feeding the soul........

I made the long weekend extra long and took Thursday off also...........

Friday was a public holiday for Australia Day..........

As it was going to a true summers day in my part of the world aka stinking hot I decided I wanted to zoom.........and make it a big day...........

Here we are at some stage during the day.......some of the girls holding up there Scrub Stitchin' bags or January Chookshed Challenge project...........

I started at 6am and finished at 8.30pm

32 wonderful people popped in and out all day.........The most we had on at once was 18 people........we also welcomed a couple of new girls............Maggie and Tazzie.......on the sidebar........Tilly I hope you can get on again next time with things working right.........

My baby Willy Wagtails that I have been following left the nest early in the morning on Thursday and this is how I found them Friday morning...........they still are not flying much but I am thrilled to say they survived the heat of the Thursday Friday 42-43 (108-110F)......I saw them all this morning.......they just grow so fast........they will be flitting around the garden in no time..........

19 blocks completed for "They all add up" so that means the 36 required blocks were done.........

I laid it out on the design wall and was at a stand still when most of you left trying to decide what to do in the rows..............but when we were down to 4 -5 people Jindi's Cottage asked what was going on (before as she was listening but busy away from the camera)

at this point I had thrown all options down and given up but as I started to explain it again and show some options I came up with another option that we had not discussed earlier and it works and I started sewing it again...........and no it does not require me to unpick 18 blocks..........thanks to whoever suggested that..........LOL.......the top is well over 1/2 together now..........

I then moved onto the Moda Love mini quilt..............some bits are missing..........I did a bit more on this on Saturday also.........

Sunset at the end of Australia Day............I do get some lovely sunsets...........

Yesterday my friend Sue came down to sew.........we had a couple more coming but due to family emergencies they had to cancel last minute.......

We had another visitor that was not welcome in side but cool to see just less then a metre away thru the window.............my resident Blue Tongue lizard...........he only scares me occasionally.........he lives in the garden...........he's harmless.......sadly I didn't capture him with his blue tongue poking out..........

anyway after 2 wonderful days of sewing my soul feels replenished...........

Last night was cool enough to sleep without the air con which was lovely............and what a stunning start to the day............

hope you have all refueled your soul with something good this weekend......

Catch you later.........

Chookyblue.......

Reflections.................

Reflections on the dam and the weekend that was............

So what's happening in your world.............

I went to check a dam early one morning...............cool reflections and it was fun watching the sheep and cattle come into the dam...........their behaviour etc.............

the edges are starting to get a bit boggy.........

The clouds have been cool some days when i've been driving around...........

the emus were pretty inquisitive..........

Couple of trees got hit by lighting last weekend at the neighbours...........one of the splinters from this tree metres away...........

This is what the trees would have looks like...........

This one got hit and caught fire..............lucky it must have got some rain over the area..........

amazing to see the shattering/splintering of the tree..............

This weekend I actually had some friends come and sew.........I had a few blocks done to start.............was nice just to be able to grab it and make progress.........It's been so long since I sewed with real people in the Chookshed.........before the renos i'm sure................    

exciting interruption to sewing when hanging out the washing...........I had been suspicious but I found another nest for the guinea fowl and she is sitting and loaded with eggs.............the other nest I found got raided and they stopped laying there..........they are communal nest layers until someone decides to sit on the nest..........the eggs I collected from the first nest are currently in the incubator.......i'll keep a close eye on this one and try and catch her and the babies as soon as they are hatched if she makes it...........If I lock her up in a cage she will raise them well.........otherwise she will be hopeless.......and probably lose the lot..........I've had no luck with mine raising young on their own.............

 made some good progress on the blocks...........

buggered up this trying to sew early yesterday morning in the dark with only the machine light.........

all fixed up this morning............right sides sewn together..........

Lesson learnt turn the light on!!!!!

And I am excited to report for the second year in a row I have a baby spotted bowerbird in the garden............the bower I found last year in the garden is no longer in use but there must be one close by to keep them around the garden........I was only 2 metres away from him and I also took a little video of him..........If I put that into youtube I will let you know........I found some info below...............

Bowerbirds are polygynous, which means one male may mate with several females in a season. The female alone is responsible for building a simple cup nest well off the ground in trees and shrubs. There she usually lays one or two eggs, which she incubates alone. The eggs hatch after about three weeks, and she feeds the chicks for up to eleven weeks before they become fully independent. more info here

Catch you later........

