having a hoot of a time

Christmas and New Year celebrations are over and new year revolutions have been made - I'm no exception and have vowed to do the usual (get fitter, lose some kilos and drink less - you know the drill), but nothing quilting related.  Although I've noticed some brave bloggers who've made public quilting vows, it never works for me (I'm too ADD when it comes to quilting.)

Sydney hosted the usual fireworks extravaganza on NYE, but we were 3 hours away from the madness on a quiet South Coast beach. I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season, however and wherever you chose to spend it.

In family news, the EF household was delighted with an early Christmas gift on December 15 when Miss EF  received her HSC results - they were everything she had strived for and more than we dared to hope. She has received early offers from two Universities (one here in Sydney and one in Queensland).  Needless to say we are a little bit proud of our gorgeous girl.

She remains unfazed. Here she is pinching some Christmas ham (as I carve off-shot). She has now transferred her energies to studying how to make cocktails...notice the many, many post-it notes on the new book...gee thanks Santa.

My holidays have come to an end, but some progress has been made on the mad birds' border. Two sides are now complete...just have to figure out how to attend to 60 degree hexagons meeting at 90 degree corners, but I'm sure something will come to mind.  One day I might calculate just how many of these 5/8" hexxies are in this quilt, but not yet.

Just noticed a mistake, aaargh...interesting that I hadn't seen it before the photo...easily fixed though.

We were delighted to be visited by a family of six Tawny Frogmouths over the holidays. Tawnys are large nocturnal Australian birds often mistaken for owls. Although they hunt at night they are almost entirely insectivorous - and rarely eat frogs, I guess their name derives from their wide beak.

These appear to be 2 chicks, their parents and 2 other siblings were on different branches of our Peppercorn tree - an uncommonly large family!  I love it that we still have the pleasure of many birds in our garden although we're only 15 minutes from Sydney CBD.

Looks like the babies haven't learned how to impersonate a branch yet - a classic Tawny Frogmouth camouflage move.

I'm off to cover more hexxies - until next time....happy sewing.
K