Knitting

I picked up some blue-grey bamboo/acrylic blend at the destash sale at the start of the month, but didn't want to commit to a whole garment in it, so made a hat!!! A very basic hat, with the simplest pattern of all, but it was a new adventure for me, and I followed the pattern and everything. With a pompom.

I'm glad I only did a hat because it wasn't nice to knit with - both slippery and sticky at the same time. Yuck. I also bought some lemon yellow acrylic because it was incredibly cheap, and a full cone of pale green mohair for $5, so decided to knit another hat with both fibres together.

I'd never heard of holding two yarns together before I started cruising through ravelry but apparently it's really common, and gives you a nice fuzzy yarn from the mohair but stronger and not as scratchy. I didn't think it would be any good at all but it was (a) easy to do and (b) lovely when knitted up. It even made the two quite ugly colours look reasonably pretty! Astonishing. 

The yarn was a bit thinner so I should have added more stitches so the hat is a bit smaller. Not that I needed even one beanie! I will see if either of the children have cold heads. 

The cat was not too thrilled by our photo session. This is back to the time of the year where the sun buckets in the kitchen door ... she lies there sunning her fat tummy and occasionally a tiny lizard wanders in and she can stalk it. Cat Heaven.

No-dig bed

After being inspired by the community garden, I set up a no-dig bed - after the very-much-dig-several-times bed with the horse poo I thought it might be an easier method. We have had mostly unsuccessful experiments with this before (potatoes in the front lawn, not great) but now we have more time, no expectation of results, plenty of space and way more patience. So I've gone with another patch in the western paddock, under some maples.

The grass was not happy there, as you can see. I did a layer of cardboard, then a layer of compost, then a layer of horse poo and then gave it a good soaking. 

I will chuck some broad bean seeds on it this week (low expectations, it's quite shady) and then put some dry mulch on it (or wait for the leaves to fall) and see what grows. Spring will probably be planting potatoes in the traditional ground-breaking way, but I'll see how it's travelling. 

It was a damn sight easier than the mattocking, digging, digging again, mulching and weeding of the other bed ... but not as easy as it would have been if the garden hose would reach that far! I seasol'd the compost layer by carrying a watering can fifty metres each time to the tap ... telling myself that I do it for exercise and fresh air so the more carrying of watering cans the better. Hmmmm.

To contrast with someone who actually knows what he is doing, garden guy is building us a new bridge over the creek. It was thirty years old so had lasted quite well. 

I don't think I mentioned but my husband rang the couple who originally laid out the garden about 25 years ago - they retired into it and she was a very keen gardener - they planted so much, set out most of the beds, worked with the old trees and existing beds, planted all the roses ... he was on the phone for about an hour and a half wandering around the garden while she asked questions about where everything was at!!!! Amazing, because they are quite elderly now, but she seemed to remember all the details about plants and trees. Anyway they said that the bridge was done by the people before them, so that was in the 1990s. The uprights are still OK but we're having to replace the joists and treads so it's strong enough to drive the ride-on mower over!!! Nothing could POSSIBLY go wrong...

Artwork

My art classes operate on a six week term which is a nice opportunity to change focus. The classes just keep running without a break, but we renew and pay every six weeks, and I've been doing something different each time. After the foray into charcoal portraits I thought it was time to get back to some watercolours, so the first three weeks I painted this house, which is at the end of our street, back towards town.

Here it is half way through! I love that the teacher makes us take photos of the progress, it is good to look back on.

This is the original photo. Some artistic license may have been involved in the composition and colours ... this house also has alpacas but I am NOT up to alpacas yet. Oddly shaped.

I did use the charcoal skills in the art group drawing session though, where we had a (fully clothed) model reading a book. These two were both the same guy, and neither are particularly like him. I really didn't capture the essence, but it's hard to see unless you know the person in question. 

But it was fun, and as ever I enjoy seeing what other people do. Mine are quite careful, compared to the others, I need to loosen up.

Melbourne

We've just had a few days in Melbourne to see number two's new play!!! As a writer, not an actor ... it is very exciting to see an actual professionally performed production written by our child. The play was great - very funny, very well-paced and, entirely objectively, a work of complete genius that should be studied by future generations :) It had a two week run with good houses and mostly good reviews - as in largely positive but with some criticisms - and all in all a wonderful experience in going from draft script to closing night. We are obviously very impressed!

And of course a few days in Melbourne is always a nice change. Number two has moved flats again so we got to explore another new part of town - an airbnb on the 10th floor this time. It was a really nice area, and good to see the spread of the city out to the edges. 

We caught up with old friends who lived on the bay, so went for a walk with them. It's not one of the world's great beaches but good to walk your dog, and there's some nice swimming spots. 

