I know this can happen anywhere, but it seems to me that Arkaroola is in the grip of some strange sort of time warp phenomenon thingy. I work really hard, do and see so many things and yet time stands still. Nothing changes, every day is the same. But then I find that the calendar has skipped an entire month….. and everything has changed while I was looking but not noticing. And it still feels like no time has passed….
But it must have, because I have finally done some sewing. Lunarcy is coming your way very soon! If I don’t go batty first from the flies first, that is ….. yuck!
I have been into the Australian Outback many times in the last 20 years, but this unique environment never fails to amaze me. It is resilient and diverse, and just because everything is bone dry, it doesn’t mean that everything is dead. On the contrary – when the conditions are right…… BAM! Life emerges from places and in forms you wouldn’t believe! Two nights ago I saw what looked like an ant that was only about 1/4 inch long, but with an antennae over an inch in length. It was investigating around about itself in an action very much like a blind person using a white cane. Curious company in the ladies’ room here, that’s for sure!
Anyway, you’ll hopefully remember that drought-stricken Arkaroola, where I currently live, received a large amount of rain about 3 weeks ago. Not enough to break the drought, but enough for a reprieve. And while I was disappointed not to be here when it fell, the runner-up’s prize is being able to stay here long enough to see the landscape respond to the water that fell, before the dryness resumes. Let me show you some of the interesting things that are appearing.
And then, I can show you, I’ve also added water to my new Island Batik fabrics. They are all washed and ironed, and poised to start on our Lunarcy New Year Quilt prototype. Here’s hoping that BAM! – that quilt top will appear quite quickly now that those conditions are right too!
Hoping to be past the dramas and back to sewing soon
Sorry that I missed you last Tuesday. We were on the road and it all got too hard in the end….. as you will find out shortly(!). It’s taken three attempts since School Induction week for us to make it back to Arkaroola, but third time’s the charm! We have been here for a week now, and almost settled into a routine. Not the routine that I think is sustainable for the year, but a routine nonetheless. Regular food, laundry, ablutions, schooling and sleep. Now to sneak in blogging and sewing somewhere! And perhaps some exercise……
But mostly the blogging and sewing. Because……. my fabrics for our new BOM have arrived from Island Batik. Yay! Yup, fabrics from the other side of the world only took a week longer to get here than I did! That’s how much trouble we’ve had!
Let me tell you about our latest adventures….. and my new glorious Island Batik fabrics! And then you can tell me what you’ve been up to at our (usually) weekly party. Fingers crossed that life is more predictable for a while and the Chameleon can get back to regular creating and partying.
Still no sewing for me, only a little frogging…. because we are now rained out and we can’t get home. After three years of severe drought, all the outback roads have closed due to rain, just one day before I wanted to use them! Yup, Arkaroola has had 68.4mm rain in the last two days, which is more than double their last year’s entire rainfall. It’s absolutely fabulous, except that we are on the wrong side of raging creeks, washed out crossings and government road closures. A small price to pay for the rain though, that’s for sure.
So, while we are sitting tight in town, the kids are doing their online schooling at the School of the Air headquarters (which seems just a bit wrong!) and I am playing Outback Weather BINGO. Because I can. And I’m easily amused. haha
Parties are more fun with games, so here’s a game-ified update on last week’s dust to go with our Tuesday Colour & Inspiration Party 😀
Lucky! Because nothing much is exactly what I’ve got for you today. I did finish a UFO on Sunday, but it’s such an embarrassingly late and little finish that I am a bit loath to share it. Just a drop in the ocean of UFOs! But in anticipation of the unfortunate likelihood that I will be scraping the bottom of the barrel for projects finished for my PhD come December, I’ll record it now. That and it might make some of you feel better about a stalled project or two. It happens to the best of us. And me. 😀 And you are probably not as slack as me!
Apart from that, I’ve been busy wrangling children to appointments and classes, cats to the vet, boxes into the newly acquired trailer, dirt from house nooks and crannies we didn’t even know we had. Yup, hubby and I actually found a new nook in our house after 10 years of ownership…. at 4am this morning….. true story!
