We have been having some wild and stormy weather lately, with tropical thunderstorms and torrential rain. This tree on the road outside our house lost branches in the worst of it, blocking the road. It must have been a bit hairy driving around in those conditions, which is why I was entrenched in my sewing room.

When I came upstairs the back porch was full of brimming buckets of water; DS Rhys had discovered water pouring through the verandah ceiling as the gutters overflowed. I'm glad he was upstairs to deal with it, because I didn't have a clue it waws happening. The funniest thing was that the three cats had taken refuge on the kitchen table, absolutely horrified at the deluge of water. They had to be coaxed down, quaking, as if from Noah's Ark. "Water, Mum!' Bobcat told me, trembling. 'Water coming down INSIDE!' He had to have a snack to calm his nerves.

I was sewing this basket block, just to get the measurements and the cutting requirements in place. I'm not going to make a quilt or anything.... I truly am trying to do something with the orphan collection, and today a few ideas came together. Nothing to see as yet, but I know what I want to do now.

It's hard to ignore the Valentine's Day advertising, but I'm doing my best. It's not a tradition here in Australia, and I don't see that we need to feel guilty for not buying stuff and giving cards and making Hallmark even richer.

And the whole school thing where all the kids in the class give every other kid in the class a valentine, well isn't that sort of like a football match where everyone has their own ball? What's the point? (I know, I'm a heartless cynic, you don't need to tell me...)