Month: May 2011

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Well I never!

I was about to make our bed the other day and wondered if I’d have to get another valance
Or more to the point when we get the new bed would the bedspread reach the floor the way it’s supposed to.

This mattress was one of those with a pillow top – when it arrived it turned out to be so deep none of my sheets fitted.

When I put the valance on I realised the base was much lower than the previous one so had to run a seam up the middle to lift it up off the ground
And then when the bed was made I realised the whole thing was much higher than the previous one and as you can see the bedspread has a half mast look about it lol
Its so high when I sit on the side my feet don’t reach the floor and even now 9 years later I still feel as though I need a step ladder to get in lol
As it still hasn’t proved to be the bed it was purported to be
we are going shopping
For a new one!
Now as I looked at the bed in the mirror
Something didn’t look quite right
Trying to be a bit arty farty and make things look a bit different
thats the way I took the photos lol
Standing there I could see what was staring me in the face
It looked like the hotties were having a little love in lol
That’s when my Mother would have said
‘Well I never’
So I turned around to face the bed and this time I really had to laugh
From this angle it almost looked
as if one of the hot water bottles was feeling the cold
She’d have said it again then
‘Well I never’ lol
Almost as if it had taken a cue from me
(not sure when it learned it)
it appeared as if the lavender one who was a bit cold
felt that ‘red’ was a great source of heat
and ‘his’ side of the bed was far warmer than ‘hers’
Now did you ever think I’d be able to get a post out of an unmade bed and two hot water bottles?
What’s the silliest post you’ve ever written?
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An Old Favourite

I have an old woollen cardigan
Its red, its chunky and its fashioned in a Fisherman’s Rib
I bought it a long time ago to take overseas to be used as a jacket if need be
A trip to see family and friends – nothing fancy planned – so I didn’t take a heavy coat knowing I could always borrow one if need be
Over the years its been one of those garments
that has always given me a sense of comfort
Maybe because that trip was the last time I saw my Dad – but maybe these days because its really old and only ever comes out of the wardrobe when the weather is cold. Its one of those things that keeps me warm and also keeps me happy.
Its been washed that many times it looking its age
has become fuzzy and pilled in places and sort of grown out of shape.  

You’ll often see it hanging on the bedroom door ready to be grabbed if I think its cool in the house but not cool enough to turn the heating on

There’s a hole in a sleeve and one of the seams is coming undone – so some time or another I must find a bit of red wool and do some running repairs .

It has a mate – I have a navy one as well
After the success of the red one on that trip I went back to the shop and sure enough they still had them on sale
This one tends to live on a chairback in the kitchen

Waiting patiently ready for action once the temperatures drop. 

Its great for hanging out washing or weeding
Must be a mother’s instinct about certain colours not showing the dirt lol
Dont worry – they don’t go off the property
They are my equivalent of a mans really old sweater, the one he wears out in his shed 
The one you wouldn’t dare to thow away
Now believe it or not I found they had come back into fashion
I googled Fisherman’s Rib Cardigan and found this 
Click on the link and see all ways they came up with to wear it
  http://www.polyvore.com/knitted_fisherman_rib_cardigan/thing?id=20361721

Do you have things hanging in your wardrobe – past their use by date – but you just can’t get rid of ? 

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Here comes another one

This weather is beginning to get to me – I don’t mind sharp cold days but miserable cold rainy ones have never been my strong point.  You’d think having been raised in England – and you know what the weather can be like there – these days wouldn’t bother me – but then maybe that’s what has put me off them lol

You know, during those recent years of drought even us here in the suburbs wished like crazy for rain – and, have we had rain since the drought broke.  I remember laughing at someone who jokingly said ‘Be careful what you wish for’……………now I know what she meant lol

Anyway to pass the time away I’ve been going through some of the holiday folders from last years trip when we had a fabulous time in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland visiting friends and family. Looking through those photos I found something else in a similar vein to another post I did recently. 

Do you remember the post called Similar but not the Same – the one about the sheep in Newfoundland………..these photos of a log truck Newfoundland style could also could come under that heading.

