Playing with threads

Knitters and quilters can be divided into two groups:
namely those who stash and those who don't

It is a fact generally acknowledged that I very much belong to the first camp

My quilt stash requires its own room
and while the wool and fibre stash is slightly more modest, it is still threatening to break out of the good-sized wardrobe that houses it

I own several sewing machines, more than one spinning wheel, dozens of knitting needles and a substantial collection of scissors.

So I was a bit mortified to realise that my darling daughter was making do with a pair of supercheap plastic handled embroidery scissors.

Obviously that situation could be, and should be, easily remedied
and so it was
... a bit of playing with fabric and threads and one of those cute little flexi-frames ensured that her new scissors didn't go to their new home naked
and to make sure that they didn't get lonely, I made them some little friends
a needle book
and a
pin cushion

What's On Your ... ?

I'm instituting a new feature for Wednesdays when I don't necessarily have anything else to post [ although I actually did have an alternative today - but it can just as well wait for tomorrow ]
I'm calling it - as you can see up top there - "What's On Your ... ?"

and I'm hoping that if you are similarly challenged for blog-fodder, that you'll perhaps follow my lead. Sometimes it will just require you to post a photo. Sometimes there might be backstory needed. You don't need to wait for a Wednesday to join in either.

so today I want to know "What's On Your ... FRIDGE ?"

If you're particularly game, you can post a photo 'as is' but I promise that I won't think any less of you if you feel the need for a bit of pre-photoshoot tidying-up [ and who's to know unless you tell them ?]
Even if there's nothing on there - which I find difficult to visualise - prove it !
Anyway
here's mine
you can just make out the corner of the computer there to the left [ it lives in the space that would've originally been meant for a free-standing freezer ]
and I'm sure it will come as no great surprise that it's covered in things like this:


I especially love my set of 'create-a-cat-poem' word magnets bought over at Daylesford
even though they make cleaning the outside of the fridge an absolute pain in the bum
people leave me little messages
and it's fun to watch them hunt for just the right word ... to ponder whether they are 'allowed' to disassemble someone else's poem in order to create their own.
Some ask first
Some don't
One particular visiting little person was kept occupied for almost an hour and protested strongly when she had to go home
On the next visit she checked to see whether anyone had moved 'her' words and was first incensed that they had, and then slightly mollified when I told her that they'd been saved for posterity in a photo.
Sentiments range from the poetic

to the enigmaticSo I wonder ... what does my fridge say about me - other than the obvious bit that I luuurve felines ?
and now it's YOUR turn
please show me
what's on your fridge
and come back here with a link

Cat Wars

MissC is not a happy girl



- I suspect Sophie

Here comes the rain again !

This is the time of the year when we expect statements like " the state is a tinderbox" ... when daily maximum temperatures are over 30C for weeks at a time, and my garden languishes, then bakes and scorches

January 2009 was the driest on record for this area - precisely 0.00mm of rain -
so the 20 something mm [ bit less than an inch ] that we received in the first 30 days of January 2010 may well have been piddling, but it was a whole lot better than last year.

Lunchtime yesterday rolled around and it had already reached and exceeded the expected max in the mid 30s, the sky was a clear cornflower blue that almost reconciled me to the outside temperature.
Almost
but not quite
and I have to say that I was a little sceptical about the 'possible thunderstorm' forecast

Oh ye of little faith!
... how could I have doubted the Bureau of Meteorology?

Even with the curtains drawn, by mid afternoon, I could tell that it was clouding over


then the wind picked up and the temp dropped 10 degrees in as many minutes
so I took camera [ and dog ] in hand, and went out to sit on the verandah to enjoy the man upstairs' light-and-sound show


Thunder and lightening a plenty for a while [ which I tried to photograph without any real hope of success ]
and then, as quickly as it had rolled in, the rain was gone


leaving as much in the rain gauge as had fallen for the whole rest of the month
a happier garden
less dust
four sodden and complaining goats
and this:
which is a pretty spectacular way to say good bye to January in my book

Nothing to blog about ... but has that ever stopped me ?

