Oh, the indignity.........

All my ancestors, as far as I have been able to ascertain, came from the British Isles, England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland and like many of my family I have the complexion to prove it.....pale, freckled skin and auburn hair (what's not grey, that is).  Last week my body and I attended the doctor for a skin check, something I hadn't done for some years because it is such an undignified procedure; one has to strip down to one's undies while said doctor peers closely at one's skin.  A couple of spots need to go back for a return visit and biopsy but that doesn't need to be for a while, thank goodness.  When the doctor - young, male - asked me if I was happy to take off my clothes so he could look at my skin I replied, "no I am not happy about it, I find the whole procedure very humiliating but am prepared to do it".......he thought that was hilarious.  I was merely speaking the truth.  Stripping is humiliating and undignified and cringe-making, and there will be more cringing because one of the spots to be biopsied (is there such a word?) is on my back under my bra strap.  Erk.  Cringe.......

On a much happier note the radio program seems to be going along well, next Sunday's will be a little green because it will be St Patrick's Day.  All together now........diddle-e-i-diddle-e-o.......diddly diddly........

A busy week coming up what with volunteering at the local gallery; attending a pattern drafting workshop where the hard sell may be tried, but it doesn't work on me; Thursday quilt group; Friday household stuff; Saturday evening we have seats for a play by the local theatre group, Sunday and Monday cleaning and packing ready to drive off on Tuesday for a couple of weeks.  We will return the first weekend in April.

The sewing room has been calling, and yesterday one of the projects bought last year in Canada was pulled out of the cupboard and its gorgeous batik fabrics drooled over.  Then I took the rotary cutter to them......sliced and diced......not all cut yet but it won't take long.  The pattern is "Leaf peeking" although my fabrics are different to those shown, and it was purchased at the Creativ Festival in Toronto from the very helpful ladies at Country Concessions quilt shop.  The sewing mojo has been a little absent lately so a new project is just what it needs to kick start it again, yes?  Especially something small and easily finished.  As autumn colours are appearing round town it seems a good time to make an autumn project.

But our autumn colours, pretty as they are, are nothing like these:

Taken in Bayfield, Ontario, last October.  Much more glorious than anything we see here.....and some Canadians we met wondered why we travelled to their country in autumn, rather than summer.

"It is rude to interrupt friends whom you meet in a shop before they have finished making their purchases, or to ask their attention to your own purchases.  It is rude to offer your opinion unasked, upon their judgement or taste, in the selection of goods."

Indeed.

Now it's time for some ukulele practice, then perhaps a piece or two of fabric may be cut, then early dinner before heading out to choir......sometimes I wonder how I ever found time to work, keep house and raise a family for all those years before I retired.

Enjoy your days!

We've been and gone and come home again

The Big Smoke was big, but not very smokey - at least not where we were!  We stayed by the water and had a lovely view from the back verandah, looking left.........

 ........then straight ahead........

 .......then right.

A hibiscus in the rain, the flowers on that bush were bigger than my hand.

And before you ask, no, I did not go in that pool.  I don't appear in public in a swimsuit.

We had an good visit, catching up with friends for dinner, visiting my favourite music shop (a couple of new CDs came home with us) and a quilt shop, and seeing an exhibition at the State Library of NSW, a collection of photos taken in the gold rush days of the 1870s.  The detail in the photos is amazing and we found it particularly interesting as we know some of the towns where the pictures were taken; several of the buildings still exist.

But we could have done without the drive home in the rain on Friday........only 30-40 minutes was dry, out of what is usually a six hour drive.  It took much longer because traffic was slow, drivers were being cautious which isn't a bad thing in heavy rain.

Last week Karen was able to hear some of my radio program, isn't technology amazing?  People at the station were thrilled to know that we can be heard on the far side of the known universe - which Karen's town is, from here.  Thank you for listening, Karen, and for your kind words!  I still make the occasional mistake but I'm getting the hang of all that has to be done.......and tonight it was a solo effort, no one in the building but me.  Each week gets a little easier and a little less unnerving.

We've been seeing signs of autumn!  The vine on the fence of the football field we drive past on our way to or from town is starting to turn bronze and some trees are turning yellow already, while others have the faded look which often precedes changing.  We're not sure what the vine is, could be an ornamental grape, and it is pretty when all its leaves are bronze.  Signs that summer is on the way out have been noticeable for two or three weeks now; summer was record-breaking hot, the hottest for many years, and I for one will be glad when it's finally all over.  When we head south in a couple of weeks there should be even more signs of autumn to enjoy.

"To make lip salve.
Melt in a jar placed in a basin of boiling water a quarter of an ounce each of white wax and spermaceti, flour of benzoin fifteen grains, and half an ounce of the oil of almonds.  Stir until the mixture is cool.  Color red with alkanet root."

Oh my.......women have it easy these days, don't we?  We can buy a new lipstick whenever we need to, we don't have to make our own.  Alkanet and benzoin are from  plants, while spermaceti is from whales; obviously the writers of my 1885 book assumed their readers would be familiar with such items.

Enjoy your days!

Normal service will be resumed next weekend

We're heading off to the Big Smoke tomorrow for a few days, and what with quilting group, radio program (which is proceeding nicely, thank you) and other stuff, the last few days have passed me by in a flash, hence the poor blog has been languishing unloved.

But it will be back soon, I promise.

Meantime, enjoy your days!

So.....tonight's the night!

Yes folks, tonight marks my debut as a radio announcer with my own weekly program and apparently the station is now streaming so you can listen online, should the time suit.  From 7pm to 9pm Eastern Australian Time, which is probably stupid dark o'clock in some parts of the world - if you would like to listen you can find world clocks on the interwebz; we are in the same time zone as Sydney.  Station details are here.

The ukulele and Beethoven are becoming more friendly toward each other, you will be pleased to hear.  Oh my......last week teacher Sam let me use one of his tenor ukes.  Mine is a soprano, the smallest size, then there's concert size, tenor, with baritone being the biggest.  Tenor is so much easier to play because I am used to playing guitar, my fingers are long and often reach too far on the little soprano's neck so I end up playing wrong notes.  Didn't have that problem with Sam's tenor uke!  I can foresee a tenor uke in my future, and some of the time spent at next month's National Folk Festival will be checking out the hand-made instrument makers' display to find just the right tenor uke.

We need a picture, don't we?  Let's see what we can find.

This really made us chuckle, we thought it was fun!  In Sidney, B.C., Canada, this tree beside the water had bottles hanging from its branches.  You may not be able to see the contents of the bottles, but there were objects like a key ring (with keys attached), a little yellow duck and a red poppy - it was a few days after Remembrance Day.

There was even a sign attached to the tree giving an email address, perhaps it's the Keeper Of The Tree?  One would need to be nimble and a little fearless to hang a bottle from some of those branches.

Last night I received an email to tell me I had won some Aurifil thread from a blog giveaway, isn't that great?  It's a thread I really like, and use often; I've been buying thread online from them for several years.

The other day I checked in with Emma the physiotherapist and she has given me the green light to start walking, but not too far, in addition to the usual walking while shopping etc..  The doctor has said 30 minutes a day, but so far 10 minutes is about all my foot and ankle will happily do - according to Emma, we should stop when it starts hurting so as not to damage still-healing tissues.  That's all right by me, I am so unfit and out of condition that it will take a little time to build up my fitness again.  We live near the top of a hill so walking away from our house is fairly a easy downhill stroll.......but coming home is always uphill.  I can't believe how long this is taking to heal, it seemed a fairly ordinary (if somewhat painful) whack when it was first done!  Just goes to show, you can damage yourself more easily than you think.

Last weekend Kevin and I went to see "Quartet"......it's gently humorous and has some wonderful performers who can still sing and play up a storm although in what would be considered their senior years.  While it's not the best movie I've seen about older people we both enjoyed it, and friends who have seen it have also liked it.  It's good to see a movie which doesn't depend on violence, action, special effects and sex, sex and more sex to tell a story.  Is that really what people want to see these days, or is it what movie-makers want to make regardless of the public's taste?

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

Oh dear!  I have sometimes lost my way, or lost an object.....but to lose one's character would be disastrous.

Enjoy your days!

Playing Beethoven on ukulele

Yes folks, indeed we are.  Uke group started up again last Tuesday night and homework is to practice Beethoven's "Ode to Joy", not a difficult tune but it is taking me a wee while to work out some of the fingering, none of which is indicated on the music we were given.  When I had classical guitar lessons many many years ago the fingering was always shown on the music.....made it so much easier when one knew that one had to place one's third finger on the second fret because the second finger, which may have been more obvious to use, was needed for the next note somewhere else.  But never fear, all will work out.

Been thinking of my family and friends in parts of Canada, the snow storms have been quite bad - worst for several years.  Stay warm and safe!

Not much activity to report this week from the sewing room.  The pants pattern is drafted and has been transferred to pattern tissue and cut, now need to cut out the trial fabric, a very bright red gingham with 1in squares. The large checks make it easy to check any fitting problems, and they can have lines drawn on them to match hips etc.  They will never, ever be worn in public.  Trust me on this.

But because I don't want you all to think that nothing ever gets done here, before we went to Canada I made two more leaf bowls which were needed for an exhibition at a local craft gallery.  A gold one had previously been made and shown on the blog.

This glorious leaf fabric was a gift from Rose Marie a few years ago......

 .....and this fabric was a good match for the other side

 Some more of my stash of leaf fabrics, I'm not sure whether I like this side best..........

 .......or this side.

After these were made they were put together as a trio with the gold bowl, and it has a much narrower zig-zag edging.  Obviously it wasn't checked before going ahead with these two, as their edge stitching is much wider.....but it doesn't look too bad, for all that.  When autumn eventually arrives, La Chateau des Wombats will have a head start on decor.

Speaking of decor, the small bathroom has finally been painted and is now dazzling white rather than the unfortunate yellow/orange sponged finish left by the previous owners.  The small plastic mirrored cabinet has been removed and a large mirror ordered, it should be installed soon.  The mirror had been screwed high on the wall, and I am short, so I could only see from my forehead up.....it was much too high for applying lippy, even standing on tippy toe......perhaps the previous Man Of The House was a tall bloke and put the mirror at a height to suit him.  The ceramic tile in my wombat collection will go on the wall, I only ever managed to find one wombat tile.......surely there must be more than one......

"Etiquette of calls.
There are calls of ceremony, of condolence, of congratulation and of friendship.  All but the latter are usually of short duration.  The call of friendship is usually of less formality and may be of some length."

Calls, and calling cards, seem to have passed by the wayside, haven't they?  Nowadays we are more likely to meet a friend at a café than make a more formal call to their home.  When I was a child people still called on each other, because cafés hadn't yet been invented.

Enjoy your days!

Not sure where the week has gone.....

No doubt about it, the older one gets the quicker time flies.  This week I had great intentions of posting sooner but it just didn't happen.

The quilt top made of those not-very-well-put-together blocks is done, what do you reckon?  Bearing in mind that it still needs to be properly pressed, then layered and quilted.

It's not quite as yellow as it appears - it's lying on the spare bed, and that room has gold walls.  The picture was quickly taken so you could see what a genius I am, both with the design and the border colour choices.

The current sewing room project is to draft a pattern for pants, which is quite an interesting process.  When I was young and slender I used to be able to make pants from a bought pattern which would fit with no alterations needed but as age, genetics and hormones have wrecked my once youthful figure that's not so easy any more.  Properly fitting clothes can make anyone look better.....at least, I hope so!  We now have a branch of the Australian Sewing Guild here in the Small Smoke, and the help and support of like-minded people is great.  It also helps to have someone else to help with fitting and measuring which is difficult to do on one's own.  As the next sewing group meeting will come before the quilt group meeting the pants pattern will get done first; if the quilt isn't done for this month it can wait until next time.

Now that the music festival is over and done with until next January life is slowly returning to what passes for normal.  Monday night choir starts again tomorrow night, ukulele group on Tuesday night.....so far Thursday night choir hasn't been heard from, but no doubt it will start again soon.  This year I had hoped to have a go at square dancing but the foot is not quite yet up to it; yes, I have done square dancing before so I can follow the calls......allemand left with your left hand, do-si-do etc.......my doctor keeps making noises about exercise and that would at least be fun......

Last Wednesday morning I made my radio debut!  Not on my own program yet but Tony who has been training me said "now you take over" and walked out of the studio for a while, so I had the fun of selecting the music to be played, and announcing it, and making sure the correct sponsors' and community announcement messages were played, and answering the phone and playing the requested songs.  Folk who heard it were complimentary, so that's good - I'm looking forward to having my own program.

This week we have had more welcome rain, the hill behind us is now green and lush again.  Before last weekend it was dry and yellow-brown, but within two days of the rain it had changed completely; it was getting greener as we watched, I'm sure.  This morning I noticed a slight change of colour on some of the leaves of a large deciduous tree near the local railway station, perhaps we are coming to the beginning of the end of summer!  Or perhaps the tree was like many of us, tired and stressed by the heat of the last few months.

"As culture is the first requirement of good society, so self-improvement should be the aim of each and all of its members.  Manners will improve with the cultivation of the mind, until the pleasure and harmony of social intercourse are no longer marred by the introduction of discordant elements, and they only will be excluded from the best society whose lack of education and whose rude manners will totally unfit them for its enjoyments and appreciation.  Good manners are even more essential to harmony in society than a good education, and may be considered as valuable an acquisition as knowledge in any form."

