Sunday, July 19, 2009

Holidays

We have just spent ten days away visiting dh's extended family.


One of our stops was a little town in the Snowy Mountains near Mt Selwyn called Cabramurra. DH's sister and brother-in-law live here. You can only live in this town if you work for Snowy Hydro as it is in the middle of a National Park. It is Australia's highest town.




Such gorgeous views.....


The houses are made to 3 or 4 different designs and there is a block of units in town for singles as well. A lot of facilities are available to the townspeople; private ski slopes, tennis courts, heated swimming pool, hall, fishing club with a stocked dam just for children to fish in; and the hobby club where you can do pottery, quilting, mechanical work etc The pub is popular with locals, and there is a general store. The school is from kindy to grade 6; and well catered for with a fabulous building and resources including their own ski equipment, bus etc. I am sure I have missed lots but this gives you an idea of what is there. It is approx an hours drive to the nearest towns for shopping (Tumut, Tumbarumba and Cooma). The town gets alot of day visitors.



The snow we saw was only around Cabramurra and was about a foot deep, deep enough but not too deep. It was the children's first time seeing snow; and boy were they excited as we drove up the hill towards the town and the snow!




Must be one of the highest playgrounds around! We all had a fantastic time toboganing.

We visited dh's aunt in Wagga who does spinning. What an amazing woman! She regularly attends Wagga Handweavers and Spinners group, teaches newcomers to the craft and does educational displays at events.




I wold love to learn to spin, and am looking about for reasonably priced spinning wheel with bits. The children are very interested too. AuntDH also does weaving, something else very fascinating. The loom was packed away so we didn't see a demo. Maybe next time????

AuntDH naturally dyes her wool, and the rug pictured above is an example of some of her gorgeous colours. Her favourite thing to use is the scale insect off gumtrees, this gives a pinky colour. She is always trying new things and while we were there I was able to see a test piece made from a garden weed; a gorgeous olivey-green colour. So cool to do the dyeing without chemicals!

Amongst AuntDHs display samples (and there were LOTS, so intersting) was some camel fibre. Oh my oh my this was soooooo soft. I would never have guessed it to be so soft.

A jumper hand spun and knitted quite a few years ago, felt really really nice. Not too heavy and apparantly extremely warm. Very cute design.

This protea was in AuntDHs garden, such beautiful colours.....

While in Wagga we went to a BBQ at one of DHs school friends. A fantastic BBQ area and I tell you what, the kids had a fantastic time playing with the other kids and all those toys!

Spotted this very cool looking ute while out and about, had to share it.

In Temora we went to the Aviation Museum which has old war planes done up. It was really good to go. Be fabulous to visit on a Fly Weekend when they have lots of air demo's. 10,000 people hit the town on those weekends.....WOW.

This is a Tiger Moth.
And stitching? Did I do any while away? Not much. I had a go at hand piecing and put together a four patch block that I am pretty pleased with. I also visited 'Patches of Heaven' in Temora. sigh, it could have been so tempting but all I bought there was a cute little button (pic for another post!). Having DH and the youngest in the shop probably helped my tempation too!

11 comments:

Anne said...

What a wonderful trip. Your post brought back many memories for me of my mum who used to be a spinner and weaver as well and did all those things you mentioned. My parents also had their own little flock of coloured sheep.

I inherited a different strand of the craft generelated to fabric and cotton / silk threads, :0)

Cheers,
Anne

Cardygirl said...

What a great holiday you have all had...love the spinning & yarn too.

Anonymous said...

Looks like you guys had a great time!! Seeing snow would be awesome!! I haven't seen any either!!! Hope you're all well now too.. :)

Joy said...

Bec it looks like you had a fabulous holiday!!! I just LOVE that jumper, it's adorable! It would be fun to have a go at spinning ... alas, my knitting is not very good so I'd have to get someone else to knit up the yarn I spun LOL.
Hugs,
Joy :o)

Peg - Happy In Quilting said...

Great photos Kiddo, thanks for sharing sounds like it was a great Holiday....

Janice said...

It sounds like you had a wonderful time away. My 90 year old Dad is also a spinner with the Bathurst Group and the "Mr Fix-it" man for all the local wheels. He has a lovely time with his "Harem" of spinning ladies. We've been to Temora a few times to the Air Museum and the fly days are well worth seeing. Isn't the Temora Patchwork shop to die for! It is my dream to do a weekend workshop there....one day....:>)

Abby and Stephanie said...

Looks like a fun filled holiday. How lucky your DH's family is to live and work in such gorgeous surroundings. I've taken an interest in yarns now that I'm a new crocheter. Who would have thought the different fibers you could use!

Anita said...

Looks like a great time away you have had Bec!
What a way cool place your SIL lives in!

Chookyblue...... said...

just love all the snow pics...........I would HATE to live there due to the cold but if you can survive that go for it........

Unknown said...

Is it just snow in Cabramurra in wintertime? Thanks for sharing, loved to read about your trip.

Lynda said...

Looks/sounds like a fantastic holiday.