Sleeping in one's own bed again......

One is quite pleased about this; even though the caravan beds have innerspring mattresses and are very comfortable, there is nothing quite like one's own regular bed, is there?

As promised, a few pictorial highlights:

We spent a week near Yamba and did a little local exploring while there, Angourie is a five minute drive south:

These fellers are called water dragons.  Their back claws look quite vicious so I was not getting any closer than this - one of many who call the river bank home:

 The stones deposited along the bank of the Clarence River make an ideal home if you are a water dragon, this is where we stayed for a week......talk about relaxing:

 After a week on Palmers Island we drove south to Urunga, which itself is a short drive from Nambucca Heads - this is near where the Nambucca River empties into the ocean:

 Urunga caravan park has bunnies!!  Cute little grey and white baby bunnies hopping around!!!!

 There were grey and white adult bunnies too, but they can't compete in the cute stakes so they weren't photographed.

The boardwalk goes for a kilometre, should you feel energetic on a late afternoon as the tide is going out to sea......or any other time, for that matter.

It was also a very musical holiday.  I was welcomed by the Yamba Ukes for their regular Wednesday session in a local café and can't have disgraced myself totally, because they asked me to join them playing in a street festival a few days later......how nice is that!

Last weekend at the Dorrigo Folk and Bluegrass Festival a scratch band called "The Sinners"(sounds like me, doesn't it?) was formed on Saturday morning; an hour on Saturday and another short practice immediately before going on stage on Sunday morning, and we opened the bluegrass gospel concert - yee har for us!  Folk festivals in Australia often have a scratch choir - so-called because people are scratched up from anywhere - which has a short practice each morning of the festival then performs at the final Big Concert (there is always a Big Concert to finish a festival); "The Sinners" was the bluegrass band equivalent.  I'm pleased to report that I wasn't the only ukulele, we had a couple more.  It was somewhat crowded up there on stage, but really great to feel part of the festival.  Now we can sit back and bask in our glory while waiting for the phones to ring......somehow I think we'll be waiting for a while......

Mostly the weather was kind to us, a few showers of rain didn't spoil things but the wind did.  It was often windy at Palmers Island, very windy the day we arrived at Urunga, and we also had some wind at Dorrigo.  Wind is horrible.  As someone said to us after coming home, wind serves no useful purpose that she can see; perhaps it does have a purpose, but it certainly makes people irritable.

Now we are picking up where we left off.  Our next trip away will be just before Christmas heading south to see the family and taking in another small folk festival on the way home.

Meanwhile, things have been progressing on the sewing front.  The backing for my Winding Ways quilt is done but as something has happened to my back (I seem to have popped a rib or strained a muscle, possibly while sneezing; the pain is somewhat agonising at times and breathing can be a bit tricky too) it will have to wait a wee while before being pinned and quilted.

Unfortunately we came home to a sad note, one of our choir members lost his life a couple of weeks ago in a very nasty car accident.  He leaves a young family, and I was sorry I wasn't well enough to get to his funeral on Friday to pay my respects with other choir members.

Yesterday, though, was happier; a former member who moved interstate is back in town for a short holiday, and a mutual friend and choir member had a lovely afternoon tea at her place for friends to meet up again.  We had yummy things to eat served on pretty plates, with old-fashioned tea cups making us all feel like Real Ladies.  Which, of course, we are.

"Whom to invite.
Those invited should be of the same standing in society.  They need not necessarily be friends, nor even acquaintances, but, at dinner, as people come into closer contact than at a dance, or any other kind of a party, those only should be invited to meet one another who move in the same class of circles."

Yep......sounds like yesterday afternoon.

Enjoy your days!

We're back!

Still need to upload photos from my camera, and then I can tell you all about our holiday.

Two more sleeps until our holiday

We will be leaving on Saturday morning so there will be a blogging break for a couple of weeks.

Still have to pack, but one important thing is done......my uke is packed!  Next Wednesday morning I will be meeting up with a ukulele group not far from where we will be staying (we will be out of town) which should be fun.  Kevin plays lawn bowls and he is also looking forward to meeting local bowlers for a game or two.  While he is doing that I may, just may, not definite mind you, but perhaps I just might check out the local op shops, or thrift stores if you don't live in Australia.......I like a good op shop crawl.

On Sunday afternoon we will be arriving on Palmers Island for a week, then heading south to visit Urunga before turning back inland.  Our last few days will be spent in Dorrigo - such a nice town, there is a great quilt shop and several excellent cafes - because the folk festival is on.  We missed it last year, we were in Canada instead!

The first year we were living here we visited a couple of open gardens, and at one I bought a potted kalanchoe with an interesting name - "Dusky Bells".   It spent a few years hanging around in its pot on the edge of our fairly sheltered back verandah doing very little; not dying, but certainly not thriving.  A couple of years ago we had a short-but-sharp storm which, as well as breaking off a 30 ft high tree in our front yard, toppled the stand holding some hanging plants including Dusky Bells.  The stand was duly moved into a more sheltered corner, and Dusky Bells was re-potted.  It promptly picked itself up, shook itself, looked around, decided that the new corner was The Place To Be and has been going great guns ever since.  I'm curious, though......it's hanging and trailing, whereas I thought kalanchoes had their flowers at the top of an erect stem.  Perhaps it needs a few of those little blue pills that one hears about?

 The pot holding most of the kalanchoe sits above this orange pot.

Definitely trailing - nothing upright about it, but its leaves are nice and glossy and the flowers are interesting.

We don't have television in our little caravan and I for one won't miss it.  I certainly won't miss the ads for cars, aren't they silly?  Really, what can be said about cars that hasn't already been said over and over again?  A wheel at each corner and one to hang onto.  That's about it.  Cars these days all seem interchangeable to me anyway, but then - what do I know about such things?

One of us hits the mute button when ads come on air.  Watching ads with the sound turned off is quite funny, we can recommend it!  If it were up to me the TV would stay off for 99% of the time, but the bloke who shares my bed likes to watch it.

Not in bed, though.  We have one not-very-big TV (no huge screens and surround sound for us) and it lives in the living room just off the kitchen.  I can't imagine having a TV in my bedroom, even though Kevin does watch through his eyelids.

We've been checking out the weather forecast for next week to see what clothes to pack and the days look like being a few degrees warmer than here which is quite bearable, but nights will be several degrees warmer than what we are currently enjoying.  Still, we will be near the Pacific Ocean so hopefully there will be a sea breeze to keep bugs away and to stop nights being too hot for sleeping.  This week I have worn sandals twice, my bare toes have been hanging out in the fresh air for the first time in several months, and next week they may not be covered much at all.  Even the bare arms and legs may have a turn at fresh air.

But that's all.  There are limits to what I bare in public, folks.

"In assisting a lady to enter a carriage, a gentleman will take care that the skirt of her dress is not allowed to hang outside.  A carriage robe should be provided to protect her dress from the mud and dirt of the road.  The gentleman should provide the lady with her parasol, fan and shawl, and see that she is comfortable in every way, before he seats himself."

Modern cars mean that the skirts of our dresses stay inside, don't they?  We don't need carriage rugs or parasols to keep us sheltered on a ride either, thank goodness for modern comforts

We'll be back in a few weeks, meanwhile......

Enjoy your days!