Ladies and gentlemen, please be upstanding and raise your glasses!

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is blissfully unaware of it, but this weekend "my husband and I" have celebrated her 81st birthday (on Saturday, 21 April) and drunk a toast to her at no less than two very happy gatherings.

On Friday evening the Governor of NSW, Professor Marie Bashir, hosted a reception to celebrate the Queen’s birthday at Government House, where an unusually balmy evening meant the proceedings could take place outside in the beautiful gardens. A naval band played for us beneath a huge fig tree that has probably been growing on this site since Queen Victoria was a tot.

Coincidentally you can see a fabulous photo of one of these Sydney beauties by Rooruu on her blog today.

Then today we reasonably unsuccessfully dodged the torrential rain (but who cares – it’s good to see the wet stuff) to attend the annual luncheon of the Australian branch of the Society of the Friends of St George's Chapel and Descendants of the Knights of the Garter at Parliament House here in Sydney.

Wasn't it rather clever of Her Majesty, as future Queen (though nobody knew it at the time) to have been born just 2 days before St George’s Day, the patron saint of England?

Is this a smile?

Our little granddaughter, Alexanne, is only three weeks old, but I'd swear a tiny little smile played across her face as she slept yesterday afternoon. And check out the "spike" hairdo!

What a lovely surprise

As I’ve told you previously, I’m a technology tragic. I don’t claim to understand it all, but I love to dabble! So when I find a new widget for my blog, I pop it in.

My latest widget enables me to see by what route many of you, my dear readers, stumbled upon my blog. Were you perhaps Googling a keyword? or browsing the Scquilters' web ring? How did you find me, I wonder.

It was in following up one of these statistics that I discovered a link to my blog on Lindi's blog. It’s my very first link, as far as I know, and I’m excited. I know it's probably not cool to do a happy dance when these things happen in the blogosphere, but forgive me, please? I'm new to this.

Lindi is a fellow Scquilter and I would definitely recommend that you check out her blog for photos of her beautiful creations. Thank you for being so kind, Lindi!

Spring is here....surely?

Phooey to the Bureau of Meteorology, the weather pundits, Mike Bailey et al, who would have us believe winter is quietly creeping up on us!

Prematurely bursting into traffic-stopping pink flower heads, my rhododendron has officially declared that spring is here!

There might be several dark, chilly months ahead here in Sydney, but this little shrub by my back door looks set to brazen it out and brighten my day every time I pass.

My nephew's nuptials

Mid-Saturday we met for the momentous marriage of Matt and Michelle.

The mellifluous music moved me, melting my mascara, and their marvellous mothers were much moved too. The minister's message was meaningful, and Matt and Michelle looked magnificent!

Then with map we motored off past Manly to the meeting-place for major merriment to mark their marriage - a majestic setting, a masterpiece of marine motifs.

Here many mates and manicured maidens made merry with a mammoth meal of miscellaneous meats and mouth-watering munchies.

A magic night of music maximised the memories, misbehaviour was minimal, and by midnight Matt and Michelle had moved off to their marital mansion.

Marvellous!

From scruffy backpackers, when we met up with them in Europe 18 months earlier, to a beautiful bride and groom - the Mighty "M and M's"!

The paparazzi have been busy again

Our tiny princess, Alexanne, brought her Mummy and Daddy to visit us yesterday afternoon.

Why do those bright lights flash whenever I open my eyes?

Roebuck Quilt progress

A stitching day today with the ABCs gave me the opportunity to stitch on yet another border to my reproduction Roebuck quilt. I'm loving the process! There are still many borders to be added, as well as applique hexagon flowers (onto the creamy triangles in the photo below).

Scrappy quilts are such a joy to make, and a fabulous chance to use up the scraps in one's stash. So why, I wonder, does my basket of Roebuck fabrics become fuller by the week?????


My friend Wendi (just out of the photo below, wearing white) is just too clever for words. Not only is she making a Roebuck quilt with the rest of us in the monthly class, but she has redesigned it and whipped up her own larger and more intricate version, at the same time! So she will end up with two of these beauties, one for each lucky daughter. Isn't her version just a triumph? It only awaits its applique hexagon flowers to make it complete.

More "Show and Tell" - this time from Robbie. We've watched her hand stitching the applique Hawaiian motifs and hand quilting this deliciously fresh beauty over the months when we've met, and today - Viola! - it is finished.