[needlewoman]

Sounds wonderful, Sharon; both the cold weather, and PC’s outfit. Can’t have been easy when he’s still so small. I made some under two’s clothes a few months ago; you forget how small the armholes are, let alone the cuffs. Can’t wait to see the two of them all dressed up. Are the pictures for “Xmas cards”, or just for the usual great reasons?

[cybele727]

We have a light dusting of snow. Yesterday during my daughter’s “nap” time (“nap” in quotes for a reason), I heard a bloody terror of a scream and pounding. I rushed into her room, she is standing mid room, turns with a huge smile, and says, “Dis snuh-wing Muhmmie.”

I will be starting a pair of field trip in grey featherwale for my son. And finishing a cloche hat for my daughter. (just to try and stay on topic). 🙂

[needlewoman]

Oh snow, how lovely!! is the cloche hat for the snow fairy? or someone older?

[cybele727]

Oh the 3 y/o snow fairy! 🙂

[rastis]

oh sweet snow! i shall be dreaming about snow today! (it’s predicted to be 39 degrees today)

[Tamara]

I love snow. One of my best childhood memories is making a teeny tiny snowman in Windsor Great Park in Windsor halfway between the castle gates and the statue called the ” copper horse”. We then had a race to the statue and but the time we got back our snowman was sludge! But it was fun to see and watch and play in even though it wasn’t a huge amount – for an Australian girl who had never seen snow it was a real treat.

The one reason I don’t like hot weather is the reptiles that come out with it. My Murray was going to collect eggs after dusk last night and saw the slither of a mighty huge snake right near where he had to collect the eggs! We have 7 of the 10 most poisonous snakes living in our area alone and the sightings of snakes that we see at home are all poisonous ones. So once again, even though he didn’t see the markings of this thing because it was too dark, I am really thankful he got the hell out of there! It was probably in there because of the mice and another reason why I didn’t want chooks at home. Can you see the cycle there?

Anyway, sewing! Today I was going to do some samples of the designs I want to do on the quilts once they are sandwiched. I have to finish off the top and back for the pink one and that just requires cutting some more strips from the extra fabric and sewing it on and then sewing on the already cut strips to the back. Then once that is all pressed and ready I can sandwich them but I may do this tomorrow because it is the weekend and they like to snoop! So instead I think I will t on with one of the many unfinished projects!

All your projects sound wonderful. I’m just at the stage of I want this done so that I can get on with other sewing. All the delays are taking the fun out!

[rastis]

oh the snakes!! we get so many venomous snakes they terrify me… just a week ago i saw a brown snake on the road near where we live…and my sister has a whole family of brown snakes living in her garden 🙁

of the scary ones, we mainly see eastern brown snakes (evil things they are), red bellied black snakes, copperheads, taipans, tiger snakes and death adders- but don’t see them often… also get lots of different tree snakes and diamond pythons (but those are great for keeping the mice/rat numbers down)… every time i go out in the garden lately i am watching for them (so far i’ve fotunately mainly seen lizards- although i’m certain they are living around here just hiding)

[Tamara]

We have King Browns, Guardas, Tigers, Dugites, Death adders and two others I forget the name of. We don’t have Taipans because we are too far south for them.

It almost makes one paranoid to step outside the door but honestly in all the 12 years I’ve been on the farm I have only seen them on the road whilst travelling and one tiny one whilst feeding orphaned lambs in the middle of July! (dry year). Other than that I haven’t had encounters but I do stay vigilant.

My Grandma always says that if you have bobtails in your garden you won’t have snakes. I’m not entirely sure that is true because I don’t really see either! Snakes are rather shy unless you get in their face and then of course they can be terrifying so because we know there have been sightings we are just extra cautious. They generally move on rather quickly though unless they have a nest.

I have Sunday sluggishness – never thought there was such a thing! So I better stop chatting and do something sewing wise before the sun goes down and I get frustrated at my own inhibitions.

Samples! I’ll aim to do some samples!

[rastis]

oh my word- my 5 year old nephew (my sister’s little boy) got bitten by a snake today… this horrible heat really is bringing them out everywhere… i can’t believe it… we are all very thankful he is going to be ok

[needlewoman]

Oh no, rastis; so glad your nephew is ok; his parents must have been out of their minds. Poor little boy (although I’m betting in a couple of days’ time he’ll be telling all and sundry). On the radio today it was reported that a local man was bitten twice by brown snake today – wrist and ankle and is serious condition in hosp. As you say, this recent real heat burst for the summer has brought out a lot of nasties – and not just snakes – and taken us by surprise.

Mercifully, it was much cooler in my world today after quite a few humid nights, and I’ve been sorting out fabric combos for small people. Finished another dress for the size 3 Ice-Cream recipient (not an O+S pattern but the skirt is so beautifully full, she will be able to twirl to her heart’s content). Anyway, for my next trick I think I’ve decided to try out the playsuit from T Party pattern 18mts -24mths for a little gum nut who will be 1, next month. She was born while her parents were living next door, and it was amazing to see how fast she grew in first few months. I had no idea!! as I rarely get to see babies much before they are 3mths old, and they look very ‘new’ to me, even then.

