279 is not 275

The next row of the beaded scarf didn't go so well, it was supposed to end up with 275 stitches, instead of which there were 279.  Bugger.  So the whole row was un-knitted and will have to be done again.  Bugger again.  That will teach me to watch murder mysteries on TV while knitting something that needs a bit of concentration, won't it?

Many thanks for the comments on last week's waratahs!  Here are some more:

 Waratahs were being featured at the time of our visit.  The white ones are interesting, but I think they lack the oomph (technical word here, folks) of the red ones.

 An interesting post which has information about the waratah, including the Aboriginal legend of how they came to be, can be found here.

I would love to be able to grow them here......but, sadly, cannot.

Not a whole heap to report from the sewing room today.  The quilting on the maple leaf runner had to pause because of a couple of BOM obligations; they have now been handed over, so the machine can be set up for quilting again.  Later this month my quilt group is having its annual UFO weekend, or in some cases USO (for projects not yet started), so between now and then I will be cutting out batik fabrics in all shades of blue with a little yellow/gold for an accent.  The blues range from light turquoise to deep almost-purple, and the pattern is a scrappy one I have been wanting to do for a while.  While it's very dubious indeed that all the blocks will be done on that weekend it will at least have been started, which is a Good Thing.

Currently there is a sports carnival happening on the other side of the world, but as this humble blogger is not much of a sports fan (not any kind of a sports fan at all, really - much or otherwise) this blog is a sport-free zone.......except for one thing I found out the other day, which makes me laugh every time I think of it.

Did you know there used to be a spot in the carnival for solo synchronised swimming?  Can you imagine it?  "Solo synchronised" sounds like an oxymoron to me - how on earth does one swim (or indeed do anything else solo) in synch with one's self?

The problem with blogger seems to have fixed itself, I think the site was being gussied-up because things are different to how they used to be.  All is well now, so no need to panic.  We don't want to waste a good panic, do we?

The uke group will be playing my arrangement at a concert on Sunday afternoon, how about that!  Plus a couple of other songs from our book, "Ain't misbehavin'" and "Sway".  All together now......when marimba rhythms start to play, dance with me, make me sway.......la la la laaahhhh.........

"Long, flowing hair on a man is not in good taste, and will indicate him to the observer as a person of unbalanced mind and unpleasantly erratic character - a man, in brief, who seeks to impress others with the fact that he is eccentric, something which a really eccentric person never attempts."

Remember when blokes wore long hair?  It was fashionable for quite a long time in my giddy youth......but I don't think many of the males of my acquaintance were eccentric, just dedicated followers of fashion.

Enjoy your days!

Did you know......

.......that kangaroos can be quite nasty?  When they are lazing around on a hot day (the sun was so bright it was difficult to get a good photo) they look almost tame.

 However - they are not, so there was no way I was going for the close-up shot.

Did you also know that trees can be strangled by other trees?

 We learnt about these at school.  A seed is carried by a bird, or by the wind, and deposited high in a tree whereupon it germinates and sends down roots.....down, down, down to the ground, while the upper branches and leaves reach for the sky.  Those roots get stronger and it's not unknown for the 'host' tree to die, strangled.

Some of the sights on our recent holiday.

We have had rain!  While that may not mean much to some, it is cause for much rejoicing here.  We are well below the average annual rainfall, only about two-thirds of the average has fallen this year, but December is well up on average and it's not even half over yet.  More rain is forecast for tonight and the next couple of days, so fingers crossed that it does indeed fall where it's needed.  Our garden is smiling, and the hill behind us is now carpeted in green grass which barely a week ago was dry, brown and dead.

Only a month now until Cricket/ette pops out to greet the world.  We will be driving All That Way to Canberra (nine hours or so including an overnight stop, because we have decided that we are too old to do it in one day) to join the other grandparents in saying 'hello' and patting him/her on the head.  If the quilt is finished it will go with us to be handed over - if not, we will be in Canberra again at Easter and it will be gifted then.  Either way, I'm sure Cricket/ette won't mind.

