council of heritage Motor clubs annual Rally 2015 – part 1

 

Easter, and the Classic and Specialist Car Club of Northern NSW played host to the C.H.M.C. Rally for 2015.

That's Saumarez Homestead on the cover of the program, and the theme is

STEP BACK IN TIME….

 

The build up was huge – with Graham on the committee and us both players in the serialised performance. 

Graham is playing Sergeant Pies and I am the Narrator… Oh dear!

We have had dozens of rehearsals and most of the cast know some of their lines!

 

It should be a hoot… We are expecting this many!

TO BE CONTINUED…

Another baby quilt – Octopuses' garden

 

oh I am time poor – this one took a lot longer to complete than I expected. Mainly because I decided to hand quilt around some of the main sea creatures in the panel.

For baby Audrey.

 

Armidale’s Autumn Festival 2015

Oh – you have to love people yelling and screaming in delight when they see you!

 

I love the Autumn festival – you smile so much your mouth hurts and you spend hours talking to locals about your cars.

Plus I wandered off and bought a rusty corrugated iron piggy which is now near the front door. –

ALSO – above photo, Grahams holding his coffee, can you spot where I’ve rested mine while I take the photo, ha ..ha..???

So this year we presented both cars at the Autumn festival.

 

‘Mrs C’, went on parade, and the older ‘Baby’ went into the park where she attracted a flock of admirers.

Its funny how an old car like that attracts all the teens and the 20 something's, who are amazed at how little she weighs and how olds she is ---- She is a cougar!.. She's a Lotus…

 

Car club Annual Breakfast

So, the year I put OUR hands up to organise the breakfast run AND it pours with rain!

So we relocated from the Dumaresq Dam to the old super shed (superphosphate) at the retired Dumaresq station.

Pronounced –   Due-Mare-Ick =  Due (due to be paid)– Mare (female horse) – Ick (yuck),, say it fast and close together…  don’t worry, it used to confuse me when we first moved here- but Graham works for Armidale Dumaresq Council so I have to get it right now!

Of course the shed is still here as about 20 years ago it was still on the Main North Line to Brisbane.

As below about the Main North Line from Wikipedia!

“The line reaches the major New England towns of Tamworth and Armidale, the latter being the northernmost extent of service on the line. Until the mid-2000s freight traffic continued to the disused station at Dumaresq which is home to a now-also-disused agricultural fertilizer depot. There is now wire across the corridor at several points between Armidale and Dumaresq, after which the line is for all intents and purposes closed. A block is placed across the tracks at the 590 kilometre mark (a short distance on from Dumaresq), and north of Glen Innes the line, particularly its bridges, has fallen into disrepair.”

I’m not sure that we are not trespassing,as I think this still belongs to state rail. But at least its not disused!

The shed is currently used to shelter sheep and cattle.

So we spent the afternoon before the breakfast shovelling kilos of sheep poo. (and I have a lovely bag of the super enriched sheep poo in my garage just awaiting a new garden bed – but I did ruin a pair of shoes)!

Why they don’t turn this lovely vacant railway corridor into a backpackers walk is beyond me.

Above- here is Graham at the BBQ cooking 100’s of eggs – look at the pile of shells!

 

New Garden

 

Below – before a barren dry yard

Then,  below the grass is gone, its mulched and waiting for plants. I’ve marked out the spacing for the roses

Now we have roses, a tiny box hedge and other plants.

The roses are, Bonica, Scentimental, and 2 types of David Austins  which are Mary Rose and Strawberry Hill.  Along with lots of varieties of gaura which look so pretty blowing in the breeze.

 

Hopefully next summer will see the garden mature and fill out.

Below- Scentimental is a striped rose!

This years project will be to start planting in the empty back yard. (nice and green and the moment)!

Compared to a few months ago when it was so dry that even a family of Roo’s moved in!

finished! a kiss to build a dream on

 

Give me a kiss to build a dream on

and my imagination will thrive upon that kiss..

Louis Armstrong - 1951

 

This was one of the first quilts I blogged about in January 2010.

 

Five years later it is finally complete.

I finished it at the end of 2014 – but its too heavy to get up on the clothesline for the traditional shot. Here it is in our guest bedroom.

Fun at Christmas 2014~!

 

Merry Christmas

and a Happy New Year to all!

Here is a photo of Mum, Me, Graham and Dad, at the Car club Christmas party~!~!~!..

(Sorry Mum – made me laugh- I might post it on facebook as well ,,,, he he he)!

For Work I made them little Spiced Shortbread parcels,,,  which went down very well!

And I bought lots of new decorations for the new house!!

And it looked very Christmas-eey (how do you spell that, it should be in the dictionary)!

And a chicken has exploded on the tree – which really means I bought lots of lovely Christmas birdies from Bed Bath n Table

(notice we have new CURTAINS ..;. if you would like some vertical blinds I will soon be offering these on GUMTREE…very cheap…)

Christmas day was spent with Grahams family… Paul, Mel, Kayden & Sienna. (and Josh & Steph who came later) AND, Violet (Graham’s Mum)… and, older brother Michael, and Gail from Sydney.

AND 4 DOGGIES..!!!!! … Sean is away…Georgie Girl, Millie, Maya and Alfie!~~ = Chaos. Well only for  few minutes… then they all went to sleep.. sort of…

The Christmas in New York Cheesecake was a great success!!!

From a Margaret Fulton recipe.. Manhattan Cheese Cake... But I added Christmas spices, golden caster sugar .. AND.. Gold leaf to decorate! – Bless Margaret Fulton --- lovely!

Made the regular version lots of times!!! - If you want the recipe let me know.

 

Sean, on the other side of the world (Canada- which is why we have all the dogs) is having a white Christmas!!!