Springwood Winmalee Bushfire Quilt Display

How do you display 1,000+ quilts in just two moderate sized church halls? It was the challenge faced this weekend by the Springwood Salvation Army Quilters and their inspirational co-ordinator Tracey Greenaway. 

After last October's devastating fires burnt out huge areas of the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, and destroyed hundreds of homes, Tracey sent out an Australia-wide request for quilts for those who had lost everything. She dreamt of having 400 quilts by March, enough to give every schoolchild whose family home had burnt down a quilt of his or her own.

This is just the kind of project we love at St Mark's Quilters, so before you could say "disappearing nine-patch" we had rummaged in our stashes, whipped out our rotary cutters, and joined with dozens of other quilting groups and individual quilters to help make this dream a reality. Regular readers will recall that Di B and I delivered our group quilts to Tracey in January.

Today's display was the culmination of 5 months of frenzied activity, with the final total a whopping 1,020 and more finished quilts still arriving this morning!

So how did they display all these quilts? They were hung from the walls, inside and out, and from nets down the centre, and they were folded and draped over rows and rows of chairs, tables and racks. Every single quilt was displayed somehow.

Di B and I kept our promise, made to Tracey back in January, that we'd be there for the final display, and this time Gillian came, as well as Di's mother Margaret. We were pretty excited to see one of Gillian's quilts hanging outside the hall as we arrived.

The range of quilt styles was breathtaking. From country-style to Baltimore, traditional and elegant to modern and bright, pastel and feminine to strong masculine colours, there is something for every taste.

A steady stream of visitors admired this amazing result, and I went quite snap-happy with my camera. What a feast of colour!

At one point I was even photographed myself!

There was a huge table of cosy, snuggly knitted rugs too.

And another of crocheted rugs.

Every patchwork quilt and rug had a blank tag attached, and the plan is that tomorrow the display will be closed to the general public so that the local residents can go along, choose quilts of their own, and write their names on these tags.

In case they think a quilt is just a bed covering, there's a list of other uses including as a tablecloth, a picnic rug, a play mat or a cubby.

There was even a table piled high with sewing bags stuffed with basic sewing supplies, for those quilters and crafters who lost everything. Nearby were baskets of pretty buttons, rolls of ribbons and zippers for them to take and replenish their supplies. How thoughtful.

Everyone, it seemed, wanted to speak to Tracey, the livewire organizer at the centre of this mammoth task, so we were delighted when she took time out to come and sit with us. While her husband Ryan kindly fetched our lunches Tracey told us a little about the journey.

"I was surprised to learn that lots of quilting groups have a little supply of quilts standing by ready for an emergency like this one", she said. "The very first quilts that arrived were sent by one of these groups, in Western Australia."

These quilts came from furthest away, but the greatest distance quilts were driven for delivery was from Toowoomba in Queensland. 

A team of around thirty quilters met at the Springwood Salvation Army headquarters every Wednesday evening and Thursday morning to sandwich, quilt and bind the many unfinished quilt tops donated, and many quilters who couldn't send quilts instead sent generous financial donations to cover expenses like battings. Lots of other quilters made the trip up the mountains to work alongside Tracey's group on Thursday mornings too.

"Tomorrow could be quite an emotional day", said Tracey. "We anticipate that some people are going to be overcome when they see all the quilts. There could be particular quilts that bring back sad memories and remind them of what they've lost. But at the same time it will be a happy time as they choose quilts to use in their new homes. I know one lady who has her colour scheme all planned and knows just the kind of quilt she would like."

The response has been so overwhelming that now every member of each family who lost their home will be allowed to choose a quilt.

Rebuilding has already begun, and with several new homes rising from the ashes the hopes of the Springwood Winmalee community are brightening.

What a blessing compassionate people like Tracey and her team are. I pray that the quilts we saw today will help bring comfort and happiness to their new owners in their "Home Sweet Home".

Leaving (sigh)

Saying our goodbyes on Friday was so hard, though you'd never know it from these pics. 

