Wouldn't an alpaca make a nice pet?

A few weeks ago local alpaca breeders joined together to hold an open day.  

 This boy was very handsome, and didn't he know it too!  His colouring was quite unusual.

 This young cria (baby alpacas are called crias) was a bit shy, but was very cute just the same.

This was at Duri, a small village not far south of here.  You can see how dry the local sports ground is, and it's just the same here.  One could even try alpaca meat, which we did.....alpaca sausage is quite nice, with a slightly sweet taste.  I also bought some alpaca yarn with a pattern for a beanie and scarf, the beanie is already partly knitted and will be handy in winter on my morning walk.

Yes folks, walking has started again on doctor's orders.  It has taken a while to reach (because of my foot and ankle problems, and my general state of unfitness) but I am now up to 30 minutes, the last part of which - the most difficult part - is uphill coming home.  Much as we like living here on the hill, it does have its disadvantages.  I spend most of my walk watching my feet to make sure I don't stumble or trip as I don't want to break any more bones.  It's something I do because I know I have to (wouldn't even be so bad if I thought it would make me lose weight but that's a lost cause given my age, hormones and genetics) and not something I enjoy.  According to what one reads, exercise is supposed to release endorphins in the body which make one feel invigorated and happy afterwards.........I think they're missing in me, because that doesn't happen at all.  When I get home I don't feel elated, just tired and out of breath from walking back up the hill.  And hungry, because this is before breakfast.

End of moan, thank you for listening.

Kevin is now driving the car again!  That's good, because I don't need to dry him anywhere he needs to go......and not so good, because we are back to sharing the car.  Oh, well - at least he can now hang washing out again too.  No doubt about it, having someone to share the domestic chores makes life easier.

Not much action to report in the sewing room, block obligations are now down to one block being finished off (which will be done tomorrow) and two more to be made.  My quilt group - the one I will stay with - has a block each month which members take turns at making, and it's my turn next Monday to have a sample block made (that's done) and instructions written out (also done).  Meanwhile the block from this month's meeting still hasn't been started.....but it will be, never fear.  It's a leaf design and I quite like it.  Whoever "wins" the blocks each month has the option of keeping them, or using them to make a quilt which is donated to the local Ronald Macdonald House.  I have my eye on the leaf blocks and if I win them next Monday, they will be mine.  Not Ronnie Mac's.  I'll make him something else.  The remaining block is for the annual quilt which we make and donate to a local charity to use as a fundraiser, and it's a very easy design.....or would be, if I kept a stock of 2-1/2 inch squares ready cut, which I don't.  Sometimes it's almost as fiddly to cut pieces for just one block and to make it as it is to make a full-sized quilt, don't you think?

Ukulele group is proceeding well, and we are having fun.  The new uke is so beautiful to play.......I love it.  It is worth every cent it cost.  Also, the radio program has been getting good feedback.  Much of what I play comes from our own CD collection, although I do play selections from the station computer too.

Leaves on the we-think-it's-an-apricot tree in the back yard are turning lemon-yellow and falling, much to Bianca's amusement.  When you are an inside cat I suppose you have to take your entertainment where you can find it, and watching the occasional pretty leaf drift to the ground or skitter along the path on a windy day is obviously worth spending time doing.

"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 a civility, unless her character has been irretrievably lost in the meantime."

I suppose you could say we called on the alpacas at their country seat?

The sewing room is calling.......

Enjoy your days!

WOW for February

We haven't had a wombat for a long time, have we? Not since the computer issues late last year. So here is a very little one, or a little one and an even littler one. They are really tiny, the big one is only a couple of inches high.

This gorgeous feller is named Darwin, isn't he something? Has eyelashes to die for, too.......
We met him last year on Open Day at a local alpaca farm. When I first saw him I thought he had an interesting grey fleck to his fleece, but on closer inspection it was some kind of grass seed caught there instead. If you click on the picture it should enlarge, and you can see why we were deceived.
A couple of mums and bubs. Little alpacas are called crias, and are really sweet. And fluffy. And gorgeous.......I would love a pet alpaca.

Remember the circles I ran around in last week, buying extra fabric for the challenge quilt because I was working with the wrong measurements? The sorry saga continues. This morning I overlocked the edges of a few pieces of fabric, both quilting and dressmaking, to pre-wash them. I don't always bother with pre-washing quilt fabric, but thought I would this time. There was a the spotted background fabric, the striped border fabric, a piece of brown fabric for the border of another quilt, a piece of pale blue and white cotton batiste, and a piece of jade green poly/cotton blend. To save water and power (we're always being told to save energy, aren't we) I threw them all in the washing machine together.........

and the colour of the jade green fabric ran.......

and the only fabric it ran onto was the white-background-with-black-spots fabric for the challenge quilt.......

