Normal service will be resumed next weekend

We're heading off to the Big Smoke tomorrow for a few days, and what with quilting group, radio program (which is proceeding nicely, thank you) and other stuff, the last few days have passed me by in a flash, hence the poor blog has been languishing unloved.

But it will be back soon, I promise.

Meantime, enjoy your days!

So.....tonight's the night!

Yes folks, tonight marks my debut as a radio announcer with my own weekly program and apparently the station is now streaming so you can listen online, should the time suit.  From 7pm to 9pm Eastern Australian Time, which is probably stupid dark o'clock in some parts of the world - if you would like to listen you can find world clocks on the interwebz; we are in the same time zone as Sydney.  Station details are here.

The ukulele and Beethoven are becoming more friendly toward each other, you will be pleased to hear.  Oh my......last week teacher Sam let me use one of his tenor ukes.  Mine is a soprano, the smallest size, then there's concert size, tenor, with baritone being the biggest.  Tenor is so much easier to play because I am used to playing guitar, my fingers are long and often reach too far on the little soprano's neck so I end up playing wrong notes.  Didn't have that problem with Sam's tenor uke!  I can foresee a tenor uke in my future, and some of the time spent at next month's National Folk Festival will be checking out the hand-made instrument makers' display to find just the right tenor uke.

We need a picture, don't we?  Let's see what we can find.

This really made us chuckle, we thought it was fun!  In Sidney, B.C., Canada, this tree beside the water had bottles hanging from its branches.  You may not be able to see the contents of the bottles, but there were objects like a key ring (with keys attached), a little yellow duck and a red poppy - it was a few days after Remembrance Day.

There was even a sign attached to the tree giving an email address, perhaps it's the Keeper Of The Tree?  One would need to be nimble and a little fearless to hang a bottle from some of those branches.

Last night I received an email to tell me I had won some Aurifil thread from a blog giveaway, isn't that great?  It's a thread I really like, and use often; I've been buying thread online from them for several years.

The other day I checked in with Emma the physiotherapist and she has given me the green light to start walking, but not too far, in addition to the usual walking while shopping etc..  The doctor has said 30 minutes a day, but so far 10 minutes is about all my foot and ankle will happily do - according to Emma, we should stop when it starts hurting so as not to damage still-healing tissues.  That's all right by me, I am so unfit and out of condition that it will take a little time to build up my fitness again.  We live near the top of a hill so walking away from our house is fairly a easy downhill stroll.......but coming home is always uphill.  I can't believe how long this is taking to heal, it seemed a fairly ordinary (if somewhat painful) whack when it was first done!  Just goes to show, you can damage yourself more easily than you think.

Last weekend Kevin and I went to see "Quartet"......it's gently humorous and has some wonderful performers who can still sing and play up a storm although in what would be considered their senior years.  While it's not the best movie I've seen about older people we both enjoyed it, and friends who have seen it have also liked it.  It's good to see a movie which doesn't depend on violence, action, special effects and sex, sex and more sex to tell a story.  Is that really what people want to see these days, or is it what movie-makers want to make regardless of the public's taste?

"After you have visited a friend at her country seat, or after receiving an invitation to visit her, a call is due her upon her return to her town residence.  This is one of the occasions when a call should be made promptly and in person, unless you have a reason for wishing to discontinue the acquaintance; even then it would be more civil to take another opportunity for dropping a friend who wished to show civility, unless her character has been irretrievably lost in the meantime."

Oh dear!  I have sometimes lost my way, or lost an object.....but to lose one's character would be disastrous.

Enjoy your days!

Playing Beethoven on ukulele

Yes folks, indeed we are.  Uke group started up again last Tuesday night and homework is to practice Beethoven's "Ode to Joy", not a difficult tune but it is taking me a wee while to work out some of the fingering, none of which is indicated on the music we were given.  When I had classical guitar lessons many many years ago the fingering was always shown on the music.....made it so much easier when one knew that one had to place one's third finger on the second fret because the second finger, which may have been more obvious to use, was needed for the next note somewhere else.  But never fear, all will work out.

Been thinking of my family and friends in parts of Canada, the snow storms have been quite bad - worst for several years.  Stay warm and safe!

Not much activity to report this week from the sewing room.  The pants pattern is drafted and has been transferred to pattern tissue and cut, now need to cut out the trial fabric, a very bright red gingham with 1in squares. The large checks make it easy to check any fitting problems, and they can have lines drawn on them to match hips etc.  They will never, ever be worn in public.  Trust me on this.