Mary and Joey the banded mongooses, Apey the bush baby and Max the squirrel are always such fun to play with, so Sarah and I wanted one last photo session together with them.

Shame I can't take this little guy home, but look who I found here in Gaborone. Just for the Primcess and Mr J to play with, of course!

Now I'm on my way home, via the city of Gaborone, Botswana's capital, where I'm visiting a friend, Megan. There might have also been a little fabric shopping to lift my spirits😉

Some days are diamonds...

As Wednesdays go this one's been very ordinary indeed. We were awake on and off from 2am till dawn after being woken by unfamiliar noises outside. Fortunately they turned out to have been animals rather than what we had feared, a return visit by our would-be thief. 

Then we piled all our goods for the day into the back of the ute Sarah had kindly been lent, hopped into the cabin and started out for CARACAL, only to discover that one of our tyres had deflated overnight.

A couple of 'good Samaritans' came to our aid and changed the tyre, but when they tossed the flat into the back of the ute it crushed a 6 pack of raw eggs that Sarah had bought as a treat for the mongooses. Ouch!

Before we left home I took a chance on the weather and hung out our washing in the bright sunshine. A torrential downpour around lunchtime proved I'm rubbish at predicting Botswana weather patterns. And I'm not 100% well.

Yesterday was another matter entirely. 

The Chobe River glinted and the late afternoon sun was a photographer's dream as we set out on another river cruise, this time with guests from The Garden Lodge in Kasane. 

These Namibian builders sped past, their boat laden with bundles of thatching stalks, the traditional roofing material in Botswana. That far bank of the Chobe River is Namibia.

Kudu, like this one, were in abundance.

As were the many brightly coloured birds that build their nests along the river bank.

Even this tiny dragonfly was easy to see, glowing scarlet against the reeds.

Our boat was very similar to this one, able to navigate the shallow reaches of the river and get in nice and close to the animals on the bank or on the reedy islands.

There's nothing quite like sipping on an ice cold gin and tonic and observing the incredible abundance of wildlife that comes down to the river at sunset. If you can bear to stop pressing that shutter button for a few seconds!

The hippos were in a playful mood.

As were the elephants.

But the big croc beneath these bubbles just wanted to play hide and seek.

Lightning fast

The only thing moving at lightning pace in Kasane this morning was ... well ... lightning. 

As usual the internet crawled at the speed of an arthritic snail. That is, when it moved at all. The power went down. Then came on, to everyone's relief. Then went off again. Several times. It's pretty normal, and I'm learning to accept it as just one of those things you can't change. It's good for me.

Thunder rolled ominously all morning, and by lunchtime the darkest storm clouds I've ever seen had moved in and shafts of vertical lightning lit up the sky. The rain, when it came, was something of an anticlimax compared to the dramatic build-up

Just after lunch came a phone call from the airport. CARACAL  (Centre for African Resources: Animals, Communities And Land use) is also known locally as 'the snake park' because we have many captive native African snakes on exhibit. Around here, if you find a snake you call CARACAL. The airport folks had a snake.

Sarah quickly grabbed her snake wrangling tools, I armed myself with my camera and a VERY long lens 😳 and Sarah's colleague Zach went along to help her because, goodness knows, there's no way I'd be any help!

Our snake was small, perhaps 40cm long and as thick as a finger, and Sarah and Zach both agreed that it was a Herald Snake. 

After being trapped under a traffic control post until we arrived, he had an injured back, but by the time we arrived back at CARACAL he had perked up and settled into his new surroundings quite readily.

These traffic control guys were very bemused to see a young woman handling a snake so confidently. 

Reading up about this fellow, it seems he's the kind of snake I've been afraid of all along - nocturnal, commonly found in gardens and 'bites readily'. Yikes! I'd run a mile if I stumbled on one of these in my garden at night, tiny or not.

By the way, I forgot to tell you about the spitting cobra that escaped from its case a few days before I arrived. Just like everyone forgot to tell me😜. The good news is that he was found two days ago. Phew! That's another snake I wouldn't like to have met face to face.

