A Family Concern

Two of our grandchildren were with us this week. Gramps used his CAD program to draw hearts of various sizes, stars and even Christmas trees. The children cut out the patterns - I cut and stitched the fabric pieces which they stuffed. The real fun followed - they raided my sequin stash and these are a couple of examples. (Only a 10 year old boy would want a smiley on his ornament)!

Embroiderywise, I am trying to make up my mind what might constitute a series. What sort of linkage is necessary to form a unified collection of a number of pieces on the same theme?

The same, or toning, colours and possibly stitches. Do I need aspects of both? Can I do something else? Do I need to make sure that the same style of embroidery is used in each piece? Any ideas on this subject?I would be most grateful for any input.

I have started. I only have a fairly basic idea of what I want to do and it is very fluid at this stage. I am not sure how many pieces there will be. The only given is the subject matter - gum trees (eucalypts), their bark patterns, leaves etc.. My inspiration is no further than the back door and any number of different leaf shapes turn up on the lawn each day. The box lid embroidery in the last entry will not be part of this exercise as it is intended for a gift but I would like to make another piece quite similar. So please don your thinking caps and share your thoughts.

A little stitching accomplished

Stitching life has been fairly slow lately. Waterlilies is finished - well the hardanger embroidery is complete but I intend to make a cushion cover and that will take some time. I think that my future forays into hardanger will avoid those pesky picots. They really seemed to defeat me and spoil an otherwise acceptable piece of embroidery.

Nonetheless I have done some stitching which I really enjoyed. (Sometimes I ask myself why I don't just stick to my comfort zone instead of attempting techniques beyond my capabilities). Also this was stitched at a leisurely pace and that was a nice bonus.

This is the lid for another box . There were seven boxes in all - five became gifts last Christmas. This means I have one left for us. The design is offering a challenge at the moment but I guess it will suddenly appear clear.

Moving on! Carefully now!

The eyelets are finished - couldn't stop, could I?

The threads are cut (without mistakes so far, thank goodness) and I am ready to start the first section of needleweaving. Yvette's instructions in the book are clear.

A new perspective

They say a change is as good as a holiday but, while I can't exactly agree with that statement, I do think a change can give you a new perspective. Recently we rearranged our living area and a woven hanging that was originally over the sideboard near the dining table is now overlooking the lounge chairs. This morning as I drank my coffee I realised just how wonderful the hanging looked from that position. Here it is - the lighting is fairly minimal but the effect is very obvious.

A full sized hanging and the lit section. Quite difficult to believe that this is actually a flat two dimensional piece of fabric mounted on a stretched canvas!

A shadow weave with two shadows using single colour gold weft but three colours,red, white and blue, in its warp. It is also not quite conventional shadow weave in that the spacing between the shadows is not exactly even - a real 'what if' experiment.

A Week's Progress

The kloster blocks are finished for the Waterlilies piece - the eyelets come next. The interesting thing about doing a piece of this size as in comparison with the small samples I made earlier is that I am suddenly getting a feel for Hardanger design. Not that I am capable of designing a piece yet but the understanding is increasing.

I did stitch 9 eyelets this morning (Who is counting? Just 39 to go! ) but no photos yet.

Mainly Hardanger.

Firstly the needleweaving from Jenny Gelden's book - some are better than others - ah well, one should always leave room for improvement!

I have joined a SAL that Yvette Stanton mentioned on her blog. To stitch this piece of Hardanger with Yvette available for assistance just seemed too good an opportunity to miss so I ignored my inner voice that said "You can never manage to keep up - ever!"

So far so good! In any case I have decided that I can work at my own pace and will still learn as I plod along. This is a couple of weeks' worth of stitching. I can only stitch using a magnifying lens so this will be slow going.

In the meantime I am also working on my thread painting, again at snail's pace, and trying out some pulled thread work on some fairly heavy handwoven cotton fabric.

A Finish

After a period of inactivity - a very pleasurable family visit followed by a nasty cold resulted in no stitching in this house for more than three weeks - I have spent my spare moments this week with my Gum Trees. Sadly the colours I have chosen are not easy to photograph and the effect in reality is slightly different.

I found this very enjoyable despite some stitching that needed unstitching - a small price to pay for designing on the run. This is where I decided to stop ( always a difficult decision to make, I have found).

