win when something that tastes great also has benefits for your health!

I seem to like using pumpkins in my craft too and they have featured in a few of my projects over the years.

I think I better stop writing and go and cook myself some pumpkin!

Val

When the eyes grow dim

 I am ever so grateful that I still have reasonably good eyesight. I can still hold a driver's licence, work on the computer, see to operate my phone, and thread a needle. I have had to wear glasses for a very long time to assist, but in the last decade my eyesight has not deteriorated or changed, so I am thankful. 

Whenever I have spoken to the optometrist about the fact that I can't see as well as I used to when I do fine embroidery, he tells me that I will always need to use a magnifier for that. I don't need it for everything but it is very helpful for stitches like backstitching where you are trying to put that needle in the exact spot of the previous stitch!

For many years I have had an OttLite floor lamp that included a magnifier on an adjustable arm. Sadly the many years of adjusting that magnifier to be over my embroidery finally took its toll and the bracket broke and was beyond repair.

 I decided that rather than try to replace it, I would take a simpler approach and use the hands-free 'round-the-neck' magnifier that hubby used when he worked his cross-stitching. (These are all his work pictured here.) That great idea went a bit pear-shaped when I tried to see through the scratched and crazed acrylic 'glass'. It had obviously seen better days, so it was time to do a Google search on what was currently available. 

I decided on a Carson Hands Free Lighted Magnifier and I am quite pleased with it. A dear friend asked me could I complete a cross-stitch for her and I have found it very useful for that. I haven't done cross stitch for a very long time and I am struggling to see where to put the needle without the magnifier.  With memories of the scratches on hubby's tool, I thought I should try to protect mine, so made a little pouch for it. The bright fabric celebrates some of Australia's beautiful coloured birds - makes me smile every time I see it.

On the 10th March, I celebrated an anniversary - 13 years as a Blogger! I entered the blog world on 10 March 2009 and what a pleasant journey it has been. Thank you to those have stood with me for so many years and thank you to those who have come on board recently. I appreciate that people want to see what I have been up to in life and stitching and make connection, even if we will never see each other face to face.  

Thank you too to those who have joined the 

Days of Delight Block of the Month Calendar.

March patterns have been circulated and I hope you enjoy stitching the bird and dragonfly.

Another cute little number hexagon to do as well:

It is still possible to join the programme, so jump over to here and you can find out all the details.

Happy Stitching!

Val