Easter at Nagambie

Well I can't believe that I am writing this last installment some 9 months after the event. I can offer no excuse other than I just didn't feel inclined to do so once I got back home. There were so many things to catch up on and then bit by bit the rendering of this blog took a back seat, it was always in the deep recesses of my mind however it was easy to put it off 'for another time!'
So now is the time! I am biting the bullet and getting on with the last little bit. it is hard to write so much later. I hope I never leave it this late again but write within days of the event from now on!

Relaxing at Lake Boga

 We planned to be with good friends, K and H near Nagambie for Easter. On the way  across from South Australia, we had noticed intermittent 'noise' int the car.  We stopped at Ouyen for a terrific chips and hamburger there and then camped at Nyah harness Club free campsite. What a great site this is. No wonder it is so popular and it's right on the Murray River too. We stopped at Swan Hill where the mechanics thought it might be the wheel bearings, but the temperature of the bearings did not support this theory. Another mechanic determined that the universal joint needed repairing, luckily we were able to find someone to get to it almost straight away however it still took most of the day and hence we didn't  travel far out of Swan Hill before we decided to camp overnight at Lake Boga. Though overnight camping is generally not allowed, an exception was made for the sailing regatta which was going to be held over the weekend. We had a great time with one of the early arrivals and watched a marvelous moonrise over the lake with a little bonfire going.

 

Sun is just starting to come up on Easter Morning

The next morning we say goodbye to our new friends and moved on to K and H's place. We noticed the 'noise' was back and thus the problem prior to Swan Hill was not gone. We drove on very slowly to reduce any negative impact on the car. We arrived at K & H's beautiful lakeside home on the weir. After a leisurely sleep in we went and did the interdenominational Stations of the Cross covering several of the Nagambie churches. This is our second one ever, our first Stations of the Cross was back in Roxby Downs, SA back in 2010. Back 'home' we watch a DVD. "One night with the King". A very good presentation of the story of Esther.
On the Saturday we went to the old style village markets at Rushmore as well as we popped into a museum on the farming implements etc of that community which was very interesting. The afternoon was spent enjoying making cards together with H and her sister in law.

Glorious Easter Morn

On Easter Sunday we are up at 4.15am - well before the dawn on a cold and frosty morning to do Dawn service which was a take on the stations of the Cross where we walked up a long hillstopping at intervals to read a passage and sing a chorus. Our friend H lead us by playing the keyboard for us. We arrived at the top to see 3 crosses which had been erected some years earlier for this express purpose. The timing was terrific. We finished within in minutes before the sun rose. It is a marvelous sight to behold and to feel to see the sun rise up behind the crosses. We all breakfasted royally at K & H's church amidst warm fellowship. I was tired (and a bit grumpy) and elected not to go with the guys to the Anzac March at Stanthorpe in the afternoon. K plays in the brass band at local Anzac marches. He is 2nd from the left!

Sadly our short stay concluded on the Monday when we headed off to Junee to Bob's cousin's  for a couple of quiet days to officially conclude our holiday at the same place we started some 13 months earlier.

Glittery Sequin Card Tutorial

Papercrafts

This week on the Less is More Blog, the challenge is "STARS".

Glittery Number card: A tutorial 

Quick instructions are:

I use a printer to a huge font size and print directly onto the Jac paper. (Jac Paper is like Double sided sticky tape only in sheet size formats)
I hand cut the big numbers from double sided Jac pape.
Peel the backing off one side and stuck it onto some layers first.
The coloured card layer is stamped and embossed in silver and then trimmed to size.
Layer this onto your base card which already has had a metallic embossed paper adhered to the front.
Peel off the bottom layer of the jac paper and stick down onto your coloured card layer.
Peel off the top layer & randonly sprinkle some star sequins over the sticky exposed surface.
Sprinkle the rest of the sticky surface with ultra fine glitter.
Glue some extra sequins in a scattered fashion off to the right of the card, extending the 'explosion' effect as per photos.
The gold and silver backing papers are from a dear friend who used to make cake bases and has all these yummy gold and sliver embossed papers left over that she shared with me. I am very stingy in using up these yummy papers. (Thanks Lesley)

Hope you enjoyed these cards. I have some lovely ideas for variations.

Enjoy your crafting time

Michelle

Wirraway Homestead

We had the wonderful opportunity to assist a Christian ministry, MMM (Mobile Maintenance Ministry) by installing a kit kitchen in one of the staff houses on site at Wirraway Homestead near Strathalbyn, just south east of Adelaide, South Australia.
 

We rolled up in the Robbiebago to this marvelous campground.  The setting is absolutely a dream. I just love it. Much of it comes literally out of a old western movie set that shot on location in the nearby town. More importantly than the surrounds is to the ministry that goes on here where they host horse based camps and musters here for the schools and the community of SA. 

