been up North.....

but not North to Alaska, north to Queensland.
Hub and I have been away for several days visiting the gorgeous Gold Coast and Brisbane.
It was a first for me and definitely won't be the last time I go there. The weather was perfect.
 Lots of walking to sightsee and there was lots to see.
I have to say I absolutely loved Brisbane it is such a beautiful city with easy access and beautiful walking tracks along the river. Everything was so amazing to look at, the flora and fauna was gorgeous.

I have lots of pics to share hope you are up for it?
Roll the pictures

beautiful clean beach at Surfers Paradise. I did stick a toe in but that's about it.
The sand squeaked when you walked on it!

The spectacular walkway along southbank in Brisbane. This archway continued for ages. No 1 son said that Hub should have told me a knock knock joke to make me smile. Smarty pants..

Fern growing on a live tree. Amazing!

Botanical gardens at Mt Tambourine

taste testing at a brewery on Mt Tambourine.... Yum, lovely lunch as well.

Carved Pagoda in Brisbane. I had to censor some of my pics as it had lots of fertility symbols and they needed to be PG.

Beautiful old home along the river and a superb Jacaranda tree in full bloom. The city was full of them and they put on a fantastic show.

amazing huge tree near where we were staying.

there were lots of these little fellas along the river.

of course there was some stitching, with a lovely view

Story Book bridge over the river... I tried to walk over it but only made it as far as the girders as my fear of heights overcame me and I skulked back to the main path and could breathe freely again.

The highlight of my trip to Brisbane was a get together with these wonderful, wonderful ladies!
I can't believe I got to meet up with you all and repay the visits you have made down south,  thankyou so much for making my holiday!
We sat and chattted for ages and laughed and ate.
Lucky we didn't have to pay 'butt parking' by the hour at the cafe! We would have been in for a hefty bill.

Fiona, Teresa, Me and Michelle.

Here is my lovely meal... it was the best and I didn't leave a scrap.

Now there was one last photo that was taken but not shared as it looked too dark on my phone but with downloading and enhancing it turned out ok..
As hub was taking the photo Fiona remarked that if we leaned forward we would look thinner...
Of course I wanted to look stick thin if that was the case and I tried to lean forward while holding onto the rail behind me. We all started laughing.. so here it is girls.. the silly photo:

Does it make me look any thinner?
I love laughing with friends
xx
Now that we are home I will catch up with blogs, I have been lurking but only had my phone to visit with.
Next post I will show a little surprise giftie I received.
cheers
marina

a brief vacation

On Friday morning we headed off for to spend the weekend on the beautiful Island (or mainland, depending which side of the strait you are on) of Tasmania.
We got to visit and experience all the things we missed out on 27 years ago when we honeymooned there.
We stayed in Hobart and what a gorgeous place that is. Surrounded by forests and on the Derwent River. We stayed at a hotel right near the harbour with views to die for. The weather was perfect too. We were very spoilt.

view from hotel room

I took lots of pics, here are some of my favourites....

on the way to Port Arthur.

 Port Arthur was a penal colony and prison for convicts that were transported from England. Stealing a piece of bread or clothing could get you a one way ticket to Van Diemens land. Life was brutal. There are only some of the buildings still standing, if only they could talk.
This building in the foreground was a flour mill before being turned into accomodation for prisoners.
Life was very dismal and hard for prisoners. There was also an asylum and 'revolutionary' new section where prisoners were kept in solitary confinement for the term of their sentence with just an hour's excercise a day.
They were forbidden to speak to each other and the guards were also under orders to not speak to the prisoners at all. The prisoners were only allowed to use their voices once a week to sing during chapel service. The total loss of self and identity must have been devastating. No wonder the asylum was so full.

Not all our sightseeing was so sad and sombre...
I also got to visit this magnificent Shop!
The quilted crow in Newtown.
It was such a beautiful shop with the most gorgeous quilts and temptations.
Yes, of course I was tempted! I ditched Hub who wandered down to the nearby antique shop where he managed to out do my spending. If I had known I wouldn't have put back so many of the gorgeousness that I picked up.
I will post a pic of my treasures later.

 There was also a visit to the Cascade Brewery. The oldest brewery in Australia.
We did the mandatory tour and tastings. Lovely jubbly!
The brewery started life as a timber mill in around 1824. It is such a beautiful building. Up until the '90's the workers were able to drink free beer during their breaks, when the bell rang. Occupational health and safety laws squashed the practice and now they can just take home 'rations' once a month.
What a perk!