But because I don't want you all to think that nothing ever gets done here, before we went to Canada I made two more leaf bowls which were needed for an exhibition at a local craft gallery.  A gold one had previously been made and shown on the blog.

This glorious leaf fabric was a gift from Rose Marie a few years ago......

 .....and this fabric was a good match for the other side

 Some more of my stash of leaf fabrics, I'm not sure whether I like this side best..........

 .......or this side.

After these were made they were put together as a trio with the gold bowl, and it has a much narrower zig-zag edging.  Obviously it wasn't checked before going ahead with these two, as their edge stitching is much wider.....but it doesn't look too bad, for all that.  When autumn eventually arrives, La Chateau des Wombats will have a head start on decor.

Speaking of decor, the small bathroom has finally been painted and is now dazzling white rather than the unfortunate yellow/orange sponged finish left by the previous owners.  The small plastic mirrored cabinet has been removed and a large mirror ordered, it should be installed soon.  The mirror had been screwed high on the wall, and I am short, so I could only see from my forehead up.....it was much too high for applying lippy, even standing on tippy toe......perhaps the previous Man Of The House was a tall bloke and put the mirror at a height to suit him.  The ceramic tile in my wombat collection will go on the wall, I only ever managed to find one wombat tile.......surely there must be more than one......

"Etiquette of calls.
There are calls of ceremony, of condolence, of congratulation and of friendship.  All but the latter are usually of short duration.  The call of friendship is usually of less formality and may be of some length."

Calls, and calling cards, seem to have passed by the wayside, haven't they?  Nowadays we are more likely to meet a friend at a café than make a more formal call to their home.  When I was a child people still called on each other, because cafés hadn't yet been invented.

Enjoy your days!

Not sure where the week has gone.....

No doubt about it, the older one gets the quicker time flies.  This week I had great intentions of posting sooner but it just didn't happen.

The quilt top made of those not-very-well-put-together blocks is done, what do you reckon?  Bearing in mind that it still needs to be properly pressed, then layered and quilted.

It's not quite as yellow as it appears - it's lying on the spare bed, and that room has gold walls.  The picture was quickly taken so you could see what a genius I am, both with the design and the border colour choices.

The current sewing room project is to draft a pattern for pants, which is quite an interesting process.  When I was young and slender I used to be able to make pants from a bought pattern which would fit with no alterations needed but as age, genetics and hormones have wrecked my once youthful figure that's not so easy any more.  Properly fitting clothes can make anyone look better.....at least, I hope so!  We now have a branch of the Australian Sewing Guild here in the Small Smoke, and the help and support of like-minded people is great.  It also helps to have someone else to help with fitting and measuring which is difficult to do on one's own.  As the next sewing group meeting will come before the quilt group meeting the pants pattern will get done first; if the quilt isn't done for this month it can wait until next time.

Now that the music festival is over and done with until next January life is slowly returning to what passes for normal.  Monday night choir starts again tomorrow night, ukulele group on Tuesday night.....so far Thursday night choir hasn't been heard from, but no doubt it will start again soon.  This year I had hoped to have a go at square dancing but the foot is not quite yet up to it; yes, I have done square dancing before so I can follow the calls......allemand left with your left hand, do-si-do etc.......my doctor keeps making noises about exercise and that would at least be fun......

Last Wednesday morning I made my radio debut!  Not on my own program yet but Tony who has been training me said "now you take over" and walked out of the studio for a while, so I had the fun of selecting the music to be played, and announcing it, and making sure the correct sponsors' and community announcement messages were played, and answering the phone and playing the requested songs.  Folk who heard it were complimentary, so that's good - I'm looking forward to having my own program.

This week we have had more welcome rain, the hill behind us is now green and lush again.  Before last weekend it was dry and yellow-brown, but within two days of the rain it had changed completely; it was getting greener as we watched, I'm sure.  This morning I noticed a slight change of colour on some of the leaves of a large deciduous tree near the local railway station, perhaps we are coming to the beginning of the end of summer!  Or perhaps the tree was like many of us, tired and stressed by the heat of the last few months.

"As culture is the first requirement of good society, so self-improvement should be the aim of each and all of its members.  Manners will improve with the cultivation of the mind, until the pleasure and harmony of social intercourse are no longer marred by the introduction of discordant elements, and they only will be excluded from the best society whose lack of education and whose rude manners will totally unfit them for its enjoyments and appreciation.  Good manners are even more essential to harmony in society than a good education, and may be considered as valuable an acquisition as knowledge in any form."

That's very true, isn't it?  We can forgive people many things, if they have good manners.

Enjoy your days!