California Girl in Oz

A long, uneventful trip home, and all is well, I'm happy to say! The cats were overjoyed to be released from their captivity in the chook house and yard, and seem to have forgiven us for being gone. There has been significant rain, so the paddocks are all green and the donkeys are fat and sassy...ditto the steers. Wireless connection came up with a minimum of fiddle (by DH, NOT by me!), and I'm happy to be connected. Now for a couple of good sleeps and I'll be human again. They've raised the price of upgradable economy tickets... again! ...to a horrendous level, and even at that ridiculously high price there is no guarantee of an actual upgrade, so we opted to be squished into economy for the nearly 14 hour flight. But who's complaining (well, actually...me!) Very hot and sunny when we got here, but it's now thundering and clouding over nicely...hope it isn't just a tease. We could still use a lot more rain. Don't think I'd better contemplate

Well, the time has come, and we're in the throes of packing up whatever is going with us on the plane. Sent two huge boxes (24 lb. each!) to Australia yesterday...ouch! Oakland is putting on a glorious farewell for us. It's been sunny, warm and beautiful, with flowering trees coming into blossom, daffodils beginning to appear hear and there, and a zillion birds serenading us each morning. I'm happy to say, we'll be back to enjoy it again in May. Now, to return to summer in Oz. We hear there have been lots of rainstorms since we left...8" in one several-day period...which we desperately needed. We're hoping our dam will have topped up nicely and that the grass, which had become quite crinkly, will look like grass again. We're anxious to see the kitty cats and hope they forgive us for leaving them. Knowing how cats are, they'll probably say, "Oh, have YOU been gone?" And then, on to the big remodel and extension of our house. We have a p

What a great day...Christine and I met at Thimble Creek (now in Concord, not Walnut Creek -- a fact we fortunately found out before arriving at the wrong location) and had a ton of fun finding beautiful fabrics. Here we are just before surrendering our credit cards to the clerk...my smile was a bit smaller after that! Here is a group of gorgeous brights we both liked enough to buy them. Won't it be fun to see what we get up to with these? And then there was this nice group. We both bought the crysanthemum print in the center, which looks like fireworks and is just gorgeous, as well as the black print on the right, which has lovely tiny squares in autumn colors. Pic doesn't do it justice. This lackluster photo should be ignored. The little rose sprigs are charming, the pink and blue tiny checks are lovely, and the green is a lovely texture, but you couldn't prove any of that by this picture! There is one more group similar to the rose sprigs, but it photographed e

Fortunately, the rest of our sojourn has been less eventful than the trip from LA to Detroit. We made the jaunt to Houston with no trouble, and I did serious damage to the credit card at the Galleria. My postage bill to Australia is going to be heinous! Then on to San Angelo to visit with lovely friends there, who took us to Mr. Boots: No trip to Texas would be complete without a pair of Tony Lama cowboy boots, would it? They are really fun, but I think I'll need to spend some time walking around the house in them...those odd heels will take some getting used to. So now we're back in Oakland, where DH has a bit more work to do and we have lots of visiting scheduled. I know the time will fly by, but I'm going to try to meet up with Christine for a visit to ThimbleCreek in Walnut Creek. Aside from some time spent fiddling with EQ6 I have had zero chance to think about quilting, so this will top me up a bit. Then a visit this weekend to Pioneer, in the Sierra Foothills