what to do on a cold wet day

 I laid out the froglets DWR.  its coming along nicely.

I have been sick the last few days with a weird virus so riding today didn't happen which was possibly a good thing as it rained and my friends who did ride got drowned.

my trip up north

 But first.... my dirty bike!

 Poor Wasabi, she got very muddy

 I'm having so much fun riding her, and I gave her a good wash down and she came up a treat.

 Cookie has taken to the towel rack again as the heating is on most evenings and guess where its warmest?

 Lil knows the other hot spots and has now become a real indoor cat.

 I had a great seat on the way up to Brisbane, I love looking out the window.

 Alexandria and I had lunch/brunch and dinners out.  This was goji berry ice cream on pancakes.

 I had the most divine prosciutto, mushrooms and poached egg on rye sour dough with a olive tapenade  that was spot on in flavours.  not to mention the best coffee!

 We went to Brighton (Queensland) to a quirky tea house and had more brunch and pots of real  tea served with mishmash of china.  Next door was a bike shop!  not the type I would usually go to but very suitable for the area.

 We drove up along the beach fronts and noted how much damage had been done by the last lot of storms, they are now putting the beaches back where they should be.

 Very near to the froglets house is a reservoir, so we took a drive there and walked the 5km track.  If you look closely in the middle of this photo is a black dot... its actually a very LARGE spider.  I reckon Queensland breed some of the biggest spiders and they spin the most incredible webs, I wish I could take photos that show them better.

 We walked the track and didn't dilly dally as the mozzies would land on you as soon as you even slowed down, the froglet is paranoid about Ross river fever and we didn't think to take areoguard with us.

 We spied a really decent sized echidna, he had buried himself into the ground and wasn't coming out to say hello.

 Of course there were bush turkeys running around, they wouldn't stand still for me to take their photos.

 I went into Brisbane city for the day and walked 12km (my vivo fit told me i did!)

 The botanical gardens are much like ours but they have mangroves.  I wasn't really there at the best time of year to see flowers.

 They have a south bank the same as Melbourne but they have a man made beach, now that was pretty awesome.

I had breakfast here with this view.  hard life eh?

The best part of my short holiday was of course spending time with the froglet, she is off to Europe in 8 weeks time for a 3 month holiday!  I bought her a backpack and other bits and pieces for her trip.
She is following my footsteps when I was 20 I did the same trip....  now its my turn to worry about her travelling :)

new family member

 meet Wasabi.  My new bike..... I took her out for her maiden voyage for a sweet 71km trip to one of my local hills.  I am very happy with my new baby.

 Cookie gave Wasabi the once over and declared her to be OK.

 It was mothers day the other week and the froglet had found this epic gift for me.... how perfect is this gift?!!

 Equally perfect was the beautiful flowers that the noisy one got for me.  I felt very special.

 I'm currently binding a quilt for a cousins baby.... nearly done!

 And I finally finished my besties birthday present.  She loves camels so this stitchery that I found some time ago was perfect and the fabric I purchased at the quilt show with bikes on it helped turn it into a lovely cushion.

ANZAC day

The last couple of years I have gone for a ride on ANZAC day, I spend time reflecting on what this day means, who fought and lost their lives.  This year is the 100 year anniversary and everyone has gone over and above to honour those who served.

Tomorrow will be no different.  I will be out there with my friends whom I am lucky to be able to be with due to the continuing efforts of our service men and women.  due to unrelenting rain the ride was cancelled.

These photos are of the poppies that women and men have made and turned into a carpet at Fed square in Melbourne.  They called out for 5000 and received over 250,000.

my day out at the quilt show!

 Was a very Aussie themed quilt show which was awesome.

 There was some lovely quilts, I particularly love this one below of the 12 apostles.

 This lovely quilt was made very close to the above quilt!  Linda from Gum Valley Patchwork  won with her amazing teeny tiny hexagon quilt, Elenor Jean, she won Best quilt in Australia no less!  fanbloodytastic!!  I have been watching Linda make this quilt via her blog and its not her first one.... noooo!  this insane woman has made 2 using I believe 1.5" hexagons.  Her first one was called Dear Prudence, also a show winner.  Go to her blog and check it out and if you feel the overwhelming desire to own one of these quilts, Linda has written books about them with the patterns. Also if you are going down the coast towards Port Campbell I can highly recommend you pop in to see Linda at her shop.

 There was some bling, which was very nice.

 The ANZAC's were honoured in many ways with quilts made from the heart.

 Aussie Hero Quilts  were at the show with Jan Maree and her 'army' of women to educate other quilters on how they can help her to show to our Aussie Military how much we appreciate what they do.  The quilt below was made for the True blue competition of Jan Maree!  I reckon the lady who made this quilt did an awesome job and was certainly captured a 'true blue' theme.
 I loved the applique and colour used in this quilt below.

I enjoyed my day out looking at the quilts and doing a bit of retail therapy but my highlight was making a laundry bag at the Bernina class which only cost a mere $5  I was told that Bernina are matching the $5 and all the money is going to Aussie Hero Quilts!!  The laundry bags that were made over the weekend are also going to be sent overseas to our troops.
I received a great badge that says I sew for Aussie hero's!  I'm very proud to wear this badge and will be continuing to support  AHQ  I can now add laundry bags to my growing list.

Happy Easter

no surprise that over Easter I have been out on my bike.  Did a lovely ride on Friday to the Flowerdale pub... it was closed of course so we rode home and had a cappachino at Maccas :)  That  was a nice 105km ride.

Today I did another lovely ride with my other cycling buddy, we just did an easier ride of 50km

The fisherman scored a whole box of cadbury creme eggs and the noisy one got a creations egg.... I bought myself a new bike helmet!

Happy Easter to you all I hope you all had some time to enjoy what ever it is that makes you happy.

conquering Lake Mountain

 Today I did the lake mountain challenge.  I rode a total of 77.4kms  with over 25 of those being hill climbing

 I was treated to stunning views... one of the joys of cycling.

 This was the end/start of the 4km killer climb out of Marysville up towards Lake mountain.  The climb was just over 22km total and took me 2 hours and 25 Min's to complete.... it wasn't an easy climb at all.  The descent was fabulous and only took me 37mins to get down!  I reached a top speed of  76kmph   I don't remember going THAT fast :)

When my friend took this photo of me I had sweat dripping off my face, so glad you cant see me up close lol