Tuesday, July 23, 2013

CATS. FLOWER. BOOK

Nana and Pa collected the mail this week - what a lovely surprise - a letter from our Holly. It was lovely to hear about the sports and how they enjoyed the day, some of the girls "are so fast". Some news of the pussy cats, we still have 4 beautiful grey pussies, the Mother, and a beautiful fluffy orange coloured one.
The Mother Cat.
 

One of the greys - there are three others just the same, haven't they grown since you found them under the house.

Don't you love this fluffy one.
The Australian plants are just starting to flower - This one"Flora Mason" is covered with beautiful honey filled flowers and the small birds are loving it.
These days I have been reading this for our August Book club, takes a while to read as there are so many events happening in their two lives.
I am thinking of Wayne and Ray as they enjoy the "Tour of France" soon they will be back with lots of wonderful memories.
BYE.
NANA ON THE FARM
 

FROM THE GARDEN, COOKING, VIEW FROM KTCHEN WINDOW.

I hope your Tuesday is going okay. There has been cold and rainy weather on the farm for the past few days, and Nana and Pa have been keeping warm out of the wind.
Before Takara and Caillou went home from their school holidays with us they helped to pick the pumpkins from the garden and put them on the verandah to dry after the rain. Some pumpkin soup and roast pumpkin will be just the thing. Nana will be busy in the kitchen, cooking up.
From the kitchen today I have been making potato and pea soup. I had to cook the potato and peas with onion and garlic plus some chicken stock, here I have everything bubbling away on the stove.
Pa and Nana enjoyed the finished soup very much, just added some parmesan cheese on the top, it was yummy.

Outside my window.. the crops are growing beautifully - the old dam we filled in has come up and  is looking very green.
From the window I can also see the oxalis starting to flower, now is the time to start spraying this weed.

The flowers are a beautiful yellow colour, when Nana was a girl we used to hold the flower under our chin, they made a beautiful reflection on the skin.  I am thinking the sprayer will have to be used very soon. 

A few plans for the rest of the week......Going   to visit the family in Kilmore and plan to go by train from there to see the Craft and Quilt fair in "Jeff's Shed" in Melbourne. If my sister is back in Bendigo will call and have a cuppa.
Happy Birthday to Pippa - now 3 years  old - how time has flown by.
Love to everybody.
NANA ON THE FARM.
 
 

Saturday, July 13, 2013

NANA HAD SOME QUILTS READY FOR THE BINDING.

Nana has had some quilt tops made for a while and have had them quilted by a lovely lady in Cohuna - now I have to put the binding onto them.
Japanese Ladies.

This a pretty wall hanging, still need to make some stamens on the gum flowers.

There are buttons to be put for on for eyes, and anything else that is a Teddy button.
 

This is a fun quilt, not so politically correct these days to call them - gollywogs-
Lots of hand sewing on the binding, but will love it when all are finished.
Love everybody.
NANA ON THE FARM.

GOSCHEN PLAGUE, KIDS PLAYING, BONFIRE AND MARSHMALLOW.

This is the site of Pa,s  School.  Now just a bushland reserve, with a big variety of native plants and birdlife.
Popping out of a box, taped down and then Up jumps Zoe.

Getting ready for a Bonfire.

Everybody chipped in to help, even the dog was there.

WOW, what a wonderful fire to sit by and have our tea. Beautiful evening and we had friends to share the fun. Trish and family.

At last there was a small fire ready for the toasting of the marshmallows, they were warm and sticky - YUM.
A clean up and then lots of enjoyment from eating and play.
Nana loved night and we will have another bonfire ready for the family.
Hope you are having a wonderful school holidays, but it is now nearly finished and back to school.
Love to all.
NANA ON THE FARM.
 

Goschen Hall, tennis, and site of school.

We had to help Pa shift some of the machinery at Goschen and decided to have a look at the old Hall, Tennis Courts and where the school site was where Pa went to school. The hall has been damaged by vandals, tennis courts are no longer in use and all there is to show that once was a school site is a plaque. Once this was a busy little place with dances, family gatherings lots of tennis and children from the surrounding area attending school, all has changed with modern means of travel. Children go to bigger schools by bus, farms are getting larger and people no longer live on their properties.
So sad to see the destruction from vandals. Looking at the broken windows.

 Pointing to the prices to come to the dances.$4.00 for Ladies and Gents and a can of drink was $1.00
Nothing is locked, this is the front entrance, even the rabbits have started to dig their holes under the step.

Just look at the mess on the floor from stones and broken glass. This was a really great floor to polish up for the dancers and for children to run and skid on.
There is one umpires seat left at the tennis courts, no nets and empty sheds.

Plaque on the old site of the Goschen school.
So much has come and gone in the area, wine shanty, school, church, houses, water commission who used to administer the water to farms via the channel system - now gone - water is piped to the properties. The Goschen tower for the TV and communication is no longer manned, but controlled from Bendigo via computer. Modern IT is amazing.
Times change so fast.
Love to all.
NANA ON THE FARM.

Pa attaching stick rake, Making play doh, Playing around the farm, bowling alley fun.

Back to blogging again. School holidays and so many things happening, it has been lots of fun. White's came to stay for a few days and Mitchell's have been here for the two weeks. We have had so much fun with each other. The weather has been really kind, except for a couple of days when we had fog till lunch time and some really frosty mornings.
 Pa is attaching the stick rake to the front end loader to help clean up the Lakeside Golf course for their 4 ball tournament. Makes short work of the sticks, tidies up the course for the players.
Auntie Marj cutting her 75th Birthday cake at Spoons and the afternoon was also a farewell as Marj is going to build a new home in Bendigo. Best of Luck for the future.
 


Getting into the making of play doh, colouring makes your hands stained, wore pink gloves. This was fun.






Climbing trees around the farm.
A visit to the Bowling Alley is always a great way to have fun.

Ball didn't go all the way and the assistant had to come and collect the ball to be able to continue with the game, they also had to reset the program. Had a drink and a bowl of chips. Going back next holidays.

Pa has and old tractor on the property near the double dam paddock, had to have a play on this as well.
 There are two owls in the shed near the tractor and we tried to see them, they were always too quick for us and this is all we saw of them.                                                                                           
More activities at the farm to come.

                                                  Love to everybody and hope you have all been having great times during the holidays.
                                       NANA ON THE FARM.