We went out to Abbotsford Convent which is now a community centre of varying stripes - beautiful gardens and interesting buildings. And had a poke around the shops in the middle of town of course (art supplies and yarn stores! yay!!!) and went and saw Book of Mormon which is having a Melbourne run. Hilarious, we laughed and laughed and listened to the soundtrack on the nine hour drive home. 

Wagon o' poo

Next step on the new bed was to dig in this wonderful load of horse manure, from the neighbours over the back, who have two miniature horses. Nothing miniature about these turds, let me tell you. We also had the neighbours over for a drink - it seemed a bit rude just to use them for their poo - which was very lovely; they are great company.

I think I will keep the seeds in pots over winter, our frosts can be quite brutal. But then I need a greenhouse! What to do? We got the guy who builds the veggie cages around and we are now planning how big we want it (probably 12 m by 9 m, for six beds plus fruit trees) so we can get a quote and get it built! Very exciting.

We've had a bit of rain so everything's green again, and the roses are getting another flush, which is affirming. I am not sure that I did anything right with the roses but they seem unstoppable. 

Here's a photo from July last year when I was worried I'd pruned a bit too close to the sun with the front beds ... and then one from a couple of days ago. Turns out, no need for concern! In fact it could probably do with a bit more of a tidy up this winter....

Finishes! sewing AND knitting

I went down the coast by myself for a couple of days last week and had a little sewing retreat. I love doing this - making a huge mess, doing nothing but sewing and the occasional walk - not cooking properly or doing chores or anything useful. It was too rainy to swim.

Some more linen three-quarter pants - I don't really need more but I'd had the linen-cotton blend fabric for ages so I thought it needed using. And I've worn them a couple of times already, which is good. They have a side zip and darts rather than elastic, very fancy.

Some corduroy shorts - the corduroy was from the quilter's donated stash (we were positively encouraged to help ourselves if we thought we would use anything) - and I had thought pants but there wasn't enough material. Corduroy shorts are a bit peculiar, but they've been great! I did a fly front zip and everything, so they feel like I'm wearing my posh shorts, rather than my casual shorts. This is my life now, my formal clothes are shorts.

The downside of the craft de-stash and sorting out the quilters' donations was this drying rack of shame ... a small fraction of the lengths that I squirrelled away without really thinking I was picking up anything at all. And that's not the half of it, I think I scored nineteen dress lengths of various bits. Slightly shameful, because I absolutely do not need any more clothes, but they were on their way to landfill, so what is a person to do? They mostly smelled like old lady though, so washing was in order.

And lastly but definitely not leastly is my first ever jumper that I knitted. Isn't it amazing? Thank you Florence for the free pattern, incredibly detailed instructions and the two hour youtube video that I watched on half speed, I could not have done it without you. It is 800g of pure wool so perhaps just for the deepest winter, but I am so impressed with myself, despite the many obvious errors. I was so impressed I got my husband to take a nice photo, instead of a mirror selfie.

I have bought a new pattern and some new wool is being shipped as we speak! New hobby unlocked!!!!

Random gardening

It's still a bit hot and humid to do much gardening ... but humid is good for growing. We had some proper rain finally and the plants are relishing it. And I am doing something I have never done before - growing from seed!!!! I cannot imagine this will work but seeds are cheap. 

These are very hardy perennials for the new bed that I haven't finished yet. I'm not sure if I'll plant them in the bed this year or leave them in pots in a sheltered spot until spring. We were planning an overseas holiday in spring but now we're reluctant to fly anywhere ... most flights from Australia go through the Middle East or you can go the other way through the US and who wants to do that? They don't do transit and I will never be in the mood for US immigration. First world problems, that are making me second guess my seed planting and propagation schedule. Did the various regimes think of that? They did not.

This is the tomato bush that mysteriously popped up in the middle of the rose and hellebore bed off the verandah. We have harvested five very delicious tomatoes and there may be more. 

This canna lily is looking lovely in the big blue pot. I like pots in garden beds, and cannas are tough enough for anything. 

And this little fellow came to quilters this week! It is a brush tailed possum joey - about 90 days since gestation so eyes not open yet, and would normally still be in the pouch but his mum was killed. So now he sleeps in a little fleece bag and gets carried around to events in a calico shopping bag and drop fed ten times a day. Super cute, although in NZ possums are a feral pest and we kill them, so I have had to do some mental adjustments.

Basketweave strings

Sorry Pam, but here's another quilt - if it's any consolation it is a real utility one. When we were sorting out all the donated material and trying to get it in shape to be sold there were all sorts of odds and ends going into 'the tub'. So a couple of us decided to make string quilts from the tub and this is mine! The scraps are pieced over squares of calico (there were two whole tubs of that) without any thought or design.

Not pretty in any way! But a quilt, that can be used for something, and all from real scraps.

