Today was Anzac Day, and my SIL and I went to the Dawn Service at the little war memorial in the main street. We drove down in the chilly dark before 6 a.m, passing groups of people walking along huddled in their coats, seeing the lights of other cars converging around the shadowed park. It was very moving, standing beneath the trees and thinking of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who landed at Anzac cove all those years ago. I looked up at a little sliver of a new moon lying on its back, cradled in the arms of a gum tree, and listened to a bugle playing The Last Post- one of the most poignant memories of Australians everywhere.













Don't you just love old houses? In the back hall is a huge floor to ceiling cupboard, which we hadn't opened until today, and then we found a little door at the back of it. Wouldn't we have loved this find when we were children, raised on a diet of Enid Blyton's Famous Five books. Would there be a secret passage beyond, an old trunk full of treasure, a faded map with an X on it? Or, in Daphne Du Maurier mode....a huddled skeleton sitting in the corner.....















Of course I took one look at the cobwebs and sent Matt up instead, and listened to his crashing and clattering and shouted comments, contenting myself with a peek from the top of the ladder. It must have been a storage space under the original verandah roof and there are boards laid across the rafters so that matt could crawl along quite comfortably. Nothing came to light of any interest, but it kept us all occupied for a good half hour, a change from our cleaning and painting and shifting.














Here's Bev sitting in the window seat, in our nice clean lounge room, having washed the walls down, scrubbed the skirtings and the window and polished the floor. She's exhausted, and I was up a ladder painting or I would have helped. But I'm tired too!

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I feel so guilty that I haven't posted for a while, but life is as hectic as you could imagine. There is some painting going on- the brown sample square has been voted blehhh and the wall may end up green, who knows. The rest of the room will stay cream, this is a very long sunroom built on to the main house and I think it needs to be light and airy. It's 32' 9" and 11'9" across, so it's going to take a lot of furniture to fill it up. The other end has a slow combustion stove, and we lit it and sat around it last night, after a busy day of shifting.






This is the fireplace in Mum's room, bit over the top do you think? Or just plain gorgeous.





















This is a small top I made from leftover strips that Keryn gave me. She usually passes on the bits and pieces that she's sick of, and I love getting parcels of scraps and strips to play with. I've got the backing and batting folded up with this and it would only take a few hours to quilt, but it will have to be after we've all settled in at the new place.








This is the side view of the house, I can just imagine sitting on the verandah, or on the bench under the tree, looking at the roses that line the path. I do love gardening and there's lots of scope for flower beds here, I can hardly wait.

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We've been shopping for some things for the house, and the spare bedroom looks like this now........

The bolt of curtain fabric will end up as curtains and table covers and perhaps cushions for a comfy chair. This will be the guest room for my brother and sister-in-law when they come to visit and SIL did a good job of choosing things without having seen the room first. (They live in Western Australia)

Check out the fireplace in their room, very nice!

Here's an old Weathervanequilt I made out of dressmaking scraps, many years ago. Some

of the fabrics are very unsuitable, seersucker, twills and even some rayon. Nevertheless, it's stood up to repeated washings and is still my favourite quilt to have on my bed, because it's so soft and cuddly.

I'm also lovin' my stripey socks, perfect therapy for a too-busy mind. I don't have time to sew at the moment, but I can pick up my needles and do a few more rows here and there. It has a very calming effect on me at the moment.

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