Spotrick took this AMAZING photo when we went to Mount Lofty! I’m sure this is a winner!
Finished the psychedelic fingerless mitts!!
Published October 13, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: "fingerless mitts", blog, blogs, bright, Charlie, colorful, crochet, Facebook, knit, knitting, mitts, pattern, Plurk, psychedelic, Selana, Spotrick, Twitter, Yvonne Becker
Although I did some work on my uni assignments, the highlight of the day was finishing the fingerless mitts. My internet friend Yvonne in Dortmund, Germany got me to test a simple new pattern she had written. I completed the knitting and crocheted the edges of the second mitt, then photographed the mitts with yarn and needle gauge samples for Yvonne’s website on Etsy.
Fingerless mitts knitted in psychedelic yarns!
I also got into the debate about the usefulness and enjoyment of Twitter, Plurk and Facebook. Spotrick wrote a proper blog about it and Charlie thinks she will blog too. I find Twitter a bit bland and disconnected, Plurk is nice for warm, friendly little exchanges and Facebook is a good all round site where I can keep in touch, share things and have a wider circle of acquaintances. Charlie likes Twitter for “corporate” communications, but I find that aspect leaves me cold. I’m not interested in finding out about companies, investments or “products” via a communications network consisting of little snippets- I’ll leave that to big companies interested in competition with each other.
Spotrick bought his holiday reading- the third in the Millennium series by Stieg Larsson “The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest“. I’m hopefully borrowing a copy from a friend so I can start before he finishes!
Evangeline, A-J and I did a bit of window shopping in Rundle Mall- I don’t think I had been there for three months! They hadn’t been for a year, as they were living in Tasmania or travelling 10 000 kilometres up the east coast and down the Aussie interior! We had no money to spend, so we just oohed and ahed over the new season’s clothes- I stored a few ideas to copy or adapt old stuff! I seemed to be rather drawn to yellow things- a nice happy colour. I rather liked a polka-dot blouse from Alannah Hill, while Evangeline loved the decorated cardigans with embroidery, sparkles and bows!
Alannah Hill Join my Dots Cardi
It would be good to get something nice for a job interview, but I can’t afford it and will cross that hurdle when I get to it. Last time I had a job interview, I wore a nice skirt but it was rather tight in the waist, although my blouse and jacket fitted fine. I have several pairs of suitable shoes for interviews as I don’t wear them every day, but Evangeline said she hasn’t got any decent ones any more. I certainly haven’t got a dark coloured suit that fits- haven’t bought one for twelve years!
I’m wishing the craft bug would bite me a bit harder now- perhaps I might be inspired to sew a few things for summer, since I’ve managed to knit something after a long “dead zone” with no motivation or energy.
Shopping and alpacas
Published October 10, 2009 crafts , photography Leave a CommentTags: alpaca, beautiful, clean, cute, fur, hair, knitting, photography, restrictions, routine, shopping, show, showground, soft, spinning, wool, yarn
As usual for a Saturday we did the weekly shopping- special ingredients this week were the makings for Turkish Wedding Soup (chicken meat to go with the carrots, capsicums, lentils and stock we already had in the pantry). I’ll put the recipe in when I get a photo of the finished noms.
Clean and quiet in their pens
Loads of photos came out of this- the animals’ faces were so sweet and cute- such lonnng eyelashes (as I guess they ARE members of the camel group), such lovely fur colours and so soft.
Sweet alpaca face!
We wandered freely amongst the alpacas in their little pens- all very clean and not smelly. I was able to take as many photos as I liked in there. However, when we came out to look at the “products” made from alpaca hair/fur we came across a strange group of women selling clothing who were very thingy about photography. They asked me to wait and ask the head person for permission to put the photos on Flickr- they were quite happy for me to take the photos but not show them to anyone. I waited and waited- the head person wasn’t making any effort to allow me to speak to her, so I have the photos, I’m putting them on Flickr and I’m NOT putting a link to their website, as I would have done if they’d been nicer!
Finished items made from alpaca yarn
Unfortunately (and I think, unwise commercially for them) there was no ready spun tarn for sale to satisfy the knitters and weavers amongst the visitors. I would have bought a little of the lovely soft yarn if they’d had any- but alas, no opportunity.
I have purchased yarn from the Rare Yarns Company using their online service in the past. I absolutely love the look and feel of their products! The natural colours are varied and appealing, while the dyed yarns have some gorgeous rich shades. For example:
Rare Yarns Cherry Astrakhan Yarn
That was Friday!
Had a tasty little affogato at Billy Baxter’s at Norwood, conferred with the fellow unemployed, bought some postcards, stared at gorgeous beads then joined friends celebrating the announcement of the 2010 theatre season. We had dinner with them at Regatta’s- a riverside restaurant near the Festival Theatre and Playhouse in the city. It was rather expensive but extremely tasty as a special treat. My feet nearly froze off until about 2am!
No fotiez were taken except a few with the old phonecam. How unusual!
What happened Monday? Ummm…
Published October 9, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: band, cleaning, days, dog, eating, home, knitting, outing, restaurant, routine, uni
It was a public holiday and I needed reminding what we did??? Oh yes and Tuesday was a work day and I ummm…? Must have done something.
Wednesday I did a lot of cleaning and the vacuum cleaner was so clogged with dust I got drowned in it! We had dinner at Wah Hing and learnt some interesting news. Amelia came and stayed the night so she could go to band practice with David.
