At home on the farm

It's a bit of a dreary day today. I've been inside working on my quilt, plus outside exploring with my loyal companion, Miss Dog. My sewing machine threw a hissy fit before lunch and I had to problem solve. I am pleased to say it is humming along again. All of the lower threads kept getting tangled on something, and the fabric wouldn't move along. I took out the bobbin case and gave it a good brush out. There was a surprising amount of lint in there! Once I reassembled everything it went happily again. Thank goodness.

Here are the fabrics I got yesterday. I love them. It is hard to find fabrics that I really love among the vast collections of fabrics for sale in quilting stores.







I couldn't resist taking this photo of Oscar. He is so sweet with his chocolate chip tummy and long, long legs.
That is not actually his tail making him look like Basil Brush, it is Lily's back and hip.



Miss Dog took several fungi hunting missions with me today. I am fanatical about fungi. Yes, I'm a little odd. Miss Dog gets into the creek at every opportunity. Daisy was tearing around with excitement in this spot earlier in the day when she accidentally fell into the creek. It was so funny seeing her suddenly disappear in mid wheelie. I had done so well keeping her dry up until that point. I have to admit, I wasn't too worried about Miss Dog having a swim because I caught her plunging her head down into something smelly and thought a swim might get rid of the stink. Cats are so lovely and fastidious compared to horrible hounds.



This is a bit of a spooky spot in the creek. The water passes through a tunnel. When we were small (and thin) we used to bravely crawl through the tunnel in our swimming togs. It is about 6 metres long. I was scared there would be spiders living on the inside of the tunnel. Yes, I know I'm ridiculously fond of spiders, but not ON me uninvited!



Here is Nanny with the Terrible Two. We were going to get the mail. Miss Dog loves Nanny, but we have to be careful because Miss Dog is awfully strong and boisterous. She'd send Nanny flying if she got silly around her.



Here is the view back up to the house. I love the house. It is over 100 years old. I grew up here on the farm. Mum and Dad have built on and improved the house as the family grew. There are 5 bedrooms plus the sun room, which used to be my room.




Here is the view from the same spot across to the cottage. It is a wee two bedroom house. Meg and Ryan lived there for a while before moving to Nelson. Mum and Dad had tenants at various stages, and Grandma and Grandad lived there for a while (not Nanny). We've had happy times staying there at Christmas. The little verandah is a fairly recent addition. Dad was a carpenter before he retired, so he is awesome at building stuff, of course.



Nanny is busy making an apple pie. She loves being busy. Mr B is busy playing X-Box games. Those are such time-wasters! I've almost finished quilting my first square quilt. I was interrupted by fungi hunting urges. I've got to make the most of the time here as we are going back to the city on Friday! Yes, Mrs CT. We'll be home soon. On Sunday we are planning a land-warming picnic. The land officially passed into our hands on Monday. I am sooooooo excited about building the house. Yay! It seems real at last! XXX