Ever seen a hippogriff?

We saw one last year at Mount Tomah Botanic Garden and were very intrigued. It was one of several fantastical creatures in the gardens. But they didn't have any wombats.

Well, the challenge quilt is now being bound, isn't that a relief? It may be ready by Saturday after all. I am sewing down the front side by machine and I will sew the back by hand. Some folk swear by machine sewing both sides but with my luck the stitches on the right side - which of course is the second side to be sewn down - would be less than wonderful and perhaps not cover the line of stitching already there. Besides.......I like the fact that the quilt is nearly finished, and I can enjoy it while sewing down the binding by hand. But coffee is calling, so I have taken a short break.

Next project.....nothing like thinking ahead, is there.......will be curtains for the laundry room and my sewing room. While the house came with all curtains the sewing room curtain did have a small tear in the lace, and while closing or opening the blind I have managed to enlarge it a little. I can plead innocence on the laundry curtain, Binky did that. We don't know how old they are, but obviously they're due for replacement. The new fabric has been sitting on the bottom shelf of a cupboard in my sewing room for some months now so it's time it was done, yes? Compared to free-motion machine quilting, making curtains is a walk in the park.

After that I haven't decided.

This morning we went shopping for a new dishwasher - I have never had a dishwasher before in my life! (unless you count the one in the staff kitchen at my last job) There was one already in the kitchen when we moved here but we suspect that like the lace curtains it's getting on in years, the little door to the detergent thingy doesn't latch, it even has an exposed heating element on the bottom which is probably a bit unsafe. The alternatives were to ignore it which we have been doing, repair it and use it, remove it and do something wondrous with the hole that would be left, or replace it. So now there is a beautiful white shining gleaming new dishwasher sitting still in its delivery box waiting for Kevin to help unwrap it and install it. We will be tres flash.

Lately we are being inundated with stories about the scanning/pat downs for people flying in the US. Now I love my American friends dearly, but while such measures are in I don't want to fly there. If anyone can show me it makes flying safer I may reconsider, but I don't think it does. One bloke puts a bomb in his shoe, so make everyone remove their shoes - shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, seems to me. Another bloke puts explosives in his undies so let's make people have their body scanned or suffer intrusive groping. Shutting the stable door a bit more firmly. Last year when we flew home from Canada we had to change planes at Los Angeles, and because I had asked for assistance I was in wheelchair. The able-bodied who could walk under their own steam were passed through security very quickly, but those of us who were 'infirm" were told to get out of our wheelchairs - and it was obvious that some of the other people really needed theirs - and made to pass through the scanner or be patted down. No choice. I had already had some x-rays while in Canada and faced the prospect of more when I came home, and besides I think scanning is over the top as far as privacy goes, so I chose to be patted down. The woman doing it was respectful (which is not always, I believe, the case now) but firm, she asked me to remove my plaster cast and bandages - "I can't, it's broken" I replied. She then passed drug detecting tape around the edges of the plaster and of course it came up clear when passed through the detection machine. I had my medical reports with me in case I needed them but it wasn't necessary. I had to remove my shoes and jacket unaided (not an easy thing with one arm in plaster and bandages and the other wrist bandaged) but fortunately Kevin was through security before I was, so he was able to help me get back into them again. Let's hope common sense and decency prevail on this one.

News has just come through from New Zealand that the miners trapped in an underground mine explosion would not have survived the blast. My thoughts are with their families, that is so sad. They were probably hoping against hope that some men could have survived, especially following the survival of so many miners recently in Chile and China, but it seems that is not to be.

"Intrusive Inquiries.

If you meet or join or are visited by a person who has any article whatever, under his arm or in his hand, and he does not offer to show it to you, you should not, even if it be your most intimate friend, take it from him and look at it. That intrusive curiosity is very inconsistent with the delicacy of a well-bred man, and always offends in some degree."

Perhaps I should send that little gem of 1885 etiquette to the people who are responsible for airport security?

Now I am going to sew some more binding onto the quilt. Enjoy your days!