[meleliza]

I have to say, I simply can’t wrap my head around the idea of celebrating Christmas in a heat wave. I suppose Jesus was born in the desert, but the culture of Christmas is all about cold weather and light in the darkness. On the other hand, trying to celebrate through cold and flu season does suck.

And how can you people be without air conditioning in that heat? Can’t you at least get a window unit? We had the central air installed upstairs and haven’t yet gotten around to the ground floor. Its pricey and since we would need two separate systems anyway, we just decided to wait. Plus, the ground floor isn’t as hot and is more open. So meanwhile, we have a window unit in the kitchen. Much less expensive, obviously, but it works pretty well. Here in the city, many houses are old and window units are common because it’s expensive and difficult to retrofit the old brick homes.

[Tamara]

Oh you definitely need it in Australia that is for sure. Air conditioning is a separate thing – not included in builds unless you pay for it. The unit itself may not be that bad in price but then you have to wait for trades to be their acts together and come out to your place to fit it and then you pay them on top and that can sting! We had one split system unit for a long time and we would sleep in the lounge room but them we got room units that are noisy as anything but they do the job. They aren’t for everyone though and it depends on how your roof line is structured as to whether or not you cam get ducted which even though it is really expensive is better aesthetically than room units.

Meleliza I think we can blame the Victorians for the association of cold in the nativity. I think it is because of the time of year that we celebrate it. It also extends to the association that Jesus was poor because of being a carpenter. Quite the opposite because that was a good profession back then. If He really was born at this time of the year then it would be winter in Bethlehem and it gets very cold (being in the desert) but I don’t know if we are just celebrating at this time of year because it is convenient. I watched a documentary once and in it was information that our Christmas celebration spanned from a pagan celebration of the solstice or something and that they brought Christian and pagan celebrations together and had it on December 25th and that’s how we came to celebrate the Christ child on that day.

I had a wintery Christmas in 1983. It didn’t snow but it is up there as being one of the top of the list.

Now sewing today….. Well yesterday I did a few little samples but today I will do proper little samples as I am narrowing down the designs and I think I will use one for blocks, one for the sashing and another again for the border. Trying to decide where to put railroad tracks as this has to be included somewhere. So that is what I will do for a little while this morning then I will sandwich and pin the blue quilt ready to go and start on a few blocks today. The blocks aren’t that big, just lots of them but I think that breaking up the sections would be interesting rather than do an all over design. If I can really get going on the quilt itself before the children get home from school I will be thrilled.

[rastis]

my nephew is one lucky little boy! they think it was a brown snake that gave him a “dry bite”- so it didn’t inject him with venom (which is amazingly lucky because for those who aren’t aussies and don’t know brown snakes are deadly- the second most venomous snake in the world but probably the most dangerous because they are much more common than the fierce snake which is the most venomous)

they monitored him in hospital all day just to be sure… very very lucky as it it’s a 2 hour drive to get to hospital from the remote place they live! it bit him right though his boot… two fang marks in his boot and 2 fang marks in his foot… he just stepped on it by mistake running out excitedly to see his daddy 🙁

it’s a huge reminder to keep an eye out for snakes in this heat, especially to teach the little ones to watch for them!

meleliza- air conditioning is on our list to get! but we just bought our house and renovated it so funds have been a bit low of late.. we don’t normally get really long heatwaves like this until later in summer… so thought we’d have a bit more time up our sleeves… we are fortunate that we have a pool though and have been living in that! what justsewit says it right about some of the problems with getting airconditioning! we have had some problems because of our ceiling… we have no roof section as such in our house- exposed beams which means you can’t put in ducted airconditioning unless you put it in through the walls or the floors (which is harder and more expensive) and i couldn’t bare the idea of them putting a great big hole in my beautiful hardwood floor- they need to put in at least 1 really big one… so we will have to go for a wall unit, which won’t be as effective, but will look much better in our house!

[Tamara]

Phew! That is all I can say! Oh he is so lucky! There was a little local girl who was bitten last summer and she had to be flown in the flying doctor to PMH (princess Margaret Hospital for children) to have treatment. She survived but she picked the jolly thing up. I think she got a facial and hand bite and I don’t know what the snake was. If you know the snake you have a better chance of surviving because some venom travels faster than others – I think the Taipan is the one that is fastest, giving 30minutes till shut down of the body or something.

The Wiggles say it well. Just wave as you go by, and we parents have to expand on that as in don’t wait until it goes you get away from it!

Very glad he is going to be ok! It would send shivers up the spine of any parent to have that happen.

[rastis]

very lucky it wasn’t a taipan as i think it’s rare for them to dry bite and they are really venomous!