I think I have followed Sharon's Sumptuous Surfaces guidelines despite the low level texture in the finished piece. That class was so good and I learnt so much - I keep hoping she will offer Sumptuous Surfaces 102 some day soon - hint hint.

There are only four stitches used - satin stitch, stem stitch, wave stitch and foursided stitch and the thread is all cotton perle , #8 and #12. I deliberately changed the size of the 4 sided stitch in the leaves in a couple of places - not sure whether to leave it or try again - this show up only in the enlarged version.

Some new beginnings

Neki from A movable feast has been working on an exciting series and mentioned how many pieces she works on for a series. This has made me think about my working method. The problem is I seem to need to try out new things and although I sometimes consider doing a series on a particular theme that is as far as it has progressed. The truth of the matter is probably just that I have so much to learn in technique and design before I can possibly begin to think in terms of a series.

However to move on to what I have been doing in the last couple of weeks - well, not much really- but I have started a couple of 'new' pieces. The first one is based on a drawing I did of some gumtrees that I can see from my workroom window. I tacked the design onto linen with the intention of using it for my TIF challenge in January last year. I did make an unacceptable attempt and spent some time with the quick unpick and it has been sitting in the box ever since just waiting for inspiration . Could I do it in straight stitch in the style of some of Jan Beaney's work that I admire? Could I try some pulled thread stitches to show the bark changes across the trunk? Or even some blackwork? Talk about the dabbler in everything but the master of none!

I am not sure what eventually inspired me - perhaps an abstract from Edna Wark's book on pulled thread, perhaps Sue Dove, perhaps both of them. I do know I intend to use some pulled thread stitches for the background. At the moment I am considering the possibility of only working one trunk as two might be just too much for the space - 6 x 4" if I want to add pulled thread.


The next piece is another that has been also languishing in the box - I was given Trish Burr's book for my birthday also in January 2008. While I like to work designs of my own I feel that for some techniques I need to follow instructions, at least for the first piece in that particular technique and thread painting falls into this category. I bought a cheap canvas mounted on a wooden frame - traced the rose from Trish's book and stapled the calico onto the frame and then carefully removed the original canvas - collected the floss that was needed. - 5 greens, many pinks and a number of gold shades. This then also sat quietly in the box waiting for me to feel confident enough to start. Well, this week I needed some colour to brighten up my stitching moments so maybe it was time.

More to larn! This is a departure from my usual working method as it needs to be stab stitched and, although I usually use a hoop, it is loose enough for me to scoop stitch. It took me a little while to manage the technique for the stem stitch stems but suddenly it fell into place. Sadly I have not done enough to photograph - just a stem with its nasty little thorns and the split stitch outlining of the leaves.

I love working in monochrome but every so often I feel the need for colour. The thread painting colour is sandwiched between the gum trees and my whitework sampler which is progressing slowly.

When I began the hardanger pieces I intended to cut them out and make a pincushion or biscornu. However I added my drawn thread squares to the same piece of linen. So after deciding it was a learning sampler I needed consider the total design and see if I could make it a half reasonable piece of work. Not sure I will succeed but these latest little hardanger squares may help the process. I want to try various needleweaving ideas from The complete book of Hardanger by Janny Geldens . This interesting book I have borrowed from the library is full of new ideas for me to try. I am hopeful that some of these hardanger techniques can carry over into other drawn thread work I would like to pursue.

A better photograph and another biscornu

I was unhappy with this photo on the previous entry so decided to see if I could do better - maybe a tad!

This is the biscornu I made in crossstitch for the exchange on stitchin fingers. I find it quite difficult to design for crossstitch - not sure why that is so. Also these days I find it very difficult to work to a deadline. Gina was very understanding but, nonetheless I felt quite stressed about how long it took me to finish this.

The front worked up quite well without too much effort but I needed three attempts to complete a satisfactory back . The first one I ruined by drawing on it with pencil and then trying to remove the marks. I now know that Aida will not submit to any kind of abrasion! The second design I didn't like at all and eventually decided that I really must be happy with the third! (Does this story remind you of Goldilocks or not?) I do try to make both sides of my biscornu different - probably because I get bored with too much repetition.

Some tidying up and an exchange.

I have done very little work in the last couple of weeks thanks to a slight problem of a broken jaw. Although why a broken jaw should affect my stitching fingers quite eludes me - nonetheless I have only managed to finish Jane's biscornu, tidy up my drawn thread samples and finish my castalguidi piece. When I write this out it sounds impressive but the actual stitching time was not all that long.

