Update

 

 

The Sea Colours Blanket is progressing nicely - it's about two thirds done now.

 

 

I ran out of yarn, so ordered more. Isn't that just a gorgeous sight, a basket full of yarn?

At Easter, we visited our friends at their new home in the Blue Mountains. I had brought the Lotus and Blossom Mandala I made for them, a hoop and tape, and on the first morning after we arrived I taped the hoop and stretched the mandala in the hoop, and they hung it on the wall straight away!

 

 

Doesn't it look great up there? 

 I might make another mandala once the Sea Colours Blanket is done - I just love how they look and I really enjoyed crocheting it!

 

 

We had a lovely time in the Blue Mountains. We spent one night at the gorgeous Carrington Hotel:

 

 

And we explored Katoomba, which is full of art deco buildings and has lots of street art - my kind of place!

 

 

More photos on my photo blog!

Melbourne

Last weekend I was in Melbourne, where my youngest son and his partner competed at the Australian Dancesport Championship. They did very well and came home with two trophies and lots of medals. A great end of their first year of dancing together!



On my way to parkrun in Albert Park on Saturday morning I spotted some brilliant street art in Yarra Place (more pics on the photo blog):



At the park the view over the lake with the city in the background was beautiful:



I brought the Happy Whirl project with me to Melbourne and even managed to crochet a few rows. The purple is starting to appear now:



Back at home I've also been working on the Sea Breeze Cover Up:



School holidays have started here in Queensland, and on Wednesday we are flying to New Zealand for a holiday on the North Island. Very exciting! There will be one more post on the blog before the end of the year, so stay tuned...

Melbourne

Last week youngest son and I travelled to Melbourne to watch his eldest brother compete in the Australian Gymnastics Championships. Unfortunately Hugo injured his knee on the fourth apparatus during the first competition and was pulled out. His team won gold on the day and thankfully he could join them on the podium, crutches and all!



He had an MRI the next day which showed that his ACL was torn. Bad news, as this means he will need surgical reconstruction followed by 9-12 months of recovery. He's taken it in his stride however, and has signed up for a judging course, so he can still go with his clubmates to the State Club Championships at the end of June, and judge instead of compete. He also hopes to do some coaching this year. The brilliant photo below was taken by one of the photographers of WinkiPop Media minutes before his injury, high-fiving his coach after a succesfull rings routine:



Hugo's injury understandably put a damper on our stay in Melbourne, but Robert and I did get to do some sightseeing and met our Dutch friends for dinner, which was lovely. It was Robert's first time in Melbourne and he loved seeing the autum colours - something we don't have here in Queensland! (more Melbourne pics on my photo blog here)



I took him to Hosier Lane to see the street art, but he wasn't very impressed - he called it Stinky Street!



We did like this painting (more street art photos on the photo blog here):



Here is another kind of street art - an art deco mosaic constructed in 1933 by Napier Waller on the facade of Newspaper House in Collins Street (more art deco photos on the photo blog here, and some art nouveau photos here):



We really liked the cubes in Flinders Street:



There was even a crocheted one!



I had brought a ball of yarn and a hook but didn't do any crocheting. We did visit my favourite shop in Melbourne, Morris and Sons:



I bought some yarn as a souvenir ;-)



Love the warning on the label!!



All in all we did have a good time, but were happy to go home on Sunday (Hugo flew home on the same day with the Queensland team). Robert hopes to go back to Melbourne in December for the ballroom dancing championships!

Blue Mountains

Last weekend we visited the Blue Mountains National Park, about 80 km west of Sydney. I had been looking forward to going here, and it didn't disappoint - it's stunningly beautiful.
Below are the Three Sisters - the photo I had in mind of the three bothers looking at the Three Sisters didn't really work out as these days they just stare at the camera with disdain!

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Some more pics of the awe-inspiring scenery:





I'm glad that my eldest son was happy to take this pic as I definitely wasn't up to it!





Here is some street art I spotted in Katoomba:



Katoomba is a delightful place, with lots of art deco buildings:



The Carrington Hotel:



How gorgeous are these windows!



We wished we could have stayed longer, but unfortunately we had to go home at the end of the day. However, together with some friends we have booked a house in Blackheath for Easter 2018 - we're already looking forward to spending four days in the Blue Mountains!



Meanwhile at home I am working hard on my crochet blanket - about one third is done now. The granny squares initially weren't all the same size (getting better at it now), but luckily blocking them helped. I bought some T-pins and pinned them to my ironing board, then lightly sprayed them with water and dried them with a hair dryer:



I've bought a set of colourful hooks and have also already ordered yarn for my next crochet project. It's very satisfying to acquire a new skill at this stage of life!

Holiday impressions from Rome and the Netherlands

We're back in Sydney, after a wonderful holiday in Europe. As promised, here are some photo impressions.
We started with a 4-day city trip to Rome, where we stayed in an apartment very close to the Vatican. It was my third visit to Rome, but the boys' first, so we did all the things you have to do in Rome, like Saint Peter's Basilica (above) and the Colosseum (which they loved of course):



I remembered to look down every now and then and saw some great sewer lids - I wished I'd brought my Shiva paintsticks and some fabric!





I'd looked up places where we could find some street art, but they were far from the city centre and sadly there was no time to go there. However, I did spot a few pieces of street art:





Of course we threw some coins in the Trevi Fountain to make sure we will return to Rome. I'm looking forward to my next visit, when I will just skip all the touristy things and discover other parts of Rome!



More pics from Rome on my photo blog here, here and here!



Back in the Netherlands we stayed for a week in a holiday home near the National Park the Hoge Veluwe, where we visited the Hunting Lodge St Hubert, designed and built by the famous Dutch architect H.P. Berlage in 1914-1920. He intended it to be a gesamtkunstwerk and also designed the interior, the gardens and even the furniture - it was all part of the whole work of art.





I thought it was very impressive! More pics, also of the interior, here.



Living in Australia makes us want to see some really old buildings when we are in Europe, so we visited a few castles - the one above is Castle Doorwerth near Arnhem. Its oldest parts date from the 13th century (more pics here). And the one below is Castle Hackfort (oldest part from the 14th century):



My mother-in-law works as a volunteer in the castle gardens and took us for a walk through the gardens and the surrounding woods (more pics here):







When my husband had gone back to Sydney for work after two weeks, I took the boys to the island of Schiermonnikoog. I have often been there when I was young and really wanted to show them this beautiful part of the Netherlands:



Schiermonnikoog is a small island with only one village, where you can find beautiful old houses:



You can't bring your car to the island, but you can hire bicycles to get around!



We stayed for four days and had a great time - I wish we could have stayed for two weeks!
More pics of Schiermonnikoog here.



When we got back to the mainland I took the boys for a short visit to Appingedam, the small town where I grew up. (More pics of Appingedam here...)



Then we drove on to Groningen!



My favourite city in the whole wide world! We stayed with my BFF Hylkia and her family for a few days. It was so good to be back there!



I discovered an interesting work of street art:







We went shopping and found a yarn shop:



Hylkia took this photo of me there ;-)



And of course we had to go to the market...



We had a wonderful time in Rome and in the Netherlands, and I hope you have enjoyed these photo impressions.
Now back in Sydney I am working hard on my new crochet skills. I'll show you the results soon!