Saturday, February 07, 2009

they breed 'em tough in Ballarat

not sure how coherent this post is going to be - today was the overall hottest on Victorian record - although not the hottest up here. It 'only' got to 46.2C / 115F !! ... One New Year's Eve , it got to almost 48!

I've lost track of how long this particular heatwave has gone on but we're into the third week at least. The bush is tinder dry and apparently almost identical meteorological conditions to the devastating Ash Wednesday Fires. The whole state is on tenterhooks and there have been several outbreaks of fire already though nothing close so far.

My fire plan is in place, I'm as prepared as I can be, and if it comes through, then I'll deal with it as best I can. The idea of sitting out a fire absolutely terrifies me but I'm not leaving ... and the goats will be in the bathroom if it all goes up!

Anyway, yesterday's 45C notwithstanding I still went to dance class in the morning after a coffee in town with Jeanette and then home to spend the afternoon with two hardy Ballarat knitters and their respective youngest offspring.

Ravelry friends, Jacki and Sam, arrived for lunch accompanied by young Max and Rohan - who was a bit tickled that he shared his name with one of my goats! [ although I DID explain that we spell Rowan differently because she's a girl ]
Sam commented that she's the wrong colour ... because Rohan/Rowan means little red one, or red headed child ... but even though she's a mostly white goat she WAS born with a distinctly red head, just like her namesake. Of course I completely forgot to get a photo of them together - rats! - so will have to remember that for next time.

After a light lunch, we spent a lovely, albeit hot, afternoon chatting and knitting:

This is Jacki's Clown Stripe Sock with afterthought heel: from yarn dyed by Happy Spider,

and Sam's Entrelac Cadbury's Chocolate socks using her own hand dyed yarn


Max and Rohan happily played with cars for a while and then settled in to watch a DVD

Tara emailed from Bendigo, to see if I was up for a visit, so she was duly invited to join the party, arriving just as the others were leaving and promptly going to sleep at my kitchen table while I did the run into town to get David
After she woke up again, I got to drool - at a safe distance - over her latest lot of hand dyed yarn which was about to be posted off.
Mostly sock yarn but that is alpaca laceweight there at the back in the purple. Probably a good thing that it was sooooo hot, because otherwise I would probably have wanted to roll in that alpaca.

a good day
and after everyone had gone home I got to go through the bags of yarn that Sam had collected from Ms Moggie's mum and hauled up here for me and which was the excuse for the visit.
* Marcie my sweet, there's some mohair here with your name on it!

7 comments:

Bells said...

Stay safe. xo

ps that yarn shot! Oh boy!

Rose Red said...

Great way to spend the day - good friends, yarny goodness.

Hope the fires stay unlit, and some of the rain from Queensland comes your way.

Sheepish Annie said...

The thought of fire terrifies me, too. Hopefully, all will be well but it's good to know that you have a plan, just in case.

I cannot even begin to tell you how cold it has been on this side of the world. However, I don't think I want to trade places. I'm more of a "happy medium" sort of gal. Try to stay cool!

Sam said...

bummer that we had to leave when we did, I'm very disappointed I missed seeing and patting that lovely pile of yarn! It was fun though, and I hope we can have a repeat session soon :) Next time, I'll bring something for chantelle too ;)

Nadie said...

26 deaths so far, over 100 houses lost, and the main firefront is 100km across. REALLY don't like the idea of you staying put if one comes near you.

Alwen said...

Argh, I've been trying to get that Quantum Weather Butterfly to fan its wings for you! Goodness knows we have plenty of moisture in the melting snowpack we'd be willing to send you.

I love those purple socks. They almost (almost!) make me want to try entrelac.

Jack said...

Thank you so much for having us Susan we had a lovely afternoon. It was a great pity that we had to leave as soon as Tara got there but alas the boys had swimming lessons.

Hope the fires stayed well clear of you (I have been watching the CFA website), thank goodness for today's cooler weather.