One of the ways we cope with this heat is to get in the car and go for a drive. The A/C in the car is frigid, and it's nice to beetle about the countryside in comfort. The other day we went for a trip to Wirrabera Forest, down a dirt road I haven't been on since I was 19. Wirrabera ( pronounced Wi-RAB-ra) is about 35k away, on the other side of the ranges. It's a huge radiata pine forest, and we often went there for picnics when we were kids.

On the edges of the forest itself is this ruined cottage, and as it was so close to the road I hopped the fence and took some photos. It's just a shell, nothing inside anymore except a pile of timbers fallen from the roof. It had 4 rooms originally, and two good chimneys, which it would have needed in winter; this area gets freezing cold. There was a mulberry tree at the front door, and a fig tree at the back. It must have been wonderful to walk a few steps from the kitchen and pick the fruit. I think the early settlers planted their fruit trees so close to the house so that they could water them easily, and drive off the birds, and get some much needed shade. Figs and Mulberries seem to thrive on neglect, which I suppose is why they are often the only survivors around these old ruins.I liked the pattern of nails the carpenter made when he created this door. Very neat and tidy.

And the old iron stove was lying out the back, rusting away to oblivion. I just love the deep reddy brown of this rust, so rich. I would like a length of fabric that looked like that.On the way home we went through Port Germein Gorge, which is 7k of twists and turns and amazing rock faces.
It's not hard to see where the stone for the early buildings came from. These hills continually weather away, falling in huge piles of square rocks. Stone masons must have loved this stuff.On the quilt front I have finally finished my green Periwinkle, that is entirely hand pieced, even the sashes. Mereth thinks I'm nuts, but it was enjoyable. I will baste it on the Statler, and hand quilt it over the winter. I'm presuming it will eventually get cold enough to hand quilt.I got the inspiration for this quilt from an illustration of a Grant Wood painting, in a quilt book. I was very taken with the woman hanging quilts on the line, and decided I would make one in that colour scheme and a similar pattern. I made the blocks quite large, at 9", because I wanted to use up more material; it was an early attempt at Stashbusting. I used up every last skerrick of a lot of these creams and greens, so it's a trip down memory lane to see some of them again. I'm going to enjoy quilting this.