Wednesday, January 10, 2007





38 degrees celcius, a strong, hot North wind ...and a lucky escape!
Apologies for a lack of posts, "Life" intervened! Perhaps in the winter there may not be quite as many distractions.
Major "distraction" was my parents farm being caught right at the forefront of a forest fire. As you can see in this photo that is looking at my parent's blackened hill and down to the cypress trees that hide the house-there is a still smouldering forest in the background. In the atrocious fire conditions of wednesday we learnt the forest had gone up and they were under ember attack. After a hectic day of ascertaining who was with Dad, and whether they were evacuating or not the results were that Dad and my visiting brother and his girlfriend all stayed to fight ember attacks, with a number of fire tankers. Although a number of fires came as close as 20 metres from the house and over 50 acres of hill and land were burnt all the stock and house were safe. The helicopters were great, filling from the town's reservoir that is Mum and dad's backyard and saving many firefighters from having to enter the forest.
So the day after saw us down there and then into the beach again. It really was very fortunate for the whole district that the wind calmed in the evening.

On a lighter note, here was my exciting mail the other day. I love good mail, especially when i know it's material! I discovered the fat quarter shop when I baulked at some prices here recently.

Almost more exciting than these nice contents was that I saved 40% on retail here and had it 6 days after I ordered it! I am particularly excited about the Moda tins that I couldn't source at all here. I am a sucker for a tin!

The general intention was that a lot of these things were gifts. Oh well, you know what they say about intentions. Does it count if you just show the people you may have been buying for the site instead? Then they can share the fun! What a gift!

An update on the baby quilt. I am enjoying these colours, it looks more vibrant in real life. I also made her a muslin wrap edged in pink gingham, almost made me clucky!

10 comments:

Fiona said...

Isn't is exciting to have fabric through the post? (Well, I'm always excited anyway!) The baby quilt is coming along really well.

Joyce said...

You must be so thankful that nobody was hurt in the fire. It's hard to believe that it is just as windy here but -30 with a -40 wind chill. Very dangerous too if you are out on the road and have a breakdown.
I love your quilt. How inspiring to have all those new fabrics.

Libby said...

I hope that the damage from the fire is not too extensive -- fires are so scary and devestating, too.

Love that fabric. A great way to cheer a girl up, right?

Sweet P said...

What a scary time having to fight fires. I'm gload no one was hurt.

All you fabric choices are wonderful. I love getting packages in the mail too. I think everyone likes packages in the mail.

Quilts And Pieces said...

Oh I"m so glad the house and animals are ok. I've always hear about those fires from my friend in AU. YOu guys fight them a lot don't you.

The Calico Cat said...

I'm a tin sucker too... How much fun to get fabric in the mail...

Cynthia said...

glad to hear all went well with that fire.

The babys quilt is looking good. Like the colors.

I love buying fabrics from the Fat Quarter shop. They have very good service. I love all the fabrics you bought.

Dawn's Daily Journal said...

Getting stuff in the mail is one of my favorit-est things!! Happy "delurking week",
dawn

Shelina said...

A fire would be scary, so glad the house and people survived.
I love getting fabric in the mail. I would have a hard time giving it away too!
The baby quilt is lovely.

Carol said...

Just reading back through your blog as it's really intresting. And I just saw the fire and your description. My husband was helping ember attacks at a friend's farm I'm pretty sure near where you're describing. It was very scary he said.

Love the fabrics you have received there.