Was a lovely weekend, now back to the grind....

Next time will show my treasures..

cheers

marina

been missing for a little bit....

....as we have been away on a road trip for the past week travelling around our lovely State of Victoria, well at least parts of it. We even ventured interstate on occasion when we crossed the mighty Murray river in different places. No 3 son got some 'L' hours up doing most of the driving. He did a great job. I got to sit in the back and do some work on my second Swan Lake border. About 3/4 of the dollies is done, including arms and heads. Strangely sitting in the back I don't get car sick but in the front seat I can't even look at the road map without getting nauseous.
We made our way up to Mildura via stops at Euroa, Yarrawonga, Albury (across the border), Rutherglen, Corrowa, Echuca then made our way home passing through Stawell and staying two nights at Halls Gap, not far from Stawell.
We got beautiful mandarins from Mildura that were just off the trees, tasted wines in Rutherglen and visited some beautiful patchwork shops. Spotted, I might add, by Hub. 
We didn't take too many pics but you knew there were going to be some coming, right?

beautiful Hume weir, the water was so clear and blue

paddle steamer at Echuca

view from lookout above Halls Gap, in the Grampians

a ride on a 100 year old steam powered paddle steamer on the Murray river at Echuca.

Mackenzie falls near Halls Gap. That's me at the foot of the falls with the blue top. All those stairs, care going down them but boy did we feel old making our way up them back to the car park!

At Halls Gap there were so many Kangaroos and they were quite happy to allow people close as long as you didn't try to pet them.

I don't tire of seeing these beautiful animals, I still get a buzz seeing them in the wild.

this rather large joey kept jumping in and out it's mother's pouch. So cute!

this big boy was outside our cabin this morning. Joe captured him at the moment he was licking his lips, it looks like he is poking his tongue out lol.

Hope you haven't nodded off with all that tourist info.

Next time pics of craftiness completed and goodies purchased.

cheers

marina

ps will catch up on everyone's blogs this week as we only had limited internet access while away.

swap parcel farewelled and some pics

My swap parcel is finally on it's merry way to Peta in WA.
Bon Voyage and speedy journey!

On the weekend we went to Portland, (Victoria) It is a beautiful little port town. It was the first European settlement in Victoria, settled in the early to mid 1800's.
It was used as a whaling port too. In the maritime museum they had a huge skeleton of a sperm whale that had been washed up, already dead, on the beach there. It was amazing to be up close to something so huge.
Dh and no 3 son did some of this....

while I did...

(this is for a quickie gift that I need to finish but only started on the weekend, talk about leaving things to the last minute.

It was beautiful to sit and stitch looking out to the sea. They fished from the break water which you could drive out onto quite far.
When they were fishing in the morning...
I did this...

gosh my feet look big! .

there is a lighthouse on this cliff just behind the last tree to the right.

this is the view from the lighthouse, You can see the start of the breakwater, it extended out  at least  1 1/2 times again and we were at the end of it.

I walked around town looking at all the beautiful old bluestone cottages and old wood houses. They were just gorgeous. I made my way to the lighthouse and then back along the beach, back to town.
There were heaps of antique, bric a brac places along the way to Portland and we visited most. I bought some lovely depression glass milk jugs. My new passion it appears. There was a gorgeous Patchwork shop in town but it was shut by the time we got there and it wasn't open by the time we left on Monday. Them's the breaks.

I have decided that October will be quilting month!
I made a start on quilting my hexie flower garden by hand. Who's dumb idea was that?..... While stitching away I told DH that I want to be buried with this quilt because that's probably how long it will take me to hand quilt it!
He replied...'why don't you get it quilted by machine?'
Takes a man to reinvent the wheel doesn't it. I told him I want it quilted selectively and not just all over, willy nilly and to get that done by a quilter will cost a mint. So I will keep stitching away till my arm drops off or becomes the size of the Incredible Hulk's arm......... I have nearly finished two rows. I regret having been so enthusiastic making all those flowers, now that I have to quilt around each one! lol.
It definitely won't be a quick quilt to finish.....

If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well....

Slap the 'man' who came up with that quote!

Hope you are having a great week...
cheers
Marina

ps because we went away my Christmas goodies weren't finished... Hopefully something will get completed in between all that hand quilting.