New Visitor

Just as I hoped, there is another baby magpie on the scene. Here he is waiting for Mum or Dad to feed him. If only his parents would come and gather up some of the snails I come across when I weed my garden. I could provide the poshest French cuisine just from my pot plants alone. But no, they dig up my lovely worms - big fat ones - and I wince every time I see another one being dragged from it's comfy hole. I used to make myself late for school when I was little, rescuing drowning worms from rain puddles (you could walk to school in those days) or picking them off hot pavement and popping them into grassy spots. Never mind, little magpies have to eat. Spent the morning weeding the pots (and feeding the mosquitoes) which only showed up how much re-potting I should be doing. Its all go, isn't it?
Must go now, Penny needs a walk. Hope your week- end was a good one. Bye for now, until next time.

Some strange washing?

It's not every day you see furniture hanging from a clothes line but this is how the toymakers at our woodworking club cope with the problem of getting our painted toys dry. There's never enough room in the painting shed and many's the time I've backed into wet paint and come off second best. Then someone came up with this bright idea and it works. They're dolls beds and little helicopters hanging up and some doll's cradles in the background. It's all go, at the moment, to get all the toys finished for the end-of-year giveaway event. Back at home I've still got to get the flower decorations on the doll's prams. Really must get my act together.
Bye for now, until next time.

Finished at last.

Both of my grandsons have grown past the stage of wearing Nana's knits. Though they'd never say so they are much too cool for knitted sweaters. Even their woolly caps are a special kind. The last time I made a jumper for them, one had Thomas the Tank Engine on it and the other a teddy bear flying an aeroplane. (they were 3 yrs old) So these days I spend my time knitting blankets for whichever needy cause is most prominent at the time. I must say I enjoy making blankets as they don't require much mental effort - shaping etc. and as I'm probably the most lazy knitter I know, I dodge sewing up too. I usually pick up stitches along the edge of one square and knit the end of each row into the adjacent square as I go. Sometimes I do the diagonal decrease in the centre of each alternate row that turns straight knitting into a square. I'm lucky to have a really good op-shop near home where I am able to pick up odments of wool at good prices. I try to use wool wherever possible as some countries cook on open fires and wool is the safer option. I've learned to recognise wool in two ways - one is the smell when the yarn is washed (quite distinctive) and the other is to pass the end of a strand of the yarn through the flame of a candle, quickly extinguishing the burning end and allowing it to cool. Burnt wool will crumble to ash and leave the yarn clean whereas acrylic or nylon will form a hard blob where it was burnt.
Anyway, this one's finished at last and I think I might start on some baby knitteds next, one of our neighbours is to have a baby in a few weeks. Also I have another doll to knit for. Better get cracking. Bye for now until next time.

Penny's visit

Since our dear, much loved Kelpie cross died many years ago we haven't had the heart to own another dog but I get my doggy fix every now and again by dog-sitting Penny & Pepper. Pepper you've already met, Penny is a border collie that is owned by a friend of ours who is off for a week on the South coast of NSW. Penny is very patient with me - puts up with all my soppy doggy talk and hugs and allows me to throw a ball around the back garden for her. She's a funny thing, I can't take her for a walk on my own, she gets very distressed if the man of the house doesn't come too. Once, after her repeated attempts to turn back for home, I actually had to take her right back into the house so that she could see for herself that the man of the house was not there. She was OK after that. Penny is very obedient and well behaved, she just has this thing about leaving one of us at home. She won't go without me either and keeps checking to make sure we're all together when we take her for a walk. Pepper, on the other hand, couldn't care two hoots, so long as he gets his walk. Just like humans, they're all different.
Anyway it's time for that walk so off we go. Bye for now until next time.

New Baby

The baby magpie has come to visit at last. All round and fluffy and gripping the branch in a very wobbly fashion. He doesn't know I won't hurt him so without a better camera I can't get any closer than this. That's him - that little blob of grey and white up there among the leaves. There will be another along soon as I can still hear squeaking from the nest and they usually produce more than one baby per season. Without interference he/she can be expected to live for about 20 years.
All the crocheting that is happening at present has got me inspired. Ferreting about in my old books today I have found a pattern from the seventies for a granny square hat. (I love my mess) I think I'll try it out. Watch this space.
Bye for now until next time.

Weeping buckets

Not the buckets weeping - me. Well actually just a surreptitious little tear now and again. You see, we have a niece who is a trauma nurse and she, along with several other Intensive Care nurses have put together a book, compiled and edited by Tilda Shalof, of essays describing a day in the lives of each of them. Our niece sent us a copy and I have been reading, enthralled. The battle they face to save the life of each patient defies my understanding. I don't know how they can do the work they do but I'm awfully glad they do it. Sometimes they win and, of course, sometimes the battle is lost and they feel each defeat keenly. Aren't they wonderful? May whatever Supreme Power it is that guides them continue to do so with the richest of blessings.
Raining buckets today - Oo it is luvly - our tanks are overflowing.
Bye for now until next time.

Special Anniversary

We've just arrived back from East Gippsland where we were visiting old friends. Lovely to see the area looking so green and lots of dams full, water laying in lots of hollows in the paddocks. Not a very special look for our more Northerly Aussies as they have had flooding earlier in the year but for we parched Victorians every little drop of rain is precious.
The special Anniversary? The man of the house has been in Australia for 50 years yesterday it slipped by without us even noticing. The anniversary of the most important day of my life.
Bye for now until next time