Trip to Mt.Gambier, South Australia, and Victoria.

Finally got to meet my newest grandchild, Dylan Rohan.  Such a sweet,  placid little boy who is lucky to have very loving parents and a great and supportive extended family. Can't wait for his cousins to meet him.  His parents have only been in Mt. Gambier for a short time but they have made some very good, thoughtful and supportive friends there who have made the transition to being parents much easier for them.  There are so many wonderful people in this world of ours - don't believe the media views which only show what is rotten in life.

He has pets, this little boy: two dogs,  Charlie (shown here)and Stella, and two cats Optimus and Nina (behind his dad), so like his cousins, he is lucky enough to grow up with animals.

I took the dogs for a walk from Hoo Hoo lookout to the bottom of the dry crater of Leg or Mutton Lake.  The dogs loved the smells and fetching sticks.  I loved the differing woods of the trees stretching their bare arms to the sky, the crisp clean air, the wild alyssum, speedwell and plum blossoms,  the walk down.

Don't you think these views of the deciduous trees could be a great inspiration  for a quilt?

And these mushrooms growing on a log look like they could inspire an art piece.

I gathered some of the windfall sticks with lichen on them.   Back at the house, I tested them with bleach to see if they were orchil producing, as advised in Val Krohn-Ching's book "Hawaii Dye Plants and Dye Recipes" and decided they weren't.  So the next day, I decided  I might try buying a second hand pot, and boiling them up with some cream of tartar and cotton fabric to see if I could make a  dye.  
















Then the dogs and I went back up the path and back up the steep steps past the Rook to the car.  I kept pretending to check out the view of the blue lake, but really I was trying to pretend that I was not dying of a heart attack from the climb.  I have a horrible feeling that this is why my doctor suggested I get a personal trainer and go to the gym.  Obviously, walking half an hour to an hour every day on flat ground is not the same as walking up hill and stairs! 

At home, I wrapped the lichen in cotton fabric,  and tried using  bicarbonate of soda and water to effect a dye because of advice from another internet source, but after boiling for hours discovered it didn't work.  Yet another source suggested ammonia, so I added that and soaked it for the two weeks.  I think I'll do some specific research on this before I visit Mt. gambier again.  All I got was some orangeish spots and lots of beige fabric.

I  also visited the very impressive Riddoch Gallery, which had some very nice exhibitions.  I tried to find the Blue Lake Paper Mill shop, but it seems to have disappeared.  And I wandered around the city and suburbs.  On one of my walks I discovered this cute cow in a garden:

 

I managed to do some knitting of yet another mangled AK doll, and a  few watercolour/ink works, including this attempt at young Dylan:

I also visited some good friends who have a property near Hamilton, Victoria.  Jill is a bit of a superwoman - brilliant photographer who has had quite a few exhibitions- and part of a great farming team with her lovely husband, Col.  It was just the right time to visit.  The fields were full of lambs which always entrance me much more than their often dopey, skittish mothers.  I was spoiled on a very cold, blustery day with a tour of the farm, a beautiful morning tea of hot date scones, and a lovely lunch of home made bread and soup by a lovely warm fire.  Bliss.  It was very hard to drive through squalls back to Mt. Gambier though the sight of crimson rosellas and the occasional group of kangaroos which restrained themselves from jumping in front of the car made up for the horrible driving conditions.

At the end of the two weeks, I don't think I would have gone home if it wasn't for the fact that we were going to show off the baby to Melbourne, I wanted to see my other kids and grandkids, and I needed to pick up my husband from the airport in Brisbane.  I had a lovely time and tons of ideas for dyeing and more art.