And of course - we will know whether it is Cricket or Crickette!  Crickette would be nice......there have been too many blokes in my life.....no sisters, I had two younger brothers.  No daughters, I had two sons.  Even the cousins we played with as children were boys.  I did have girl cousins on my father's side but they lived interstate; I only remember seeing them two or three times during my childhood and, because of a split in the family, not at all afterwards.

Anyone else having trouble with blogger's robot verification?  It seems to have been turned on again, even on blogs which didn't use it.  Thanks to a link on Fiona's blog I have fixed it, it was easy - here is the link.  Many thanks, Fiona!

"Never introduce unpleasant topics, nor describe revolting scenes in general company."

Indeed.  Why is it that some folk seem bent on doing just that?  We know the world is not all sweetness and light, but dark topics do not need to be dwelt on and emphasised out of all proportion.

Enjoy your days!

Blogger issues

For a week now I have been trying to post, and change my header pic and background, to very little avail.  Finally today managed to change the pic, and it seems to post, but as for changing the background, well, that seems to be a lost cause.  The problem seems to be with our computer rather than with blogger, so I shall keep persisting and try to beat it into submission.

It's been a fairly low key week here, some singing, some uke playing, some sewing.....a top that has been on the sewing room table was finally finished this afternoon, so now the outfit for the wedding can be started......a little waffling round the garden which is flowering beautifully, and the best news of all is that we had some rain.

This is the usual view from our front verandah and driveway - we can see a long way, we think those distant hills are over 40kms away which is about 25 miles in old money.

 Rain coming.......

 .....raining.......

 ......and the view has disappeared in the clouds.

These pics were taken at different times since we moved here, our view is dependent on the weather!

This coming Sunday the Monday night choir is putting on its spring concert, the next concert is the traditional Christmas one with carols and seasonal songs.  A few of us are getting more than a little disenchanted with how the choir is run and probably won't renew our membership next year - that could be four of the sopranos gone.  More and more soloists are being brought in, and some us feel that we have very little to do except be a backing group.  It's not sour grapes because I know I have a snowball's chance in hell of ever being chosen as a soloist, so I'm not worried about being done out of my turn in the spotlight.  For Sunday's concert the men are getting to do two songs as an ensemble, while the women have none, not one, nada, zilch.  Our one song is with our musical director - while she warbles a song and shows off her high soprano we will be singing dumpty-dum behind her.  Said director's 14 year old daughter is now a choir member and gets a few solos, who said nepotism is dead?  The director also gets to choose all our songs and as she is quite devout they lean toward the religious;  there is a not-so-subtle push that the choir should be religious too, helped along by the fact that one of the local ministers and his wife also belong.  If I wanted to sing nothing but religious songs I would have joined a church choir.  While the other singers are all nice people and I have learnt quite a bit since joining, I am feeling more and more that my time there is wasted.

The Thursday night choir is much more fun!  So is the uke group, and the radio station, and sewing group, and quilting group.......it's not as though I will lack for something to do by leaving one choir.

A very sad thing happened today, a pair of sandals which I have had for many years finally gave up the ghost and had to be thrown out because the soles were breaking up.  I'd been wondering what those little bits of hard black stuff on the floor were.  They are nigh on ten years old so were getting tired anyway, but I shall still miss them!  Don't know if I can find something similar - they covered a fair bit of my feet with wide straps, and were good to wear when it's a bit too cool for dainty sandals but a bit too warm for shoes and socks.  Their passing will leave quite a gap in my (somewhat meagre) shoe wardrobe.

For some time now the carefully unshaven look seems to have been in fashion for blokes, and I for one don't care for it.  I don't mind a beard, and I don't mind a clean-shaven chin, but I do not like the unshaven look......it makes a face look dirty and unwashed.

"The beard.
Those who shave should be careful to do so every morning.  Nothing looks worse than a shabby beard.  Some persons whose beards are strong should shave twice a day, especially if they are going to a party in the evening."

That probably applies to women, too.......

Enjoy your days!

If a tree falls.....

.....and no one hears it, does it really fall?

A couple of months after we moved here this pic was taken from the hill behind our house.  That's our house with its red roof - the pointed steeple you can see belongs to a large nursing home complex lower down the hill, behind the houses across from us.  You can see the small group of trees which give us wonderful summer shade, just uphill from our back fence.

