Long time no blog

Hi all!  Another long break! I have heaps to tell you so will spread it out over several posts. I've done some work on my Christmas gifts, 'Somewhere in Thyme' from Suzanne & Andrew and 'The Silver Thimble' from the Betterleys.  And even a little bit of preparation on my halfscale 'Fairfield'.

By the way, I've started a new blog for 'The Fairfield'.  I did some of it before Camp, and am just catching up with posts now.  You can follow the progress as I build, decorate and accessorize this gorgeous little half scale house here - I do hope you'll have a look!

Christmas and New Year was a busy time with family then we went away to Jindabyne  in the Snowy Mountains for 10 days of Church Camp and are not too long back again.  Jindabyne is quite near the snow fields in winter and is one of the resort areas. The Adventist Alpine Village where we were staying is on the side of a mountain, with permanent accommodation in the form of chalets and some flat areas for caravans and tents to be pitched for camps.

Some of the chalets further up the hill

 To get to the dining room we climbed the steep hill each lunchtime (we only bought the main meal of the day, had our own breakfast and a light tea).  At first Nathan found it too steep to walk back down again but by the end of our stay he managed it with help.

This is the main lodge: administration, lounge, dining room (on left) etc.

Interior of middle section of main lodge, showing access to 'quiet area' upstairs

On our arrival we pulled up to the main lodge to register. I looked to my left across to some of the caravans and tents, where we ended up being, and there were 5 female kangaroos browsing just behind all the human activity, ignoring the noise of children running around or riding bikes, tent pegs being driven in, people walking around and so on.  Every morning up to 25 kangaroos would be around the lodge, waiting for a handout and our friend Richard was able to get really close to them.  I took photos with my phone but they are pretty poor, so I decided to use one from the Village publicity site here.  I would have preferred the one of the roos I saw: there was a little joey hopping around and all the females had joeys in their pouches.  One of the joeys had its head sticking out looking around.  So cute!

The first couple of days were freezing even though it is summer here, then we had several days that were really hot.  Thankfully though it didn't snow lol!

Heavy snowfall in winter

 Mt Kosciuszko, Australia's highest mountain, is not very far from Jindabyne and it still had snow in shaded areas up towards the top.  Some of the men went for their annual long hike, up to the top of the mountain then down and through several valleys.  While they were up the top they were throwing snowballs, recapturing their boyhood.  A lot of the campers visit the mountain each year - either hiking up to the top or just visiting as far as they can by car.

It was a time of great spiritual blessing and renewal, and it was wonderful.  There was a morning walk at 6.30 (no, I was lazy and didn't go on that); morning worship at 7.30; Family worship at 8.30; morning meeting at 11; afternoon meeting at 3 and evening meeting at 7.30.  They offered free head and neck massages at 10.30 and 1.30, by workers from our Cedar Vale Health Centre.  The meals were wonderful, done by a chef hired full-time by the Village.  His vegetarian meals are creative and so tasty.

We were with our best friends Marilyn and Richard.  Our caravans were beside each other.  We also met many new people.  And met a lot of new people that Nathan had become friends with, and who came up to say what a delightful young man he is.  He would disappear from the caravan (which was quite near the large tent in which all the adult meetings were held) and wander off to the meetings by himself.   Or he'd hear the musicians and singers practising and go off to listen to them so he became quite friendly with them too. We soon became known as 'Nathan's parents' lol.

Our friend Richard walked up the hillside behind us most days, and took some fabulous photos at sunrise.  I would never have believed that such beauty could cover that area which from our vantage point seemed just dry grass.  If I ask him nicely he might allow me to post one of his photos here.

Since I've been home I've been busy with swap items for the Half Scale group.  They have taken lots longer than I expected.  I wanted to start them sooner but things kept delaying that, so now I had to make a huge effort to get them done and posted off.  Of course I can't show you what they are yet!  Hope they are liked by the recipients.  I'm still having trouble getting my 'scale sense' for 1:24th.