Chookyblue.......

PS there could be a marathon Chookshed Stitchers sewing day for Australia Day 26th Jan keep an eye out........new bloggers are welcome to join.......(25th on the flip side of the world)

Its promising to be a scorcher so a cool spot will be required............

cows, scones, storms and calves.........

The most exciting news of the week is that my blog books arrived.............yes I did say books..........I realised I had not ordered 2022 so did that at the same time with the 50% off.........skimmed in on time.........did bugger up and order one soft cover by mistake but it's not too bad...........I have used the same cover since I started I think............always picking a highlight or favourite photo for the front and back from that year............ 

Now when I left last I was going out for dinner and going to make an entree..........

you can find my recipe here.........Chookyblue's Cooking

During one of the Chookshed Stitchers meetings I ordered some Bloc-loc rulers..........

I had decided on the 3.5in but Janet was on and she said she uses the 1.5 lots and I could see both options at the online shop so I got both............

the little one was perfect to cut my left overs from another quilt so I trimmed them...............

only another 41x8 left to trim...........but it was fun playing with the left overs.........

Opps I can see one on the bottom of the top right pic is the wrong was around.......but you get the idea.........there are options.........

The clouds have been pretty cool lately.............sadly not giving us very much rain.............

sunrise one morning mustering..........

can you spot Lamby...........no matter what she still lives with the black cows............she does not stay with any sheep............and I tried to get her into the yards to put some fly prevention stuff on her and she slipped to the side...........she wasn't too happy that she was separated from her friends when they were all in the yard but I was not getting her in there.........I usually have to bribe her to get hold of her for shearing.............

This little fella was busted after the walk to the yards...........probably only a day old if that.............he had a good long sleep..........

the dams are getting very low..........here is some old fence that we put in last time this dam was very low which was back in the big drought.........we need to pull it out before something gets tangled in it.........the edges of dams are starting to get boggy...........just another job to keep checking them daily to see nothing is stuck..........

According to my blog this dam was desilted back in Oct 2017.........see here

While mustering cattle this stupid ewe was lucky to be found........she was facing up the bank and I was about to grab hold of her and try and pull her out - not an easy task but she did a flip and was wanting to go into the dam further so I had to call in Mr Chooky reinforcements........as it was he sunk to his calf in the silt (with his boot still on) and it suctions onto you so it is not the easiest to pull your self back out of...........but the ewe got up and headed away from the water thankfully............we need to "ring" some of the dams...........that is going around the edge with the silt scoop and pull the bad mud away from the edges - hence "ring" around the edge......(desilting is going across the whole dam and the water level needs to be lower to do that)......we use a couple of tractors to do this........one pulling in and one pulling out............not a fun job.........need to find time to fit this in............

here is a link to some I have posted previously............desilting

Another storm threatened to knock us off work but it went around sadly.............

we only got 11 mm this week...........settled the dust and watered the lawn - didn't do much else.......

We had visitors at work this week and I cooked scones.........plain (served with jam and whipped cream) and date scones.........always a hit........

A stinker of a week coming up..........so i'll be busy watering and trying to keep things alive including myself....

hopefully on Sunday I will find some time to lock myself in the air con and sew......

see what happens...............

Catch you later............

Chookyblue..........

Chop chop......

 I know I should be working on no 6 for the Chookshed Stitchers 2024 Challenge butttttttt........ 

I didn't know where it was but I did find it today so that was good........ It's now on the sewing table..........

I was in a sewing/cutting mood so I went with it.......

I needed more black & white stripe so I started cross cutting some stripes down........

It was an hour before anyone popped in so I had the music blaring singing away while preparing fabrics and cutting..........

I had a right royal mess most of the time...........

While it was a slow start we had about 16 pop thru the virtual door today.......

All kinds of projects and lots of inspiration..........

just what I needed.........

Chapel Street is what I felt like working on...........

I fussy cut these birds....cute hey.....Chapel Street is making progress........ 

Hundreds more of these needed.......

We've had some great sunrises............plenty of colour........even better in real life............

Bridget the other morning when I went for a walk.............

OK gotta run......well walk...........sheep work is calling - should not take too long but oh sheep!!!!!!!!

This week we could get some desperately needed rain....cross your fingers and toes for me please.........

Catch you later.......

Chookyblue........