chickens and cushions

My cushions are for the latest Montsalvat exhibition. which is for the bushfire fundraising appeal.

ON the night there was also food and wine and amazing music and such a feeling of community spirit .

The whole hill of Montsalvat was full of people sitting down and watching the music.

Sandro played trumpet,Mike Rudd sang and played guitar.Judy Jacques sang and read poetry,the Tesky brothers played some mighty fine guitar duos...WE all clapped and sang along in a wonderfull feeling of solidarity...That is something that fires have done and that is to create a community feeling that we did not have before.We decided that Montsalvat could easily have more, similar events.


There is an exhibition in the barn gallery with all the artists donating their work with a silent auction as the means of selling. I have put these two cushions in


The first has vintage kimono fabric and black silk velvet.


The second one has the blue and brown kimono fabric and also a vibrant red kimono as well. I have had lots of people commenting on them so I hope they sell. Apparently you dont know the winning amount or who has bought, but I thought the buyer might come and ask for MORE!!!!

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Here are also some pictures of the fast growing chickens we have at the moment.

They have been allowed out of their house to explore the garden and dodge the pecks of the one other chook.. They are so excited to be out, that they flap and fly with their cute feet hardly hitting the ground.

The only problem being that they are hard to get back into their house in the evening. they are rather scared so the best thing is to leave them to settle SOMEWHERE and then go looking for them in the dark and pick them up slowly and carry them off to their bed.Very cute really.

I

Cake time

I have had a bit of cake making lately.

An engagement cake for Catherine's step daughter.Beck.

I made a two tiered, white chocolate mud cake in the heart shaped tins. With white and dark chocolate dipped strawberries and a delicious raspberry coulis.
No photos of the finished cake but here is the process including the knife of all knives to cut the cake..... borrowed from one of the ladies at r-couture.
The strawbs worked like a dream each one looked like those shell chocolates from Guylain....

The cakes also worked well although the finished cake tastes pretty much like a rich butter cake..

I hired a cake stand from the "Greensborough cake kitchen."

and I think the whole thing was a big success.....

Just a snippet

First of all ,the plants are so confused they dont know whether its summer or autumn.

This is my ginko beloba a beautiful tree that I have nurtured through the terrible heat ,with the shower water. It normaly loses its leaves in autumn but decided to put on a new burst of growth after being cooked in the 46 degree heat of those bad summer days .Who knows what it will do next

Off on a big adventure.......

we are at the airport to see Lena off on her big adventure to see the world.

Trying to look serious but excited at the same time

Not to forget the terrible fires and the loss of Adams tools and tool trailer .

And also the lovely house that they were working on in Yarra Glen.All that remains is the classic two chimneys standing tall and thats a

Here she is ,speeding off to meet her plane....