I see a lot of blue, red, yellow and black. I can hardly hear the busyness outside that little world and I asked myself “do I really need to know about it?” Two hours after we arrived, I was sitting on a camping chair facing the ever moving waters, doing nothing. I found myself in a very good space and ready to give up my senses to my body, and begin to relax. It was not a kind of relaxation that we experience through a spoiled body. It was through the mind, when it decides to travel in its own pace, without human’s manipulation.

I stepped on the red ragged surface along the lake bank, watching the peaceful waters giving occasional waves after a passing boat. Those bare trees were standing inside the water like what a typical solitude view would look like, visitors occupied along the bay setting up their fishing gears and lighting up some open fire…. Vivian and her little friend had such a good time inventing their own ways to play. They threw big rocks to the water, washed and baked their stones in the sun. They were quite noisy and busy making dramas.

The friends, who brought us here didn’t catch any fish today. To them, having something biting the hooks would give the ultimate joy for the day. But to me, it is all about being in a place without the need of having a purpose.

When the random thoughts went through my mind, I realized that, it is actually a luxury if we know how to not engage. If one day I ever owned that skill, today’s trip in Lake Eucombene was definitely a start.

I was so happy with my fabric choice for the first time, and to see them really working out together, as normally I would struggle with choosing patterns and colours for a quilting project. The Pom Pom trim was my op shop haunting fruit at least 1 year ago in a thrifty store. So was the white fabric. I got them for even a longer time from the same place for about 2 bucks. I have also used it as a front panel for my last embroidery cushion cover.

Literarily, it was a simple quilting project. Except for attaching Pom Pom trim, patchwork part was fairly straight forward. But I made some mistakes on the back panel initially, I had to unstitch almost all the way around to fix it a few days later.

Now I am looking at it and can’t help thinking “Oh dear, it looks just so good”….:-) You might think that I am a bit narcissistic, but if you are like me, loving vintage feel of linen and cotton in its slightly wrinkle condition and a shabby chic cottage looking, you would agree me that none of store bought and perfectly made cushion would give you such a good feel of a cozy cottage living. It just makes me feel like making more, quilts, area rugs, bolster cushions and lots lots more……

This one is definitely going to Vivian’s future bedroom with other stuff that her mother designed, made or visioned:-)

We went to Hoskinstown today for the Chestnut Festival. It’s only about 25 minutes drive from Queanbeyan, but we only stayed for no more than 10 minutes.

Prior to the trip, My husband and I had sort of expectation that it would be a fairly small event given that Hoskinstown is just a very tiny country town anyway.

But only by the time we arrived the venue which was in their Community Hall, did we realised that we actually even overestimated the whole thing. The venue was no bigger than our backyard. There were only a few country farmers selling home grown agricultural goods. I really don’t know how this could make it a “proper” festival.

The highlights were those products were really cheap. My husband grabbed two hands full chillies for only 2 bucks. This normally costs about $20 per kg in any veggie market. For the first time I saw the fruit called Feijoa (斐济果）that was only $2.00 per kg. This was like crazy, as you can imagine such exotic items would cost a fortune and sold at a very high price by counting.

Chestnuts were very good. I grabbed a kilo bag for 8 dollars, also bought half kilo’s roasted ones. We recognised that the cooking cart was the one that goes to Fyshwick Market in winter time every year, and my fussy husband thinks the cooking was pretty average.

But, I still love them.

Chestnuts are one of my favourite winter food and childhood treat in the memory. My sister used to buy them for me when we two went out, so to me, they were not only something tastes good, but also connected to love, sharing and old good times.

My husband brought home a sample chestnut in its prickly shell. He was also fascinated by a lady who was selling garlic at the Festival. She was such a beauty to “fit in” her surrounding environment, making us hard to believe that she was from that tiny place.

Anyway that was a very loaded 10 minutes with not much to see but a lot of new things to know.

After this one, I truly believe that my everyday life is worth celebrating as it actually can be bigger than a “festival”.

However, even this would be the very end stage of the looking before the winter hits the entire city, it was still quite impressive.

They were the ones we always see on the highway to Sydney across the Lake George. I know my husband has been keen to go there for ages and we just don’t know how. Looking at them always from a distance, helps nothing but leaving a strong feeling of mystery. It was almost like looking at a mirage in a desert. Sometimes I doubted if they were real.

But today we were like 400 meters away. We found a main entrance gate to get in and if there wasn’t a sign forbidding unauthorized persons to go in, we would absolutely take the chance.

It’s called Capital Wind Farm and it is huge. There are hundred of these things scattered on hundred acres in open farm area. It was a very unique experience for all of us, though the turbines were hardly moving due to lacking of wind. I have never been so close to such kind of thing and to me they were like futuristic sculptures ready to receive signals from the outside space.

Vivian insisted to pick some big rocks ( a little souvenir?) from the side of the road and take them home. We had our very late lunch at the Blind Duck Cafe in Bungendore, then checked out the Leather store. So today’s trip was all little unexpected but quite surprisingly pleasant.