My week in bullet point

• Quilting - nada. This has been a 'recovery' week after the final push to finishing the Johnson Collection piece. Considering that I really wasn't at all keen to get involved in the first place, I've really enjoyed creating the design and constructing it. That exhibition is on from now till Feb.
  

As is my wont, I have done the PPP [post project purge] otherwise known as 'cleaning up the studio and returning stuff to its proper home'.
By the end of any major quilting project, the studio end of the house [ which the architect and previous owner mistakenly called the living room ] closely resembles the aftermath of a medium sized tornado so a brief pause to tidy up is called for, before I go mess it all up again.there has also been a modicum of the mindless Christmasing - a folksie santa. If I did this pattern again, I'd make the pants and sleeves much less full. As it was, I'd cut the sleeves narrower than the pattern said and they still look huge.
Knitting - finished a baby cardi for the refugee women's group we support in Melbourne, the bluebell booties you already know about, and started a cotton polo top for master Riley for Christmas. The thread is a slubby 100% cotton circa 1969 or 70 [ 1 oz balls - can anyone remember when we changed over to 25 grams?] and I'm using the same pattern that I did back in January, just bigger. Also I've made a start on this year's crop of crochet stars and snowflakes for Christmas decorating and gift giving.

• Goats - Rosie had her CAE bloodtest yesterday so now I'll be on tenterhooks till she's given an all clear... and another in 6 months. This is the insidious disease that led to her mum, twin and the twin's babies all having to be put down. It can be dormant for years and is usually brought on by the stress of birthing/feeding. Both rosie and the babies are asymptomatic so hopefully all is ok.
  

• Rowan is mortally offended because the vet described her as 'chubby' and she is now on a diet. Rosie goes into the goat shed for 5 or 6 hours a day for some RR & R [ Rowanfree Resting and Respite]

• Cats - Sophie is back on the Phenobarbitol for her epilepsy. This vet is a treasure. He just brought the Pheno out with him when he came yesterday and didn't insist on an office visit. We stopped giving it to her because the last vet wouldn't dispense it without an office visit and bloodtests and guess what is Sophie's #1 trigger?? The car. Her #2 trigger being vet's offices and invasive tests. This is the cat that had to be massively valiumed into near insensibility [ with someone in the backseat to monitor her breathing ] just to get her up here in the first place.

• Dancing - nada - I have a teeny tiny stress fractured hoof so no clogging for a few weeks. No, the hoof itself isn't teeny or tiny, just the the crack in one of my metatarsals... and in answer to MadMad's question, probably caused by the clogging :[
  

and there wouldn't have been any bellydancing anyway, because Centrelink [ Social Security] is forcing Suze to get a paid job and so she is only teaching BD at night now. Bugger. Bum.

• Garden - after only 4mm of rain in October [ long term average 60 mm ] it wasn't looking to hopeful as the LTA for November is 0.0 mm, but last night saw us get 5mm. Keep fingers crossed for more please. The dam is currently BELOW the December 1st mark for last year [ just above those weeds nearest the camera] which was, needless to say, pretty low after 12 years of drought... but even in the midst of drought there is beauty.