Thursday, June 30, 2016
Monday, June 27, 2016
It is really, really cold today
It was really, really cold yesterday too. Barely an hour here from here it's been snowing all day, and pictures posted on a local facebook weather page are quite amazing. For generations people have been coming to Australia for warm weather and sunshine......they won't find any here today, we haven't even made double figures in celsius temperatures.
These pictures were taken at Hanging Rock, about one hour's drive south-east of here, a few years ago. Today's snow falls are much deeper.
Warnings are out to avoid the area completely. Road conditions are quite dangerous, and even 4WD vehicles are not recommended along many roads unless they have chains.
While I realise that quite a lot of the world sees much more snow than we do, it's quite a novelty for us! The Small Smoke is in a valley so it's the higher country an hour to the south, east and north of us, and also a few hours west, which is getting its coating of white. Snow has fallen here occasionally but usually it melts on the way down; the last decent recorded snowfall here was, apparently, in 1984.
It makes for good staying-indoors-and-sewing-or-cooking-or-reading-or-just-veging-out weather, which is what we're doing right now. Kevin is reading, and I have just taken a cake out of the oven - a pumpkin spice cake with streusel topping, which we will try for dessert tonight.
Last week I ordered some Aurifil thread in variegated autumn colours to quilt the maple leaf runner, and it arrived on Friday......it is gorgeous, yummy enough to eat. There are ten Winding Ways blocks cut out ready to be assembled, they might be done first then the runner will be quilted. After that, those Winding Ways blocks had better be prioritised if the challenge quilt is to be done for later this year - that will be one UFO out of the way, when it's done.
On Friday night the uke group made its premiere inaugural first-ever debut playing in the local Eisteddfod and while we didn't win, we had fun. Now that we know what to expect, we will back next year. The audience seemed to enjoy our playing and singing, and one comment by the judge was that we blended well - that's good, it means no one stood out as, except for my playing of the introduction, there were no solos. We even had people singing along with us, and several people came up to us afterwards to say how much they enjoyed our performance.
Who knows, we might yet become rich and famous.......in our dreams, I suspect......
Removal of the wallpaper cornice is proceeding nicely. The corner near the fire will have to wait until the end of winter, for safety reasons - the fire can get quite hot - but nearly all the rest is done. Even without the walls being re-painted the lack of floral borders really opens them up, they look so much less cluttered already. The new wall colour will be a pale buttery cream.
"Here is the test of true ladyhood. Whenever the young find themselves in the company of those who do not make them feel at ease, they should know they are not in the society of true ladies and true gentlemen, but of pretenders; that well-bred men and women can only feel at home in the society of the well-bred."
Indeed. Like attracts like, it is said.
Enjoy your days!
These pictures were taken at Hanging Rock, about one hour's drive south-east of here, a few years ago. Today's snow falls are much deeper.
It makes for good staying-indoors-and-sewing-or-cooking-or-reading-or-just-veging-out weather, which is what we're doing right now. Kevin is reading, and I have just taken a cake out of the oven - a pumpkin spice cake with streusel topping, which we will try for dessert tonight.
Last week I ordered some Aurifil thread in variegated autumn colours to quilt the maple leaf runner, and it arrived on Friday......it is gorgeous, yummy enough to eat. There are ten Winding Ways blocks cut out ready to be assembled, they might be done first then the runner will be quilted. After that, those Winding Ways blocks had better be prioritised if the challenge quilt is to be done for later this year - that will be one UFO out of the way, when it's done.
On Friday night the uke group made its premiere inaugural first-ever debut playing in the local Eisteddfod and while we didn't win, we had fun. Now that we know what to expect, we will back next year. The audience seemed to enjoy our playing and singing, and one comment by the judge was that we blended well - that's good, it means no one stood out as, except for my playing of the introduction, there were no solos. We even had people singing along with us, and several people came up to us afterwards to say how much they enjoyed our performance.
Who knows, we might yet become rich and famous.......in our dreams, I suspect......
Removal of the wallpaper cornice is proceeding nicely. The corner near the fire will have to wait until the end of winter, for safety reasons - the fire can get quite hot - but nearly all the rest is done. Even without the walls being re-painted the lack of floral borders really opens them up, they look so much less cluttered already. The new wall colour will be a pale buttery cream.
"Here is the test of true ladyhood. Whenever the young find themselves in the company of those who do not make them feel at ease, they should know they are not in the society of true ladies and true gentlemen, but of pretenders; that well-bred men and women can only feel at home in the society of the well-bred."
Indeed. Like attracts like, it is said.
Enjoy your days!
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Welcome to the weekend
It's a long weekend, which makes it even better! Even though we've been retired for several years a long weekend is still exciting.
