Scone late autumn

Today I set up my display of yarns etc for 'Festival of the Fleeces' at the Visitors Welcoming Centre, Merriwa. On my journey to Merriwa I found some deciduous trees still displaying autumnal beauty, just outside of Scone. This area with its distinct four seasons is at its best in Autumn in my humble opinion. This is an example of nature's colour palette.I am loving my new camera, a Canon S5 SI, altho' fixed range focus, the quality is very good at 8 megapixels.

The B and S Ball 2007, Scone

Yes! we said when asked to help at the B and S Ball on 19th May. Lend a helping hand, have some fun with fellow workmates, their spouses, and other generous helpers and support Strathearn Village’s annual contribution to the Horse Festival held in Scone. With no background briefing about the B and S Ball or Strathearn’s involvement we went with an open mind. Would I dress up? What did our ‘help’ entail?

I was advised before hand to wear something warm, so decided on the traditional waiting ‘blacks standard’ with a twist – cashmere stole secured with a festive brooch, er, not for the husband though! Yep, it sure was cold!

As we walked onto the paddock near the Racecourse I thought we had the venue wrong! Was this a paintball Skirmish? Some of the ball attendees had gone to a lot of trouble to dress up. But what were they all painted with? Of course I had to ask what the go was (hoping against hope that us olds would not be targeted) Everyone was plastered with some sort of dye, and I mean plastered – faces, clothes, hair!

‘Oh yes! That’s what we do – spray each other with food dye. It’s a tradition of the B and S. Great fun!’ The op shops must have done a roaring trade as many commented on their Op Shop outfits. I guess if their ball clobber got trashed by food dye they wouldn’t be so concerned.

So our help on the night? Approx 25 volunteers at the B and S served Roast Beef rolls (see photo above) and sausages in rolls from 6.30pm to 2am and breakfast from 6am – 8am to a bright, enthusiastic and energetic crowd, a little bleary for breakfast maybe! The numbers? 200kg beef, 600 sausages, 35kg bacon, 80 dozen eggs, 1800 bread rolls, 130 loaves bread. I assumed no-one went hungry!!! We can’t forget the cooks and washer uppers and planners working behind the scenes to make a truly great night for patrons and volunteers alike.

The cashmere number? A bit overdressed maybe…

Our little piece of paradise

Here are two photos approx 6-7 months apart of our back verandah and our family of pot plants. A lot of the plants came from Melbourne back in '98 and were already very very old, I'm talking 20-30+ years in some cases! I lost a lot of beautiful plants in the move to Port Macquarie as they didn't like the coastal climate and were probably traumatised a bit like myself at the time, but they are thriving here. Thankfully, the vintage potplants all survived both moves. The conditions are pretty harsh here - extremes in temperature and frosts etc, but the shadecloth area is a bit protected also by the ornamental grape vine for 6 months of the year and it just seems to be a good spot that they like! Perfect little nest to relax and read a book or dream or drink coffee.

The rest of the yard is 'Crunchville' - very dry and not much growing. We are still trying to keep the citrus trees alive but sometimes it seems obscene to be giving them so much water when we are in such desperate need for this precious commodity in Upper Hunter. We have become used to our arid back yard, but there is hardly a blade of grass at the best of times and when it rains, the grass has just adapted to extreme temperatures and lack of rain and made its own hybrid variation of 'grass/slash weeds'. Quite odd, but certainly not uncommon around the Upper Hunter.

Luv CheleBelle & Nigers

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Welcome to the Hartrick blog spot

Ooh, I'm really into this blogging stuff! This is the second one I have created tonight! t'other one is mostly for knitters inspiration.

This will be mostly a private blog for friends and I'll include photos, recipes, reviews and other musings from our happy little life here in the Upper Hunter Valley. Not sure where Upper Hunter is? http://upperhunter.local-e.nsw.gov.au/ or even better: http://www.horsecapital.com.au/uhrw/Scone%20map.htm If you go to this url and go to map west of Scone you will find our street.

Luv to you and yours,
CheleBelle and Nigers