I am still trying to figure out how to change the font...
Actually, I have been busy doing a million other things (as usual).
Going backwards through my mind - this week I have a(nother) head and chest cold. Bit over this diseased state. Maybe I will be able to sweat it out - it is headign to the 30s again, with Total Fire Ban in the Mallee and the bush is all dried off and stressed looking. Already.
Last weekend was Maldon Folk Festival. I worked in the Festival Office on Friday night, wrist-banding performers (lots of catch-ups!), then went over to the Maldon Hotel adn bopped along to The Go Set - sent Hal (S3) a pic and he posted on FB ''It is a sad upside down world when I am in bed at 11 and my Mum is out raging to my favourite band at midnight''. Poor man - he has still got 3 ''old man'' vertebrae and herniated discs and a broken spirit from workign with homeless kids for so long. (Hugs, my boy).
On the Saturday I had Fred Smith staying again. This time without a vehicle so was also driver, as well as roadie for him.
Saturday, 8 November 2014
Monday, 6 October 2014
The Boat Garden
The Boat Garden has turned a wilderness at the front into a circular driveway.
This is what it now looks like with some plantings. It is a Memory Garden- with lots of cuttings and bits from family and friends.
And some self sown lettuces, too...
This is what it now looks like with some plantings. It is a Memory Garden- with lots of cuttings and bits from family and friends.
And some self sown lettuces, too...
The plastic bag (centre back) has an elderflower in it that is going into another bed I have been preparing for a few months. Growing stuff here is REALLY tough - there hasn't been ay soil since 1853 when it was all sluiced intot he creek by gold miners...
The Tonka trucks were a tip find :)
And that is p[oor old Trevor, about 100 years old in person years, and a recent epileptic diagnosis. He seems to be settlign down OK on phenobarbitones.Or methanphetamines. Or something the vet gave me for him :)
How is that Auntie Glennie?
Tuesday, 30 September 2014
Not quite the annual catchup...
Just a tiny post cos I am trying to tidy this blog up and make it look better. Whatever I do the text stays some idiot font and the page looks 'orrible!
Just a tiny post cos I am trying to tidy this blog up and make it look better. Whatever I do the text stays some idiot font and the page looks 'orrible!
A Ten stitch shawl (with Noro) I am making.
A little grandboy in a static laden 'jumpoline'!!!
The new circular driveway gardenbed in front of Banaghaisge :)
Small farmer with lambses.
My Smooth Haired Collie who it turned out I was allergic to. Not all of him, just his fluffy underwool coat. I miss him so much. He is just a pup (not even desexed here. But you can hardly tell...
Quality Control.
S4 Marsh's farewell party. I asked him what he was making. He said ''Hangovers''. And it was true. He is now working in Germany.
Wednesday, 13 November 2013
I am still here!!!!
I know - more than 12 months since my last post.
Sorry!
Ah, what a year. Of change and growth and loss and gain!
I gained 2 grandboys - both born on December 14. But not twins! Arthur was ten weeks early at 11.47 a.m., Elliot was two weeks late and born at 11.47 p.m. The amazingly clever darlings of my two older sons, cousins three months and 12 hours in age difference. They are both doing extremely well, sweet babies!
I had a scary time in April when my belly went from it's usual 'looking eight months pregnant' 125 cm to 85 cm and I lost 13 kgs in one week and was really unwell. Then three weeks later I wasn't unwell at all. Since then I have been remarkably lively. The cysts are still in my liver (and some more in my kidneys for luck, grrr) but not the HUGE pregnant belly I have had so much for the last 2.5 years. And no more surgery - had a second opinion and that surgeon also said he wouldn't operate. But now I am getting back to me!
My darling neighbour Maureen died at the end of February. She had breast cancer ten years before, and it came back in a big rush and she only had a few weeks of not wearing her lovely hot pink lipstick and she was gone. I miss her terribly, she was a good friend, a good neighbour and always such a delight to be around. Such very sweet memories.
In May I had a Big Oh birthday and settled down to at least a month of partying.
But a week later my Mummy had a massive haemorrhagic stroke - whilst I was speaking on the phone to her. So when she started to not make sense I called 000. Who had to ring 000 in Queensland who had to them call me back in Victoria. Despite that, the ambulance got to Mum before she had totally lost consciousness.