The big news here is - the pink walls seen in this picture are finally going. (That's not a real orchid you know, it's a gen-u-ine imitation) It will be a little while yet until they are gone, but the process has started. There is something like 4,000 metres of pink and blue floral wallpaper cornice border around the walls of the entrance hall, kitchen, large family room and hallway leading to the bedrooms......all right, perhaps 4,000 metres is an exaggeration but there is still an awful lot, awful being the word, it's probably quite all right if you like pink, which I don't......and all walls of the entrance hall plus two 'feature' walls in the family room are also painted pink from floor to floral border. For six years - yes indeed folks, it's six years last month since we moved here - I have been looking at those pink walls and wishing them gone. Kevin has started scraping off the border first, a tedious job but one recommended by the nice young bloke at a local paint shop who said painting over the border would not be a Good Idea. (I also suggested it but I'm not a paint shop bloke, so what do I know?) It's a lot of painting to do so getting it done will be like eating an elephant, one bite at a time.....or in this case, one wall at a time.
A teaser of my table runner. These are more my colour choices than pink is.
The wadding has been purchased, and once a couple of small obligations are out of the way it will be next. Every time we use it we will be reminded us of fall in Ontario.The background fabric was purchased locally and compliments the autumn prints well, I think.
Autumn colours around town are looking good now that colder weather has arrived. While our autumn/winter season is nothing like that experienced in some parts of the world, it's cool enough for us......and for local plants too, it seems.
You will be pleased to hear that the uke hasn't been so neglected this week, and the uke is hopefully happy about that too! All together now, Stars shining bright above you, night breezes seem to whisper I love you......
Column inches have been written here lately about the current habit of people calling each other "guys". I don't like being addressed as "guy"; I know it has crept into the language, and while I accept that change is happening around me all the time, I don't have to like those changes. For instance, when Kevin and I enter a shop I don't like the sales person approaching us saying "Hi, guys". I'm old. It's not my word. One meaning of "guy" dating from the 1830s is a grotesquely or strangely dressed person, and it is used thus in "The Mikado" written in 1884-5 - "And the lady from the provinces who dresses like a guy, who doesn't think she dances but would rather like to try".
Perhaps they aren't greeting us at all, but are passing comment on how we are dressed?
Oh dear......that makes it even worse.
"Good manners are only acquired by education and observation, followed up by habitual practice at home and in society, and good manners reveal to us the lady and the gentleman. He who does not possess them, though he bear the highest title of nobility, cannot expect to be called a gentleman; nor can a woman, without good manners, aspire to be considered a lady by ladies.
Just remember those words when you are next in the company of other ladies.
Enjoy your days!
A teaser of my table runner. These are more my colour choices than pink is.
Autumn colours around town are looking good now that colder weather has arrived. While our autumn/winter season is nothing like that experienced in some parts of the world, it's cool enough for us......and for local plants too, it seems.
You will be pleased to hear that the uke hasn't been so neglected this week, and the uke is hopefully happy about that too! All together now, Stars shining bright above you, night breezes seem to whisper I love you......
Column inches have been written here lately about the current habit of people calling each other "guys". I don't like being addressed as "guy"; I know it has crept into the language, and while I accept that change is happening around me all the time, I don't have to like those changes. For instance, when Kevin and I enter a shop I don't like the sales person approaching us saying "Hi, guys". I'm old. It's not my word. One meaning of "guy" dating from the 1830s is a grotesquely or strangely dressed person, and it is used thus in "The Mikado" written in 1884-5 - "And the lady from the provinces who dresses like a guy, who doesn't think she dances but would rather like to try".
Perhaps they aren't greeting us at all, but are passing comment on how we are dressed?
Oh dear......that makes it even worse.
"Good manners are only acquired by education and observation, followed up by habitual practice at home and in society, and good manners reveal to us the lady and the gentleman. He who does not possess them, though he bear the highest title of nobility, cannot expect to be called a gentleman; nor can a woman, without good manners, aspire to be considered a lady by ladies.
Just remember those words when you are next in the company of other ladies.
Enjoy your days!
Sunday, June 5, 2016
Good weather for staying indoors
Yesterday it rained.....and rained......and rained some more. We had more rain in one day than the June average, so that's something to be cheerful about! It was a good day for being inside and reading, and sewing, and just doing nothing much at all.
Some work was done on the latest project, a maple leaf table runner. I am pleased with it, haven't taken any pics yet but will do so this week. The print fabrics were gorgeous autumn leaf print fabrics, Canadian souvenirs bought at The Cottage Quilter.......what a lovely place to live and work, on Shady Lane beside Lake Nosbonsing.
Showing my age here, but who else remembers "The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane" sung by The Ames Brothers? That's a trip down memory lane (hah!) for you all, I bet you'll start singing it any minute now......
