"No matter where you go, there you are."

THE ORANGE EXPERIENCE

Saturday 14^th April:

It just happens to be the first day of F.O.O.D. Week in Orange so we visited the local Farmer’s Market. Most of the stalls had tastings available so we tried nuts, pate, prunes, dukkah, local olive oil and raspberries. It was a foodies paradise. In the afternoon we drove out to an old goldfield at Ophir to do a spot of detecting. It was lovely countryside but no gold as usual. Driving back into Orange we were stunned by the colours of the trees. There are various shades of green, yellow, orange and right through the colour spectrum to the deep maroons.

Sunday 15^th April:

Ferg and I visited Lake Canobolas Reserve for an early morning walk around the lake. The colours of the trees were again stunning. My Mum arrived today, we picked her up at the airport at lunchtime and came back to our van for a cuppa. Mum and I drove over to Kinross School to register for the Fibre Forum then we popped over to the PLC Campus to drop off Mum’s luggage. We were back at Kinross by 4.30pm for the meet and greet of our Tutor and fellow students. Our class is quite small so each of us will have more time with our tutor, Carolyn Sullivan. We will be learning the art of Kantha stitching.

Monday 16^th April:

It’s our first day in class. Carolyn got us straight into doing a small sampler. After lunch we started on the design for our major project. We stayed on in the classroom until 5.30pm when Ferg picked us up. Both Mum and I had completed our design and had started transferring onto silk.

Tuesday 17^th April:

It was a full sewing day today, wonderful. Poor Ferg is stuck without the caravan today while it goes in for a wheel bearing and brakes service. It was away all day and cost an arm and a leg to fix as the brake drums needed replacing.

Wednesday 18^th April:

More sewing today. We also did some leaf printing onto silk. It was only half day classes so Mum and I visited a winery in the afternoon. They were showing a textile exhibition and our tutor had some items in the exhibition. Ferg, Mum and I went out to a local Italian restaurant for a pizza dinner. It was so nice not to have to cook.

Thursday 19^th April:

Mum and I had another lovely day sewing. Ferg went to bowls in the afternoon and won the comp. The classrooms were open late this evening so most of our class stayed behind to keep working on our pieces.

Friday 20^th April:

It’s our last full day at the forum. Sadly the week has passed too quickly. We worked on our Kanthas most of the day. Pack up time was 4.30pm when we tidied the classroom and took our work over to be displayed for tomorrow’s open day. Mum, Ferg and I went out to dinner again with a group of friends. We enjoyed a lovely meal at the Lords Place Thai Restaurant.

Saturday 21^st April:

We picked up Mum and her luggage from PLC then called into Kinross to have a look at the exhibition. It’s great to see all the work from the other classes and it is also a time to say farewell to all the friends we have met over the week. We dropped Mum off at the airport mid morning, it had been a great spending time together. Ferg and I bowled in the afternoon at the Orange Ex-Serviceman’s Club. It just happened to be ladies day and they put on a massive afternoon tea for the bowlers. Homemade cakes, biscuits, apple pie and cream, cheesecakes and the list goes on. Off course there was no need for dinner this evening as we both felt like blimps!

Sunday 22^nd April:

We are finally getting away from the dusty Orange van park. We drove down to Bathurst then headed north east to Mudgee. We found the Riverside Van Park right in the centre of town. It was very well kept with lovely grassy sites. We joined our neighbours for happy hour in the afternoon. It was nice to relax after the hustle and bustle of the previous week.