Friends, Fabric & Flowers!!

That sums up my week AND my weekend! Am I happy about that?? Bet your BIPPY I am!! :0) Over the last week, Toowoomba has been celebrating it's annual Carnival of flowers and although last weekend's icky weather saw us skip a most of the festivities, I've enjoyed visiting a few of the gardens entered in this year's competition over the last week. My boss's lovely wife is a keen gardener ... you  know, one of THOSE people who actually know the NAMES of the plants. Me? I'm more the sort who, when asked what something in my garden is, answer, "A pink flower", "Some sort of blue flower", "A plant my mother-in-law gave me". Tee! Hee! Hee! I will NOT be called upon anytime soon to host an informative gardening show on TV! :0)

Today, we rounded off the garden visits with a half hour drive in the country to the historic "Harrow" homestead and gardens. My Beloved Geek Boy and I packed a picnic lunch of cheeses, crackers, olives and orange juice (driving, remember!!) put my boss's wife into the back seat (my boss had other committments, so couldn't come with us ... at least, that was HIS story!!) and off we went and it was SOOOOO worthwhile!! The dirt road was a bit soggy from some recent rain, but it also meant everything was lush and green. We decided to have a carpark lunch first (inspired by the Lovely Lilly Linda's carpark picnics!), so we didn't have to carry the eats, then in we went to discover this ...

OK ... I confess that this is actually a sketch of the homestead, borrowed from the brochure, as my camera is currently playing up and it takes a routine of taking the batteries out, putting the batteries back in, turning the camera on, hurrying to take a piccie, then take the batteries back out, put them back in and turn the camera off and on quickly so the lense zaps back where it's supposed to. Don't ask!! Not happy Jan!! Grrr! However .. I digress ... this homestead was built in the 1860's and is GORGEOUS inside and out ... yes ... we were allowed to take a peek inside too ... as long as we took our shoes off at the door and stayed behind the ropes. Fabulous high ceilings, cedar panelling, grand hallway wide enough to run horse races ... have I mentioned that I LOOOOOOOOOOVE old houses?! :0) And the gardens were lovely too ... rolling green lawn (thanks to the rain!!) a spectacular rose arch ...

Again, borrowed from the brochure and taken a little later in the year than September - there were just a few early roses peeking out today, but the gardens are open again on October 31 when these and other roses in the garden should be putting on a grand show.

Oh ... we DID have to take a little detour in our meanderings when we came across the owner of the property standing vigil in a corner of the garden and he greeted us with a, "G'day folks. You might want to walk a bit that way to avoid meeting Freddy." Hmmm ... who was this mysterious "Freddy" and why wouldn't we want to meet him??? We then followed his pointing finger and discovered that Freddy was a one and a half metre long red-bellied black snake.  EEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!! Did I mention I have a phobic fear of snakes?!?!?! Thankfully, Freddy was heading away from us, but you can bet I kept a pretty close watch on where I was walking just in case Freddy had friends!!!

Further into the garden (and AWAY from Freddy!!) there was also a cool, peaceful lagoon ...

Across the water you can see the little dock where we stood to enjoy the scene ... the lagoon is absolutely covered in water lilies at the moment that are just starting to flower. The little gazebo/cabana near the dock, that you can just see the roof of there, was originally the shelter shed for a tennis court. Sitting back enjoying water views sure gets my vote over running around belting a ball with a racket and getting sweaty! Tee! Hee! Hee! We enjoyed a Devonshire tea with the YUMMIEST scones, jam and cream on the verandah ... and made friends with the resident pooch by sharing our scone crumbs ... he promised not to tell on us! :0) All in all, a very pleasant and relaxing way to spend an afternoon.

I have, however, skipped over yesterday's activities so that I could tell you my garden-hopping adventures all at once. As I told you, yesterday I HAD to head off to my home-away-from-home to meet up with my blogging buddy Toni from The Red Boot Quilt Co. And what a lovely time we had!! Isn't it fun to 'chat' with people via blogs and emails, then find that when you meet them in person, they're just as nice and fun to chat to! :0) We enjoyed a coffee and view on the Village Green and Toni's Darling Daughter number one took a photo of us with Darling Daughter number two ... and her little bear friend, Miss Dorothy ... Dotty to her friends! :0)

It was a bit of a reunion visit for Miss Dotty and I because, you see, Toni's DD2 adopted her from me as her Christmas gift last year! :0) I am told that Miss Dotty is now a career bear and is hard at work on her first novel ... a mystery. We'll let you know when it's published! :0) Now ... do you see that bright pink bag that Toni is clutching?? You know what that means, right??  Yep ... we called in to my home-away-from-home so Toni could see first-hand just how SPOILT I am for fabric choices. She says she completely understands why I spend so much time there and thinks perhaps she'd like to move in too! :0) Marion said that's why she got rid of the old bed she used to display quilts on on the verandah of her shop ... too many stitchers threatening to just move in and sleep there! Tee! Hee! Hee! In fact, Toni found that the fabric was so keen to come home with her it was JUMPING off the shelf at her! There's a story there, but I'm not allowed to tell it!! Tee! Hee! Hee! Toni and I had a LOVELY time playing amongst the fabric, though we did decide that we tend to head for opposite ends of the colour spectrum ... Toni is drawn to BRIGHTS and I'm drawn to the softer SHABBY CHICS. And despite me telling Toni NOT to let me buy anything ... some fabric followed me home! Oops! :0)

Some of the latest range of deliciousness from Moda's "Pure" line that Marion has recently recieved and that I HAD to have! At first, I was only going to buy one ... OK  two .... all right three ... well maybe four ... aaaw what the heck! Who needs to eat this week anyway! Tee! Hee! Hee! I have a couple of ideas in mind for these yummy fabrics, so stay tuned. See how pretty they all looked together ... and Marion even tied them all up in a pretty matching bow for me! The perfect play date for two mad stitchers! Thanks for coming up for a play date, Toni ... I'll look forward to a repeat performance sometime soon! :0)

PHEW! Well, I think that's it for my weekend of friends, fabric and flowers ... I'm sure I'll sleep well tonight! :0) Hope you've had a great weekend, too, no matter what you got up to. And now, I think I'm off to hunt and gather some dinner, put my feet up and watch a bit of "X Factor" before turning over to watch "Midsomer Murders". It's the last episode so I HAVE to see what happens!! Have a fabulous week, everyone and til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS