Spring is sprung

It's been a slow starter this year, but is now creeping in.  This morning we trotted off to the monthly main street markets (which we hadn't been to for years, what with plague shutdowns and all), and it was very pleasant strolling in the sun.  We treated ourselves to breakfast - eggs Benny with smoked salmon for me, yummo - and collected a plant that our friendly horticulturist had for us....I had forgotten that we had ordered it!  It's a red flowering bottlebrush, Callistemon "Four Seasons", and we have just the spot for it when the weeds are cleared out.

It was even sunny enough to need a hat, just as well the hair and I went to the hairdresser the other day for the six-monthly trim.  Since having eye surgery a couple of years ago I need to wear a broad-brimmed hat on a sunny day, and that's easier with shorter hair.  Not short, though.  It's still shoulder length.  I am not yet ready for the Olde Ladye Choppe.

I hope I never am.

After we came home I looked at the partly-finished bag which was started at my treadle machine demo last month and it looked back at me as it has been doing for several weeks.....and I thought, hmmm, I thought.....so now it's done.  

The green bag was made during the demo, the red bag finished today.  They aren't huge bags, but.....a big bag holds a lot of Stuff so you fill it up, then you can't lift it and your ageing body complains and says "why did you do that, you shouldn't have put so much in it, take something out".....so, a smaller bag is better.

Slow progress on the first label for my Canadian quilt.  The initials for the provinces and territories will be done in one strand of floss, the sashing and border have been done in two strands.

Yes, I know it needs pressing - it will be, once it's completed.  The second label is now on the light box waiting to be traced.

No stitches have been knitted, no diamonds cut or sewn.  Words have been read, many notes have been plinked.  The coming week looks to be quite busy with something happening every day, but I do have hopes that something worthwhile may be accomplished.

Now I don't know what the rest of you think, and I realise that language is constantly shifting and changing, but poor grammar - or what I perceive to be poor grammar - seems to be more and more prevalent.  On the window of a women's clothing store this morning I saw "Fantastic starts here".  Fantastic - what?  Fantastic women?  Fantastic stupidity?  It's as bad as the sign on another business wall that reads "Great happens here"; we pass it occasionally, and I shudder every time.

It's not a place I shop at anyway, because so much of their stock is synthetic - even their summer clothes.  Australian summers can be quite warm, so natural fibres such as cotton and linen are most comfortable; even away from the humidity of the coast polyester is not a good choice.  Over the past couple of years our town has lost several women's clothes shops, I can think of at least five or six which have closed....one only yesterday.  I visited it on Friday but there was nothing I loved enough to buy, even at 40% off.  I think a lot of shopping has moved to online now but I am cautious about buying clothes when I can't feel the fabric first, then if it doesn't fit there is the hassle of returning and ordering another size.  Time for my trusty sewing machine, if only I can get patterns which fit.  When I was young and slender that was never a problem....sigh.....

Continuing on with Etiquette of the Street.

"The street manners of a lady.

The true lady walks the street, wrapped in a mantle of proper reserve, so impenetrable that insult and coarse familiarity shrink from her, while she, at the same time, carries with her a congenial atmosphere which attracts all, and puts all at their ease."

Does that sound like you?  I'm not quite sure that it's me, either.

Enjoy your days!

Golden houses this week!

Of late there seem to be some darker houses made, so I decided to make up for it this week.

Two yellow houses, one with a very bright lawn in front and flowers in the sky, and one with a flower garden in front.  Don't you love the Aussie flag fabric on the door?  That's from a very very long time ago.

For our sewing guild meeting on Wednesday I have promised to show how to make folded fabric coasters.  There were my first attempts; the corners could be a wee bit sharper, but they haven't yet been poked out with my trusty chopstick.....which may or may not be done before the middle of the week.

Instructions can be found in several places online.  Trust me......'easy' doesn't begin to describe them; they are, as some people annoyingly say, "easy as".  The basket of Christmas fabrics was raided to make these.

The English language is continually changing and evolving, and mostly it drifts by me without too much irritation.  However, "easy as", "tall as", "blue as" all make me cringe and then restrain myself from forcibly whacking the speaker severly around the head while muttering through gritted teeth "easy as what?  tall as what?"

But, being the nice person as what I am, I don't do that.  I content myself with just the gritted teeth.

It has rained!  Yesterday was a damp drizzly day, and very welcome it was too.  Today is clearer and dry, and still quite mild considering it's the middle of summer......but apart from a burst of heat a few months ago this summer has been fairly mild, for a change.  Usually the second half of January is alive to twanging guitars when 50,000 extra people descend on our town for a country music festival but it was, alas, another casualty of the covid plague.  A few pubs and clubs had sit-down concerts with limited attendance (we went to one) but all those squillions of dollars which usually pour into our town didn't happen.  January is either stinking hot and/or pouring rain, but this year has been much better; it would have been ideal festival weather - but the festival couldn't happen!

Oh well.  We live in hopes that it will again, next year.

Took my new glasses in to have the fit tweaked, but they are not ~quite~ right yet.  Never mind; it can be checked again this week.  It has been six months now since my eye surgery and the discomfort was definitely worth it, although I will be glad when the scars above my eyes finally fade completely.  That's the problem with old skin, I suppose; it doesn't bounce back like it would have done had I been a much younger person.

But when I was a much younger person I didn't need eye surgery......

"The breakfast table should be simply decorated, yet it may be made very attractive with its snowy cloth and napkins, its array of glass, and its ornamentation of fruits and flowers.  Bread should be placed upon the table, cut in slices.  In eating, it must always be broken, never cut, and certainly not bitten.  Fruit should be served in abundance at breakfast whenever practicable.  There is an old adage which declares that "fruit is gold in the morning, silver at noon, and lead at night".

Does that sound like your brekky table?  It's not mine, that's for sure.

Well, that's April more than half done

This month is going by fairly quickly, considering that not much is happening.  If Kevin's mother was still alive she would be celebrating her 107th birthday today.......that's quite a number, she has been gone for 13 years.

Some quilting was done on the tree hanging, but it's a way from being finished yet.  The leaves haven't stuck very well to the background - perhaps having the fusible ironed on for a couple of years before it was made may have something to do with that?  That'll teach me not to leave it so long again.  The trunk and branches have all been sewn along their edges; after the leaves have been stitched down I'll go back and quilt in some details.  First, however, the leaves need to be fastened firmly so they don't have their own fall and I am left with a bare tree.

Speaking of autumn, it has cooled right down here.  The ceiling vents have now been closed off as we're not going to need the cooling system for several months, windows in seldom used rooms have been closed......we've had the heater on a few times now, and have even started thinking about a fire. 

Some stitches have been knitted on the belle étoile scarf.  The tumblers are tumbling along nicely.  I am trying to keep the number of projects being worked on to a minimum, rather than taking tiny nibbles at a lot of projects and getting nowhere with any of them.

Manitoba is done.

 We haven't been to Manitoba, but we have seen buffalo - bison - we drove past a bison farm in Ontario.  They are quite large beasties.  We've eaten bison sausage too.

Earlier in the week a couple of rainbow lorikeets decided to mooch around in the Eremophila bush for a while.  Trying to photograph mostly-green birds in a green bush against a green background through the back window was a challenge that the camera didn't ~quite~ rise to, but it made a valiant effort.

First time we have seen lorikeets in this bush, although we have sometimes seen Eastern Rosellas.  The flowers have nectar at the base so honeyeaters can stick their pointed beaks in, but rosellas and lorikeets have parrot beaks - which are not pointed.  We have seen rosellas nip off the flowers then chomp on the base for a minute or two before dropping them to the ground......whatever works, I suppose.

We had our usual quiet week, a trip out for our own hunting and gathering, another one to hunt and gather on Bianca's behalf because cats don't drive (she is on an Olde Catte mobility diet which we buy from the vet, it works so well for her that we're tempted to try it ourselves) and a drug run to the pharmacy.  While out on Bianca's trip I called at the quilt store to collect a ruler which I had ordered some time ago, and which will be used when I get to continuing on my autumn leaf quilt.  It's so nice chatting to other people on these outings - at a safe distance, of course - sometimes it feels that we are the only two people left alive.

In recent times an ad has been popping up on TV occasionally for an an insurance company.  We have no idea what is being said (our remote has a 'mute' button for a reason) but the wording on the screen is "we'll keep you covered in hardship".  Now I don't know about you all, but I wouldn't like to be covered in hardship.  I would much rather be covered in flowers, or perhaps antique jewellery......emeralds would be nice......someone was probably paid good money for thinking up that slogan, but I don't think they earned it.

"Satire and ridicule.
Young persons appear ridiculous when satirizing or ridiculing books, people or things.  Opinions to be worth the consideration of others should have the advantage of coming from mature persons.  Cultivated people are not in the habit of resorting to such weapons as satire and ridicule.  They find too much to correct in themselves to indulge in coarse censure of the conduct of others, who may not have had advantages equal to their own."

I will venture to suggest that the person who was paid for that badly-worded slogan was younger than I am.

Enjoy your days!

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!

Rain!

We have had rain!  Wet stuff has fallen from the sky!  So much rain has fallen this month that a new record has been set - the previous December rain record was set four years ago, and this month we had much more.  Quite ironic really, considering we are still in drought......

Gardens in the town are looking lush and green and healthy, and gardeners are smiling, and local farmers are over the moon.

On Tuesday we will be driving to Canberra to meet the smallest twig on the family tree, and the rain means that we won't have to fret about our garden while we are away.

 

Even the roses are enjoying the rain. This was taken a couple of years ago before we lost our tree in a storm, but the rose is just the same.

The new skirt is nearly done, only the hem needs to be pinned and sewn (by hand - I prefer hand-sewn hems) now.  It may even accompany me to Canberra, because it will be cool and comfortable in the expected warm weather.....and a new skirt makes one feel like a new woman, yes?

While in Canberra we will be staying with our son's in-laws, which will be really nice - it will give us a chance to get to know them better.  We will even see the new year in while we are there, if we can stay up long enough.  Young Euan has no doubt been told that Grandmama Jennifer and Whatsisname (who hasn't yet decided what he would like to be called) will be visiting, and we trust he will be on his best behaviour.

I am hopeful of fitting in a little shopping whilst in Canberra, I know where there is a wonderful fabric shop.....lots of quilting fabrics on one side, a very good selection of dressmaking fabric on the other, and in the middle enough haberdashery to make a semster's eyes light up with glee.

Isn't 'semster' a wonderful word?  It's very old and was in use before 1000AD, meaning 'one who sews', although it was eventually replaced by 'seamstress'.  So much better than 'sewer', don't you think?  Or - my pet hate - 'sewist', which doesn't even appear in a dictionary.

"New-Year's Calls.
The custom of New-Year's calling is prevalent in some cities, and most villages in the country, and so agreeable a custom is it, that it is becoming more in favour every year.  This is the day when gentlemen keep up their acquaintanceship with ladies and families, some of whom they are unable to see, probably, during the whole year."

An interesting custom, and it seems to have been fairly new in 1885 when this was written.  Best wishes to all for a happy start to 2015, we won't meet again until next year.

Enjoy your days!

It's a quiet time here at the Chateau

Not much of anything to report, which is why there hasn't been any reporting for a couple of weeks.

Action is starting to happen in the sewing room, isn't that a cause for rejoicing!  My Maritime Beauty top is being prepared for quilting, some designs of sea shells were found on the internet and traced off onto light paper.  These are now pinned on ready to be quilted through, after which the paper will be torn away.....and if the stitching should stray off the line, well, who would ever know?  This method leaves no lines to be washed out so no fear of said lines reappearing in the future.  It might not suit everyone, but it works for me.

Last night another flower basket block was finished, that makes 223 done, only two to go!  Hopefully the count is correct.  Way back when not many had been made I counted up how many were done and wrote the number in my diary, then each year that total was transferred to the new year's diary, but over so many years it is possible a counting mistake was made.  Ah well, we will find out soon, won't we?

Recently while going through some pictures on our computer I came across some taken while on holiday Over At The Coast a couple of years back, so here they are.

 I don't know the name of this little pink flower, but suspect it's an orchid.

 This rather interesting plant is an Aussie native, a grevillea called "Peaches and Cream" as my research found out.  The colours were so bright and luminous, they really glowed.

Ever wondered what the back end of a peacock looks like?  Well, wonder no longer.  We were walking past some birds at a wildlife park when we heard an odd rustling whirring noise, which turned out to be a peacock fanning its feathers to entice a female bird.  It had its back to us so this is the backstage view of a peacock display, sadly without sound so you can't get the full effect.

Earlier this afternoon while pottering in the garden I nearly did myself a mischief, somehow lost my balance and almost fell downhill into a rose bush.  We live on a hill, not the steepest hill in the universe but a hill just the same, and while bending over to pull out a weed I found myself continuing to topple forward.  Fortunately I managed to grab the crepe myrtle rather than the rose bush, but after that fright I decided that was enough excitement for one day and came inside.  The other weeds will have to wait.  Of course I managed to wrench my sore shoulder too, so now it's hurting, which is a bummer.  Perhaps I won't be able to cook dinner tonight, wouldn't that be sad?

Is anyone else irritated by the overuse of the "keep calm and - whatever" phrase these days?  I believe "Keep calm and carry on" dates from England during World War II and that's where it stayed for a long time, but over the past few years it has made its way onto cups (keep calm and drink tea/coffee), fruit (eat a banana), other food (eat chocolate, drink wine) and so on ad nauseum.  Perhaps it's about time the world became agitated instead.

Last Thursday a few of us from the uke group performed a few songs for a local charity lunch, and nice things were said to us and about us.  This coming Sunday is the Major Annual Concert for the music school, so amid all the serious string quartets, orchestras and choirs will be our uke group playing and singing.  I suspect we will be a bit of light relief.  Perhaps even comic relief.......

"Correct use of words.
The correct use of words is indispensable to a good talker who would escape the unfavorable criticism of an educated listener.  There are many words and phrases, used in some cases by persons who have known better, but who have become careless from association with others who make constant use of them."

Does this also apply to the overuse of keeping calm?

Enjoy your days!

Noodling around

Which is what people do when they are playing a musical instrument.....any instrument......with no aim or purpose in mind.  Here is my noodling corner.

 One of my guitars with its blue strap, and my gorgeous hand-made uke with its green strap, and equipment in the corner for playing CDs and listening to the radio.  The other guitar and uke are in their coffins cases elsewhere in the room, and a music stand with lots of printed music and books is just to the left.

One of the women at uke group continually noodles even while our teachers are speaking, which is rude and annoying.  Noodling has its place, and a class is not the place.  She was away recently for a few weeks.......it was much better.

A selection of some possible fabrics for the grandkid's first quilt, which will be cut out one of these days.  Can't rush genius, you know.......the block will be "Economy Patch", won't be paper-pieced, and will finish eight inches square.  The four inch finished centre square will be these fun prints while the two outer rows of triangles will be anything and everything including, of course, the two fabrics used for the stuffed wombat.  Eventually.........

From which you can tell that the female inmate of the Chateau des Wombats is having a lazy day.

Said grandkid's mum is enjoying her musical visit to Switzerland.  Hope the kid is, too.

Who in their wisdom decided that the word "absolutely" meant "yes"?  So many people in the media and in real life say "absolutely" or more emphatically "oh - absolutely!" when a simple "yes" would suffice, and would answer the question being asked more accurately.  Its use was apparently first noted in the 1530s, and it meant "completely" or "without exception", which is not quite the same as "yes".  Every time I hear it on TV I have to sit on my hands to keep from throwing something at the speaker as it gives me a strong dose of the irrits.  It's even worse when "absolutely" is half-swallowed on the way out and emerges as "absy".

Yesterday we had a small rain shower, we could barely contain our excitement!  It took all the willpower we possess to restrain ourselves from throwing off our clothes and dancing nekkid in the street with a cake of soap.  More rain is forecast for later this week and we are hoping it eventuates.  So far this year we have had barely two thirds of the long-term average rainfall to July, which coupled with a dry year last year and a long hot summer means things aren't looking good for the rest of this year.  However, Aussies are an optimistic lot, so we keep thinking that more rain will fall soon.

Last night another block for the flower basket block was finished - that makes 221 done, only four to go, yay!  Way back early in 2006 (that's right, eight years ago) I thought it could be useful to have something done entirely by hand as a take-along project, and so far it has been overseas four times - to Canada, and to Alaska, with fabric since included from both countries - on many caravan holidays, to quilt groups, to sit-and-sew days, even in waiting rooms.  There have been times following arm/wrist injury and and shoulder surgery when hand sewing just wasn't possible for several months, but it was about the journey rather than the destination.....so that really didn't matter.  Once the last of the blocks is made they will be joined by hand into nine patches, and eventually those 25 nine patches will be joined by hand to make a quilt top.  It would be nice if it could be hand-quilted too, but as my hands are now giving me trouble with achingly painful knobbly joints (because, sadly, I am no longer 25) that just may not be able to happen.

As to where those 225, six-and-a-half inch blocks will be laid out while placement is decided, well, that is a very good question and one I am glad you asked.  Some furniture removal may have to take place.......

"Interruption.
Interruption of the speech of others is a great sin against good breeding.  It has been aptly said that if you interrupt a speaker in the middle of a sentence, you act almost as rudely as if, when walking with a companion you were to thrust yourself before him and stop his progress."

Words which our noodling friend in uke class would do well to heed.  Now I am off to noodle "Sway" which we looked at last night.......all together now, when marimba rhythms start to play, dance with me, make me sway........

Enjoy your days!