Gem fest

Dear Family and Friends

Life in the Willows is hectic. It surprises us that a sleepy village can transform itself into a vibrant busy place throughout the months of May, June , July and August and into Sept.

Many people come up each year to avoid the cold weather of the south, some have been coming here for ten years or more. We have met people who come from South Gippsland, some from Morwell. Moe area as well as a group from around the Lithgow area in NSW plus many more.

Our social calendar has been very busy. Each Fri, Sat and Sunday nights the Rec Centre is opened up and people just flock there. It is a great place to meat the locals and the holidayers as well. Light meals are served and it is a friendly atmosphere. We have attended a number of fund raising events, one of which was a pancake breakfast to raise money for the local fire brigade. Following it was a presentation of what happens when a fire is started. It demonstrated just how quickly a fire can spread once it had started and how important it was to clear the area near your own home.

Each year the Willows crowd have another really big night. It happens the Wednesday night before Gem Fest starts on the Thursday morning. It involves a great night with lots of small raffles happening and a major raffle of a beautiful sapphire ring that had a number of local blue, yellow and green gems in it. It was beautiful and I had hoped it may have been my name drawn out but instead it went to a local lady.

When you arrived there was a long table set up with smaller prizes such as small tool sets, towels, toys, food containers, local pottery etc sitting infront of each bucket. You had to purchase a page of tickets which you could put in any bucket that had something you wanted. The more tickets you put in the more likely you were to win.

One of the visitors in town played his guitar and sang all night and I did hear someone say that he used to be a singer in the Easy Beats

The other big event of the night was the "stake a claim"

To enter the "stake a claim" you purchased as many flags as you wanted for a $1 each. Once you had written your name on your flags you took them to a table that was set up and you placed your flags wherever you wanted it to go on the board. all up on the night there were over 700 flags placed on the board. On the longer side of the table there were letters and on the shorter side there were numbers. A number and a letter were drawn from two barrels and when lined up on the table the person whose flag was closest won the prize. There were six prizes all up and obviously the prizes were sapphires of different sizes and value. Alas, my flags were in the wrong spots.

Steak sandwiches, blt's and sausages on bread were available to eat and reasonably priced. It was a great night and this year was the biggest turnout they have had since it first begun. It is being recognised as a good night and this year there were people from Sapphire and Rubyvale who came along as well as the local crowd.

Gem Fest was great. It had the atmosphere of a Field Day or a Show Day. One pavilion highlighted all the really lovely gems that were valued up to and over $100,000. Overseas buyers are here during the Gem Fest and they are wanting to purchase local gems. Some big money changes hands during this time. There were lots of other stalls selling anything and everything you could think of.

Evidently numbers through the gates were down on previous years but it sure looked busy to us.

We have done some fossicking,mostly hard work with little reward. Even so I have a small collection of mainly green (all different shades of green) and one blue stone, none of which I think are big enough even to be cut.

Whilst here I have been attending both pottery and a sewing group. Pottery is twice a week and involves using local clay that cannot be got anywhere but here. I have three pieces on the go. one a small bowl in the shape of an apple which is almost finished, one peice is a larger bowl that could hold fruit and the last piece is also a bowl. There has been as many as 15 in attendance and everyone helps each other. I have been made feel very welcome even though I have come into the group late.

With the sewing group there are similar numbers attending and you can take your own sewing along with you or if not they have lots af small projects that you can do with help from one of the more experienced sewers. I have made a pin cushion in the shape of a hand bag, a crap bag for all those loose threads you cut off, a scissor holder and a cup bag. the sewing group have just been given their own long arm quilter. The patchwork group in Emerald got some funding and recently purchased a new quilting machine and donated their old one to the willows group.

That's about it for me other than to say while you are both wet and cold down south we are enjoying beautifull daytime temperatures of around 24 to 26 degrees. Night time temps are around 8 to 12 degrees and we can't remember when we last saw rain. But you really didn't want to hear that did you?

Hope you are all well

With love to one and all.

God Bless

Ken and Lyn