It's so nice being given a gift that shows the giver knows what you really love.  I was lucky enough to get two presents like that recently.  One was from my DD, who was trawling through an antique shop with me when we were at Moonta.  I turned around to see her heading towards me carrying a little piece of orange plastic.

 'Here you go Mum,' she said as she presented it to me,  'I've already paid for it'.  I fell about in raptures and thanked her repeatedly and clutched my little melamine spatula happily.  All my family knows that I love these spatulas above all other cooking gadgets, and I've declared repeatedly that if my last one breaks, I'll never cook again.  They date from the late '70s, and I've worn out two, and lost one; I look for them in every second hand shop I visit, and I've been lucky enough to find another two, and Seonaid's present makes three.  This one has never been used, and it will wait in the drawer until my other two get ratty.  I have no idea why they aren't made any more, they are wonderful.

Mereth came to visit one day bearing another present; we love church imagery, I have several pictures of Madonnas, and Mereth loves Russian icons.  I've always wanted a plaster statue, but they are very rare, so I was delighted when Mereth found me this wall plaque of Mary.

 She's just beautiful, about 14" high, and I will find a place on the wall for her where I can admire her every day.

 That whole Immaculate Heart imagery does nothing for me, I just love the serenity of her face and the blue of her robe, and look at that lovely braid detail around the neck of her robe.  She's a little work of art, not an object of worship, and that's as it should be, seeing I'm not Catholic.

We're in the grip of another heatwave, the bushfire has been burning for 14 days and has destroyed our favourite forest area where we walked the dogs beneath 80' tall trees.  It's all gone now, and the fire isn't finished yet.  The whole area is praying for a miracle to stop this destruction.

I'm surviving the heat nicely, with several fans  going nonstop.  Last night it was lovely and cool, so I stayed up late with the doors open to the cool night air, hoping to bring down the temperature inside the hall.  I watched Bonnie on QuiltCam, and sewed steadily on the blocks for my UFO.  That's it on the design wall in the background.

Progress on the Irish Chain blocks continues, but they've taken a back seat to these simple blocks.  I'm almost done with them, so this quilt will leap into being, after nearly 25 years languishing in the cupboard.