When life sends you weather…. play BINGO!
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 😀
We started with Dust
Last week I gave you an update on the extreme weather we had while moving….. we had strong winds moving over drought affected plains, and the result was this.
So, in addition to the “FREE” central bingo spot we can now cover up positions “wind”, “drought” and “dust”.
After moving into our house at Arkaroola and enjoying several starry nights visible through the window directly from bed, we headed back to town to learn how to do School of the Air. The trip was hot. Really hot, calm and relentlessly sunny.
And the weather conditions were perfect for causing dust devils or whirly whirlies. Here are just three of the many tens we saw.
We sweltered through the next week of mid 40 C temperatures. And then it got humid. Really humid. And then….. widespread thunderstorms dumped water everywhere! Adelaide, Port Augusta, Arkaroola….. if the Chameleon had even thought about going there, it was deluged.
I’m a bit peeved, actually. One of the things I explicitly wished to experience this year was the outback creeks running! Since I can’t be there, Rick Dubya (based at Arkaroola) has kindly given permission to share a few of his photos from the Arkaroola facebook page.
That would be my driveway cut off, right there! 😮
And a flood makes……
BINGO!
A raised view of Arkaroola on Sunday. Vast areas of the South Australian Outback looked like this on Sunday!
So until the roads open again, no one’s going anywhere much!
Except the frogs! Apparently they’re climbing the walls with joy, just like the local humans. Sadly, the frog missed our first game of BINGO but he’d still like a game…..
So, I let him play BINGO with the Chameleon’s friends instead 🙂
Kermit covered the FREE spot and marked our first call: starry night! This is Stargazing at Grace and Peace Quilting!
Next: a rainbow! AKA as a journal cover at Quilting and Learning – What a Combo! with Andrée.
Followed by: cold and sunny weather, also observed at Quilting and Learning – What a Combo!
From Susan at Quilt Fabrication we have frost…..
And at several locations we have snow. These are Melva’s snowmen at Melva Loves Scraps.
Denise’s quilt photo efforts were hampered by wind at For the Love of Geese.
While Marti laughed in the face of extreme weather to continue her pretty Snowball Blossom quilt at Plain Stitches. For Marti’s post I’m covering: humid, cloud, storm, ice, and torrential rain! I hope things have improved in Texas now.
Fog and calm at mmm! quilts with Sandra, inspired by Sara Harley.
Oh yes! That’s…..
BINGO!
And one happy frog!
😀 😀 😀
Have you completed a row of something this week? Or perhaps even a whole quilt? Yell BINGO! and then…..
While we are drying out, tell us – what are you working on, or have recently finished in your sewing room? We want to know so we can visit and be inspired. Link up a blog post, an IG post or simply a photo from your computer. See if you can get the Chameleon to turn quilted with happiness. We’d love to see your quilting colours!
- Link up your latest or recent quilt/sewing excitement. All quilt construction stages welcome – finished quilts, quilt blocks – even fabric pulls! Or inspiration sources!
- You have 50 characters in the link description…. tell us who you are and what your fantastic project is.
- URL links are not necessary to link up…. non-bloggers 100% welcome! If you don’t have a URL, you can link up with just a photo.
- Take a moment to visit some friends who came to the party – leave a little love and make their day. And a link back to Clever Chameleon is always appreciated.
- Do it now……. before you forget!
The Chameleon turns rainbow with pleasure when he hears from you. I am more reserved, so I will respond in gratitude by email instead. Now that it’s your turn…. Scroll right to the end, leave me a comment and tell me, what do you think? Thanks for connecting!
Would you like to keep in touch with Clever Chameleon and the fun quilty ideas I design as well as find all over the internet? You can follow directly for email updates, or through Bloglovin’, Pinterest, IG or FB. All your follow options can be found here. Don’t forget to link up all your current quilting projects on Tuesdays at our Colour & Inspiration Linky parties!
Aside from all the obvious human/environmental disaster aspects of the circumstances surrounding your Bingo…this was a great read!
I also love your ‘color strips’ alongside photos you highlight from time to time.
Stay safe!
Your move has certainly entertained many of us not involved. Glad your humor is still in tact. Hoping the waters recede and the weather cooperates and you get home soon!
I’d say you are weathering (no pun intended, okay, maybe a little bit) things quite well, and keeping yourself amused. School of the Air headquarters had me chuckling. I’m glad you are not in the midst of that drive with all that water running through. Better to be playing bingo than washing away, my friend! Hope you get tucked in at your new home soon! So many pretty quilts!
I learn something new every time you blog about your outback adventures. Never heard of Whirly Whirly, but now I have. Thank goodness for your sense of humor! You create even without fabric – your bingo game is so much fun.
Love this post so much I couldn’t walk away, my pizza almost burnt. Glad you made it safely, mostly. We have had extreme weather here too. Last week we had snow, sleet and freezing rains, followed by heavy rain that packed the accumulation. Then Sunday we hit a new record high for the day of mid 70’s. Tomorrow more snow and sleet. Greenland is experiencing their first spring, they actually have green in their landscape. Thank you for featuring my hexi flowers, glad I could add to the story.
What a fun post Dione, I like the way you are making lemonade. Oh how great to get the rain…we could do with that amount just now! What a shame you’re not at home to enjoy it but you’ll really notice a difference when you do get home!
Wow!!! How much longer is it looking like until you can cross that flooded river and go home?? I love how you featured the quilts according to the weather! I hope everything is going okay for you and your family.
You have such an awesome sense of humor, Dione! And, you seem to be taking this delay very well. I hope the kids are handling everything as well. Please stay safe. I’m extremely cautious of floods since I lost my youngest brother in one. As our weather man says, “Turn around, don’t drown.”
I love your Bingo card, but you definitely should stop trying to get a Bingo! I can’t believe you’ve gone all that way, and are stuck in the town. You obviously have to find whomever has been out doing a daily rain dance, while I fully understand why this would be preferable to the fires, their geography seems a little off. However, it does make me think of all the strange plant life that pops up after extreme weather in other remote areas – so fingers crossed for a little ‘more refined excitement, that should at least keep you safe, dry and definitely NOT flaming hot. Loved the post, Dione, and your exploration of other websites, was worth it – some lovely work by other talented people. Take care, and all of you be safe.
Wow, I know I am not living it so feelings are different. But what a wonderful way to experience things there. And your bingo is cool. Kinda like making a temperature quilt. Glad to hear you are all safe though. I just finished up a bunch of burp cloths for a friend. Lots of pinks and grays and purples and blues. Threw in some yellows and oranges with reds and greens and the rainbow is complete. LOL
I hope the rains have helped the fire fighting efforts!! I’m sorry you are having flooding, but so grateful for the needed rains. Love the BINGO game!!
Someday you will look back at the adventure and recall all the details. 25 years ago we bought a house and had never seen it with our own eyes… there was a cow on the back patio and so much quirky charm to the house it was ridiculous… but we were PROUD of the decisions we made and the challenges we overcame. Be brave!
Thanks for the link up.
Wow, weather bingo is brilliant! And even more so to use it with QUILTS! Love it!
Had we been playing as a team, we’d have had a full house on the weather bingo. We had the blizzard, hurricane force winds, and record breaking snowfall (90cm in 24 hours) that closed down the city for a week. Good luck making it to your final destination. This was supposed to be a year of adventure, wasn’t it?
Hi Dione, how crazy is that? You are experiencing a lot of interesting weather. I’m so happy that the frogs are happy 🙂
Thanks for featuring my rainbow and cold and sunny. Good luck!