.....so now it is pale-green-splotched white-background-with-black-spots........

Wouldn't it rot your socks.

Please don't tell me what I did wrong, I already know. I should have (but forgot) to use a dye magnet. I probably shouldn't have thrown so many different fabrics all in together. Etc........etc...... There is a wonderful product which removes colour run, it comes in two formulations, one for white fabrics only not to be used on coloured fabrics under any circumstances whatsoever, and one for coloured fabrics. There are three packets of it in the laundry cupboard, all the same. Guess which one.....yes, the wrong one. But I have some Synthrapol which is used to rinse out excess dye when dyeing fabrics, so I am washing the offending fabric in it right now. At present I am at home sans automobile because it is with Kevin at the bowls club, so I can't even take a quick trip to the supermarket for some of the right product and I am buggered if I am going to walk 45 minutes there and 45 minutes home again. If the fabric is totally wrecked then there will be another trip to the Big Fabric And Homewares Store for more. I am determined to make this quilt and equally determined to use that particular fabric, because it is so right.

Moving right along.

We have had a certain amount of wildlife this week. There was a green tree frog on the outside of a window early in the week, which entertained Bianca The Beautiful (but slightly brainless) a great deal. A few weeks ago we had one inside, erk. We convinced it to leave. Then a couple of evenings ago we wondered why a bird was acting strangely in the backyard and why Bianca was so agitated at the same time, and found a very large blue tongue lizard crawling along the edge of the garden. Kevin, who is much braver than I am, picked it up and brought it over to the window to show Bianca. She was inside the house and the lizard was outside, but they hissed at each other through the window screen and honour was satisfied on both sides. We haven't seen it since but apparently they are active at this time of year, so we may see it again.

Yesterday we met the new cat which recently moved next door, seems it is an outside cat. When we suggested it leave and go home it pounced on a bird, as bold as brass, so Kevin squirted it with the hose. It came around later and was squirted again. We will continue to squirt it whenever we see it. Our cats are inside cats for a reason - this is an area with many birds, and some of them are using our backyard as a place to socialise. We like that. We have a bowl of water in the shade of a shrub and today I have seen some birds having a drink - first time I have seen it being used. If next door's killing machine keeps using our yard as its personal buffet we will lose the birds, and that would be very sad. We like cats but their place is not out in the Australian bush.

The washed-again fabric has just come out of the washing machine and it is still streaked with green. Time for Plan B, which is the product suitable for coloured fabric dye runs when I can get to the shop to buy it later. Plan C is to buy more fabric.

Next week I plan to ask at a local fabric shop about sewing classes. Now so much how to join fabric by machine, that's easy - but how to alter a pattern to fit me, now that my shape is the middle-aged barrel. When I was svelter I had no trouble with patterns, but such is not the case now. Ready-made clothes are getting rather unexciting, do you think? They are fine if one is a chickybabe (although even when I was a chicky I was never a babe) or if one is 'a working woman of a certain age', but as one is neither of those and one needs some new clothes, one is jolly well going to make one's own. There are some very nice fabrics in my stash and I have a machine, and the skill to cut out and assemble the fabric, just need a pattern to fit properly. Could have a go myself at home but it's something that is probably easier with a helper.

One of the local groups is planning its annual weekend away in a few months, but I can't see myself going. This may sound very "princess and the pea" but the accommodation is in dormitories and I have never shared a bedroom in my life, except with the blokes I have married. (there have been two, don't ask, it's a long story) Because I didn't have sisters, only brothers, I had a bedroom to myself as a child, didn't go to a boarding school and there were no school or holiday camps in those days. Seems there is no possibility of a room to oneself at this weekend away, so I would prefer not to go. But that's OK.

"To appear at all times neat, clean and tidy is demanded of every well-bred person. The dress may be plain, rich or extravagant, but there must be a neatness and cleanliness of the person. Whether a lady is possessed of few or many personal attractions, it is her duty at all times to appear tidy and clean, and to make oneself as comely and attractive as circumstances and surroundings will permit. The same may be said of a gentleman."

Comely........attractive......sounds like me, for sure.

Enjoy your days!