LIFE IS A JOURNEY… ENJOY THE RIDE 🏍

Melbourne Benalla, Wangaratta,Albury Wodonga, Holbrook, Gundagai, Jugiong, Yass & then SUTTON … here for the next 4 nights for the Royal Enfield club AGM

Sutton, meaning ‘South Settlement’ in Saxon, is a small village in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia in Yass Valley Shire. It is situated on the west bank of the Yass River, about 17 kilometres south of Gundaroo, near the Federal Highway, not far from Canberra. Wikipedia

We love riding but have never done so in the dark. As we were meant to cover 713kms in a day we left the house at 5am which meant getting up at 4am & we did leave at 5.11am … it was dark but the roads were clear except for some morning traffic.

The most amazing part of this journey has been the sunrise. Now I have seen many sunrises & sunsets but never ever have I ridden into a sunrise or witnessed one while riding a motorcycle. It was spectacular to say the least. The feeling of peace and tranquillity cannot be expressed in words …

It’s a feeling of utter freedom and abandonment coupled with a sense of peace 🙏 Gives life a whole new meaning ❤️

10 hours later we arrive at our destination… longest day ride for me and loved every minute of it !!! A fair bit of exhaustion but exhilaration as well 🏍💝🏍

I’m a “glass half full kinda person” Life as we knew it came to a grinding halt this time last year …. it didn’t take much looking for me to find some good things….

Here’s a few things that I’ve taken for granted before but now appreciate….

1. Grocery shopping 🛒 . It was always a chore and since I have RA I had to be very very careful… so I reverted to online groceries being delivered to my door… it was a new experience to say the least as my local store is literally across the road from me … But now that we can go again it feels good …. coz I can see and feel everything. Amazing a everyday , mundane chore has new meaning !

2. FaceTime… my parents and sister live three houses away from me and yet I couldn’t visit them. Usually a Sunday evening visit for a cuppa was the routine after evening Mass but seeing as that couldn’t happen we had to revert to FaceTime… modern technology is wonderful where we can have hundreds of miles between us& yet feel we are all in the same room. All birthdays and all occasions were celebrated over FaceTime but now that we can visit again it’s amazing how again taking things for granted makes you appreciate what’s in front of you!!!

3. Hobbies …. now this was something that took up a whole lot of my time…. I had always wanted to start quilting and I did start at the end of February last year . But once Covid hit and restrictions were in place our footloose and fancy free days were over for the time being. I quilted and I quilted and this not only brought me a lot of peace it gave me a whole new meaning to staying home.

I think this last year has been important in so many ways …. it’s made us Appreciate literally everything around us ….

Covid has changed many many lives …. near and far. It’s been a year of trials for a lot & yet we have been able to dig deep and pull on reserves we never knew we had.

I have not bemoaned the terribleness of staying home as I’ve always been a homebody girl.

Happiness to me may not be happiness to you but we have all seen that living without some things has made us happier while other things has made us sadder …. in all this hustle we have actually had the time to look and listen and feel and to ask ourselves do we really need this …..

There is definitely a shift …. we now know what it means to take things for granted.

“These fabric scraps I cut with care,

To form a block… Then two… Then three,

ScrapHappy fabric left over from a few projects. I love the colours and that I was able to play with blocks 🤩

Scraphappy Day is organised by Kate & Gun for anybody who wants to make new things from scraps of any kind – doesn’t have to be fabric or yarn. Here’s a list of participants – both regular and occasional – if you want to have a look at the sort of things you can do with scraps.

Contact Kate (first name on the list) if you want to join in.

Kate ,Gun,Eva, Sue,Lynn,Lynda,
Birthe,Turid,Susan,Cathy, Tracy,Jill,
Claire,Jan, Moira,Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Kerry, Claire, Jean, Jon,Hayley, Dawn,
Gwen,Bekki,Sue L,Sunny,Kjerstin,
Vera( Me!!) Nanette, Ann,Dawn 2 and Noreen

Excuse me while I kiss the sky 😍

Good morning from Sarsfield

To God be exalted in every way 💝

We live for your Glory 🙏

All the earth will sing 🎶 your praise 🎶

The farming district of Sarsfield lies about 13 km north-east of Bairnsdale in East Gippsland. The Nicholson River flows from north to south through the fertile valley and the Omeo Highway passes through the area. Our home for the next two nights😍

Our home for the next two nights 🤩

Love road trips 🤩

In India masala means spice, and chai means tea. Spiced Tea.