I was not at all happy with the big gaps in the corners of the drawn thread samples and decided to sort them out.


For this one I used wrapped threads to fill the corners - this was chosen because the threads in the drawn will be removed.)
When it came to this sample I enjoyed the wrapped wheels but decided that on such a small (4 inches square) piece of work more than alternate wheels would be overpowering. Because I feel design is still quite a weakness I try to work at it for everything I do. Again I tried to tie the corners in with the needleweaving I had done in the edge.

This did not work so well - perhaps filling all four corners with buttonholed bars, single and double, might have been better than only three.

This is the lovely biscornu that I received in the stitchin fingers crossstitch exchange from Gina. Interestingly each of the biscornu I have received on exchange has been smaller than the size I normally stitch. I do like these tiny ones. The one I sent Gina in exchange I will put in a later post - enough pictures for now.

A Treat as well as a Great Grub and Maggots!

The Treat!

Jane and I are having a private biscornu swap and this gorgeous little piece of crossstitching arrived for me the other day. It is so tiny and perfect. Scary really, as I know mine won't be perfect. The other thing that disturbs me is that Jane has managed to get this to me from Britain and I am still only on the first side of hers. I am enjoying the stitching but it is, as ever, a slow process - hopefully I will manage to get it done soon. I am not adding any photos until it reaches her, nor photos of the crossstitch one for my swap with Gina. She also finished before me but mine is ready to go in the post tomorrow.

My Grub and Maggots!

I really wanted to do the Stitch Explorer for this month - Casalguidi stitch. The small sampler piece is not finished either but well on the way. This was an opportunity to do another drawn thread square. I have done this assisted by Effie Mitrofanis' Casalguidi Style Linen Embroidery. It is a wonderful book absolutely brimful of inspiring ideas.

My first attempt was shown to the resident critic for approval - the comment was "What fun! A great grub and maggots!" Definitely not my intention! I guess the colours chosen helped with the impression. I have since added some bullion knots and hopefully I have altered it.

This was so much fun - I thought I might have real problems with the Casalaguidi stitch but I used #5 perle cotton for the padding and # 8 perle cotton for the satin and stem stitch. Perle thread is used throughout. I have used Casalguidi stitch, overcast stem, buttonhole stitch, buttonhole bars, single and double, bullion stitch, whipped threads in the drawn thread area to give a zigzag effect and, of course, the mandatory foursided stitch. I have still some way to go but I am delighted that I have got this far before the 15th May. Does it come through that I am still in love with drawn and pulled thread work?

Stitch Explorer Challenge for March and Cruel Crewel!

Well, I am not finished by the end of the month but very close to the 15th April when Sharon announces the next challenge . In January I decided I was unable to participate every month as I needed more time to complete other projects – however this was one challenge I could not resist!

I find the ‘design as I go’ method that I use for this style of embroidery much more satisfying than design for a crossstitch biscornu I have been stitching each weekday. (Work on this piece has been restricted to Saturdays ) I can’t design crossstitch the same way, especially for a biscornu, and I have found work on it quite constricting in comparison.

I discovered while stitching Ziggy’s surrounds that I can control my buttonhole stitches much better without a hoop – previously I had realised stem stitch was always more even when I held the fabric in my hand but was surprised to discover the smae applied for buttonhole circles as well. Then I decided to try the wrapped wheels and guess what! The same result!

The fabric is 32 count linen - a dream of a fabric. The threads used are all cotton either, Finca perle #8 and # 12 or DMC stranded floss with just a touch of one Light Effects thread. I think I am in a cotton rut but I do enjoy the feel of the thread and have quite a good selection of colours.

The stitches are pulled satin, fairly random, wrapped wheels, buttonhole, bullion, and French knots as well as the original stem stitch, pulled Chinese stitch and pulled eyelets - a slightly enlarged stitch vocabulary for me. Now I need to decide how to stitch the nose and eyes.

My crewel-style fishes are creeping along – I save these for lazy Sunday afternoons. I admit to being amazed that I have managed to stick to this timetable but my weekend embroidery is the carrot at the end of the stick. "Crewel style" is a very loose definition for what I have been doing. The thread is cotton floss, DMC, once again and the fabric is a silk/wool dressmaking remnant, very slubby - difficult for a not so skilled embroiderer and a penance after the previous day's work on linen. I think my next attempt might be with a firmer fabric and, perhaps, I could invest in woollen thread.

