Clean washing? What clean washing?

Bear proves once again that he has been raised by cats:

Grrr!

I've just spent over an hour lovingly crafting and polishing a post on the evolution of the crochet bag made to carry my darling daughter's yoga mat to class. I'm sure you would've been amused ... enthralled even.

the Internet ate it

so here's your lot for today:






Panda Fuchsia [ cotton blend ]
4mm hook
no pattern

and this is supposed to be Spring

... The scorcher continues - although not quite at the revolting level of Wednesday

the last four days have 'only' been around the 35C/95F mark

absolutely not fit weather for [wo]man nor beast

so the Weasleys spent the day asleep under a bush, but they emerged for long enough to make unflattering comments about Bear's new short summer look


and here he is treating them with the utter disdain that such rudeness deserves


"Blast! How can you tease someone who ignores you ?"

[ well actually he didn't say 'blast' but I can't repeat what he did say because I don't use fowl language ]

It's too darn hot

It's been one of 'those' weeks.
You know the kind where you have plenty of fodder for posts, lots of photos to share
and no time or inclination to craft a decent post.

It is quite possible that some of that lack of inclination may have something to do with the fact that the digital equivalent of mercury has been registering over 30C all week [ that's mid 80s and above, Fahrenheit ] and right now it's sitting on 40.1C
... and for you on the 'heading into winter' side of the planet, that translates as 104F
[ and I still don't have functioning A/C ]

All of which makes me very glad that the date for Bear's summer haircut had finally arrived.
There are a lot of good reasons to use a groomer ... but in the bush in summer there are 2 main reasons when one owns a long haired dog.
The obvious one has to do with comfort in the heat ... but the more important reason are the ever present grass seeds.
They are a huge problem and can work their way in between toes, inside ears and cause all manner of nasty results

So this was Bear at 11am and before he saw the lead and the car keys, put two and two together and hid under my bed.

This
is Bear at 1pmand yes I am sure that I got the right dog back !

and thanks to my blogging-friend Groomer Angie in Tennessee who gave me some really great tips on how to find the right dog groomer

All the news that's fit to ...

It seemed like a simple enough idea really - pop Rosie and Robbyn on their chains, lead them out the front and get them to act as lawn mowers on the grass ... ahem ... weeds ... growing along the side of the carport and the driveway.
Normally this gets done through September/October/November, gradually moving further away from the house but, strange as it may seem, wrestling with a 90 kg / 200 pound critter was not on the list of approved post-operative activities so it had to wait until I felt up to it

that's their normal paddock behind the fence

I wasn't about to leave my caprine Houdinis unattended ... not if I wanted to still have a rose garden when all this was finished [ a collar and chain mean very little to a truly determined goat ] so I settled down with a comfy chair, cuppa, Bear and the newspaper

"Whatcha doin' Mum?"
Reading, huh ?

as promised

My ravelry queue has several hundred patterns in it - there's a whole sub list for arms and hands -
So you'd think there'd be no problem on deciding which goth-ish gauntlets were needed to complete a costume for DD's work 'do' in December

... there are a lot of really nice gauntlet / armwarmer / fingerless glove patterns out there ... but somehow I still ended up creating something new

Now you have to bear in mind that she wants these for the start of our summer, so above the elbow in anything other than cotton would potentially be unbearable to wear
... but then with cotton there's that whole lack of stretch when you need it, coupled with the tendency to stretch sideways right when you don't want it to [ so having opera length gauntlets stay up - without resorting to ribbon - was an interesting technical issue ]
we decided to go with lengthwise garter stitch not unlike my Frothy Gothy wristwarmers and the first one was finished while Nadie was up here this week
there was a slight hitch when the cord on my KP's came adrift from its mooring, spilling the stitches [ which when we're talking black and lace and at night is never a good thing ]

which required a restart on #2, and it is entirely possible that some bad words were said, but thanks to the wonders of Craft Glue, we are again underway

Monday Miscellany

It was hot and humid again, so much of the day was spent doing various 'vegging out inside activities with David, Bear and Nadie.

The television figured prominently
We have worked our way through Ironman, some Harry Potter, and now we are engaged in a Red Dwarf marathon of sorts [ but only till 9.30 cos I have to watch Mythbusters ]

It was far too humid to even contemplate being under a quilt-in-progress, and reading might have been construed as unsociable when DD is only up here for a couple of days.

Normally I'd say that knitting was just as unlikely as quilting, but the next project in the pipeline required working in cotton so I happily ignored the slowly growing miles of boring stocking stitch that may - by next football season - realise it's potential as a a Melbourne Footy Jumper for grandson Riley. I haven't photographed the new project yet, or even listed it on Ravelry, so I'll save that for the morrow [ which could well be a sad day as there is a funeral/memorial service to be sung at and I probably won't want to blog about that ]

so basically you're getting a few shots of the garden this week, taken before the inevitable heat damage and the downward spiral into summer ruin

Here against an unidentified pink daisy and Larkspur, the first of the Love-in-a-mist which started flowering only in the last couple of days.
I've been watching the delicate, feathery fronds grow larger for weeks, waiting for them to bud. Just love these flowers.
Pierre De Ronsard is just getting started but is absolutely covered in buds - dozens of them

Against a background of lavender and stock, the latest lot of iris - and I have NO IDEA who gave me these ones. They just appeared!
and this Fruhlingsmorgen (Spring morning) rose was a houswarming pressie - and again, I have no idea who from because there was no card. It was just there after the party.


Someone out there probably thinks I'm the rudest beggar in creation for not saying thankyou but I've asked all the likely suspects to no avail.

and lastly,these petunias were a single $2 pot bought last February - $2 well spent I'd say!!

here comes the rain again

Although it can, and in summer regularly does, get very very hot up here, it's generally a dry heat ... much drier than in Melbourne ... so generally I can cope with slightly hotter temps than I ever could when I lived further south

but
humidity is not now and never was my friend

so when we had a lot of this yesterday
[ cue Julie Andrews singing "Raindrops on roses and ... "]

followed by 33 degrees today [ 91 .4 F]

you can imagine that it all got a bit sticky and unpleasant


and we still have a month to go before we even hit the start of summer

blerk

and this last one is Bear letting me know that he would take it as a personal favour if I could arrange his summer cut-down [ haircut ] asap before he melts


and the heavens have just opened again, accompanied by the man upstairs' light show, so I'd better shut down the computer for the night

A Thursday Treasure

One of the many groups of things that I collect are postcards ... vintage as well as the ones purchased by friends and rellies on their travels.
No one ever needs to worry about what to bring me back - a postcard or two and I'm a happy vicarious traveller.

This particular habit was started when I was a little person and used to spend many an afternoon with my grandparents, pouring over the cards - which I eventually inherited - that my maternal grandfather had sent home to his parents and sisters during his time in the Australian Army in France and Belgium during WWI, and then from England where he was sent to recuperate after being wounded quite badly [ and subsequently met my English grandmother but that's another story ]

Unfortunately my collection doesn't contain one of these:
an embroidered French silk postcard [ Google image ]

maybe one day I'll find one I can afford

but
in the meantime
I do have this

an embroidered French silk handkerchief sachet that he sent home to his mama

it's a little fox spotted thanks to my own dear mum's appalling habit of keeping everything in plastic *

but inside

oh, inside

is this beautiful, delicate, pristine-as-the-day-it-was-finished, silk hankie


which on the 24th of October next year will be carried by my darling girl on her wedding day

This is something I've been planning ever since I found it amongst mum's effects when she passed in '94.
Luckily for my long cherished plans and dreams, Nadie does want to carry it as her 'something old' or maybe her 'something borrowed'


* and you'll probably be happy to know that since '94 it's been wrapped in archival tissue

Local shame exposed

If one is heading towards Bendigo, the next hamlet over is Harcourt, proud home of the Apple Festival and some of the best apple pies this side of Tassie.
These days the newly extended Freeway bypasses it completely ... the road through Harcourt and winding up over the hills through Harcourt North is the road less travelled.
As well as some spectacular scenery, it is also the home of a certain rowdy element who like to hang out on top of a large rock high above the North Harcourt Road.

I don't think I've ever gone past less than 2 or 3 local layabouts up there,
and I have counted up to 13 at a time ... in the middle of the day too
Yesterday there were only five carousing in the mid-afternoon sun as Robyn and I drove past -

and before you bother clicking on the above, I've cropped it so that you can see the miscreants more clearly:
shocking behaviour really!

Guinea Fowl Husbandry 101

Graham, the Chook Guy, had told me that Ethel'd probably start nesting around October / November and he's a man who knows his chickens
... apparently the demise of her beloved wouldn't be enough to interfere with the demands of Mother Nature

I've noticed Ethel spending an unusual amount of time in the garden in front of my sewing room as opposed to her usual haunts in the carport, with the goats, and atop the cat-run.

Sure enough, a little gentle sleuthing uncovered her secret ...

Ms Ethel's been a busy girlie

a nest sheltered by all the lavender and tucked in under my David Austin 'Leander' rose - obviously a bird of taste and refinement.

So far she's laid ten.
These eggs are infertile because of Fred's premature demise, so I have [almost] no qualms about eating them and the other three are currently sitting in my fridge.

Apparently, so long as I leave her a few, she'll keep laying at the rate of one a day for the next month or so

Guess Who ?

Me in early '73

cat vs bird part 2

Today was a glorious day with a high in the mid 20s [about 77F ] after an overnight low of ... 2 [ a just above freezing 36F ]

None of the avian visitors today were quite as photographically obliging as that little Striated Pardalote yesterday, so here's a couple more of the photos I took of the sequence of events:


... now this next one is a bit hard to see in its small form but if you'll indulge me and click to open big, you'll see that the little guy is in mid hover as he reacts to one of MissC's lunges:



"Where'd he go ?"

and a young man's fancy ...

As we've already discussed this week, one of the signs of Spring is the re-emergence of all things brown-and-slithery

a much more pleasant harbinger is the arrival of some of the more transient birds:

This young fella was very taken with his own reflection in my 'less than pristine' kitchen window this morning and spent about half an hour trying to persuade the bird in the glass that he would be an entirely desirable and admirable mate.

Even my careful approach with the camera didn't do anything to cool his ardour - when I was about 6" away from him I may as well not have been there
and even when MissC discovered him
and went into full stalking mode, he mostly ignored her only taking flight momentarily each time that she rushed the glass

According to my bird books he is a Striated Pardalote [ left of the page ] isn't he a gorgeous young dandy ?

and if you scroll back up to that second photo you may just be able to see the tiny red spot on his wing

and I think we can take it as read which of this week's visitors was the more welcome !