That's very true, isn't it?  We can forgive people many things, if they have good manners.

Enjoy your days!

Hey, rain.....

....rain coming down,
On the cane, on the roofs of the town......

From a poem by Aussie Bill Scott, and very apt today because we are having some very welcome rain.  It's not so welcome in Queensland, they are having tornadoes and floods, but it has been so dry here lately that we will take whatever we can get and be grateful for it.

It rained the day we visited Kincardine, too.  That's Lake Huron in the distance.

 Don't you love the different colours of autumn?  It's not all orange, or gold, or red....there is such a mix of colours.

Just taking a coffee break from sewing blocks together for a charity quilt.  The blocks were made by group members and when I measured them I found that some folk were rather creative with their seams.......one in particular was not well made, it had equal sides but wasn't square, more of a parallelogram and the sides may have measured equal but they weren't straight......but I was determined to use it because there were nine blocks and if that one wasn't used another would have had to be made in its place.......so its sides were trimmed as straight as possible, and all blocks were bordered with 2-1/2in borders of cream fabric.  Then, genius what I am, I made a paper template 9-1/2in square and used it to cut all the blocks on an angle to get wonky squares.  They are now in the process of being sashed with pale blue solid, then bordered with mid and dark blue solids.  The block design is a bird, a swallow, hence the blue borders - and because they are wonky they look as though they are darting round the sky.  A pic will be taken when it's all together, I promise.  Those blocks have been taking up space in my sewing room for well over a year so it's time they were moved out.

For the border design and measurements I used EQ7, drew it up , used their measurements to buy the border fabrics, and to cut them, then wondered why they wouldn't fit the by-then-trimmed-to-size blocks, and realised that although I had cut the fabrics to the measurements given, I had put the wrong size into my design in the first place.  Fortunately the error was easily fixed as I had put in a bigger size and the sashings and borders needed a little trimmed off them; it would not have been good had I put in a smaller size.  So if you would like 24 pieces of light blue solid fabric each half an inch by 1-1/2 inches, speak up now.

We have been enjoying some of the festival music, even though it's called a country music festival I wouldn't call all the music we have heard 'country'.  Why put music in boxes?  You either enjoy it, or you don't.  We spent yesterday afternoon at a pub on The Other Side Of The River......yes indeed, we crossed over......listening to a musician we have heard play at folk festivals in past years, Andy Baylor.  Great music, really danceable; some people took to the floor, and we enjoyed watching them dance as much as they enjoyed dancing.  We came home with three new CDs and are looking forward to hearing them.  Next month Andy will be playing at a jazz festival - see what I mean about boxes?  Folk festival, country music festival, jazz festival.....who decides how these genres are defined?

Unfortunately my healing foot didn't allow me up on the dance floor, but I would have if I could have, and if I had a partner.  But it is getting better, the swelling has nearly all gone down which makes it easier to move, which in turn means that I move more.  However, this year was to be the year that my torn shoulder was fixed, I had psyched myself up to Going Under The Knife and was looking forward to being pain-free, until Kevin (being a tough Aussie bloke and not asking for help) hurt his shoulder loading a suitcase into our car at the very start of our Canadian holiday last year, we hadn't even left home. He has now found out he has torn two muscles in his shoulder, so bang goes my chance to be fixed....I only have one torn tendon, even though it was done a few years ago and it is uncomfortable and sometimes annoying.....can you blame me for being slightly miffed?  I was told that immediately after the operation I would have to keep my arm in a fixed position for six weeks, then limited movement while having physiotherapy, all of which would take at least three months; I had been hoping to have it done before next summer, as having one's arm strapped to one's body could be uncomfortable in hot weather.  Being one-armed means depending on one's partner for help with tasks like hair washing, so the aforementioned partner needs to have two working hands, arms and shoulders.  By the time Kevin gets to see a specialist (probably in the Big Smoke), and arranges for his operation, and goes through his rehabilitation of at least three months, it will be getting on for summer again......so there goes my chance to be fixed this year.  I am peeved, and more than a little resentful.

Ah well.  No doubt these things happen for a reason.  I have yet to decide what that reason is, in this case.

"In society, everybody should receive equal attention, the young as well as the old.  A high authority says 'If we wish our young people to grow up self-possessed and at ease, we must early train them in those graces by giving them the same attention and consideration we do those of maturer years.  If we snub them, and systematically neglect them, they will acquire an awkwardness and a deprecatory manner, which will be very difficult for them to overcome'"

If we were both to receive equal attention then we could both have our shoulders fixed at the same time.....but how would we cope, with both of us being one-armed for a while?

Enjoy your days!