 But on Monday afternoon we had a storm, and this very large section of tree came down.  It's from the tree on the extreme right, fortunately it fell sideways and not towards us.

The trees are a hangout for many birds, so I hope none of them went for a ride when it came down.  The rain was so heavy and the storm so fierce that Kevin didn't hear it fall.  Perhaps, in that case, it didn't fall at all and this is an illusion we see every time we look out our back window?  I was out at the time and had a most exciting drive home through pouring rain.......talk about cats and dogs.  Fortunately it had almost stopped a few hours later when it was time to drive to choir practice, that was a much more sedate drive.

A less exciting happening during the week was, we have joined a walking group which meets on Tuesday mornings at 8.30am.  That's very early, to me....I am not a morning person by nature, getting up early all those years I was working was a real effort but I managed, and when I retired and could get up whenever I wanted not when the alarm said to it was wonderful, so I love being retired for that reason alone......but we went, and while I didn't manage the distance of those who have been walking for several months I hope to improve with time.  I have even swallowed my pride and bought new walking shoes which are glowing shining shimmering......white.  What is it about white shoes that makes one's feet look absolutely enormous?  And why are most women's walking shoes white?  They are comfortable, and I will wear them, but I do not like them.  They make my feet look like Minnie Mouse's feet.  I don't enjoy walking either, in fact even as a child I was never ever one who liked exercise or sport, but for my health's sake I felt I should do something more than sitting and sewing, or sitting and reading.  So there it is.

Blogger has done the dirty on us with its double word verification, hasn't it?  We weren't asked if we wanted it.  However I am reluctant to turn mine off as I have had a problem in the past with nuisance spam comments, so my apologies if it bothers you but it is staying.  I have noticed, though, that if you click on the question mark ? beside the window where the words are to be typed, up comes a page which has a "contact us" message at the bottom.  Click on that and you get a list of five options, one of which is "words are too hard to read".  I have been clicking that and sending it off - if enough people do it, the message may get through.  Perhaps it's my imagination, but over the past couple of days the verification words have seemed easier to read - so possibly the message is getting through.

Although I don't specially follow these things, I believe some award is happening this week in Hollywood.  Checking out the outfits worn can be interesting, can't it?  Some are beautiful, and some are a real train wreck.  We very seldom go to the movies, so winners and losers make little difference to us.

"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."

We live in a country town.....does that mean we have a country seat, or a town residence?  I can assure you, you will find no lost characters here.

Enjoy your days!

Slaving over a hot sewing machine

The Big Reveal for my quilt group's 2011 challenge quilts is on Saturday afternoon so I have been dancing up a storm at the sewing machine. My quilt is now quilted and the last of the loose threads are being woven in, then tomorrow the edges will be trimmed and the binding sewn on.

Serves me right for leaving it so late. It has been a finished top for months but making decisions about quilting gets to me every time. It could do with some more quilting in the centre and who knows, that just may get done. Or then again, it may not........after all, finished is better than perfect.

Here are a few of the lovely birds we saw on our holiday.

Major Mitchell's Cockatoo, so pretty with its pink and yellow colours.
Eastern Rosella - we have these here at home too, and they are beautiful. They are smaller than the other cockatoos. This one took a fancy to us and every time we stepped left, it shuffled left along the aviary wire.......if we stepped right, it shuffled right......our new best friend.
Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo. These are big birdies.
See the chewed tree branches? All done by this bird; their beaks are like bolt cutters. There are signs warning not to poke your fingers into the cages and you can see why.

The large aviary where these birds lived was also home to a young magpie, a terrible tease. It was annoying the black cocky, who was jumping up and down and madly sqwarking.....the more it sqwarked, the more the magpie teased......then the magpie hopped away with a "ha ha, gotcha!" look in its beady little eye and a yellow-speckled black tail feather in its beak. We thought it was very funny, although the black cocky was somewhat affronted.

I have a couple of questions about blog stuff: how do I make a header with more than one picture on it? and how do I replace the orange and white B with something different, so in a list of blogs mine has its own little unique symbol? I have seen that on a few blogs and it looks very swish.

