DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME

In some of the eastern states of Australia Daylight Saving Time comes to an end on Easter Sunday.

New South Wales HAS Daylight Saving, Queensland DOES NOT !

For nearly half of the year neighbouring states are on different time zones !

MADNESS !

In Queensland our longest Summer day starts about 4:30am and finishes about 7:00pm.

By 7:30 it is pitch dark - no twilight, just dark.

The weather is warm/ hot but it's dark at 7:00pm.

An hour more daylight would be good.

Families on summer holidays could use the extra daylight hour.

In Queensland we have less hours of daylight so we could use the extra hour in the evenings that moving the clock forward would give us.

What I find hard to understand is why countries with long hours of daylight need Daylight Saving Time.

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I've been in Scotland where dawn arrived at 3:30am and it was still light at 10:30pm!

I understand the desire to make use of every hour of light after a dark Winter, but who needs to be out in twilight at 10:30 -11:00pm when it's daylight again at 3:30am?

That's 19 hours of daylight !!! ( wouldn't 18 do? )

I guess mothers ( and others ) just draw the curtains and shut out the fresh Summer air to create "darkness" in order to get their kids to sleep at night.

Daylight Saving Time or Summer Time starts soon in many places all over the world.

How do you feel about Daylight Saving Time?

Cheers

FIRST CENTURY !

Helloooooo to all my friends out there in Blogland.

This is my 100th post!

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When I started my blog, I did it because I love to do stuff with computers.

My holiday photos turn into slideshows with a difference when I watch them with text and music on my TV thanks to Movie Maker.
I email my friends daily.
I dabble in Facebook.
I surf the net, chasing topics that interest me.
I research my holidays and book my flights and accommodation online.

So I made a blog with encouragement from my friend Ro.......
.... and there it sat ...
and I thought "Now what?"

Then I saw the film "Julie and Julia" and wondered how you achieved communication with  people
..... and at the same time another friend directed me to the wonderful blog  Attic24 .

Once again Ro encouraged me,...."If  you  find Attic24's day to day life interesting, perhaps others from other parts of the world will be interested in your comings and goings."

So I was off .....
and thanks to all of you out there I'm having a ball!

I have "met" a whole range of people I now call  "FRIEND".

You are the last ones I call into at night before I go to bed

and I breakfast with you every morning!

For me the world has shrunk!

Thank you for your friendship my dear Blogland friends.

Cheers

BOOK REPORT

This is apparently Joy Dettman's first published novel and I loved it.

She is an Australian writer, born in country Victoria,

who grew up in towns on either side of the Murray River.

It's not a recent publication - 2007 - but the first I've read of her work.

 According to the inside of the front cover she has several more published now.

The Queensland Times review said :

" A stunning debut; a rich engrossing read; a tale of page-turning suspense and mystery;

a post morteum of family ties;  all this and more, Mullawindy will grab you hook, line and sinker"

If you come across it grab it! I think you'll enjoy it.

Cheers

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

As you know I am new to patchwork.
My first quilt, nearly finished, is packed in the linen cupboard.

Before I attempted it I decided to have a trial run to see if I could do it right.
You know: -
seams had to be a quarter of an inch...
sewn straight......
corners matching.

Some very dear friends have a wholesale furnishing business and they kindly gave me lots of material samples. The sort of material used in curtains and to cover furniture.
Not really the sort of material you would usually use to make a quilt.

I sorted through all of this bounty and pulled out all the pinky green pieces and went to work learning....
to cut....
and measure ....
and calculate .....
and think it through.....

and came up with this!

Want a closer look?

Oh yes, there are mistakes and I can see what I did wrong,

where I need to be careful in future,

but it also shows how easy it can be to put a whole variety of materials together and come out with something that is really rather nice.

I bought some pretty green for the border and now it is my picnic tablecloth.

I'm very happy with my little learning task.

Cheers.

CHALLENGE

I don't know about you but sometimes I can't think what to post about.

Haven't done any clever craft work,

or been anywhere interesting,

or done anything interesting.