 I moved mighty fast on Sunday afternoon, this time as a pillion passenger on a motor bike! Sarah and I were taken for a spin, by two very kind friends, into Chobe National Park, and I actually surprised myself by loving the ride.

Sarah took this action shot with her iPhone as she and her friend sped past us.

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What a thrilling way to see Botswana!

Pushing my boundaries

I've been spending most weekdays at the CARACAL Biodiversity Centre where Sarah does her field research. There's always something different happening, making it a great place to hang out. 

 I've even made myself useful in the lab providing a bit of unskilled labour labelling test tubes.

Life's never dull. The tyre on the work vehicle exploded while Sarah was driving us to work last week.  

It was 8 o'clock, in the morning, the sun was shining, there were 4 of us, and we were able to slow down and pull to the side of the road. No harm was done, and after Manager Mark came to our rescue with a tyre change we were on our way again. 

I'm trying not to think about the fact that the work vehicle doesn't have a spare tyre if we get another flat.

Right now I'm sitting at a table in the field lab with a tub of meal worms at my feet, breeding in raw rolled oats under a blanket of cotton wool, and destined to become snacks for mongooses Joey, Mary and the (mongoose) pups.

Apey the bush baby, a tiny bundle of saucer-eyed cuteness, is bouncing around the office next door. springing from one human shoulder to the next. Only an animal this sweet can get away with a questionable habit of urinating on his paws and leaving a trace of 'Eau de bush baby' on every surface he touches.

Outside the fence a troop of baboons is scampering past the gate.

There's a dead impala in the freezer and a live cobra in a locked bin waiting to be relocated.

And I've just eaten my first dried mopane worm. Actually its not really a worm, it's a caterpillar that lives off the leaves of the mopane tree, and it's considered a delicacy, eaten dried out of a packet, or fried up fresh with tomatoes, onions and garlic. While it looked gross, it tasted pretty ordinary and rather salty. I won't be doing it again though.

At the rear of the building not 10 meters from here, a black mamba, a boomslang, and a spitting cobra, along with many more of the deadliest snakes in Africa, are resting uneasily in their cages. They're a pretty evil looking bunch but I'm getting used to walking past them. I even joined the whole CARACAL team last week for an evening braai (barbecue) with a Gaboon Adder watching us from her cage (see picture below) as we tucked into our sausages and maize meal.

That same day I held my first (and possibly my last) python.

Then Sarah's house was broken into at 1.30 one morning, while we were in bed.

 It took us both quite a long time to realise that the noises we were hearing at the door weren't just (four legged) animals. Sarah's house is basically just one large room, and when she heard the security screen on the door being pushed back she bravely hopped out of bed and moved towards the door, mobile phone in hand. Our would-be intruder promptly disappeared into the night. Wise man.

There's been a spate of burglaries in and around Kasane over recent months, and the police seem powerless to track down the culprits. I'm not surprised, given their methods which discretion prevents me having a good rant about here. I wish there was a real life Precious Ramotswe who could take the case.

This is the closest we come to the No 1 Lady here.

Theories abound. It's said to be the work of a gang of four, some working in bare feet (one dubbed 'Big Foot' because of his large, but not too deep, footprint), always striking around the same time of night. They are extraordinarily stealthy, bold, and able to make a nimble getaway when surprised, but no-one has been hurt or even threatened. That is, if you don't count the intruder who Sarah's friend woke to find standing beside her bed. She promptly punched him in the face! Or the thief wounded in the knee last week by a pellet gun as he made off with cash after breaking into a parked car.

These thieves seem to be only after money and saleable goods like computers, mobile phones and other portable valuables.

Sarah's timely action prevented a break-in becoming a theft, and again plenty of helpers came to our rescue very quickly. The radio and mobile phone support network works well here and word spread quickly that we had (almost) been the latest victims of these scoundrels. 

With the house unsecured, we were taken in by kind neighbors, and after a week the door has now been repaired and modified to Bank of England standards😳.

As someone called Dorothy once said, "Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas any more!".