Armidale's Autumn Festival Parade 2018

Hi Dear Readers, its time for the Autumn Festival which is always a big event for the car club. Usually I go around in the car, but I've never properly seen the parade so this year I decided to be a spectator.

And below is Mrs C in the parade.

I started the day sitting in the gutter outside the New England Hotel...

*snort* I knew I'd end up in the gutter outside the Newie one day. 
I'm sure I'm not the first to use the phrase "I started the day sitting in the gutter..." etc

Actually... come to think of it, there was an occasion several years ago,,,,,  but Mindy tells (remembers) that story better than me and it will keep for another time.

Always a treat to drive up the one way streets the wrong way!

And only in country towns can the council include its diggers and street sweepers in the parade!

Then in a fine feat of magic I scuttled up the mall and was at the post office before the cars came around again! Everyone found this slightly amusing, two of me? No its witchcraft I say!

Lots of local cultures marched in groups.

Great weather, probably as I was predicting rain.

And then the pipes.With all schools to follow. 

Armidale has some really pretty buildings. Above is the Imperial Hotel.

And below is the post office.

And above are the pipes heading down Faulkner street.
I'm actually standing on the Faulkner/Dumaresq street roundabout to take the photo.

Great day, good turn out. Got sun burnt,  won't need to take my vitamin D this week!

New Project - Leaps and Bounds

 

My Design from EQ7.

 Okay,,, So I have started another project...

This is a Jacobs Ladder quilt called 'Leaps and Bounds' (yes the Paul Kelly song, I may have to contact him and ask permission).  Its a wedding quilt for Sean and Rose.

Starting to come together on my design wall

Finished size will be 75 x 70 inches,
(I always do my quilts in inches as I buy my fabric in yards, hey makes sense to me)
240 blocks I have to make, not including the border, phew, 
I think I've done about half the blocks so far.  

I'm concentrating on this one as it would be nice to have it completed in the same year of their wedding.! ..Despite also having four other completed tops that just need to be posted to my lovely quilting lady. (To hot to hand sew the bindings at the moment anyway).

I've two others quilts  in progress and a whole stash of beautiful sea themed fabric ready to go for the next one.

Yikes - I'm going to have to start setting deadlines... or retire.

 

Sean and Rose's Wedding

Hello, My Dear readers

I wish to share with you the photos from my son Sean and his beautiful Rose's wedding last weekend  at their lovely farm at Kentucky, near Armidale...

Not many words in this post... but lots of lovely photos...

Mum, my sister Cathy and me!.. (and Millie the dog,) .. It was an accident, we didn't mean to dress the same!

Kimba and Edie

Kim, Edith and Cathy

Mum and her great grand daughter

Andrew, me and Hailey

Graham and his Mum.. Violet

My boys and my dad.. Their Pop.

Andrew and Hailey

Introducing - Tiny Teddy

 Hi My Mum's Dear Readers..... Its Miss Lizzy here, 

and I want to tell you that in my opinion Mum and Graham have completely lost the plot.

Firstly they leave ME at that boarding kennel place for a whole dog year and then when they get home they surprise me with another dog. A little furry friend , they say..

WHAT are they thinking! 

 Unlike ME, who was perfect from the day they brought me home,,, (well apart from destroying all the dog beds, dog coats Mum's glasses and eating the timber railings on the back deck... I tell them that this was all playful puppy behavior)

This doggie is absolutely bonkers. It wouldn't even let them touch him at first. 

I don't think he had ever been inside a house before and I had to teach him how to use the doggie door by barrelling through it in my usual sideways style.

And he doesn't run, he hops like a little gazelle.

Like me he came from the RSPCA and his name was Tiny. 
So they called him Tiny Teddy after the biscuits - THE PEOPLE BISCUITS that DOGs aren't allowed to eat! HMMMPF... Cruel Mum!

Anyway he's beginning to realise what a lucky dog he is to have me as a doggie sister, and he's starting to play with me, I RUN up the hall and Teddy follows doing his gazelle imitation.

Until next time..

Love from Miss Lizzy

Home...

Dear Readers I think that long haul flights may be a bit like childbirth.

You think, "that wasn't so bad" so you go ahead and do it again, until half way through the process when you scream "what was I thinking"!

But- we survived, its getting harder as we get older.

12th January 

0730 -  Awake and traveled to George's for lunch and to repack our cases. Worried they'll be too heavy, throw out lots of stuff...

20:45 - plane leaves from Heathrow.

Thats already 13+ hours awake. 

Saturday vanished somewhere in Dubai.

14th January - Sunday

22hrs+ on the plane arrive Sydney plane late, nearly 0700, very little sleep on the plane.

Thats now 35+ hours awake.

Wait in airport until 12:15 for Armidale flight.

Thats now 40+ hours....

Plane late - technical problems. But finally home. All well, garden looks dry and messy.

Collected Miss Lizzy "Yippee"

By 19:00 pretty stuffed - more than 47 hours awake! Asleep as soon as head hits pillow, wide awake again at 01:00.... hummmm.

 

Here we are above, looking particularly daggy in our coats in Portsmouth.

Best Bits?

Definitely, the German Christmas markets. Christmas is different over there. Smells different, feels different, looks different.... Is different..

Other good bits - Blenheim Palace was pretty wonderful. Loved Carisbrooke Castle and the Isle of Wight. And my mate below.

Worst Bits

 Getting colds

Hauling luggage about

Rain
being asked if we had seniors cards (don't blame me, that's Grahams fault)

Last few posts got a bit delayed as Live Writer packed it in, so if these last few posts look a bit different that's why.... I may have to download Live Writer again or find a new blog system.

Miss Lizzy was very pleased to see us .... 
"Good grief, my Mum's Dear Readers, 7 weeks they left me at that kennel place,  that's nearly a whole dog year! But, I'm very pleased they are home so I can give them some Lizzy love"...

London - Thursday

LAST DAY!

which mostly revolves around the Royal Albert Hall.

The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, which has held the Proms concerts annually each summer since 1941. It has a capacity of up to 5,272 seats. The Hall is a registered charity held in trust for the nation and receives no public or government funding.

Since its opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres have appeared on its stage and it has become one of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings. The location of some of the most notable events in British culture, each year it hosts more than 390 shows in the main auditorium, including classical, rock and pop concerts, ballet, opera, film screenings with live orchestra, sports, award ceremonies, school and community events, charity performances and banquets. A further 400 events are held each year in the non-auditorium spaces. (Wikipedia)

We are back here tonight to see  Cirque du Soleil Ovo, but we thought we would like to do the tour in the daytime. So we got to see the place empty.

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Then after lunch we did a walking tour called ‘Hidden London’ (only 3 of us on the tour due to the dismal weather, cold and wet).

Above is something hidden, Big Ben is getting a facelift.

One thing that has changed this trip is the number of concrete barricades that are now in place. In fact there are so many that you stop noticing them.

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After the tour, (walked another 5 miles, next time we travel I am bringing a pedometer) and a wine in the Olde Cheshire Cheese pub…

…we returned to where we started this journey 7 weeks ago, Piccadilly Circus.

It was a quest to visit the Lotus shop, so Graham could make his expensive purchase of the trip. Another jacket, and now he’ll have to carry it home.

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So now back to the Royal Albert Hall, for tonight's performance of OVO.

And bless Cirque du Soleil.. they invite you to take photos of the performance and share on social media. However, they move too fast and its too dark to get a good shot, but I did take the one below of the of the trapeze bit…. 

……….And nicked these two below from the internet!

I think it was a romance between two bugs.

We did enjoy it…

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Now to start the homeward journey.