Sunny Days

The heat continues despite being the fourth day of Autumn and one wonders how much longer we'll be experiencing these hot days which started way back in September last year! But with the sun comes sunny moments and last night I received an unexpected thankyou for donating one of my quilts as a raffle prize to another worthy cause: the Bedford Group. A very special friend Faye is an ambassador to this amazing organisation who make a difference to the lives of people with a disability (including her delightful daughter Lauren who will be 30 next month!). I have given many of my quilts to worthy organisations but I have never received a thankyou like this…………..

So my thanks to Bedford for the beautiful flowers and to Candy from SA Quilters for capturing the moment last night with Faye far left, Nathan from Bedford, Vicki our Guild President and lovely Lessa who along with Faye and a hard working committee has raised extraordinary funds of over $180,000 and all through quilting! So to receive these beautiful flowers for my small contribution was indeed humbling……...

Today we were up and organised with a car full of quilts as we drove about four hours north to the country town of Peterborough where tomorrow they are expecting over 320 quilters to attend the biennial gathering of country quilters in our state. I am one of four guests invited to share our quilting journey and as I packed my cases it was amazing to look back on such different quilts that I made almost 30 years ago! The other speakers are all local and include Julie Haddrick, Lorraine Cocker and Pam Holland. We have only been given 30 minutes each so that could be interesting but I am so looking forward to the day. The region that we've travelled to is know as the Mid North and there is always much to see along the way. We stopped for lunch at Tarlee and I was intrigued to read on wikipedia that the name may have come from a mis-spelling of Tralee in Ireland! There is not much there but we had the most amazing lunch. We are reminded of what the region is known for as we parked the car……..

A small hotel that is now closed……..

 Another that is on the market……….

 And then our lunch destination………

 We both ordered a 'breakfast burger' which included egg, bacon, mushrooms, cheese and baked beans and the best value for just $8.30!……..

 I was intrigued that the reading material was all from the UK and then on asking discovered they are donated by a nearby resident……...

 And inside I was so thrilled to read this story about my late Dad's beloved Lancasters that he flew in during his time serving in Bomber Command in WW2. It is wonderful to hear of more recognition of the catastrophic casualties with a local Lincolnshire farmer Tony Worth fund-raising to develop an International Bomber Command Centre. His father also served in Bomber Command and he is hoping the centre will open in 2017……...

So if you are driving through Tarlee do stop for a great lunch and coffee and even free peaches too! The landscape changes from undulating hills, to crops of grain and of course the famous Clare Valley known for the riesling trail and lovely wines……...  

And yes it was still 39C outside and we've just heard on the weather report it is not dropping below 33C for another week. I have no idea how those sheep and cows cope out in the blistering sun……...

We've stopped for the night in a cabin just 30 minutes south of our destination so we will be up early ready for an exciting day ahead. More later x