We camped with the Robbiebago right outside the house where the kitchen needed work. We could use the house bathroom & shower as the occupant (the bride) was at her parent's home doing last minute things for her wedding which was to be the weekend after we were to leave.

We like to turn up for our volunteer work on the Friday or Saturday so that we can spend the weekend familiarizing ourselves with the people, location and the ministry. It is a great opportunity to go to the local church and we nearly always feel welcomed and right at home despite the many varieties of church services we encounter. This time we went with the founding director, Peter & his wife to their large church some 40 minutes away. It was called Coromandel Uniting Church. It surprised us to travel so far but it was a beautiful drive through some awe inspiring hill countryside and the church family service was fantastic and God glorifying. Peter and his wife also invited us back to a baked dinner at their lovely house and garden near Strathalbyn.

However we were there to work and on the Monday morning we started to unpack the flat boxes and see how to put the kitchen together. First off the walls needed a bit of cement rendering. Over the next week there were all kinds of jobs that needed work in the kitchen. Obviously this was Rob's department. I had a lot of time to selfishly indulge in my explosion box crafts and to explore the campsite and the nearby town of Strathalbyn where there were some delightful craft shops including a marvelous little quilting shop with a cafe within the shop. 

 

Each day we had lunch and dinner with the campers. This was a highlight of our days there. I don't know the name of the school that was visiting at the time, but they were noisy as kids will be but very well behaved, so much so, that we were pleasantly surprised to discover that this was not a private school but a public school up for their yearly year 6 camp. The teachers have such a great rapport with the kids that respect is evident on both sides. Even the ex principal came back from retirement to do the camp with them, he loves them so.

Peter (left) wanted to 'encourage' Rob to get back to work

Back to the kitchen, work continued along at a steady pace. Peter popped by often to see if Rob needed supplies or additional tools. Some parts of the job went easily and others so so easily. as jobs often do. Bit by bit it all came together and by Friday the kitchen was finished; drain pipes re routed and connected, tiling fixed and grouting done etc. It wasn't all work all week.We could set our own timetables. It was still very cold in the mornings and Rob likes his sleep, so many mornings he didn't start working until something like 9 o'clock. We even took a few hours off on Thursday when our ex pastor, Fred and his wife Helen, came by for a visit and lunched with us up at the camp dining hall. (Did I mention the food was great and so much of it!)

Rob in the finished kitchen

By the Friday the kitchen was all finsihed and then it was up to me to clean up after Rob. (Gee, that sounds familiar: I think all my married life has been spent cleaning up after him and the kids!)

Yet another of the wonderful building around the place

 We decide to leave on Monday as per our normal custom of having church at the beginning and at the end of each ministry stay. This freed us on Saturday to go for another drive around the countryside and this is when we went to Murray River Bridge and surrounds which were covered in the last post.

Sunday was back to Coromandel Church with Peter & Nina again. We headed east on Monday after a delicious morning tea with Nina. Peter was unable to free himself from Wirraway just at that time which was a pity. But we will certainly be back next time we come through South Australia.

Strathalbyn

As part of MMM (Mobile Maintenance Ministry), we were asked to consider helping at a campsite near Strathalbyn which is just a tad more than half an hour north east of Adelaide. (More on the campsite work in the next blog entry!) 

It is a lovely drive through the northern hinterlands of Adelaide anytime but especially through the bright autumn colouring of the magnificent trees in the area. Whispering Wall at the Barossa Reservoir was a great place to try out the unique acoustic capacity of the dam wall. I expected to be able to hear Bob, but I did not expect the clarity of actually understanding clearly what he said on the opposite of the wall. With me being 80% deaf and relying on lip reading, I was blown away.

Strathalbyn would have to be one of the prettiest, old world, unspoilt towns in SA. It is large enough to have all facilities you need locally and it is less than 45 minutes into Adelaide proper. It boasts one of the loveliest town parks anywhere with a bridge that my husband & I  found aesthetically pleasing and my husband in particular found structurally interesting.

Whilst staying here for 8 days , we took a day off to go sight seeing up to the Murray Bridge area. We went on a loop up to Mannum and the across the ferry at Murray River and back home a different way. I think we were there about a month after the huge damaging floods of 2010 and it was still very evident in the areas surrounding the river.

 The wet grounds at Murray Bridge.

Overlooking the Murray River. The bulk of the foreground body of water is not usually there. 

The river generally stops at the trees with just a creek running this side - see the little boat wharf in the foreground.

Here you see the two ferries passing each other.

They would be about 1/4 the way from the right of the photo above this one.

The above are just 2 photos of the many wind powered sculptures that are alongside a private driveway on the road somewhere between Mt Barker and Strathalbyn. All the sculptures are actually working and turning. You can actually see the legs of the 'boy' turning round and round.