However, she isn't really good - she has gone from being totally independent to the opposite, and is now in a High Care Residential place. One where she used to 'play piano for old people' when she first moved to the Sunshine Coast, so it is all familiar to her. She thinks she is visiting with friends and is very relaxed. (Which may be a function of the Zoloft sheeis now on, and none of the other 19 meds that two different doctors who didnt communicate with each other (GRRRR) had put her on over the last couple of years. :-)
But I miss my Mummy - it isn't the same person on the end of the phone, but is still rather fun talking about all her travels in her mind. Way more distressing for me than for her...
I have now got Alice, a Jack Russell/Fox Terrier cross - rescued from the RSPCA at Christmas. Sh espent her first 9 months in a backyard in Ballarat, no name, not housetrained, skinny and just ACHING to be loved!! She is a funny, snuggly and grateful lively dog - learned her name and housetrained in three days, has added 1/3 of her size since I got her. Inc old weather she snuggled down past my shoulders and stretches across my feet like a little living hot water bottle!
This past Sunday I sang Love and Justice again. This time in Melbourne Town Hall at a celebration for (former Prime Minister) Julia Gillard. Credit Where Credit Is Due was organised by The Victorian Women's Trust - read all about it in the link.
They also commissioned my friend Kavisha Mazzella to write the Love and Justice anthem in 2008 to celebrate the centenary of women getting the vote in Victoria. It is the most awe inspiring anthem - I LOVE singing it, especially in such a huge, dynamic, amazing women's choir!
This performance there were *only* 260 women in the choir. And I opened my mouth and said I would make a quilt for Julia. With signatures of all the women on it.We only had three rehearsals and I didn't think about it until the second one. So only had one rehearsal to gather signatures - and the performance day of course. I think I have it covered.
Am making purple and green Friendship Stars with white siggie squares in the centre of each. Made about 130 so far (half way, WHEW!!) but think the back shall be a chequerboard of siggies with also the words and music of the anthem, and photos of the choir performing.
Been knitting, and quilting (again, hooray!!!), and chopping and stacking firewood, and gardening, and doing little stuff around the house - the lack of $$$ still curtailing my flights of bathroom fancy.
Oh, and the ''Sweetheart'' and I are no longer together. That fell in a heap earlier in the year. Haven't heard from him. But then, he hasn't heard from me, either... :-)
I shall try to figure out how to add photos from my phone to here next post cos photos are a good thing in ablog. My Mac is ailing (a good reason why I haven't posted here) and I am using a loaner laptop for the time being.
Thanks for waiting for me!!!
Sorry!
Ah, what a year. Of change and growth and loss and gain!
I gained 2 grandboys - both born on December 14. But not twins! Arthur was ten weeks early at 11.47 a.m., Elliot was two weeks late and born at 11.47 p.m. The amazingly clever darlings of my two older sons, cousins three months and 12 hours in age difference. They are both doing extremely well, sweet babies!
I had a scary time in April when my belly went from it's usual 'looking eight months pregnant' 125 cm to 85 cm and I lost 13 kgs in one week and was really unwell. Then three weeks later I wasn't unwell at all. Since then I have been remarkably lively. The cysts are still in my liver (and some more in my kidneys for luck, grrr) but not the HUGE pregnant belly I have had so much for the last 2.5 years. And no more surgery - had a second opinion and that surgeon also said he wouldn't operate. But now I am getting back to me!
My darling neighbour Maureen died at the end of February. She had breast cancer ten years before, and it came back in a big rush and she only had a few weeks of not wearing her lovely hot pink lipstick and she was gone. I miss her terribly, she was a good friend, a good neighbour and always such a delight to be around. Such very sweet memories.
In May I had a Big Oh birthday and settled down to at least a month of partying.
But a week later my Mummy had a massive haemorrhagic stroke - whilst I was speaking on the phone to her. So when she started to not make sense I called 000. Who had to ring 000 in Queensland who had to them call me back in Victoria. Despite that, the ambulance got to Mum before she had totally lost consciousness.
However, she isn't really good - she has gone from being totally independent to the opposite, and is now in a High Care Residential place. One where she used to 'play piano for old people' when she first moved to the Sunshine Coast, so it is all familiar to her. She thinks she is visiting with friends and is very relaxed. (Which may be a function of the Zoloft sheeis now on, and none of the other 19 meds that two different doctors who didnt communicate with each other (GRRRR) had put her on over the last couple of years. :-)
But I miss my Mummy - it isn't the same person on the end of the phone, but is still rather fun talking about all her travels in her mind. Way more distressing for me than for her...