We’d just left our B&B at Springdale and were tootling along the road when we  saw this Log Truck.  To ‘our’ eyes it looked overloaded and at one time we thought it was going to tip over

but it carried on its merry way as if nothing had happened.  The size of the tree trunks weren’t massive – in fact they were very spindly –  not like those we get in our forests close to where I live.    Needless to say we overtook and went our way as quickly and as safely as possible lol
I did get told the name of the trees but you know me – the queen of lists at home – I forgot to write it down:((
So heres a look at our log trucks – slightly different – Similar but not the Same
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Red sky in the morning

Red sky at night
Shepherd’s delight
Red sky in the morning
Sailor’s warning
Remember that one?
(I know there are other versions but that the one I remember)
I’m not sure where I ‘learnt’ it as a child but it’s been stuck in my mind for a long time
So do you think that old saying is True or False?
Heres a reasonable explanation that even I can understand lol
Whether you believe the explanation or not
there are days when it just happens to prove itself
Take a look at what was coming up over the trees very early in the morning one day last week  
And here we are a couple of hours later
A little bit of blue accompanied by a lot of greyish looking clouds
Thinking it had got rather dark inside the house a couple of hours later
I had another look outside and found this
No wonder I needed the lights on lol
Its quite a while since I’ve taken part but I’m sure
There are other skies to see here
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Kiera’s predicament

These lovely illustrations and words
come from a couple of books I’ve had for while
One is called ‘Cats’
and the other is called ‘A Morning Purr’ 
The author and illustator is  Ron Edwards
1930 – 2008
who was more well known in the bushcraft and folk scene 

The two books have been described as containing monochrome watercolours of cats, each with its own 2 line poem and they are delightful to look at as well as funny to read

Bought from Ron at a market in Port Douglas (signed copies no less)
and given to me by a son who certainly knows what his mum likes

So whats this got to do with my Kiera?
Look at the subject matter she says
A trip to the vet last week ‘cose she was licking and nibbling at the same spot
on one of her front legs
and I thought maybe she had an allergy problem
proved otherwise
Oh the embarrasment of being told 
yes, you’ve guessed
She had a few visitors:((
She is combed regularly, ‘dabbed’ regularly
and her bedding is washed and changed regularly
but these little monsters found a nice comfy  home
in her soft warm furry coat
No sign of irritation on her ‘cept for the nibbling
but they certainly were there
 So we have changed the monthly treatment ( from F to A)
and I have the prospect of ‘bombing’ the house
Cooler weather has meant she spends a lot of time
in front of the heater where its nice and warm
Thank goodness she sits on a little mat that can be washed
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Funny ol’ day

Well, after a week of doing nothing some days and running around like a hairy monster on others all Ireally wanted to do was ‘play around’ in the garden today
But the sight of these grey skies first thing turned me off a bit 

Yes there was a hint of sunshine but it really was a case of

Grey clouds to the left of me
And grey clouds to the right
Meant it was enough for me to bring out the reinforcements
Namely in the shape of my lovely blue gum boots
Certainly not new by any means
but old faithfuls that have been with me for many a year

Some drops of rain before I’d even started sent me back inside for a hot drink and a chance to do a few jobs I kept putting off

I had all day I kept telling myself as the kitchen cats kept me company as I looked out the kitchen window
I popped out to look at the sky
The rain had started to really come down giving the steps a good wash
My wellies stood there patiently waiting for me to get going
Lunchtime came and the sun arrived drying up the rain
My blue boots stood there drying off and enjoying the warmth 
But I had decided to do other things instead
Recently GoodnightGram said ‘a drawer and a chore a day’
and thats just what I did
Look at this – Tidy at last
In fact I felt so good looking at the first one I ended up doing two
Theres a place for everything and everythings in its place 
Tidying messy drawers isn’t top of my list of exciting things to do but I lost my patience with these two the other day and felt it best they return to their former glory.
Now I just need to keep them that way :))
The sun came out again but I stayed indoors and went on to do other things
Chore for the day was to clean the stove – remnants of cooking from the short patience day needed to be removed lol
It was funny but each time I turned around and looked at those two drawers I had a great big grin on my face
Just like my puddin of a puddy cat 
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Feel like a day out ?

Yes thats what Dh said last Friday
he was fed with all the wet and cold days
and he’d decided
We were going to have a day out somewhere
rain hail or shine
‘Get your comfy shoes out and something to keep your fingers warm’
That was funny seeing as how my mitts are fingerless lol
and sort your clothes out today as we are leaving early in the morning
So thats what I did 
It was sort of a surprise
but I did have an idea where we were going
when he said
‘take something to do on the way.  You’ll be in the car for a couple of hours’
Just up the road from us is a little place called Violet Town
Its not too far away – just a couple of hours – in North East Victoria
http://www.violettown.org.au/nowherefar.htm
Little is the right word as up until very recently
it had a population of less that 1000
And on the 2nd Saturday of the month it comes alive
‘Cose thats when the Violet Town Market is on!
It wasn’t the best morning to go for a drive,
there was rain, rain and more rain
as we tootled up the Melba Highway
but by the time we were on the other side of Kinglake Forest  
I saw the most beautiful double rainbow over the tops of the grape vines
and then the promise of a better day
But it turned out to be a cold, cold morning
The heavy shoes and mitts came in very handy
Lots of great things to see, fruit veg and crafts and hot food

