A DAY OUT AT THE LAVENDER FARM

Spring , in Queensland, is very short.

We are lucky if it happens at all.

The temperature goes from low twenties to low thirties in around four weeks.

So if you want to see some flowers you have to be quick !

On Monday we set off on a photography mission -  to capture the lavender while it was still in bloom.

There is a "Lavender Farm" on the outskirts of Brisbane.

Actually it is part of a "winery" operation where wine is produced ( not very good), tastings offered at the Cellar Door, a very nice expensive restaurant caters to diners and weddings can be performed and celebrated in delightful surroundings.

A commercial operation and tourist destination in other words

The lavender fields are not large but certainly well tended and we had arrived at precisely the right time.

You can see the vines on the hill in the distance though I think they are more for effect than actually producing wine.

A couple for the family album too !

Never-the-less it was all quite pretty though not exactly Provence !!

And luckily for the photographer there was a perfectly dressed subject wandering amongst the lavender.

Straw hat, floaty dress blowing in the breeze....

Anonymous.

Photos taken we wandered to the "Tuscan Terrace" for a light lunch

It certainly felt just like a leafy square in the South of France if not Tuscany

The shared pizza was pretty good too though we missed the rosé because of the hour long rive home.

However the view was purely Australian

and so was the wildlife !

Cheers ! 

GARDEN CRAFTY STUFF

This awful Covid  Pandemic has meant that we have been unable to visit family for six months even when they live only  an hour's drive away, so we were happy to load ourselves into the car and travel up to

to Mt Tamborine to visit Tony's sister recently on a lovely Spring day..

Tony's sister is very artistic ( she makes those wonderful tea cosies which I showed you here ) 

and mosiacs  like this .

 

She has been keeping herself busy while in lockdown.

 doing lots of work in her tiny garden and it is ablaze with flowers in containers.

Not just the usual pots of flowers I have to  tell you......

but quirky chairs painted pretty colours with  pots set into the seat part 

and filled with colour - coordinating flowers

Like these !

She also decorates the chairs with small flowers, butterflies and hearts which she makes from pottery.

Aren't they pretty ?

But her creative energy doesn't stop there.

She has been creating tiny gardens in large shallow containers

planted with succulents and using pebbles

tiny minature houses, toadstools

people

tiny garden furniture

 and sometimes tiny animals to complete the scene

There is even a tiny  tea set .

You just need to have a creative mind, don't you?

Cheers.

 

COVID LOCKDOWN PROJECT NUMBER TWO

My Covid yarny projects have concentrated on using up what bits and pieces I have managed to gather together from previous projects completed over the years.

The first one was all the bright colours.

This final one was to group together all the softer colours and included some quite small bits to use 

so a different design was formulating in my head.

First I made some solid, 4 round squares - three of each colour where possible but totaling approximately 30 squares in all. 

With the first ten I then crocheted a fifth round in cream, 

sewed them together, then crocheted around the whole thing  in cream then added a few stripes of   pink on each side.

Then I moved on to the mossy green for a few rows making the bottom of the blanket pink.

The next row was made up of multi-coloured, 4 round squares using the small quantities of four colours for each square.

I then crocheted a final row on each square with green, then sewed them together and added a few rows of green and cream on either side.

Moving up towards the top I introduced a bit of purple ...

before adding another row of solid squares surrounded by blue this time.

There were now some very tiny bits of lots of colours left and lots of white scraps so they made up the next major row of squares , 

Using all the bits of the other colours and cream I crocheted several rows to link them together. 

Then I joined the two sections together.

Things were now getting a bit desperate yarn-wise .

The final row of solid squares were joined with what little pink was left.

It didn't go very far !

Luckily the lockdown is easing and in order to finish the rug I had to take myself off to Spotlight to try and match the colours to finish off the rug.

Of course there was no pink of the same colour but a slightly darker shade seemed OK and that and a ball of blue and two balls of cream came home with me - all  at sale price !

I joined the final  section to the rest of the rug and finished off with a few rows of cream, blue and the new dark pink.

Yes, that's sort of how I had planned it to look.

Now for the finishing touch - the border.

A couple of rounds of cream to pull it all together and try to fix any wonkiness caused by yarns of different thickness although they were all the same ply

then

A bit of blue - enough for once around.

A bit of dark pink - enough for once around

and a final round of cream shells

AND ALL THOSE ENDS TO BE SEWN IN 

and the final finished product

TA DAH !

What's next ?

Cheers.