Lunching in the Swan Valley

the finished socks & ottaman

I had a wonderful day yesterday, lunching with a couple of friends in the lovely Swan Valley. We dined at a local winery and I watched while my friends enjoyed a bottle of wine amongst the lovely acres of winding grapevines. (I am virtually a non drinker these days)The restaurant also grow their own produce and their asparagus is divine. We also shared an icecream seeped with fig and with muscat drizzled over it. Mmm mmm truly decadent. I finished the day off by purchasing some beautiful grapes for DH on the way home. Now wasn't that nice? No wonder he loves me sooo much Lurline. Bill checked at the bus and maybe fingers crossed, when this latest problem is sorted out we can be on our way. I purchased some wool for his lordships socks hopefully it will win his approval. Meanwhile I have nearly finished one sock of my second pair a much improvement from the first pair. We are having friends over for dinner tonight and Bill is doing roast lamb and all the vegies followed by Sticky Date Pudding. (which I might add he brought from our local restaurant)

Another finished blanket for another granddaughter

Talk again soon

This and that

I had a wonderful day yesterday catching up with a few girlfriends. Yes stitching and bitching again. I had to go over to the other side of town and the GPS made a very interesting trip, I have seen some parts of Perth that I haven't seen before. The news on the bus is that they think they have found the problem and at great expense it may be (and I said maybe) ready Wednesday next week. I have finished my socks and have started a new pair. The bright side of it all is that I get bonus time with my friends. Not much happening today a bit of necessary cleaning and the paying of the odd bills. Hope to report more news later
Talk again soon

A little bit of Trivia

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. I wasn't particularly well but I still managed to finish my ottaman for the bus. It took 9 bags of filling and three trips to the shop but it was finished. I used denim as it is going in the bus I wanted to make sure it is hardwearing. I intend to put my feet up while I'm quilting, knitting crocheting, whatever and it should make life as bit more comfortable. We both fight over who is going to lay on the sofa to watch tellie of an evening with Bill always winning. Would you believe we are both scorpios so we do fight for our own territories. Meanwhile we still have no good news on the bus front. The mechanics haven't even been able to look at the bus yet. They had an urgent job they had to attend to. Now how urgent is our job? As it is on warranty I guess they intend to put it on the backburner a bit. But as we were supposed to leave yesterday I consider it is now extremely urgent. On the socks front I have reached the toe so I should have it finished soon.

Talk again soon

I finished a sock

Wow one down & one to go the finished sock

I decided today I wouldn't talk motorhomes. Yesterday I actually finished one sock and started a new one. Thanks to Teena I found a websight with a video that showed the grafting of the socks and another website that showed the provisional cast on. It was great! It was like having lynnie
at home with me. I could replay her over and over as many times as I wanted, which I did for the cast on as I couldn't get the hang of it at first. It took me a while to figure out how to join the circle but now I'm going great guns. The first sock is a bit loose around the ribbing, much improved with the second one. Never mind it is my first attempt and I can only get better. I may even knit some for his lordship. I promised him about 20 years ago that I would knit him some socks. You never know your luck in the big city. Today I'm going to sew the big cushion for the bus. Seeing as I had trouble getting the pattern I think I will use it straight away before something else goes wrong. I've picked out the fabric and the grafting paper so my mission today is to get it started. Talk again soon

It's all a Drama!

You wouldn’t read about it. What a drama!!!! My day started off well yesterday, I left home about 7.45am and drove to the WA Quilters Association sewing day with my friend Teena. We had a lovely day sewing hexagons to be given to the ladies in Victoria who have been affected by the bushfires over there. We decided that they may need them as therapy during the long rebuilding process. We succeeded in making 20 sets of hexagon flowers during the day. Teena & I left early as Bill had rang to say the bus was ready to be picked up. Finally. I arrived home about 3pm and we then made our way up to Welshpool to bring the bus home. On the way there I received a phone call from Calico & Ivy (A wonderful patchwork shop in Mosman Park) to say that a pattern I had ordered a few weeks ago is available now. I dropped Bill off and I had 45 minutes to get over to the shop before it closed. The TomTom took me through Perth and up Stirling Highway in peak hour traffic. To make things worse I took the wrong turnoff in Perth and ended up on the freeway going south. After a detour through South Perth via Mill Point Road I got back on track and headed towards the shop. I had about 6 kms to go when the radio gave the 5 o’clock news. I prayed that there would be a few late shoppers and that they wouldn’t close on time. When I arrived at the shop it was full of ladies doing last minute shopping, I was able to retrieve the pattern and headed off towards home. I was 5 minutes away from home when I received a distressed phone call from Bill the bus was broken down on the side of the highway about 20 klms from home. I turned around and joined him in the wait for the mechanics. They duly arrived and started to scratch their heads and pull and push a few buttons or two (in other words they hadn’t a clue). It was time for the big boys. It had to be towed back to Welshpool so they could work out the problem. They had to disengage the tail shaft in preparation for the heavy tow truck to be able to tow the old girl back to the workshop. It is starting to look like the old girl has a permanent home there. They left us about 8.30pm and we began the long wait for the tow truck to arrive. We were starving by then and I knew if I left the tow truck would arrive. About 10 I thought I would grab something to eat from good old Hungry Jacks up the road it wasn’t an easy move as I couldn’t turn around where I was (It is a 4 lane highway) I had to drive further up where I could do a legal U turn. As I drove up the other side of the highway yes you guessed it! The Tow truck was coming towards the bus. I figured I still had time as it had to be hitched up; I proceeded to pick up our fat laden dinner. The bus was still being attached when I arrived back so Bill wasn’t sitting all alone on the side of the road waiting for me. Finally the Truck & bus moved off and we passed it limping up the road as we made our way home. I think we made a wrong move when we changed the gearbox from manual to automatic. No I don’t think the bus is jinxed. We arrived home about 11pm. What a day. What a saga. Somehow I don’t think we will be leaving on Monday as planned. I had intended to write about my son’s 38th birthday and absolutely embarrass him with a baby photo on the blog but I completely missed that. Happy Birthday son, hope you have many more.

The old girl in happier times

Talk again soon

The countdown begins

The countdown is on. We are getting so close to departure date. We hope to leave on Monday 23rd all going well. We have had a couple of setbacks. Firstly the mechanics left their torch on the radiator so consequently when they started the motor it sucked the torch into the radiator damaging the fan and the radiator. However that has now been all fixed. The gearbox is running smoothly. The satellite TV is now set up for pay TV. Why do we need it? Because we can I suppose. The latest problem is the speedo cable which was broken when the gearbox was put in again in Port Hedland. The bus was supposed to be here last Friday, but the same old story maybe Monday? Maybe not? We are waiting for the bus to be finished so that we can clean it and reload it and also so the signwriter can match the decal colours for the decal to be put on the trailer and we also need to service the bus. So much to do and so little time to do it in. I will keep you updated. Meanwhile I went along to sewing last Tuesday hoping to be able to get some help finishing my sock (and I mean sock I haven't even contemplated the matching one). Lynnie wasn't there to help so with some assistance from Julia I managed to work out where I was in the pattern and have managed to get the toe done. Thanks heaps Julia. Now I need more help!!! The pattern says to graft the toe. What language is this? If you read this Lynnie Please I need your help. I also have forgotten how to cast on in the special way I was taught. Here is the nearly finished sock.

Talk to you soon Jan