Probably should get on with some knitting too. The current project, Dragonfly Wings lace scarf, has been ongoing for some time because I am finding it difficult to get enthused about more than 200 stitches on the needle at once. Never mind, the stocking stitch bit is nearly all done then hopefully the lace stitch border won't take long, even though there will be something horrendous like 273 or more stitches to keep track of. And beads. I have never knitted with beads before. Even though I started knitting as a child and over the ensuing umpteen years have knitted countless garments, knitting with beads will be a new experience. If it all becomes too much, you may even hear me yell from your place.
My poor uke has been sadly neglected of late but the uke group is entered in the Mature Age section of our local eisteddfod in a few weeks, so some practice would be a Good Thing, yes? Each contestant is only allowed one piece with a time limit of five minutes from the first note being played (time spent setting up stands and chairs is not counted) and our teacher reckons we play "Dream a Little Dream of Me" well enough to inflict it on the paying public. Last year we vaguely talked about entering but no one did anything about it, so this year I entered us then told the group we were in it.
Some more memories of our recent holiday: did you know we have volcanoes in Australia? According to reports, some are overdue to erupt; now that could be interesting. You can read about them here.
It doesn't look like much, but this paddock was once a volcano.
I wonder if this rock was thrown in an eruption, or if someone picked it up and moved it? That would be quite a job......it was fairly large.
Many years ago while touring in south-western Victoria we visited Tower Hill, an inactive - but not extinct! - volcano not far from Harman's Lookout. Tower Hill crater is now a lake with a wildlife reserve on the shores and the day we visited there were many emus roaming around. If the humans didn't bother them, they didn't bother the humans. However one silly man, one of a tour group visiting from overseas, kept holding out his lunch sandwich to an emu then snatching it away just as the bird went to take it. He thought it was hilarious - but the emu didn't, so next time the man pulled his lunch back the emu followed through and went to grab it. The man wasn't having that so he turned to walk away, and the emu followed......the man started running, the emu kept following......the man was jumping, dancing and running to get away from the emu while it was having a great time chasing him. The man's companions were laughing too much to go to his aid, and Kevin and I laughed too. Eventually the emu tired of its game and walked away - and, hopefully, that bloke will think twice in future before teasing a wild creature.
"Can any one fancy what our society might be, if all its members were perfect gentlemen and true ladies, if all the inhabitants of the earth were kind-hearted; if, instead of contending with the faults of our fellows, we were each to wage war against our own faults? Every one needs to guard constantly against the evil from within as well as from without, for, as has been truly said, "a man's greatest foe dwells in his own heart.""
Perhaps the bloke could have saved himself much angst if he had been kind-hearted enough to share his lunch sandwich with that emu, instead of using it to tease the poor bird.
Enjoy your days!
Some work was done on the latest project, a maple leaf table runner. I am pleased with it, haven't taken any pics yet but will do so this week. The print fabrics were gorgeous autumn leaf print fabrics, Canadian souvenirs bought at The Cottage Quilter.......what a lovely place to live and work, on Shady Lane beside Lake Nosbonsing.
Showing my age here, but who else remembers "The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane" sung by The Ames Brothers? That's a trip down memory lane (hah!) for you all, I bet you'll start singing it any minute now......
Probably should get on with some knitting too. The current project, Dragonfly Wings lace scarf, has been ongoing for some time because I am finding it difficult to get enthused about more than 200 stitches on the needle at once. Never mind, the stocking stitch bit is nearly all done then hopefully the lace stitch border won't take long, even though there will be something horrendous like 273 or more stitches to keep track of. And beads. I have never knitted with beads before. Even though I started knitting as a child and over the ensuing umpteen years have knitted countless garments, knitting with beads will be a new experience. If it all becomes too much, you may even hear me yell from your place.
My poor uke has been sadly neglected of late but the uke group is entered in the Mature Age section of our local eisteddfod in a few weeks, so some practice would be a Good Thing, yes? Each contestant is only allowed one piece with a time limit of five minutes from the first note being played (time spent setting up stands and chairs is not counted) and our teacher reckons we play "Dream a Little Dream of Me" well enough to inflict it on the paying public. Last year we vaguely talked about entering but no one did anything about it, so this year I entered us then told the group we were in it.
Some more memories of our recent holiday: did you know we have volcanoes in Australia? According to reports, some are overdue to erupt; now that could be interesting. You can read about them here.
"Can any one fancy what our society might be, if all its members were perfect gentlemen and true ladies, if all the inhabitants of the earth were kind-hearted; if, instead of contending with the faults of our fellows, we were each to wage war against our own faults? Every one needs to guard constantly against the evil from within as well as from without, for, as has been truly said, "a man's greatest foe dwells in his own heart.""
Perhaps the bloke could have saved himself much angst if he had been kind-hearted enough to share his lunch sandwich with that emu, instead of using it to tease the poor bird.
Enjoy your days!
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