Walking in the garden - part 2

The large pink single flower is from our banana passionfruit. I've forgotten the real name but it starts with a 't'. It is a very prolific grower - in fact if we left it for a year I think it would cover the whole house. (Maybe it's real name is 'triffid'.) The others are some of the geraniums that are still flowering.

Murray and I went to a local picnic area for lunch today. It is on the banks of the Mersey River near Latrobe. There were about a dozen people fishing for bream on the river banks and more people just enjoying the sun. I took the camera and got some interesting shots of bark and leaves and rocks, but will leave those photos for another day.

Walking in the garden

It's a sunny day here in northern Tasmania so I thought I would take my camera for a walk around the garden. The best of the summer flowers are done now but there is still a bit of colour here and there. It's mainly the geraniums that are still in flower, but then they are flowering most of the year it seems. When I first went outside Trev the Wondercat was doing guard duty on the deck at the back of the house. It looked to me as if he was asleep on the job, but he assured me it was all part of his plan to lull intruders into a false sense of security, then suddenly jump up and bite their ankles. Hmmm...

The first apricot on our tree was ripe this morning so Murray picked it and we had half each. It was delicious! Sun ripened fruit just tastes so different to the fruit we buy in the shops. So sweet, and the taste is much more intense. Our greengage plum tree is loaded with fruit that will ripen in a few weeks. These little plums are so sweet and juicy I can almost taste them now. The raspberries are almost finished. We have had quite a few bowls full this year, and have discovered how nice they are on our breakfast cereal in the morning. The strawberries weren't quite so successful but we did have a few little tastes. Only the tomatoes to come but they will be a while yet.

I haven't used my digital camera much and am still getting used to it. I think it takes a fairly good photo. The only dodgy ones I've got so far have been my own fault. I think I probably need more practice at it so I'll post a few more photos and see how they look.

quiet here for the last couple of weeks

It's been an eventful couple of weeks here. Unfortunately none of it has been on the quilting front. On the 12th of December I had an appointment with my neurologist. He ordered another MRI as my MS has been coming up with some symptoms which indicate cognitive dysfunction. Mainly memory and information processing stuff. Things like forgetting which streets I have to take to drive home from my closest friends house, and not being able to figure out how to put a toilet deodoriser in the toilet. I often have trouble translating the noises that people make when they speak into actual words. If there is background noise or more than one persom speaking at a time, then I may as well forget it! It is very distressing sometimes, and frustrating all the time.

The day after that, I felt sort of queasy after dinner, then in the middle of the night I had the worst case of gastro ever. Ended up being taken to hospital by ambulance at 3.30am. Murray called the paramedics out and they decided to take me to hospital because they couldn't get a blood pressure reading. What fun! (NOT)

A side effect of having a fever is that my MS decided to act up as well. My mouth doesn't do what I want it to, so my speech is quite slurred. I sound like I'm drunk, and I haven't even had the pleasure of drinking. Sometimes it's not so bad, but sometimes it's very noticeable. My neurologist thinks it will only last 3-4 weeks, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

It's Christmas today so 'Merry Christmas' everyone. A quiet day here with Murray and I spending our last Christmas in this house. Someone has got to buy it soon (she says optimistically).

I wonder if this will work?

Trying the photos again. I wonder if they will show up bigger when you click on them.

This quilt was made for a challenge. We had to choose a tiny section of a photo (section was about half an inch square) then plan a whole quilt by expanding on the section we chose. The photo I had was a landscape centred around a lake. It had part of a branch in the foreground. I expanded on the section of branch to make a whole tree and used that as the theme. I was just going to use grens and browns but they seemed a bit flat. I liked it much better when I added the bright purple to the mix. I was pleased with the end result. Now I'll cross my fingers that the photos will show up properly.

This quilt is one I designed after reading the book 'Curves in Motion' by Judy Dales. It was a very interesting exercise. It is all machine pieced except for the red circle in the middle of the flames, which I pieced in by hand. I machine quilted itn using thread that blended into the background. It is the first time I'd done borders on only 2 sides. What do you think?

By the way, everything went okay at the neurologist. I have to go for another MRI on the 22nd to see if there are more active lesions from my multiple sclerosis but nothing in particular to worry about.

Thanks guys!

Thank you to everyone who has left comments on my new blog. I hope to be able to post some more photos either today or tomorrow. I'll try and figure out how to make the photos appear larger when you click on them. This morning I'm off to Launceston to visit my neurologist. Wish me luck!

Welcome to Stone House Quilts!

I've finally done it after thinking about it for quite a while. I have a blog! Now I can post some photos of some of the stuff I do. Mostly quilts, but may be some other stuff from time to time. This is just a practice post to see if it works.

Also a practice photo. I'm not sure what resolution to use so used a low resolution one. Did it work? How do other users size their photos? Oh well, here goes.....now just press 'publish'.....