And that is exactly what Masala Chai is -black tea infused with fragrant spices, typically served with milk.

In a pot boil full cream milk with sugar and spices.

I usually add cloves, cardamom pods, ginger powder & nutmeg powder & tea bags

Bring it to a rolling boil and keep a watch as it will spill over…. I usually take it off and let the level go down and put it back on the fire again…. I do this a few times and then serve it…

The pot is very old and is usually used for all our camping and picnicking 🤩

Wangaratta is a key regional city located on the Ovens River in North East Victoria. Part of the Ovens Murray region, the municipality encompasses the Alpine Valleys of the King and lower Ovens Rivers and is a gateway to the Victorian high country and alpine regions.

Situated on the Hume Freeway, and the Melbourne to Sydney rail line, Wangaratta is a regional centre that services the surrounding agricultural area and provides strong recreational, commercial, educational, tourism and health facilities.

Wangaratta and the surrounding area are a popular food and wine destination.

A day trip for hubby & myself on a glorious summer day. Main objective being to pick up a vintage ROYAL ENFIELD motorcycle engine.….

Royal Enfield built a series of WD (War Department) motorcycles for the British war Office for WWII. The best known was the 125cc Flying Flea, though one of the bigger options was the 350cc WD/C in front of you today.

After war duty, this bike was turned into a civilian unit and was first registered for the road in 1947. In that year, it was repainted Forest Green/Black over the original British Army green, which is now visible through a few wear spots. The bike comes with a field stand, passenger seat, luggage racks and replica bags.

A bit of history above about the engine we picked up… main objective being to rebuild the motorcycle getting all the parts separately…

A very good excuse to hit the road, and all county towns in Victoria are so beautiful. The roads are a pleasure to drive and the peaceful feeling you get driving these open roads is blissful.

I am addicted to Pinterest …

One of the posts I saw yesterday intrigued me greatly. I love baking and if I find something quick and easy to do them I’m definitely hooked.

Apparently you can make cakes in a pie maker !!! Wonders never cease ! So I set about doing just that …

All you need is a packet of Vanilla cake … make the batter by following the instructions on the back and the preheat the pie maker and put a serving spoonful of the batter into base.

Close the lid and cook for 6-8 minutes & like magic you have these Devine fluffy cakes which once cool you dust it with icing sugar or you can cut them in half and put jam and whipped cream in between 🤩

Now tell me what’s not to LOVE about that 🥰

I’m going to make another batch tomorrow with the jam & cream 😁

And so the next day I decided to make these again for the kids … this time with the jam & cream

Oh the joy 🤩

It’s here again and I love this time of month. It gives me a chance to go through my scraps and have a bit of a clean out.

These scraps are fairly new. I just completed a couple of table runners for a friend of mine which left me with a few odd pieces. My good friend Kate in her previous blog showed us pictures of a countertop protector which she is in the process of making. This gave me an idea to make one for myself and as my benchtop has a pinkish tinge these colours worked pretty well with it.

I used this opportunity to try my hand at a new block which I’ve never tried before and I think it came out pretty well. I love learning new things and when the project is not very large it’s less daunting and as a result I enjoy it a lot more.

Ideally the binding should have been in black to coordinate the colours that are already in the mix. However I have run out of black and being a ScrapHappy post, I rummaged and found the closest thing to pink which was red. I use that as my binding and Even though it doesn’t stand out as well as it would with a black border it doesn’t look too bad. Being a fairly new Quilter my stash of scraps is limited.

The backing is remnants of an old quilt cover and I have done free motion quilting to bind the three layers. And so I present….

Scraphappy Day is organised by Kate & Gun for anybody who wants to make new things from scraps of any kind – doesn’t have to be fabric or yarn. Here’s a list of participants – both regular and occasional – if you want to have a look at the sort of things you can do with scraps.

Contact Kate (first name on the list) if you want to join in.

Kate , Gun,Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Tracy, Jill,Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Bekki,Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin, Vera(me !) Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2 and Noreen