I only took a couple of photos because my fingers were cold

and stayed tucked up inside my fingerless mitts for most of the time. 
Now lots of places have their chook raffles and meat raffles to try to raise funds
But look at this idea for a fundraiser
Superb for a place thats gets a bit nippy in the wintertime
A wood raffle lol
 
With the cost of wood these days
I’m sure there weren’t any locals who didn’t buy a ticket lol
Coming home we could see the sun on the hills in the distance
A sign that it had been a nice dry sunny day -somewhere
By the time we got to the new Yarra Glen bypass the clouds were gathering again
Thats the Dandenongs in the distance  
If you enlarge and look closely you can see the TV masts on the hill
Yes the same ones I can see from my garden
Oh theres those comfy shoes again
I’ve had them for a few years now
They will last for quite a few more I think
as they only see the light of day in the winter
I’ve been trying to post this for a couple of days
Blogger has been very trying to say the least:((
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Addition to last post

A couple of bloggers asked about the fingerless mittens in the last post.

One pointed out that I hadn’t mentioned yarn or needles.

Oops – that was a slight slip up on my part. 

I use 8ply/DK – size 4mm/UK8 needles and cast on 34 stitches – it knits up quickly and isn’t too bulky on the hands.  The pattern is for an adult ladies hand but you will most likely find it will need to be a bit bigger in the wrist for a man so just add more stitches – because I use 2×2 rib I add in multples of two – then knit the stocking stitch part longer

It usually takes just under 50grms for a pair and I normally just use acrylic but if you can find resonably priced pure wool then go for it as they will be deliciously warm.

Hope that helps
Cathy

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What I learnt this week

Its the end of the week – well in my eyes it is  
I never count the weekend
That’s just there to be enjoyed lol
I’m sitting here this afternoon cuppa tea in hand
just letting various thoughts pop into my mind  
  • I needed a hottie to warm the bottom of the bed last night
  • Winter is definitely coming – it was 6c/42f overnight
  • It was very chilly this morning but we do have blue skies this afternoon 
3pm Friday May 6th
  • This week I discovered that as soon as I put my hands into the washing up water my nose would start to itch
  • Aso its a good idea to roll up the sleeves on your dressing gown if you wear it to do the washing up – water always seems to find its way up/down those sleeves
  • That is doesn’t matter how many blogs you decide to remove from your ‘follow’ list the space on that list soon gets filled up
  • The needle used by my Dr for a recent Flu’ jab was so fine and sharp I didn’t realise he’d actually given it to me
  • When you change from knitting very fine yarn and using very fine needles to chunky yarn and thick needles it will feel as though you are knitting with broomhandles
  • And the other thing is how crazy the online catalogue at my local library is.
For instance – I wanted to refresh my mind 
about the Dewey System of numbering books 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewey_Decimal_Classification   
So not thinking about any book in particular  I wrote ‘Craft’ in the search box as thats the number I was after
There were obvious craft ones which gave me the number but I’m just baffled at some of the titles that appeared under the heading ‘words or phrase’ craft
Fanny Hill [DVD] : memoirs of a woman of pleasure
Writing a non-boring family history
Twisted Stitches: 30 Corrupt Cross Stitch and Embroidery [paperback]
In rough country : essays and reviews
Something is out there : unlocking Australia’s paranormal secrets
Daughters of the Witching Hill
Sesame Street : a celebration : 40 years of life on the street
Hunter S. Thompson : an insider’s view of deranged, depraved, drugged-out brilliance
You know that expression youngsters use
‘Go figure’
Well I’m trying to lol
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So are the days of our life

I’ve spent lots of time away from the computer this last couple of weeks – taking advantage of the sunny, dry warmish days we have had – days that were nicer than all this past summer’s days put together – outside clearing and tidying things up before the weather really changes. 
Mind you on May Day we woke to a delicious red sky 
This is how it looked when I opened the curtains near the computer
The next day the skies looked like this
And then on the third I couldn’t see any further than my nose!
Oh the joys of Autumn mornings lol
Have joined a new gym much closer to home – smaller than the  last one but with all the same facilities and classes I had before without the crowding – I walk in there to be greeted by smiling reception staff and when I walk out they say goodbye – such a change from before and I love it. Makes me want to go back and the fees are less as well – so I’m smiling all the way to good health lol  
Yep these are the views of the days of our life at the moment lol
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