I have now got Alice, a Jack Russell/Fox Terrier cross - rescued from the RSPCA at Christmas. Sh espent her first 9 months in a backyard in Ballarat, no name, not housetrained, skinny and just ACHING to be loved!! She is a funny, snuggly and grateful lively dog - learned her name and housetrained in three days, has added 1/3 of her size since I got her. Inc old weather she snuggled down past my shoulders and stretches across my feet like a little living hot water bottle!
This past Sunday I sang Love and Justice again. This time in Melbourne Town Hall at a celebration for (former Prime Minister) Julia Gillard. Credit Where Credit Is Due was organised by The Victorian Women's Trust - read all about it in the link.
They also commissioned my friend Kavisha Mazzella to write the Love and Justice anthem in 2008 to celebrate the centenary of women getting the vote in Victoria. It is the most awe inspiring anthem - I LOVE singing it, especially in such a huge, dynamic, amazing women's choir!
This performance there were *only* 260 women in the choir. And I opened my mouth and said I would make a quilt for Julia. With signatures of all the women on it.We only had three rehearsals and I didn't think about it until the second one. So only had one rehearsal to gather signatures - and the performance day of course. I think I have it covered.
Am making purple and green Friendship Stars with white siggie squares in the centre of each. Made about 130 so far (half way, WHEW!!) but think the back shall be a chequerboard of siggies with also the words and music of the anthem, and photos of the choir performing.
Been knitting, and quilting (again, hooray!!!), and chopping and stacking firewood, and gardening, and doing little stuff around the house - the lack of $$$ still curtailing my flights of bathroom fancy.
Oh, and the ''Sweetheart'' and I are no longer together. That fell in a heap earlier in the year. Haven't heard from him. But then, he hasn't heard from me, either... :-)
I shall try to figure out how to add photos from my phone to here next post cos photos are a good thing in ablog. My Mac is ailing (a good reason why I haven't posted here) and I am using a loaner laptop for the time being.
Thanks for waiting for me!!!
Friday, 2 November 2012
Getting there!
Blogger hasn't been nice lately, and wouldn't let me write.
I am so sorry for being so utterly miserable last month. Just after I wrote that whiny whinge I got really sick. Spiky temps and shivery hot/cold, ghastly pain, diarrhoea, slept for two days and woke up with a flat belly. In hindsight I should have gone back to hospital but I was feeling too awful to think that far outside my body!! I think the cysts must have popped or leaked, at least they seem to have gone away.
And since then have remained almost flat bellied, and progressively getting better. Slowly. Certainly am not sleeping 15 hours a day, and having to go back to bed to recover from showering.
Have even been doing gardening...!
Today I head back to hospital for the gastroscopy and colonoscopy that was ordered back in July. Been drinking that ghastly stuff and am on my last 500mls of "prescribed fluids" - I haven't eaten anything for 24 hours and I have a caffeine deficiency headache.
I went to my first spinning group on Tuesday. My neighbours gave me a bag of their fleece and two carding brushes/combs at Christmas and then another friend told me about her MIL's spinning wheel which had benefitting in her shed for twenty years. And when we went to pick it up the MIL told me that it had been sitting in another shed for twenty years before she got it...
I carted it along to our local spinning group on Tuesday, and sat next to my friend Janine. I taught her to quilt about 15 years ago so now she is teaching me to spin! She started spinning when she was 15, and has just had her 50th (which she celebrated by joining a roller derby group!!!!). She has a room full of plastic bins of her wool she has spun, beautiful stuff. She has sold some of her wool through our other friend Alex who owns ZigoZago - lots of yummy wool there!
Most of the other women at spinning group are either members of the 80s Club or aspiring to shortly become members. So Janine and I are treated as daughters! They are a wonderful group, very friendly and supportive and helpful.
One of them said "Come over here and try my wheel. I want to know if it is because your wheel is awful or if you just can't spin". And then said I was a lovely spinner, a natural! And that it was the wheel which is probably only good for putting in the garden and planting a vine over.
I immediately looked up some wheels on eBay and some of them gathered around my clever new iPhone and were most impressed ("it's a tiny computer, how clever!") and also helpful about which wheels were useful.
My wheel is a home made one and has been changed from having one string around it to two, and the bobbins are broken, and also where the wool gets sucked in is pretty rough and rusty. It was magic to,try the other wheel where the wool slurped onto the bobbin like butter. Whereas I had to keep stopping and winding the wool on by hand...
