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!