We had a go at the stash sale up in Gunning over the weekend. There's a big craft group there that puts this on every year but this is the first time our little quilt group had a table. We did OK - didn't get rid of masses of stuff but certainly got rid of some, and made a few hundred dollars to keep the lights on for another month or two ... and the material is all prepped now so we can try again in our own town later on.

I had quite a fun day chatting with crafty people. Gunning is about an hour and half's drive away so it was an early start (still dark! lucky I didn't hit a roo) but quite an interesting drive on roads I haven't been down for a while (if at all). I was resolved not to buy anything but I failed. All yarn! I have finished my first sweater and will take photos of it when it's blocked, so now I'm looking for the next project. Just what I need, another hobby.

There's been a lot of driving this week - Thursday we went in to Canberra to pick up our new (not new, new to us) ute! Very exciting. We bought it off a friend's 17 year old daughter, who chose an enormous diesel twin cab as her first car ... and after about six months has realised it is not the most practical vehicle for suburban life so we happily took it off her hands. It is a tank but our cars were not cutting the rural life. Friday I went back into Canberra for drinks for a colleague who is stopping work and lunch with another friend who has also just gone on long leave pending retirement. I enjoyed both but not as much as these pigeons enjoyed outside the Vietnamese cafe where we had lunch.

Big gardening and little gardening

It's been hot and dry here for the past few weeks - this afternoon yet another set of storms managed to sweep to the north and the south with just a few showers for us. A few showers are good, but a day of rain would be better. The little gardening is a new garden bed over in the west paddock where it's rocky and dry, with lots of wind and western sun. At the moment it's mostly grass - struggling - so we're going to create more beds around the rocks and put tough things in them. 

This is the one that we're doing first as proof of concept. It looks tiny but by the time I mattocked and spaded the edges, then killed the grass (with round-up) and spent an hour this morning mattocking/spading/forking over about one quarter of it ... I think it's good we just started with one bed. I'll keep turning it over and put some compost in it, then put in some perennials in March and fingers crossed they survive the winter and take off in the spring. I do not know what I am doing but that is what the internet is for.

And this is the big gardening - for an eyewatering sum we are slowly getting the big dead pine down. A massive branch (about eighteen inches in diameter) had broken off and was just dangling there, which gave us the push we needed to finally get someone in.

They have taken down the broken one, and some of the others, but to get the remainder they need to go away and get other equipment. Or something, I don't get close enough to understand. They are trying to avoid squashing the garden shed which is good - I would be VERY CROSS after spending all that time painting the inside. 

At least there's plenty of firewood! But the strawberry bed was a bit of a casualty.

Central coast

We had a weekend away somewhere I'd never been - the Central Coast of NSW, which is an hour or two north of Sydney (about four and a half hours drive from here) and seems to be an aggregation of small towns, beachside villages, bad roads and wonderful views. A friend has moved up there so a few of us went to stay for a weekend and have a nose-about.

This is the most stunning view from her house. Cursed steps and a terrifying driveway ... but worth it when you get there. Much wine was drunk on the balcony.

We went for lovely walks along various beaches (too cold for swimming), a couple of pub lunches, fish and chips on the waterfront... it was lovely. A very relaxed vibe, although our friend commutes into Sydney twice a week - two hours each way! I can't imagine, I used to get cross when my twelve-minute commute turned into 15 at rush hour. 

This is the light pole at the local boat ramp - like a trophy wall? But with fish skulls? Some of them were high enough to need a ladder, which is an awful thought. How (and why) would you do it?

We stopped for a night in Sydney on the way back to test drive another car - we are buying an electric one - but didn't do anything exciting there (it was raining).

Bicycling ensemble

I have been biking about in any old thing, which is fine, but skirts tend to whoosh up at the front and flash your underwear at people, wide-legged pants get caught in the chain, shorts ride up your bum and I am far too fat to do my errands in leggings. Actually I am think I am just far too old to do my errands in leggings; nobody under the age of about 35 seems to worry about body shape, which is good for them, but I cannot revisit my ideas on showing the shape of my fat arse at this late stage.

So I made some knee-length culottes! Bloomers! Bicycling pantaloons! They are very practical and comfortable and they have flowers on them.

I bought the cheap rayon at Rathdowne fabrics in Melbourne last July and it was easy to sew and is lovely to wear. My pantaloons even have pockets. 

"Who sent you?"

This is a scrap quilt called "Who sent you?" from some song lyric, as usual. It is a floribunda block which I have done a few times before, but this time in old-school browns and creams with a bit of red.

I love the block and I love the colour scheme, so this was fun to make. The only problem is my machine went on the fritz half way through the free motion quilting - nothing serious, it just needs a service and kept skipping stitches - so it is partly quilted in flowers and partly just straight lines. 

It doesn't seem to matter too much. Cat included for scale.