Recently I was tripping around Blogworld, visiting friends of friends of friends

when I came upon an interesting challenge.

The challenge was to go to your My Pictures file.

Pick the fourth folder and the fourth picture in that folder and write about it.

Now of course it may be that you come across a photo that is of a person and not something you want to put on the internet. Then you might just have to pick any photo from that folder and post about it.

So that's the challenge:

The 4th photo in the 4th folder  in your My Pictures file. 

So here's mine.

This noble looking bird is a Laughing Kookaburra.

This photo was taken one morning in our Jacaranda tree.

He is a member of the Kingfisher family and a carnivore. He eats snakes , lizards, grasshoppers and such.

He's somewhat of an Australian icon and his loud cackling laugh often wakes us up in the morning if we are lucky enough to live somewhere  where there are plenty of tall trees.

The chuckling voice that gives this species its name is a common and familiar sound throughout the bird's range. The loud 'koo-koo-koo-koo-koo-kaa-kaa-kaa' is often sung in a chorus with other family members.

The Laughing Kookaburra is not really laughing when it makes its familiar call. The cackle of the Laughing Kookaburra is actually a territorial call to warn other birds to stay away.

A kookaburra kills its prey by bashing it against a perch.

Kookaburras are found predominantly in the eastern part of Australia.

Average size: 42 cm

                                                                  Average weight: 340 g

Australians love kookaburras and often feed wild birds that come to their gardens.

photos from Google

They have been known to steal meat off the BBQ!

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OK now your turn.

Will you take up the challenge?

Cheers.

A MIXED BAG

Last week I had a patchwork lesson. We made a 9 patch block.
Very basic, I know but I thought it was time I learnt the proper way instead of winging it.
Each month I will learn a new block and I have decided to make myself a set of placemats - one of each type but all using the same material to give them some unity.
So here's my WIP for this month.

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Otherwise I have been busy rounding up my clothes to take to France.

Buying Winter clothes at this time of the year is not easy but I've been trolling through the shops

 as they start to bring out the winter stuff.

It is starting to look like I have enough!!

 

Let's hope the weather doesn't warm up too much.

 I'm looking forward to some coolness !!

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While I have been visiting the shops I've finally found a bit of colourful "wool"

to use for Mrs Twins SIBOL project.

Let's hope I can get a few squares finished and posted off in the next two weeks.

Cheers.

SATURDAY PAPERS

I love the weekend newspapers, don't you?
You can take your time, sip a cuppa, do the Crosswords and Suduko without the need to hurry somewhere.
I love the Travel section especially.
We are so far from everywhere except New Zealand and I've grown up learning the history of England and Europe and always longed to go there to see it all.

At last I 'm managing to do that, I've spent a short time in Ireland and Scotland, seen some of Alaska and explored the Rockies around Jasper and  Bamff and the lovely Vancouver.

But the best holiday of all was three months exploring England -- the fantastic cities of London, Oxford, Cambridge, York and the glorious countryside of Cornwall, the Cotswolds, the Peak District, Yorkshire Dales, Lake District, Wiltshire and Kent.

So imagine my interest when I came upon this headline in the Saturday paper's Travel section.

Oh no I thought! This is what I love about England.

I look around at all the new houses here and there is a very definite change.

There used to be variety, a whole lot of different styles of house

Australian Colonial, Spanish, Square modern boxes, two storey, One storey, Mediterranean Villas.....

on and on the styles went.

Now if you drive through a new housing estate there is not that variety any more, the houses all have similar features:

square portico at the front,

one level,

shutters decorate the portico

water features,

rendered bricks painted cream, or mushroom , or taupe !!!!!

Inside is usually bare, minimalist, and cream ( or taupe, cinnamon or coffee )

Now I know a hot climate lends itself to this style...

but I love the old style - warm , welcoming, looking like a family lives there with their bits and pieces on show, their photos scattered around where they can be enjoyed,  but tidy too.

 I'll be going back to England, because I love this.

 

Well that's my rant for today!

Cheers.