I miss blogging for all of two days and get multiple queries as to my status ... and that strikes me as a very good thing.
It's a very comfortable - and comforting - thought that people are watching out for me ...
but there's really no news today
no quilting, knitting, crochet or spinning has been happening [ because I'm procrastinating about the awful moment when I have to come to grips with unpicking the hand quilting on the current project, unbasting it, and changing the batting. Then rebasting and starting over again.]
There was a modicum of gardening, and a modest amount of goat wrangling
but basically I continued to do what I've been doing most of since January 1: namely a lot of reading.


**January:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling
The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown ( disappointing )
Loving Richard Feynman - Penny Tangey ( Young adult - okay except the weak ending )
From Dead to Worse - Charlaine Harris
Living Dead In Dallas - CH
Green Mill Murder - Kerry Greenwood
Blood and Circuses - KG
Ruddy Gore -KG
Urn Burial - KG
Raisins and Almonds - KG book 10
Death Before Wicket - KG
Away With the Fairies - KG
Murder In Montmartre - KG
Queen of the Flowers - KG
Murder In The Dark - KG
The Persian Pickle Club - Sandra Dallas
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams
The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul - DA
Cocaine Blues - KG
Forbidden Fruit - KG book 20
Dead Until Dark - CH
Club Dead - CH
Skin Trade - Laurell K Hamilton
Seventh Son - Orson Scott Card
Red Prophet - OSC

and yes, I am a fairly fast [ some might say voracious ] reader. I'm also trying to get out of the habit of slouching in front of the idiot box till the wee small hours.
Well, at least when there's no knitting, etc. in the offing :]
It's not like there's actually anything on worth watching most of the time [ although all bets are off once the Winter Olympics starts ]

It has also been pointed out that there have been no pictures of the dawg for a while, so, mainly for Glennie and Moggie, here's a couple of totally gratuitous pics of his Beariness: one taken mid '09,

and here's his Lordship with the current [ half grown out ] summer haircut

The Postcard Project revisited

I've written before about the remarkable Elizabeth McClun

Here is a young and highly educated woman who knows that her time is very limited, and is not only facing that with great courage; she is determined to spend what is left to her in making the world a more joyful place for anyone ... ANYONE ... who makes the choice to contact her and to ask her for a postcard.
About a year ago, I made that choice ... to ask Beth to write to David, rather than for myself, because he almost never gets mail.**
I certainly didn't realise until his first card arrived, that it would be a mini work of art, filled with stamps and stickers to create a complex layer of images.

His cards are the last thing he sees at night and the first thing in the morning.


I'm not at all sure that he understands their significance, but I read each one to him as they arrive and he chooses which side will be displayed and precisely where it will be placed.

It makes me happy because it makes him happy

and then

not so long ago, a beautiful, ethereal postcard arrived

- made of special Japanese washi paper - and not for David but for me

it arrived at a time when I was feeling less than stellar



and then this week there were two more cards ... one each ... but these had been posted back in November and had gotten 'lost' at the post office along with several Christmas cards and some very overdue cards for my birthday. I suspect that they'd probably all been sitting in the wrong box [ maybe an unused one ] and had just been discovered and hastily shoved into the right one.
However it happened, now I have two reminders of Beth's love, compassion and bravery ... and David has three.

Go visit Beth
Read what she has to say.
and ... ask for a postcard. I know some of you will hesitate
but don't.
They say that you don't get something for nothing in this world. That everything comes with strings attached.

The only 'string' attached to this, that I can see, is that perhaps you will make a connection with, and end up caring about, someone that you might otherwise not have met.


** The trickle-on effect:
After the first time that I wrote about Elizabeth's Postcard project, lovely Tracy from Zimbabwe contacted me through Ravelry and then sent Dave a card to add to his 'collection'. Thank you Tracy from both of us.

and just bye the bye - I used PSP - pretty ineptly - to 'white-out' my address, I haven't actually taken to the postcards themselves with the Tip-ex [ just in case anyone was worried that I'd defaced them in the interests of internet privacy ]