Voided landscape

As I looked out the front window this afternoon I discovered my very own voided landscape. The mower man is currently indisposed so the grass and edges have not been trimmed this week and this is probably why it fitted the bill. Normally the mowing and trimming needs to be done each week at this time of the year - it may have to wait at least one more week this time.

There is something very tactile about grass of this length. This will probably be as much as I can contribute to the month's challenge as my Ziggy embroidery is a slow project to be savoured and decidely unrushed.

My voided Ziggy

I am committed to three biscornu and have begun the first - this occupies my weekday stitching time. However I need a change from crossstitch so have given myself permission to spend the weekends with other embroidery projects.

I decided to do the Stitch Explorer challenge for this month. Voided work appeals to me very much.

A birthday gift from my daughter was a copy of Lump, the dog who ate a Picasso by David Duncan -a marvellous book of photographs of Picasso with Lump.

The book enthralled me since the photographs could have been of Ziggy, a dachshund that my children gave me as a birthday gift in 1982. Ziggy was the light of our life for twelve wonderful years. We never managed to train him but, naturally, he had us very well trained. It is amazing how much we still miss him after fifteen years.

The next part of the narrative comes with Mabel McAlister's book and her wonderful series of cat embroideries. A dachshund has such a wonderful shape - totallly recognisable, and even I can manage a likeness. So I have been having a wonderful time designing the series - no doubt it will change many times but that is half the fun!

While I intend to use his full shape for some of my embroideries I decided to start with his head.


I outlined the head in stem stitch and then started the pulled thread background.
This certainly can't be finished in another week, but I have made a start.

The fabric is 32 count linen and a lens and lamp is needed for the Chinese stitch and eyelets in #12 perle. As you can see, I have done about a square inch! A good day's work!



The pulled thread work in closeup.


I could not imagine why anyone might call a dachshund, Lump. After some hunting I discovered this piece from the NYTimes. Yes, definitely, a rascal! That fitted nicely!


Today's effort was not worth photographing. Hopefully by next Sunday night I will have enough to share. This is some crewel embroidery. I have read a number of books but could not decide where to begin. I love the traditional tulips, pomegranates etc but really wanted to practise stitches and design on other shapes and eventually came up with fish.


All I managed this afternoon was the outline of a tail with split stitch, plus some long and short stitch . Can you believe that this is the first time I have ever tried split stitch?

It is one of those stitches that I look at and feel assured will be easy. While it is not as easy as it looks on paper I eventually managed to finish that first small shape and feel that by the time I have done seven more I will be happy with my split stitches. This will not be the only new stitch as I have not done any couching or laid work previously.

Another day in the city.

No textiles to show this week - life has just got in the road. However I visited the City on Tuesday and remembered to carry the small camera - so I do have some photographs to share. On the way to the bus stop we were almost deafened by a couple of very raucous rainbow lorikeets. While they are so colourful they are also very noisy drunks! Lorikeets and parrots were very plentiful in our garden on the mountain and, while we do see the odd one here in town, there are not nearly as many. On Mt Tamborine the birds were very happy to harvest any fruit we managed to grow, except maybe the citrus, and sharing was not part of the deal as far as they were concerned . All our stone fruit had to be ripened under nets. Even green olives were not safe from the king parrots. Nonetheless I miss all those birds very much.

This is the Brisbane City Hall, a beautiful building which is currently falling apart. Hopefully it will be repaired (there seems to be some discussion at the moment on whether or not it is a reasonable thing to do) . I do feel since it is part of Brisbane's history, it would be very sad to do nothing about the problem. For many years the City Hall clock could be seen from all over the city - not so now - one can manage to see the clock face from only a very few vantage points, but at least we can hear the chimes! (If the traffic noise is not overwhelming). This year is the 150th anniversary of the declaration of Queensland as a separate state - just a youngster, really!

I love these lamps on the front of the building.

Who Needs a Spiral Buttonhole?

Exactly! I cannot imagine why I imagined spiral buttonhole was the only thing for the centre of this piece. After unpicking two attempts and washing out the pencilled circles I decided that wrapped wheels would fill the space quite adequately. I enjoy wrapping wheels and maybe, one day, I might, after masses of practice, manage to enjoy a spiral buttonhole!

This is my third drawn thread square - do I now stick with this format of 4 inch squares? or do I try something different? Decisions, decisions!