We have been having storms lately and even the odd blackout, so the computer is spending some of its time turned off and unplugged as we don't want a repeat of the lightning strike which did so much damage to our last computer and caused it to be replaced. So if I am a bit tardy in replying to comments, or commenting on blogs, please forgive me. It's because I don't want to end up a bright spark.

"Showy dress.

The glaring colors and "loud" costumes, once so common, have given place to sober grays, and browns and olives; black predominating over all. The light, showily-trimmed dresses, which were once displayed in the streets and fashionable promenades, are now only worn in carriages. This display of showy dress and glaring colors is generally confined to those who love ostentation more than comfort."

Perhaps the brightly-coloured birds should be riding in carriages, rather than promenading around their aviary? The yellow and black cockatoo looked very smart and not at all sober.

Enjoy your days!

My signature has gone missing!

Perhaps one of these alpacas ate it? You notice they are not even looking at me - perhaps they are afraid I will see guilty looks on their fleecy little faces. When I took this picture it was a sunny day and I wasn't wearing my glasses, so I just aimed the camera at the white tree and hoped for the best. At least there is one alpaca looking at us.

I can't connect to the signature site either, perhaps they are having Problems. Web sites sometimes have Problems. Jolly inconsiderate of them, I say. If it keeps up I shall look for another signature site.

Have made a dozen heart blocks for New Zealand and hope to post them tomorrow, or if that's just impossible it will be on Friday. Mail doesn't usually take long to go across the ditch.

Speaking of mail, last week the postal service slapped on a surcharge of $9 to post parcels to the US. How rude! Makes the postage charge go from reasonable to quite expensive. If it weighs under a certain amount - almost nothing - you don't have to pay, and one has some sort of business account then one doesn't have to pay either, but for many people who only send the occasional parcel it really raises the postage cost. The reason is supposed to be because of extra scanning. And we have to pay $9 for that? I am in an international Secret Santa swap run on a music list and have participated for some years, it's always been fun - but I may have to think again about joining in after this year, which would be a shame. However I posted my parcel to New Hampshire, picked myself up from the floor after collapsing from the shock of the cost, and went home to recover.

We now have a gardenia flowering in the garden by the front steps, which is lovely - it smells heavenly. I was wondering what the plant with the little skinny green leaves would be, it wasn't until recently when we saw the buds that we realised. It is a different gardenia to the lovely potted one that the folk club gave me when I left Sydney which has larger leaves and at present has lots of buds, so we can look forward to gardenias in the beer garden as well as the front garden.

Speaking of the beer garden, it has a new resident. A frog. It croaks occasionally especially when it's raining (as it is now) and we think it lives in the downpipe from the roof because the croak is sometimes very echo-ey. The other night we saw a large green frog in the beer garden but a few weeks ago Kevin had also seen a smaller brown one on the front verandah, so we don't know which one is the croaker. Perhaps it's neither, perhaps there are more than two.

We have a couple of new plants to go in the garden too. There is a narrow garden along the length of our back fence with a few shrubs in it, two of which kept getting in the way of the clothesline. One was recently decimated by caterpillars so we have now chopped it down and will dig out the roots - the other won't be far behind. It will be a good spot for a small herb garden as it's nice and sunny, and not far from the kitchen. We planted a rosemary bush and some catmint a few months ago, both of which are doing very well - wonder what else would be good? Some parsley, perhaps some mint (planted in a pot so it doesn't take over the garden), perhaps something like thyme and oregano. Sage too.......we had better come to a decision, it's not a very big garden........

"To reduce the flesh.

A strong decoction of sassafras, drank frequently, will reduce the flesh as rapidly as any remedy known. A strong infusion is made at the rate of an ounce of sassafras to a quart of water. Boil it half an hour very slowly, and let it stand till cold, heating again if desired. Keep it from the air."

I don't think we have sassafras in Australia, but I could probably do with a bit of flesh reduction just the same.

Now I am going to look at my curtain fabric and wonder if sewing polyester fabric with cotton thread is a good idea, because for some reason I have no white poly thread. Perhaps it can wait until I get some tomorrow.

