From a Wintry Gellibrand

A collage of things in my garden at the moment. We planted proteas and banksias for winter colour and they have the added effect of attracting many birds. I came across a delightful google video on the Athananius Kircher Society website about a lyrebird- it is worth watching if you have some spare time as the lyrebird is a fascinating bird. They are seldom seen but often heard. Their tail is beautiful- lyre shaped. I love the sound of kookaburras and we have two resident ones here- who seem to spend a lot of time laughing- at us probably.Sometimes when people phone me up they will ask "what on earth the sound in the background is" often it is the kookaburras laughing.They are really noise but it is such a happy sound that I always smile inwardly when they start up. The heather has a little story attached to it. The native heather of Australia is actually quite scrubby and a lovely pink colour but this white heather , which we have quite a lot of in our village apparently was sewn by a homesick Scotsman around the turn of the century when this whole valley was logged and Gellibrand was a bustling saw milling town. In fact the towns' tavern stood on our block ( how appropriate I hear some of my friends say) and in our various gardening excavations we came across a whole cache of old bottles and ceramic remains- many were broken but a few were still intact, including one lovely long necked blue bottle( must find them and I can show you a photo).

Did a lot of sewing today- and had to give up as my back was getting sore.

And on another note- when I go to Carrefour Europeen du Patchwork it looks as if I shall be flying home via England. I want to spend a few days going to the Brit Musuem and the V&A but if anyone is interested in me teaching a workshop at all please let me know. We are tentatively planning having a workshop in a small village hall not too far from Cambridge- have to put my organising hat on.