A Few Days Away.

Last Wednesday Mr Daisy and I packed the car with too many things and headed out west.

As we reached the upper Blue Mountains everything was covered in a white carpet of snow.... Snow?!?! It's well and truly spring here in Australia and snow at this time of year is very unusual. In fact it was this time last year that bush fires were raging throughout the Blue Mountains.

The snow was a sight to see! A sparking, white, winter wonderland. I half expected to see Santa Claus go whizzing by on his sled pulled by reindeer.

Snowmen had popped up everywhere!! I thought this one was particularly handsome with his straw hair and black buttons.

We weren't dressed for snow so we soon hopped back in the car and headed on our way. After a while the snowy, cold weather faded away and it became a warm blue-sky afternoon.

When we planned our holiday I'd hoped the timing would be right to see some canola fields in flower. My wish came true!! As someone who loves strong colour seeing that bright yellow extend right up to the horizon is food for the soul.

By late afternoon we reached the lovely town of Canowindra. For some reason I didn't take any photos of the street scape which is a shame because it is such a beautiful town with a main street full of buildings from the late 1800's.

I did snap a shot of this crazy patchwork paving...

...and some corrugated iron patchwork .

The next day we went to The Age Of Fishes Museum that has fish fossils that are 200 million years old. It's mind boggling to think of the world so many millions of years ago.

As we were leaving the museum a vintage car club drove into town.

So we ordered some lunch at a cafe that had a good view of the street and we settled in to enjoy the coming and goings of the cars.

After two relaxing days we said goodbye to Canowindra and headed off down the road. There was a point where we came across a herd of cows. Just like snow, herds of cows are rare where we live so we drove slowly and enjoyed watching them amble on their way.

Our next stop on the map was Temora, the home of the Temora Aviation Museum. The museum has occasional flying days were they showcase some of their vintage airplanes. The four planes on the program that day were a Boomerang, a Wirraway, a Meteor, and a Spitfire. It was such a great chance to see these beautiful old planes fly.

The museum was excellent, not only did it have all the facts and figures about everything to do with Australia's aviation history but it also had a great emphasis on the human stories behind the planes.

Time flies when you're having fun and as soon as the air show was over we jumped in our car and took off for a nearby town called Ariah Park. It just so happened that the weekend we had planned to be in Temora was the same weekend Di Ford was a featured quilter at the Ariah Park Annual Quilt Show.

I was lucky that I got to meet Di and her husband Brian. They are the loveliest people! So down to earth and friendly.

Di's quilts have been sent to Houston where they'll be on display at the Quiltmania Booth at the Houston Market and Show, so the quilts on show were ones made by her friends and members of the Secret Sewing Sisterhood, using Di's patterns. It was a great chance to see the patterns I know well from Di's book Primarily Quilts made in different colour ways. ( I got Di's permission to share photos of the quilts)

Deb King's version of Phoebe was beautiful. I fell in love with this pattern when I first started quilting.

It's hard to capture the whole quilts in photographs because the patterns are so detailed so here are some random close ups. Note all the fabulous fussy cutting, gorgeous fabrics and perfect piecing.

On Sunday the main street of Ariah Park was going to be full of market stalls and buskers as part of a festival. It would have been wonderful to be there for that, but we were off again early on Sunday morning...

... to Bowral, not for planes or quilts this time but for a restaurant. Biota exceeded our expectations with interesting dishes served in creative ways accompanied by exceptional wines. The location and elegant, modern decor added to the experience.

This is where we enjoyed a pre-dinner glass of bubbles. On the other side of the lake is a kitchen garden full of herbs and leafy vegetables that are used in the restaurant.

As I mentioned there were lots of surprises during our meal. the first was when our bread arrived toasty and warm inside a furry pouch, with smoked butter on a rock.