What is next ? Paula has loaned me two books on crewel - I want to make a start on that soon. Perhaps I should begin to stitch one of the three biscornu that I am committed to make? Maybe some cutwork? I have an idea to use for the Stitch Explorer Challenge for March. I am having trouble in sticking to my resolution to start and finish one thing at a time as there are so many exciting projects calling.

This is the front garden frangipani - the one with the amazing fragrance.

Next Step

A good day! I have managed to find enough time to stitch the outside of the square - well, I think it is finished but, then again, maybe it isn't. My choice of stitches has not included anything new - this time there are pulled eyelets and layered chain. I would have preferred something other than chain but it seemed to be the best fit in the end.

Last week I decided to shoot some photos of the pink frangipani hanging over the back steps. There is also a red frangipani in our tiny back garden. These are both very beautiful, but, sadly they lack the perfume of the white frangipani in the front. Just before sunrise, my usual time to collect the newspapers, the fragrance is almost overpowering. I can never work out why darkness increases the perfume of flowers.

Some Needleweaving

Not exactly finished but the basic needleweaving in the drawn thread section is done.My progress is, as ever, very slow but, nonetheless, enjoyable.

I am happy with this work - I had so many bundles of loose threads along each side of the square - why would one do something sensible like calculating in advance? So the problem was - what could be done with 15 bundles? - and this is where I finished. Is this called designing? I hope so.

Some of the marking threads are visible - I have become completely paranoid about miscounting early in the piece (and, even worse, later in the piece) and, in this case, not ending up a with real square so I thread mark every 10 threads in both directions. I started to do this with my second piece of Hardanger and found it wonderful not to need to unpick frequently. One can wing some things but definitely not Hardanger!

Another photo of the parking station from yesterday - I feel there is at least one embroidery in this. The pattern on the concrete is so very interesting and I love the rhythm of those stairs.

Not much lavender but some old lace!

I went to the City this morning and carried the compact camera. I found a few of the buildings that were part of Brisabane when I first arrived more than 50 years ago. The city has been almost rebuilt since then but a few of the old buildings can still be found.

The People's Palace is now overshadowed by taller, more modern buildings.

I still love its old lace.

The old Brisbane School of Arts - the middle floor of which housed the City Library for a number of years has its lace petticoat and the ground floor well hidden by the greenery that has grown so quickly.

.

This was definitely not here in 1952! The multi storey carpark on Wickham Terrace has the dreariest interior but a most interesting facade. Dreary interiors must be a given for most carparks, I guess. I always find them very depressing places.

Now some real stitching to finish off. My (quite awful) experiments with Edith John's Spiral Buttonhole . I had a great deal of trouble with this but think I eventually worked it out.

The jewel colours of this DMC perle appealed to me in the shop but when I try to stitch with it on calico I wonder why. Perhaps it will look better on a dark fabric - I hope so.

I have been toiling on with another square of drawn thread work - this time it is more or less to my design. I would like to add a spiral buttonhole to this piece - but not in this thread and after momre practice!

A mixed bag

Can anyone believe it would be possible to knit two pairs of woollen socks and have absolutely no recollection of doing so? While I possibly have a slight excuse – we have cleaned out and sold a house and relocated as well as coped with some major health changes in the interim -nonetheless I find it incredible that I could do this. Especially since these are the only socks I have knitted in my life. I know I have done no knitting since 2004 - I guess the socks were parcelled up with the rest of my unfinished knitting ( goodness knows what I can do with three almost finished jumpers that will no longer fit my grandsons.

Here is the first pair and maybe the other pair can be finished today.

Now I can't wait for winter – (it is still 33 degrees here, Centigrade)! These will be just the go for those early morning walks - soft woollen socks.

It is no wonder I try to keep my embroidery pieces small and to finish one piece before I start the next! A good idea but not always followed!

I really wanted to finish this hardanger sampler before the end of February but my wrist is playing up at the moment and it is impossible to stitch for more than an hour at a time.

There were no mishaps with the cutting of threads – something for which I am very thankful. The picots are definitely not the best – I do need practice. I should have taken Yvette Stanton’s advice. She suggested that one should practise on scrap cloth until perfect – however I decided that this was a practise sampler and, of course, fools rush in....... The instructions are good but I feel I am missing something. I would like to have an expert hold my hand until I acquired some skill but maybe practice will make perfect!

