A Return to Simplicity.

 A near miss with Tropical Cyclone Niran, who by the way is still intensifying off the coast but way out to sea, means we have wonderful sunshine, to dry the washing, air out the house and dry out the ground after sooo much rain. With the rain comes lots of toads, and native frogs, some whom live deep underground waiting for the wet and the chance to sing and breed and with all that activity there are plenty of babies hopping about! Which leads me to the tale of a snake slithering across my foot! Still get the shivers thinking about it. I didn't look where I was walking and we intersected on our respective paths! Once I got a good look at it I could see that it was a Keelback or freshwater snake and we have at least 3 resident ones at the moment. They are all busy keeping the frog/toad population down to respectable numbers at our place.    This species is one of the few Australian vertebrates to prey successfully on the introduced Cane Toad. Cleaver creatures!  Nee...

 Tropical Summer...........Sounds nice doesn't it?  In summer the weather in North Queensland is hot and gets hotter. People find ways to keep cool. Many go to the beach to swim in the cool water, or they find a shady place in a garden or just keep to the indoors and air conditioning.   Townsville has a dry tropical climate that is dominated by two distinct seasons: The wet season, summer (November to April);  and  The dry season, winter (May to October). As you can imagine we do two things here well, when it's fine we have our air-conditioners running and our washing hanging outside and when it's raining we have our dryers going with the washing inside.  I remember the washing lines at home on the farm. There were 3 long lines tied to buildings or posts, with a long stick to keep them from sagging when full of wet washing. I love the smell, the freshness and crispness of sheets that have dried on the line. It's as if a little bit of sunshine has absorbed...

 Last night while the rain steadily fell and to the tune of a hundred frog songs, I decided to work on my Elefantz Block of the Month,  Simple Days .  Of course I didn't start with the first block, but the second, as I love this one the most so far.  I am using Lori Holt fabric as there is quite a bit left over from Granny's Garden Sew-a-long. That one is still in progress with all the main quilt completed and just the borders to go, maybe that will be my project for next month FNSI!   Last night I did a little stitching on the final stitchery for the block.   Can't wait to check out what others have stitched last night. Thanks for stopping by.