Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!

We've started!

Looked out the window this morning and saw this:

And this:

 

 

Our first twins of the year!

 

One thing after another

All this cold weather is certainly not bringing out the best in me.  The usual letting out of the geese every morning is a matter of life preservation these days.  Mum is sitting on her eggs and dad is being very protective and tries to peck and batter to death anything which comes near

The other day after letting him out I ran to the gate with him climbing on my back with his beak yanking at my hair.

Then, for Pitch and Stitch on Tuesday the heating broke down in the workshop so we had to have it in the kitchen - everyone was really understanding about it although Sandra C was a bit thrown when she was again faced with a similar tramp/farmer type who turned up in the restaurant in Marlborough:

Those types  just get everywhere.  Even Dawn looks a bit uneasy and she lives next door!
Sandra C, by the way, is NOT quilting.  She has some pretty Japanese fabric which she has backed with calico and put a little wadding in between and now she's just sewing around the outline of the picture.  The rest of us were at the other end of the kitchen - in the machine area.  We were sitting at the table on the old science room stools I rescued from the school skip - they were so uncomfortable - not surprising I had to re-sit science O-Level and still failed!

Finally, yesterday morning I was putting the calendar back on the wall when it flipped over and hit me in the eye.  Result - a scratched cornea.  Everyone was very understanding when I slunk away from the workshop and lay in my lair.

Still, new heater arriving soon, hopefully cute goslings will hatch soon, eye feeling better today and Easter is upon us!

And, even though it's bitterly cold again, the sun is shining today....... Bring on Spring!!

What a Day!

So, today was the day we made a start on the quilt we are making for Reading hospital.
We had chosen a 'quilt as you go' design to speed things up, and Sandra, Jackie, Barbara, and  Lindsay arrived armed with sewing machines and rotary cutters.  Dawn came too to cater for us so I didn't have to keep running in and out.  Her morning coffee and biscuits, 3 course lunch and afternoon tea and cake was just what we needed.  And Helene joined us late afternoon to help with cutting and a bit of unpicking!
We all got our heads down

and stitched till lunchtime

Then stitched, stitched, stitched till 4.00pm and by the end of the day we had a pile of 62 blocks

 

Just 18 more to do and then we can put it together!

 

 

Light Rain

Just been looking out at the light rain we've been forecast for today:

It's been 'raining' like this for 3 hours.......

Chicken Cheek!

Had a busy, productive Pitch and Stitch this morning.  Well, to be honest, I was productive in a negative way:  I unpicked all the work I've done over the previous two weeks, and, again, it is largely due to that Lynne Johnson!!  I've been messing around trying to finish a quilt in a day I started a year, or maybe two years, ago.  It's a jelly roll zigzag design and it's been a right pain.  I finally completed the strips and sewed them altogether but wasn't happy with them.  Then, in a book, I saw a pattern where they sewed strips between the zigzags and decided that would look better.  So I sewed strips of a flowery green fabric between them.  Still wasn't that thrilled but thought it would be okay.  Then came Medallion Day, and Lynne Johnson.  She was poking about as usual and came across the quilt (yes, I had tried to hide it).  "Hmmm", said Lynne (here it comes), "would it have looked better with white or cream strips?".

I will be sewing the white strips in tomorrow.......

In other corners people were knitting and stitching.  Penny was making great headway with her raggedy coat in the Garston Gallopers colours:

 

and Barbara was basting her beautiful basket quilt:

 

 

 

Then look what happened when I fed the chicken this afternoon:

 

 

 

 

They've starting pushing their way into the utility room while I fetch their feed but this cheeky one obviously went even further and into the kitchen.  Then it must have hopped onto the windowsill to get at the Basil, then seen me go out into the paddock and tried to follow!  I had heard a load of clattering and thought it was a tractor in the field until I followed Mattie's gaze and saw this bird clamouring to get out!

 

 

 

 

 

I put her out and then returned my beautiful orchid to it's pot.







Calving

Still really cold and grey most of the time, but although I'm rendered completely inactive by the weather, there are signs that we may be heading towards Spring.
Our caravan site is open again now, and we have two caravans down there already.
We also started calving over the last 10 days (a week later than usual, Jonathan blamed the weather last Autumn!), and now have four new arrivals.  I went down to see them at lunchtime, but should have gone a bit later in the day, they are always snoozy at this time!

 

 

 

 

 

And just in case you were wondering what happened to the little calf Jonathan hand-reared last year.....
She grew!! - and is a bossy little madam to the poor little red calf beside her!


 






And on the quilting front, Pam, who is now doing the Medallion Quilt course with us, brought in the New Style Sampler quilt she made with us last year:

A beautiful piece of work!

Now, I must go and do some quilting myself.........