A second UFO has hit the dust!

The other finish is the mounting of a crossstitch picture, one of two that I stitched in 2000. The chart came from an Anna Burda. I stitched these, a sampler, a picture for my daughter and two birth samplers (also from Anna Burda) for my older granddaughters. The gifts were mounted and framed - however I had never managed to do anything with the other three until yesterday when I put this one in a frame.

** The order of the entries in this is dependent on the order of the photos - I originally had the socks at the end but somehow managed to lose the photograph and when it was reloaded it was at the beginning and I am not quite up to changing its position

A second attempt!

I deleted the previous post because for a reason completely beyond my comprehension Blogger refused to upload this picture. I copied it to a new folder and gave it a new name and hey presto!

Sorry for the confusion.



So here is a (crooked) photograph of the current state of this sampler. The reverse diagonal faggotting is finished. The mitred corners could be better but, this is a first attempt and I do like to leave room for improvement! Now it is time to cut threads and needleweave and I certainly need fantastic light for that exercise. Tomorrow is busy so it will probably have to wait until Saturday.

There was very little stitching done today. I spent quite a deal of time working on some designs of my own. I feel the time has come to try for some originality - not sure that is the right word as most of what I do is inspired and derived from many sources - perhaps personal slant might be better. the only personal slant in most of my work this year has been the mistakes!

I am on a roll!

The eyelets and twisted lattice band are finished. I like my eyelets open and was delighted to read this post by Yvette Stanton - the Hardanger guru". I was doing them the correct way - quite a surprise as I almost always manage to work back to front. I am not sure mine are quite as open as Yvette's. Eyelets make great background with surface stitching , especially combined with pulled satin.

I began the reverse diagonal faggotting today and after that is finished comes the scary stuff! It will be time to cut threads and needleweave. I think I am getting hooked on Hardanger - although it is annoying that I need a magnifying lens to work accurately. I would like to try some on 32 count linen - this is 26 or 28. Hopefully that is possible.

I have found that using marking lines every 10 threads has meant I have not needed to unpick. The big challenge will be to remove those threads when the stitching is complete.

Today a visit to the library produced some interesting embroidery books . The one that has been most inspiring so far is about a Brisbane embroiderer, The Life and Embroidery of Mabel McAlister. She was one of the cofounders of the Queensland Embroiderers' Guild. Her life is interesting (I realise she went to school with my mother, probably the same year) but her embroideries are wonderful and, as I said, so inspiring.

Another, Jill Carter's Special Occasions in Embroidery, has some interesting designs from which I can also acquire some ideas. Then there is one on beaded dimensional embroidery that I have barely skimmed. How am I going to find time to stitch?

Kloster Blocks finished.

I have finished the kloster blocks and started the twisted lattice band - then after that are the 8 eyelets. I can't wait for them as I am then moving onto #12 perle cotton. Up to that stage the kloster blocks and twisted lattice have been in #8 cotton. I am enjoying using this colour thread - maybe the next piece might have to be with a variegated cotton. I think that might offer some challenges in the direction the kloster blocks need to be stitched.

Also here is a much better photograph of my last drawn thread sample. I wish my stitching could improve as much as my camera skills.

More Hardanger

I have not finished stitching anything but feel I need to make another blog entry. Since I adding a bloglist including most of the blogs that I regularly follow I have been calling up Maggies Textiles each time I check to see what everybody else has been doing. I am thoroughly tired of looking at that piece of drawn thread work of mine. So here is some progress, slight that it might be, on the second hardanger sampler. I think there is some improvement in the kloster block stitching (maybe!).

I have changed colour for this one. I am not sure exactly what I will do with these when I am finished. This is the end of my supply of natural linen of this count - 26. However I do have a fat quarter of bright white so I am not totally bereft. I have difficulty working with white-white.

My great news of the week! I found a copy of Yvette Stanton's fantastic Elegant Hardanger Embroidery in an opshop - a real bonus! This has been on my wishlist for some time and I haven't bought before now because it has been fairly readily available in the local library.

Last week we spent a few days back on Mt Tamborine where we lived for nearly 13 wonderful years. It rained most of the time but, nonetheless the mountain was so beautiful. When we left a few years ago it was very dry and not nearly as green as it is at the moment.

This was the view when we opened our eyes each morning. Absolutely wondrous! Who can complain if the towels would not dry overnight?