And I have been knitting, socks for grandbabies, and also bibs. S3 brought back lots of yarny treasures from Ireland when he was on placement in May-July including balls of cotton which I have knitted into bibs. Half washcloth flowers - they are very cute. And also knitted a couple of shawls, and scarves. It has been fun.
Yesterday I got three balls of Debbie Bliss wool and cashmere at the opshop for ...$2.50. And five balls of Patons Bluebell for $3. Both cream. both so soft and smooshy. So I am knitting a scarf to keep my hands and mind slightly occupied. Size 9 mm needles, both the yarns held together. I started with three stitches and have been doing some KFB, and YOK2tog to make it all lacy and holey. I got to 250 stitches so have decided to stick with that - mostly cos there isn't any more room on the needles...
I will add some photos when I am on my phone and on the net (woohoo, LOVE what it can do. Considering my previous did very little except calls and excruciatingly tedious texting with my nails breaking all the time on the tiny keys.
OK, must go and think about what I am to do at 12.30 today...
I am so sorry for being so utterly miserable last month. Just after I wrote that whiny whinge I got really sick. Spiky temps and shivery hot/cold, ghastly pain, diarrhoea, slept for two days and woke up with a flat belly. In hindsight I should have gone back to hospital but I was feeling too awful to think that far outside my body!! I think the cysts must have popped or leaked, at least they seem to have gone away.
And since then have remained almost flat bellied, and progressively getting better. Slowly. Certainly am not sleeping 15 hours a day, and having to go back to bed to recover from showering.
Have even been doing gardening...!
Today I head back to hospital for the gastroscopy and colonoscopy that was ordered back in July. Been drinking that ghastly stuff and am on my last 500mls of "prescribed fluids" - I haven't eaten anything for 24 hours and I have a caffeine deficiency headache.
I went to my first spinning group on Tuesday. My neighbours gave me a bag of their fleece and two carding brushes/combs at Christmas and then another friend told me about her MIL's spinning wheel which had benefitting in her shed for twenty years. And when we went to pick it up the MIL told me that it had been sitting in another shed for twenty years before she got it...
I carted it along to our local spinning group on Tuesday, and sat next to my friend Janine. I taught her to quilt about 15 years ago so now she is teaching me to spin! She started spinning when she was 15, and has just had her 50th (which she celebrated by joining a roller derby group!!!!). She has a room full of plastic bins of her wool she has spun, beautiful stuff. She has sold some of her wool through our other friend Alex who owns ZigoZago - lots of yummy wool there!
Most of the other women at spinning group are either members of the 80s Club or aspiring to shortly become members. So Janine and I are treated as daughters! They are a wonderful group, very friendly and supportive and helpful.
One of them said "Come over here and try my wheel. I want to know if it is because your wheel is awful or if you just can't spin". And then said I was a lovely spinner, a natural! And that it was the wheel which is probably only good for putting in the garden and planting a vine over.
I immediately looked up some wheels on eBay and some of them gathered around my clever new iPhone and were most impressed ("it's a tiny computer, how clever!") and also helpful about which wheels were useful.
My wheel is a home made one and has been changed from having one string around it to two, and the bobbins are broken, and also where the wool gets sucked in is pretty rough and rusty. It was magic to,try the other wheel where the wool slurped onto the bobbin like butter. Whereas I had to keep stopping and winding the wool on by hand...
And I have been knitting, socks for grandbabies, and also bibs. S3 brought back lots of yarny treasures from Ireland when he was on placement in May-July including balls of cotton which I have knitted into bibs. Half washcloth flowers - they are very cute. And also knitted a couple of shawls, and scarves. It has been fun.
Yesterday I got three balls of Debbie Bliss wool and cashmere at the opshop for ...$2.50. And five balls of Patons Bluebell for $3. Both cream. both so soft and smooshy. So I am knitting a scarf to keep my hands and mind slightly occupied. Size 9 mm needles, both the yarns held together. I started with three stitches and have been doing some KFB, and YOK2tog to make it all lacy and holey. I got to 250 stitches so have decided to stick with that - mostly cos there isn't any more room on the needles...
I will add some photos when I am on my phone and on the net (woohoo, LOVE what it can do. Considering my previous did very little except calls and excruciatingly tedious texting with my nails breaking all the time on the tiny keys.
OK, must go and think about what I am to do at 12.30 today...
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