Pretty Port Fairy.

As any self respecting blogger would do.

I ventured around historic Port Fairy clicking photos of the lovely old homes and cottages.

I am thoughtful that way!

There are some lovely old stone homes.

And lots of tiny cottages.

I pedalled around on my bike, with it's new comfy seat. I almost could have entered the 

Tour De France.LOL.

Hope you enjoyed these.

More tomorrow, I'll show you one of my very favourites.

Bit of beach sewing.

Sometimes I get the urge to sew.

Usually something that I have been thinking about festers away in my mind.

Until about 5pm,

when I absolutely must go up my ladder into the attic 

and sew.

I thought this heavy turquoise combined with painters drop canvas.

Would make an ideal beach bag.

I looks okay on the green lawn.

I like to sew when I am stressed.

And yup, we were stressed before we hit the beach.

I forgot to take a shot of it by the beach.

You will just have to settle for my bling roxy thongs and my wetsuited legs.

Standing on the half dead grass of our campsite.

The bag was very handy. 

And, even better, fully washable!

Now. whilst at the beach, I had time to browse some eye candy.

Keep it clean ladies, 

it was of the book nature!

  I won this lovely book from Posie Patchwork.

Plenty of pretties to ponder.

Some black boards to obsess over.

Pretty throws to admire.

And a riot of colour to feast upon.

Thank you Posie, it was a briliant distraction.

Linking up with

here.

Thank you.

Thank you

Thank you to all of you who left comments after my rather stressed flood post.
Our town was experiencing a 1 in 200 year flood event.  Like a lot of the country we had had an unusual amount of rain, some flash flooding and slowly rising river levels.

The good news is that the town coped amazingly well. The media kept everyone well informed about what was happening and people were well prepared.

We decided as we had a camping trip booked, to go ahead as planned. It wasn't far, so if things got worse we could always come back.

As we were packing to leave we had a series of phone calls telling us various rumours including, the bridge out of town was going to be cut, the floods were going to be worse than 1 in 200 years etc etc. It was stressful.  Then our neighbour noticed a car parked for a very long time outside our house. A colleague of Mr M had had a heart attack. We called 000 and did our very best efforts with CPR, until the ambulance arrived.
Sadly he did not make it. After dealing with police and work and our own shock we still decided to go. We were with very good friends who could support us.

So we arrived at camp, shell shocked and still feeling like we maybe should be at home. Thankfully our friends were just lovely. We had a very anxious 24 hours listening to radio updates about the floods and speaking with family.  Thankfully my parents home and a fellow campers parents homes were sandbagged, so that was one less worry.
The flood peaked on the Tuesday, our families were all so relieved and we could settle down for a break.

This photo is taken, looking down my parents court.

Mum was rather stressed when it passed her letterbox.

The bridge.

View down the main street or "Main drag" as it is known.

The botanic gardens with it's short lived water feature.

The ever present country Aussie sense of humour.

Thank fully the flood crisis here has passed.

We are very lucky indeed to have escaped any harm.

Soggy

This is our place after the 100 mm of rain a couple of weeks ago. 

Seems like forever now.

Poor Lulu needed floaties to get to her kennel.

Actually it was so wet, she had to have a night in the laundry.

This is Mr M. looking a bit worried.

It all dried up pretty quickly.

Then the river started to rise.

But, that's another story.

If you have any spare prayers left!

Hi, long time no blog. It's been rather intense here during the last few days.
We have had lots and lots of rain and our river system like so many others is choc a block.
Towns upstream have flooded and the highways around the town have been cut.
We have been bracing ourselves for the flood in our river to peak sometime tomorrow night. That is a long time away as the river is slowly and insidiously creeping up and up.
So far it has breached it's banks and roads are starting to be closed around town.
It's nothing like what people have experienced in Queensland, but still, when it is on your own patch and it will affect people you know, it's just rather unnerving.

We are supposed to be on a beach camping trip, that's on hold as the campground is too boggy for us to get into, any, we are not sure if the roads are open anyway.

Silly people around town have been panic buying.

ABC western vic.

I went to get some petrol today.

On the way 3 SES crews with rescue boats passed me, then a couple of army trucks.

The petrol station didn't have any petrol because the trucks couldn't get in to deliver.

I bumped into a friend with Electricity supply connections and they suggested withdrawing cash out because main street is likely to flood and they will have to turn off the power.

I must admit, I did a little freak out at that point.

Mr M. has been slaving away all day at the Incident Control Centre assisting in coordinating the efforts of volunteer sandbaggers and checking elderly and vulnerable people. 

He is adamant we and all our family will be fine.

We are well above the 200 year flood plan.

ABC western vic.

It's impossible to get sand and the sand bags are in limited supply, 25 per household and only for those directly impacted according to the 200 year plan. People are bagging with potting mix and polysacs.

So, how have I been amusing myself today? We have had what feels like 10 thousand phone calls with friends and family. We have been tuning in to the radio for updates and doing drive bys to see how the river is rising.
I have also nearly finished packing. Mr M and the other husbands of campers think we should get out of town before the roads out are cut. I also popped onto Digella's Baked Relief site and donated some money. Check it out here.

I feel much better now I have blurted it all out. If you have any extra prayers, say a little one for those along the Wimmera River.

 We will be truely ruley fine at the Moerks, high and dry and our gentle incline, known in these here very flat parts as a hill, fingers crossed most of the town's people will be too.

Yay, some good news.

Yay, have you heard?

The home of

Lovely Brisbane Blogger A-M.

Has escaped inundation by flood waters.

And, her boys pet lizards are fine and dandy.

Way to go A-M

Congratulations from the Moerks.

Check out her near miss, 

here

And congratulations to Anita, (Brismod), Kerri, (Driftwood Interiors), Digella, (Digella Emporium) and Faux Fuschia and all the other bloggie peeps.

Our thoughts of course are with those who have lost so much, but we must celebrate the good too.

We'll be thinking of you all for the long hard road ahead.

Not many words today.

I haven't got words today except to say we are all thinking of those in dire circumstances in NSW and Queensland affected by the floods.
Our love and prayers go to them.


Please spare a thought for them all, and lovely ladies like A-M and her boys who have already been through so much.


I guess we take comfort in knowing the Aussie Spirit will prevail, we will help out our mates as best we can.


I am not going to show any other flood pictures except one, we will all see enough graphic images.

via Restoring the Old Girl

 It's a green frog, hitching a ride on a brown snake.

That's the spirit.

Faffing around with the camera- much love monday.

Over the last week we have been sleeping in, staying in our PJs til mid to late morning and

generally slothing around.

I have been loving playing around with the camera.

 Remember this hessian heart?

I separated it from it's smaller friend.

I am not sure what to do with it.

Put it away for a while? or make it smaller?

Not sure.

 I'll think about it.

Linking up with Much love Monday.

White with pinky red.

I have been spending way too much time on the computer these last few days.

But look at these gorgeous pics I came across.

Loooove the big white and grey mirror.

Part of a gorgeous house feature. You can find more of this lovely home  here.

An update on the blackboard. 

When I undercoated the frame white, the whole thing turned a rather pretty yet disturbing shade of green.

I soldiered on and have put on a top coat.

I'll just have to wait and see what happens next.

I also think Mr M has given me a dodgy pot of blackboard paint left over from the 1960's,

it smells disgusting and is a bit powdery when dry.

This whole DIY thing is fraught with obstacles!

I also had to go back to the Salvo's again today for something I had been thinking about ever since reading The Painted Hive blog.

I saw it yesterday and thought about it rather obsessively all night.

Lucky it was still there waiting for me this morning.

All will be revealed hopefully in due course.