Month: May 2013

Here’s the same view from my front door as I showed last week 
Yesterday morning and again this morning I could see something different there
Something so very different to last week.
Blue skies and very little cloud 🙂

It’s funny what the prospect of a fine sunny day does to the spirit
Yesterday I went to lunch with VIEW Club friends
and came home feeling better than I had for weeks

Today I’m off to the library to return some of the books
that have kept me company during those weeks

Last year I read an article in the RM Williams Outback magazine
(http://www.outbackmag.com.au/about-the-magazine?4)
about Australian authors – female Australian authors
featuring those new authors who seemed to specialise in what is called
‘rural fiction/ rural lit’
Stories with a female main character set away from the city in a rural setting
 http://www.outbackmag.com.au/stories/article-view?841

Two I’ve just finished are by Karly Lane
North Star
Morgan’s Law

For me they were not too heavy – not too dramatic –
not too sickly romantic (or crude) – readable and believable
Here are a couple of longer in depth review you may like to read
http://bookdout.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/review-north-star-by-karly-lane/
http://bookdout.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/review-morgans-law-by-karly-lane/

Will be on the look out for her third novel
Bridie’s Choice

Thanks for all your supportive comments and emails
I’ll be doing some visiting soon
See you tomorrow

Now that the month of May has almost ended and hopefully removed all  those awful feelings of melancholy I sat down today and thought about what I’d actually done during the month.

In a couple of words 
–  Not Much –
Foggy mornings like this didn’t help much 😦

There was low cloud on The Dandenongs the day I nipped into Montose to get Kiera’s meat.  The tv masts weren’t visible at all and somehow I don’t think there was any sightseeing going on up there either!

To add to the wintery feel the car park tree had lost 90% of its leaves
making it look spindly and weak totally unlike its previous appearance

Apart from the garage clearout earlier in the month I spent most of my time in the armchair.  Reading – watching tv – knitting – oh and I had a trip to an armchair in the cinema.  Sounds miserable doesn’t it – but really, I did achieve quite a bit during my down time.  Books finished – some interesting programmes watched – more handknits finished.  All of which I’ll tell you about during the week.

What do you do when ‘life gets you down’ and there’s something heavy on your shoulders?

It hasn’t rained today
unlike countless days last week
It has even been warm today – well warmer than last week
and so far (3pm) I haven’t had the heating on either
But possibly it just felt that way because it wasn’t raining lol

This what it looked like at 10am on Sunday morning
 Storm clouds to the front 

Definitely black looking down the street from the front door.

We had a visitor on the power line up near Bert’s house 🙂
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

Looks like he had some mates in Bert’s other tree

Normally they ‘hang out’ in the big gum tree at the bottom of the back garden
No idea why they took up that position 
‘cept maybe with some of the trees losing their leaves
they can see more of the neighbourhood

It was good weather for rummaging through cupboards and making decisions
Yes – the ‘do I need it’ ones 
Looking at the back seat of my car this morning
it would appear there were oodles of things I didn’t need
The things I didn’t need went to a collection van at the shopping centre

For those of you interested
the Snow Ski Season begins here in Australia in a couple of weeks 
Ski Victoria have a fairly good website
and as some of the resorts have already had falls
they are all hopeful of a good season

Mt Buller is just over a couple of hours away  
 http://www.mtbuller.com.au/Detail/Winter/Mountain/Latest-News/335
http://www.mtbuller.com.au/Winter/ 

Mt Hotham a bit further in a slightly different direction
http://www.mthotham.com.au/news/latest/MTH_News_14-May-13_14398.asp
http://www.mthotham.com.au/

 Roll on summer!!

May is not my favourite month – this one is no different to others that have gone before.  The weather has definitely decided it knows which season it belongs to and it has been raining on and off for days. 
Cold and wet and miserable – also not my favourite weather.  

Mother’s Day in Australia is in May and call me a grump but I find all the hoo-ha over Mother’s Day annoying – I dislike the thought of my now grown children having to ponder unnecessarily over a gift for someone who doesn’t really need any more ‘stuff’ when a simple kiss and thank you would suffice – and some of them never seem to get the message.
Mind you this was a gift from our big girl
that I could never turn my nose up at.

Packaged right to the brim in a box displaying my favourite belief 
Live Laugh Love
was a homemade slice.
Delicious 🙂

These two pieces are all that remain
And of course on cold rainy days in May we have warm comfort food

That tasted delicious as well !!

