Home, weddings and bbqs!

Well I'm back from Oz, many £'s lighter and only 2 1/2 lbs heavier so that's all good!! I had such a fantastic time, I went to a quilt show, several yarn shops, a japanese kimono fabric warehouse, a totally amazing vintage trimming shop, where I could have spent my entire holiday!! I fed kangaroos, saw little penguins, koalas, kookaburras and cockatoos in the wild, visited stunning coastline, had a ride on puffing Billy through the Dandenongs and spent several days wandering in Melbourne, which is a real mecca for handmade and fresh new ideas, not to mention the best coffee I have in a very long time! And best of all I spent two weeks with great friends, laughing and chatting, eating superb food and drinking cider. So all in all in a holiday that won't be forgotten, I took about 1000 photos! They need a bit of sorting before I can share them, and I'm sure you will all be grateful for that!!

Yesterday was wedding day and like loads of others we watched Kate and William on the telly in the morning and oohed and aahed over the dresses, and loved the way the couple seemed so relaxed. I'm not a particular Royalist but it was great to have something that was good news to celebrate as a society. We all like to have a chat about 'well-known' folks and I loved the fact that most of the chat has been about positive stuff and not brick-batting their private lives.

So The Tune-king and I decided to have a bbq and invite our neighbours to celebrate the wedding together, we had about 30+ in our garden and had a great time until it got a bit chilly and the we decamped inside with coffee and choccy bix. We didn't know some of the neighbours before yesterday and it was a great way to get to know them. I have a passion for community but in today's modern life we go in and out our front doors, life is so busy and we hardly ever speak to our neighbours, maybe a wave or a nod but that's all. We decided a while ago that to change that we needed to invite people into our home and see what happens and each time we have done it has been a success and we are slowly getting to know the people who live around us. So if, like me, you long to rebuild local communities just invite the neighbours round, and see what happens.