Camp Quality 2012

Yesterday a bunch of the Patch girls clustered around at Port Denison.

The Blessing of the Fleet was happening in the marina,

the sun was shining and there were plenty of cheerful faces cruising the market stalls.

We've been working throughout the past year making sure we had enough quilts

to give out to this year's campers and with just a bit of tweaking we made it.

18 lovely bright quilts for boys and girls between the ages of three and 16

all of whom have had their lives affected by cancer.

Some of these kids are sick themselves

and some have a brother or sister who

requires treatment and hospitalisation.

What a great bunch of kids they are and we all got a huge buzz seeing them opening their new quilts.

 I was a delighted to receive on behalf of The Patch a special Certificate of Thanks
from these handsome young men.
Woohoo!

Thanks to all the members who made quilts, helped sort, count and label them, turned up to help with the presentation, take the photos and
understood all about the tweaking when things have to be rearranged.

YOU ARE ALL GREAT

Some people are always busy

Here's some eye candy. This month we had lots of show and tell at the Patch. Some quilts of course, a clever little folding work satchel that Barb made and Veronica's knitted bag and necklace to ohh and ahh over.

Helen's high tea

After a great deal of planning and attending to details, Helen's idea came to fruition yesterday. She set her mind to hostessing a High Tea at the Patch. The teams were organized into whipping up metres and metres of bunting, searching their china cabinets at home and those of mums and grannies too to find the prettiest cups and saucers. Baking, baking and more baking of tiny delicate cup cakes, pastries and cucumber sandwiches. Our friends from Geraldton Patch were invited and they arrived as a bus load. The Dongara Art Group, known as the DAGs were also invited as we were hoping to use their space at the old Monastery House and they had offered to put on a wonderful display of their artwork. Helen had also invited the CEO of our shire Darren and his lovely wife Jayne to join us.
Many hands make light work and we soon had the old house looking presentable, the sun was shining, food was arranged, teapots were brewing and there was plenty of laughter and fellowship.
A wonderful day it all was and a special thank you goes to Helen for dreaming this up and making it all happen.

Delish home made biscuits

All the work happening in the kitchen

The tables look ready and if the wind stops blowing over the

flower arrangements the cloths will eventually dry out.

Enough cup cakes to fill up all tummies present!

Oh dear! The kitchen needed a fair bit of work to straighten up afterwards.

Friendship and food....a great combination.

Milk or lemon, my dear?

A Little Bunting Goes A Long Way

The girls are helping Helen prepare for the upcoming High Tea

A little "Chantelle" at the Patch

Not a lot of words this time, just enjoy the pictures

Mary's 

Helen's

 Helen's again

 Jenny's

 also Jenny's

 Shirley's

 Gloria's

 Allison's

 Jean's

Loris's

 and the other side of Loris's

The Patch takes a Mystery Tour

The weather was kind to us yesterday as 31 patchers and friends of patchers took off for parts unknown.

A Mystery Tour had been organised for us by Shirley and Ros

 Here is the excited crowd ready to climb onto Miles' school bus.......

plenty of chatting is happening already

The first stop is for morning coffee at Greenough,

and it came with delicious scones, jam and cream.

Then we were back on the bus to visit the Greenough Museum.

The collection is amazing and the vegie gardens a delight to see.

Loris, Irene and Sadie were enjoying the gardens there.

Off again to this stop in Geraldton to see the beautiful Abrolhos Pearls at Latitudes Gallery,

Amy gave us an informative talk on pearl farming and

some of us even did a little shopping!

Across the road we were treated to tea and cupcakes at Cavania

..............a little more shopping was done.

                                                              Then it was time for lunch!

Delicious platters were set out for our selection at

The Lavender Farm in the Chapman Valley

Esther, Mary and Sue strolled through the gorgeous gardens.

                             With our tummies full, we headed to Margaret and Robert's "Tin Shed"

in Waggrakine.

Margaret told us about their amazing collection of nearly 5000 tins,

we all recognised tins from our childhood and each of us had to study every one on display.

By now it was getting late in the afternoon and time to head back to Dongara,

first a quick stop at the Wind Farm at Walkaway.

 Then home and a "Sundowner" at the historic home of Pat and Barry, "The Rectory".

Beautifully restored and decorated with delightful antiques six years ago, this home was first built in 1882.

Wine and cheese was served by some very handsome barmen too.

Donelle, Helen and Sadie chatting about the wonderful day we'd all enjoyed.  

Thank you so much Ros and Shirley

We know how hard you both worked to plan this day for us and every bit of it was perfect.

Even the weather was divine!