After seeing the amount of wool I had accumulated
Mum remarked I’d better do some more knitting 
Well there’s no worries there
Started well before the tidy up
this is what I finished the other day

 I needed a bit of mind stimulation so this boy’s jumper/sweater ended up with a  
Plain front – Variegated back – Striped Sleeves 
(it would be lovely if someone could devise a way to get round sewing all those ends in – I’m sure they’d make a fortune out of it lol)

Oh and the colours of the back here aren’t that dark because the vari has a fawn in the mix very similar to the plain front

There are contrasting collar and cuffs
(and buttons lol)

Heres the inspiration
From an old F W Woolworth Knitting Book that’s been in my stash for at least 50 yrs – think that needs sorting as well lol
The little boy looked the image of our first born
so I had to buy the book to knit it for him didn’t I 🙂

 As you can see this time I only made a neckband and not a proper collar
Being Charity Knitting I don’t know who it’s destined for but I’m sure he or even she will look good in it
Might even have a go at another one sometime

Well it would appear Autumn has finally arrived – its so much cooler (cold even) overnight – the hottie has come out from summer hibernation and the woollen blanket is on the bed again.  Bert and Cheryl’s trees are turning and the other day I noticed the lovely big one at Montrose (whose name escapes me)  spreading a carpet of leaves in the car park near the kinder.  Looks like heaven just waiting for little ones making their way to Mum’s car – you can just see them messing about kicking the leaves in the air lol

There have been some wettish days
 – not pouring rain but what I call inconvenient rain –
mostly overnight which is much more convenient 🙂

So far this week there have been
and hopefully will be more of the BOM promised dry sunny days. 

What do you do on those days – decisions decisions – garden or sit and read (am in the middle of Gone Again by Doug Johnstone so you will notice the absence of the H word lol) – No not this time – after tripping over something and realising I could have really hurt myself – I chose to clear out our continuously in a mess garage. 

It’s large enough for one but for the 40 years we’ve lived here I can’t ever remember a car being garaged in there – it’s been used as a ‘play room’ for various kids over the years – the table tennis table just fitted as long as you didn’t get too exuberant! – nowadays there are lots of ‘things’ stored out there hence ‘the no room for a car’ but its possible  Lance  could squeeze in if I rearranged things a bit.

Out I go and at times felt a bit like Leroy
the year we babysat our big girl’s cockateil 
Wondering and then Discovering
Just what was in there lol

 

Certainly I discovered after opening previously ignored boxes, then removing and sorting it all, I had far more knitting wool/yarn than I knew I had.  Looks like my charity knitting is ok for the next year or so.  Watch this space!!    

Dishcloths anyone??

It’s Sunday May 5th 2013
And
Today’s the Day
To have some Blogland Fun
At
Mum’s Virtual Spring Fest

When you mention the word Spring
One of my favourite ‘things’ to do some years is to plant containers
As well as the usual plant pots and barrels
(These are not my photos)
(all have been ‘collected’ over many years)
(sources unknown)

There are also hanging baskets and window boxes.

In one of her posts Mum actually mentioned the word ‘scavenger’ 
and the first thought that came into my mind was ‘Planted Chairs’.
A fabulous way to recycle/use up old chairs that might be sitting around the house, not used and getting in the way or even ones acquired aka ‘scavenged’ for this purpose.

Heres what they could look like when finished
click on thumbnails to enlarge

And they are so easy to make
Ingredients
One old chair – any style – any make
A few tools to remove seat
Mesh or container
Potting mix
Plants – your choice

If you click on this link you’ll find an excellent tutorial
http://www.ehow.com/how_2343537_garden-chair-planter.html
This one’s for an old Papasan chair but the same principle applies
Planted Papasan Chair

Now in case you are wondering if I’m talking a load of old nonsence
look at this photo
Taken late in 2004 – shows our oldest grandaughter (now nearly 20!) at the bottom of our garden along with two planted wicker chairs. Chairs I found on /scavenged from the side of the road 🙂

Last year she had to do a project involving her chosen subject of music
And guess what! 
Look at what she made!

A planted chair incorporating the music theme in mosaics
something we’d all had fun with when the grandchildren were younger 🙂

Don’t forget to pop over to Mum’s and see what others are doing at the Virtual Spring Fest

Hello there
This coming Sunday, May 5th Mum (yes that’s what she’s known as)
who can be found at Mum’s Simply Living Blog  
is having a day to celebrate the arrival of Spring
in the northern hemisphere.

She’s calling it a Virtual Spring Fest
Sort of like the Virtual Spring Fair (which she had this time last year)
but not quite the same.

 Pop over and see what she’s suggesting – maybe you’d like to join in.

Visiting friends interstate is fun particularly when they have similar interests
We arrive with goodies I think they will enoy
and often leave with goodies they think we will enjoy.
This time I passed on a couple of books 
and funnily enough came home with a couple 🙂  

One was Tears of the Moon by Di Morrisey
A very prolific well published Australian author who often writes about Australia but also about Australians living in other lands

One of her ealier releases it was published back in 1995 –  I think this particular p/back copy is from about 2002. 

The other a very thick older copy of a an omnibus edition
of what is known as the Tradescant Series  
Earthly Joys (1998) – The Virgin Earth (1999)
Two novels about a gardening family set during the English Civil War 
by Phillippa Gregory  

So looking for something new to read last night I picked them up
looked at the ‘thick one’, put it down, then thought I’d give it a go.
It is one of those small sized paper backs (7″ x 4″) with ‘very’ small print
I took a quick glance at the other book 
Same there – Same size – Same small print!!

Now I know those eye ops I had earler this year were successful and I don’t need specs but reading these looks like it’s going to be a bit of a trial. 

Somewhere in the house are several pairs of those little readers
you know the ones you get from the $2 shops
they might help

If only I knew where I’d hidden them!!

Have ‘you’ had any problems locating things recently??