This is one place I can heartily recommend so don't visit Adelaide when you go to South Australia. Do make sure to tour the surrounding areas outside of Adelaide if you have a car.  Strathalbyn, Harndorf and Murray Bridge and the Murray River are all well worth the effort. I would love to come back and explore more especially around the river... a house boat holiday sounds ideal to me.

Parham

I reckon Parham is one of the secret hidden pleasures of SA. It is within a short hopping from Adelaide. It is right on the coast in a tiny small village that truly unspoilt. The people are very friendly and the campspot is FREE. You are encouraged to go to the social club around the corner which offers basic club fares and we can recommend it. We liked to sit out in the 'beer' garden. It was a bit quieter, easier for the kids to run around and we had a couple who were smokers!
In fact we were so taken with this place we decided to stay an entra night.
The tide here goes out (& in) a long way and boy it comes in fast something like 10m in 30seconds... actually I can't remember now ...one of the problems of writing this a long time after the holidays have concluded. Another thing is the seaweed bed is very thick and this prompts some unusual boat craft!

This is the only photo we have of our time in Parham and we didn't have the camera working when this amphibious vehicle was coming out of the water. Sorry!

South Australia's beautiful Yorke Peninsula

We well well on our way down Yorke Peninsula after stopping at the lovely Black Point where some shacks are truly waterside with the tide coming right up to the foundations. So on we go south along some lovely coastline and we stop at Port Vincent for lunch and then on through Stansbury and then onto Edithburgh where the huge wind farms are. We stopped and looked at them just from the road since we already saw them in great detail at Snowtown.

Now we start to go inland to Yorketown and Warooka Dam and straight onto Innes National Park. After such long distances in the west between points of interests or even just towns, it is amazing to us how quickly we are at the southern most peak of Yorke Peninsula in just a few hours driving.

Another we are noticing as we travel Australia, is that national parks are NOT really national. You still have to pay per state at least to visit national parks. There is no national park fee that covers all national parks. Innes is actually an expensive park to visit considering there is very little conveniences and such available for your buck.We paid $24.50 entry and 1 nights accommodation which only included a dump toilet - no water, no shower, no anything else! very disappointing. After settling the Robbiebago into its spot, we went walking to the nearest beach but first we have to walk through what is basically a private dump. Actually if you were a tourist brochure writer you would describe it as a quaint old fishing village.

These old shacks are in poor condition and the yards surrounding them are dumps with rusty old cars and water tanks and stuff strewn around the place. on top of all this, these places are privately owned... since when do people own prime beach side property inside a National park. Surely the government should buy them out and revert the land to nature and allow everyone to enjoy this area, not just a few 'privileged fisher folk'! There is a sign on the beach proclaiming it to be the nesting area of a rare bird... but the locals are allowed to drive for nearly a kilometre along the beach! I just don't understand the national parks thinking!

As we were only staying here the one night and there was only one other camper at our camp spot, we decided to unhitch the Robbiebago and go driving and exploring the other beaches of Innes asap the next morning. The many beaches are lovely though and some with great lookouts.

The shipwreck part is fascinating and one can still clearly see 2 shipwrecks without having to even go right down to Ethel Beach. Soon it is time to hitch the van back to the car and head out. Dunns Point and Warooka are stopping points. We didn't hug much of the west coast at all. We decided to camp at the Maitland Showgrounds. The trip is often smokey as many farmers still burn the stubble in preparation for the next part of farming. All that smoke must be bad for the environment and the carbon release in the area. I have no idea how this method compares to the alternatives. I leave that to someone else who is more knowledgeable in this area! So onto the little copper town of Moonta with its potholed roads for a wonderful pub lunch and then a visit to the delightful and very interesting Wallaroo Museum and the Moonta Pier which is basically our last stop in Yorke Peninsula.

We are glad we went and we truly loved our stay in Black Point, but it is not a place I would aspire to visit a second time.

Crafts on the road

 An Explosion Box

Yoo Hoo I am back!

Not only did I have the 'flu for a whole month, our eldest daughter had to borrow our laptop with all the trip photos on it as JetStar were foolish enough to move her cabin luggage further back out of her sight and hence gave the opportunity for it to be stolen along with all her stuff and they wont pay more than $150 compensation. Grrr bad dog - JetStar. Enough of the whinge.

New online craft shop

So along with everything including setting up my very own online craft shop, see my blog Inkspirational Designs for more info, I have been procrastinating finishing these entries. It is hard to garner enthusiasm to write after the event, no matter how terrific the events were...at least it is for me. However I made a commitment and I intend to follow it through!

So let's move on!
And just 'cause I hate to have a blog entry with no picture, here is a lovely one of one of my fabulously popular Explosion Boxes that are in my online craft shop! Click on the photo to go straight to the shop! This design might not be there anymore but there are many more to choose from or I can custom make one for you.