Sunday 30 August 2009

Finally some knitting

While on holiday I did manage to get some knitting done. I finished my Corona while we were in O'Reilly's which meant that I was able to wear it in the chilly mountain air at night.



I knitted this in Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 10ply in Ruby. I now understand why people have been raving about this yarn. It's a delight to have against your skin. Very soft with a nice bit of stretch in it. I'm already thinking about what else I can knit in this yarn.

I managed to get most of my Juno Regina knitted while away and finished it off this week. I blocked her yesterday and she measures 173 cm x 46 cm.



The shawl was knitted in Naturally Dawn 2ply in Black and it has a lovely soft, silky feel.





And finally, I have started catching up on the Summer Squares that were released while I was away on holiday.

This is called Cello.


And this is Moonshine.


Both these squares are for my cotton blanket. Moonshine is also the first of five squares for the Dark Star Stole which I am hoping to start this week. It is nice easy knitting, just complex enough to hold my interest but not too taxing. I figure it is the right knitting for a stressful time. We have started to pack and will start to move out of our bush paradise in just 12 days time. The countdown has begun!

Wednesday 26 August 2009

Birds and more birds!

The birdlife on the trip was pretty good. I was lucky enough to get pretty close to quite a few birds - always a great thrill.

Here is a Pied Butcherbird.



This Lewin's Honeyeater was very tame.



I love the colour of the King Parrot.



Some cheeky Pied Currawongs who liked to join us at lunch.



A Yellow-throated Scrubwren. These little birds are quite fearless.



A female Regent Bowerbird. Note her yellow eye.



And the spectacular male Regent Bowerbird.


The female Satin Bowerbird. She has a purple eye to match her male counterpart.


The gorgeous male Satin Bowerbird.



And here is the bower of the Satin Bowerbird. He fills it with all things blue to entice his mate. We found blue plastic forks, pens, string, lolly wrappers and feathers in their bowers.

I had a great time

It was a perfect holiday. We had wonderful weather for the entire trip: warm, sunny and dry. And now we are home it is cold and wet and yesterday it snowed.

We drove over 4000 km on this trip. We headed north to O'Reilly's in Queensland via the inland and came home via the coast.

This was our view at O'Reilly's:



While we were up there we did several walks through the rain forest. We did an 18 km walk along a creek



and saw magnificent trees,



and numerous waterfalls.



We had a glorious stay in Belongil Beach with the river on the one side and the ocean on the other.

Sunset on the river.



And a great place to view the river.



Sunset on the beach.



Bliss wouldn't you say? I'll show you some of the wonderful birds we saw in my next post.

Monday 3 August 2009

Busy times ahead

Tomorrow we are off on a road trip for about 3 weeks or so. We are heading north for a bit of warmth and sunny skies. And hopefully some good birdwatching. We will also be visiting friends here and there and I've been making a few gifts.



I'm taking my Juno along and hope to make some decent progress. I've started knitting my Corona and will focus on it first.



I've completed most of the body, one sleeve and I'm half way with the second sleeve. I'm going to try and finish it by the end of the week.

When we get back life really gets busy. We have to starting packing up like crazy because we are moving house in September! Unfortunately I have to leave my lovely bush paradise. We are moving to a small country town. Perhaps I might have to change the name of my blog? And yes, the best time to go on holiday is just before you move house right?

My internet access is going to be rather sporadic over the coming weeks but I hope to be able to pop in once in a while.