And my signature has come back! Enjoy your days!

Quilting Gallery Weekly Contest

This week's contest is "scrap quilts", so just for fun I entered my Road to St Louis quilt. I called it "Meet Me At The Fair" - remember the movie and its title song? Here it is in progress when I was quilting it, the contest and a full pic are here. There are some lovely scrappy quilts!

Slacko that I am, I still haven't started quilting my challenge quilt. My pedal foot and back have both been saying "wait a few days" but I want to get started. Yesterday the chiropractor did wonders so I think it's time to begin.
The reserve over the back fence is green and full of growing plants, I have no idea what they are - probably weeds. The taller flowers poking up their heads are wild poppies, pale mauve with deep purple centres.
The previous owner planted a large clump of these irises just outside the back fence, then dug some up to take with her. We don't mind as there are still lots and lots left! We have been noticing that irises are popular in gardens here and I have seen some beautifully coloured ones, these are pale creamy peach. The whole clump seems to be the same colour.

They will probably grow even more today because it is raining, very welcome rain. The yellow rose in the front garden is fully open and is scrumptiously gorgeous. Looks as though another of the roses will be red, and we don't know what the other colours will be. Next week we will be going away for ten days so with our luck they will all come into glorious bloom while we are away.

And The Only Choir In Town definitely isn't! I have joined another choir so that means singing on Monday and Thursday nights. One is more formal in its repertoire, the other is more light-hearted - each have their place, and I enjoy them both.

"The Obligation of an Introduction.

Two persons who have been properly introduced have in future certain claims upon one another's acquaintance which should be recognized, unless there are sufficient reasons for overlooking them. Even in that case good manners require the formal bow of recognition upon meeting, which, of itself, encourages no familiarity. Only a very ill-bred person will meet another with a stare."

Now that I have learnt how to put a fancy-nancy signature on my blog posts I would like to learn how to put my name on my pictures. I could always google it, couldn't I - that's how I found out how to make a signature.

Enjoy your days!

Sorting out signatures

Seems a few of you are having trouble with the online signature site. I didn't write the steps for within that site because it's not the only signature site on the internet, and if folks use another site the steps may not apply. Here's how you do it on MyLiveSignature.

When you go to this site first click on "Click here to start".

Of the three options which come up, choose the first, "using the signature creation wizard".

Follow the steps through choosing font, size etc. You will come to colour.

Click on the red box to bring up all colour options.

Using the slider on the right hand side of the box, slide it down until you see a colour you want to use - click within the box on that colour. If you don't click on your chosen colour it will stay black.

Choose a slope for your newly created signature.

Your signature ID number is displayed, and under it are three options...choose the bottom, "Want to use this signature?"

Two options are displayed, the first is "Generate HTML CODE" - click on that.

Two options are displayed again, you need the first - "generate a code for my handwritten signature".

When you have chosen that, the HTML code for your new signature is displayed with a box. Copy that, then return to your blog and follow the steps in my last post to paste it in your blog.

If you have any more trouble let me know, but that should do it.

Disclaimer: if you use another signature site you may need to go through a different procedure for the same result! If so, just follow the prompts on the screen until you have what you want.

You can do it too!

Following some googling this morning this is how I made my unique signature. If you don't use Blogger the procedure may be different.

There are online signature makers, I used this one and had fun choosing a font, size, colour (of course it had to be green....have I mentioned that I am quite fond of green?), slant etc. When that is done, you will have your signature's html code. Don't forget to copy it before moving back to your blog.

Go to your blog dashboard, at the top go to "Settings", then "Formatting". At the bottom of that page you will find "Post Template" with an empty box. Paste the html code with your signature into the box.

Voila - your own personal signature!

Don't forget to type above it and not below, or you will sign off on your posts before you even start.

If you want to remove Blogger's "posted by Jane Bloggs at 3.30pm" - having your name twice makes your lovely new signature redundant, and we don't want that - go to your blog's "Design" page, the page that lets you add and remove elements. Click on "Edit" on the large Blog Posts box, which will bring up a pop-up window "Configure Blog Posts". Uncheck the "Posted by" option.

Have fun!