Carnarvon Gorge

I have wanted to visit this place for a long time.... 

The sides of the gorge are huge... and you walk in the valley that has been created over years and years of erosion....

crossing the creek a number of times... and you can see damage from when the rain comes and the river rises....

I may have fallen in spectacularly.... a wet walk home!

We went to the Art Gallery first..... it's hard to give the scale of size and height...

The paintings are wonderful.....

of course they are ancient and so special

a lovely long area which has now been protected by a board walk.... people need to be stopped picking at things

sadly some human remains were dug up and taken from here.....

we then went to the Ampitheatre...... some steep steps up - you can see me being silly celebrating getting as far as I did 2/3 of the way up!

I didn't get much good pictures in here.... this gives a little idea but there is a huge open space in the middle as high as that

then back down the track and off to the Moss Garden.... this is continually dripping with water which is seeping through sandstone....

Again protected by a board walk to stop silly people taking stuff and ruining it all...  a lovely lovely spot and worth the climb to get there....

It was a 14km walk for the day ... much of it gentle slope but a good number of stairs and I have to admit I struggled at the last few km... especially by that stage I was wet from falling in the water!! 

I'll not forget this place.... so worth the visit

Some more information HERE 

Righto, Gotto Go.... still doing the washing!!! haha

Road trip

Hubz took a week off work and we went off for a road trip to spend time with long-time friends.....

Past the cotton farms near Dalby....

Going westwards with grasslands and big blue skies....

... to the Outback lands......

lots of grass since there were some rains ....

The biggest cattle sale yards in the Southern Hemisphere (I think) at Roma.....

open plains and mountains....

A view point looking towards the valley ..... photo just doesn't do it justice....

.. and another in a different direction.... you can see the road we were yet to travel....

To a cattle station in Arcadia Valley..... (past Injune)

This is outside our accommodation... not much grass there....

Lovely drives and amazing views on the Station.... this is one of the dams with a viewing treehouse, limited water but still available for the roos and birds....

a closer look and you can see a couple of roos lounging around..... black swans in the dam....

so much flat land in the valley.... and mountains all around....

The station has a movie night each week.... it was very cold after the sun goes down so we didn't ask to have one..... beautiful setting though....

A very beautiful part of the world.  About 7 hours drive away..... so a fair bit of crochet got done..... We did do some exploring but I still need to sort through pictures....

Catching up reading some blogs today and tackling the huge pile of washing that seems to come home after a trip....

Righto, Gotto Go... one lot of washing needs to be brought in..... (sigh)

June FNWF

Very excited to have finished this mini quilt top this week....

There are 920 pieces in the 20 x 20" piece...

Foundation paper piecing and I followed a pattern by Betsy Vinegard.  I used her colour choices as I liked them and could never work out others of my own.....

I love it.....

I finally did some baking... these are white chocolate, macademia nut and cranberry biscuits..... 

and a favourite of mine is date and pecan nut loaf.....

It's hard to believe it is already June..... and first Friday means cyber sewing with friends.... 

Thanks to Cheryll for hosting us....

I have been working patiently on this blackwork (and a little bit of blue sparkle) ..... there are 36 of these little 'sweets' all different.... I have to say I am finding this challenging especially following the intricate patterns .... so it takes me a very long time but I am enjoying losing my mind this way!!!

Today I am using a fine chalk pencil to draw up some quilting designs on my little piece..... can you tell I am a bit obsessed with it at the moment????

Righto, Gotto Go.... pinning needs to take place then I'll thread up my machine and start playing..... loads of in the ditch to do....

Hope you have a lovely weekend....

Goodbye May ....

This month for WOOFA I got this little quilt finished.... 

Thanks Cheryll for the encouragement to get some work done on those unfinished projects....  I still have lots hanging over from previous years to do.... but I keep finding new things instead!!

I am keeping on going with Civil War Bride and this is Block 8 done....

My crochet blanket is slowly growing.... I do need to concentrate on this wave and I seem to get mixed up quite a bit so I only do it when I am able to sit quiet on my own and count....

Another project I am needing to concentrate on is this Blackwork....  a lovely group (I join online) from Brisbane find some fun projects for us to do together.  I have never done Blackwork so it's good to have this challenge.

As you can see I haven't got very far....

This weekend we had a Languages and Cultural festival in the city..... it was a beautiful Autumn day so we went along...

The Giant Kookaburra was there laughing and singing..... very cleverly done

there were various forms of entertainment... martial arts....

advertising for Llama walks....

These are an Afghan sweet called Sheer Pira.... very nice with chopped fruit and nuts in it...

There was lots of dancing and singing from groups and we sat nearby a stage to watch and listen...

A Greek lady was selling home made Baklava and Turkish Delight....  soooo goood....

Quite a few food stalls which were popular and had very long queues ....

Young Xavier helps his Dad and Mom at a coffee van, it was near one stage so a lovely place to sit and listen whilst get treated to a regular supply of coffee.... 

A relaxing day out.... I was a little bit disappointed as I thought there would be a lot more from the different cultures we have in this area... but those that did participate did a great job....

Righto, Gotto Go... I think I will try and get another row of that crochet done whilst I have a cup of tea....

Hope you all have a great week....

This week.....

We watched the lunar eclipse last night... well we popped out every now and then to see where it was and looked at the online observatory pictures which were clearer...

I have finished the needleturn on the 4th block for From The Heart....

At quilt group I started sewing my half hexagons into groups of 3..... a light at the top, medium to the right and dark to the left.... (some reverse sewing was required)

These sets of 3 are not joined but it gives an idea of how they come together.... long long way to go...

I was gifted some lovely fabrics this week.... 8" or more strips so there is plenty to make a good sized quilt from it.....  I think it's quite an old range but beautiful quality fabrics and they are worth stroking!

I have already started chopping....

Our Agave plant has a flower spike.....  they are very impressive!

This spike is about 2.5m long

The flowers are opening on the bottom section where you can see it's a bit fuzzy in the above picture...

Hundreds of beautifully formed flowers...

One of the aloes has lovely fat buds... they make me think of pangolins....

This image is off the computer... The Ground Pangolin is an endangered species in Zimbabwe and strongly protected.... sadly it continues to be trafficked for the 'medicinal' properties in the scales....

Anyway you can see why the aloe reminds me of this intriguing mammal....

Righto, Gotto Go... still pressing and chopping those lovely new to me fabrics....

Have a lovely rest of the week.....