On the way West

Soon after leaving Dalby, we see cotton tuffs along the roadside. easy to see that we are in cotton country.

Warren is always conscious on holding people up, trucks and other cars, on the road and where and when possible he pulls off to the side to let them go past.

He did this right next to a small township and I suggested we spend some money in the town by buying an ice cream for mornos. Of course I didn't have to twist his arm much. I got the ice creams and we sat on a bench seat in the sun to eat them. It was a beautiful sunny winter's day, nice and warm in the sun and perfect blue skies.

The township was called Brigalow and the seat was to the left. Before leaving we decided to check out the toilets as well. These were at the back of the town hall. Great toilets, nice and clean, no graffiti but there was a drawback to the loos. Stainless steel on a winter's morning (no sun shining inside the toilet block) certainly reminded me that it was winter!

There was a massive wheat silo opposite the store, again a reminder that we are in farming areas.

The Rustic Olive

We had a busy weekend at home and hadn't been out so I suggested we go somewhere for lunch on Tuesday. Warren wanted to go the beach so our favourite place to eat at Redcliffe is The Rustic Olive, a cafe on the water front.

I like it as they bring a jug of water with the menus, not a regular practice in Australia but we had become used to that when eating out in China and I really like it. Often we stick with water with the meal.

We ordered a rustic pizza to share and then thought that maybe we should get some bread as well, seeing that we were sharing. OMGoodness the bread was almost a meal in itself, spinach cheese and ham sandwiched between two very crisp wafers of bread? It was very very nice and of course there was the pizza to come. That also was very nice and we ended up taking enough home for the next days lunch. Didn't take a photo, didn't think about it until it was almost all eaten.

Did take some photos of the waterfront when we went for a walk after our meal.  Nothing like winter in Queensland.

Inspiration

I visited the woman that I am helping with her sewing on Monday. I took a couple of books of patterns for her to look at, while we were going through them, I realised that they were too advanced for her just yet so I brought them home again. There is a pattern in one that I think would be suitable for her eight year old granddaughter and so I will draft the pattern first.

The book show clothes and then there is the pattern but as there are about 20 pattern in each book, the patterns run over each other and at first it is daunting to know how to draft a pattern from it.

I was having a more in depth on Tuesday and one pattern really appealed to me, I have not looked at these patterns in years and had de-cluttered the rest of them, I did have about a dozen or more but now only two and I don't really know why I held on to these. I thought I could make that and it would be

suitable for Lindsay, our only grand daughter. The flowers and leaves also featured in the pattern and as I had some felt from another project a few years ago, it was quite easy to do while watching TV. then I made a second one in drill, the first one is black corduroy and good for winter over a jumper or a long sleeved shivvie.

I added the frill as by spring, she will probably need the extra length and hte green was a piece that I had in my stash. I did go and buy the black and the drill and I got another couple of pieces as well so i should get four items for under $20. Ryan will be  twelve in June and I will send the black dress down for Lindsay with his birthday present.