Happy days and good fortune

The past week has been very busy, with extra time spent in the garden as well as the usual weekly activities.  
However, a highlight of the week was a day out with my friend Anne (Juliet Cherry) who is currently visiting her son and his family.  Anne lives in the UK and her son and daughter in law and two dear grandsons live quite near me.  Whenever Anne visits we manage to spend a day or two together.  We share an interest in needlework so there is always plenty to talk about.  This time I was not sure how much time I could spend having been laid low with bronchitis for some time now and not wanting to spread any illness.  As it turned out we managed to catch up for a few hours on Thursday.  I picked Anne up and we went for morning coffee/chocolate at a cafe suggested by my neighbour.  The cafe is at the end of the road in Mornington with views of the bay.  It was a glorious day and we could have just sat and chatted but we had places to go.  Anne usually buys a few needlework magazines from op shops while she is here and donates them back before going home, so we decided to visit some of my favourite spots.  There is a Vinnies (St.Vincent de Paul) Salvos (Salvation Army) and recycling shop all in one area so we had a ball looking around and finding bargains.

I picked up the partly made quilt pictured:  it is all pieced and has the batting and backing fabric (the backing is especially beautiful).  This was marked $4.99.  Can you believe it.  I am not a quilter but it was such a good buy.

After the excitement of our shopping expedition we rang my husband and he joined us for lunch at a nearby pub.  And so we had a wonderful day and look forward to another one in the coming week.

Gales & Galleries on the Mornington Peninsula

This morning I was fortunate enough to be dropped at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery while hubby hit some golf  balls nearby.  The gallery is set in beautiful parkland: this is my first visit although it is ten minutes from where we live and I drive right past at least once a week.  There is a lake in the grounds, as you can see in the pic at the left and when we drove in there were children feeding ducks and geese.  I will have to go back again to take some photos.
The gallery had too exhibitions on today.  One is the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2010 exhibition.  Some of it was really moving.  The  other was the Recycled Library: Altered Books.   It was very interesting but I must admit I feel quite ambivalent about cutting up books in the name of art.  Some of the pieces were quite amazing though.

After the gallery we went for a drive further down the peninsula to Arthur's Seat.  This is a well known tourist area and in the past there was a chair lift operating from the top to the tea rooms halfway down.  It is not operating at present and the tea rooms are closed.  Up at the top there is a lovely cafe/restaurant called Arthurs (original name) and as it was so cold and windy we decided to pop in for a coffee and scones with jam & cream.  So much for the diet today.  I managed to take a few photos and although it was gloomy I think they look fine.  This first shot is looking back towards our house.  The second one is of the general area.  Yes it was a gloomy day.

Arthurs Seat VIC - Google Maps

have a look at the links if you are interested in my outing today.

MPRG Exhibitions

Now to the stitching:  

I have started filling in the gaps in my "SPEAK" project.  

One section is french knots done in 

2 strands of variegated silk thread,

in a gorgeous coral colour.

Another is thread painted with a hand dyed cotton that reminds

me of autumn leaves.  

This is a project that I will work on when I have nothing else I want to do.