Thursday was uni day and I watched the rest of Michael Moore’s “Sicko” online. We had a good old debate in the tutorial about funding of the Australlian health system and the USA crept in quite a bit!
Today I printed out some dog-coat patterns for Amelia and her friend Reannen to knit, went to Norwood to have a coffee/lunch with friends, SPotrick started 2 weeks holiday and we are going with a group of friends to Regatta’s tonight for dinner (consequently blowing next week’s budget in advance).
I’ll add more later maybe. Where did that week go?
An internet rendezvous
Published October 6, 2009 photography 1 CommentTags: "The Netherlands", baby, daughter, doctor, Flickr, friend, internet, photographer, visit
Today I linked up again with an online friend who lives in The Netherlands. He once lived in Adelaide and worked in the Emergency Department at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, but I never knew hom then! Now he is a specialist anaesthetist and intensive care doctor back in his home country, where he still finds a little time to take some great photos, although with babies and his tough job he mainly confines them to holidays. I noticed a cute pic of his youngest daughter Jasmijn, and some shots from the latest holiday in Crete.
Here is little Jasmijn beaming her smile to the world:
Jasmijn van Straalen
Wouter then had a good blitz visit to my Flickr photostream, which made me pretty happy that he remembered me and he liked quite a few of my recent pix! I think it was great of him to take the time, since he doesn’t have much of it these days! Yayy!!
Off went the humans in convoy from Salisbury- Grumba and Spotrick in Vinnie, the blue Magna and Evangeline and Amelia-Jane in the Red Renegade (plus Kevin, of course). Armed with tasty goodies such as South Cape Brie and cabernet paste, we set out for the wilds of
Gawler and perhaps, Thompson’s Beach.
Arriving in Gawler, we found it had at least entered the 20th century, with many new sets of traffic lights, roundabouts and the inevitable blocked familiar streets and route changes… uh-oh!
My instructions from Polly had been something to do with “Go to the end of Murray Street and keep going straight ahead to Clonlea Park and I’ll meet you at the information centre”… Hmm- well it wasn’t quite LIKE that!
We drove around in circles, Spotrick cursing and asking me (ME???) for directions and clearer instructions- which I didn’t have. Nor did we have my phone with Polly’s phone number. But- wait for it- of course we had Spotrick’s wondrous iPhone with GPS!! Noooooo!!! Dang… no coverage with Vodaphone (or so we thought). After wondering WTF WTF WTF, I decided we should just get our gear, find a spot in the park and have the picnic.
We sat down and organised ourselves, Kevin having joyous encounters with numerous other excited and excitable pooches, usually attached to tiny children who didn’t weigh as much as their dogs! As soon as we started nomming into the feast, I spotted Polly and her sausage dog (Frankie) coming into the park.
After a few awkward and cranky-looking moments (poor Kirsten- we had stood her up badly through all the kerfuffle) we all settled down to start the picnic again. Everyone enjoyed the food and drink, including Polly, Kevin and Frankie.
Poinciana in Clonlea Park, Gawler
After a short trot around the park- unable to ford the river because it was flowing too swiftly (miracle of the decade- drought had cut it down to a stinky reedbed for all of living memory)- we filled Kevin’s wool with corkscrew burrs and decided Thompson’s Beach was the next stop.
Cross country was pretty easy (actually on nice straight country back roads past barley fields and olive groves) and we reached the main North-South connection pretty quickly. We THOUGHT the road into Thompson’s Beach (Ruskin’s Road on the map) would be pretty soon as it looked just north of Middle Beach which had lots of signs. However, it proved quite elusive and we drove further and further North until Spotrick thought we’d end up in Port Augutta! SO a roadside confab ensued. Since there were signs to Dublin all along the way, the roadside meeting agreed we would go to the townlet of Dublin for a coffee then head home- the same sign to Dublin also said “Thompson’s Beach”. Yippee!!
Dublin barely existed, but we pulled up in front of the General Store and investigated- they had a kettle but no coffee. Problemo!! Ahhh- Nil problemo- the pub was opposite- surely a pub would have coffee as well as beer?? Well- not quite… the pub had poker machines as well as beer. BUT!!!!! The girl behind the bar said we could make ourselves a free tea or coffee in the pokies room, because the law said there must be non alcoholic drinks available for poker machine players at the pub so they weren’t compelled to get drunk in order to play! Problem solvered- we tucked into the freebies and each put a dollar in the pokies!
Amelia-Jane actually won $2 for her dollar- so 2 coffees were free; Polly, Spotrick and I all used our dollars in the machines, so theoretically 5 coffees cost $3- bargain! bargain!
Three notorious poker machine players hit the Dublin hotel
Enthusiasm restored, Bridie dragged us to the back streets of Dublin to find the ex-church she once helped restore for habitation, having been enamoured of another gentleman who owned it when Amelia was only three. Obviously nothing further eventuated, but the church was cute and we took pix.
The Church where Bridie lived
Then we choofed off to Thompson’s Beach. [The brochure tells you about the Samphire Coast walking trails and shore birds.]
Got lots of photos- will fill in the details later!
Today we went for one of our fun drives in the country with our friends who live close by and who own the requisite small 4WD (A Honda urvile or something!). We choofed off and nearly made it onto the main road before one of them realised they had left a huge pot of curry simmering on the gas stove…back again, whoopsy do!
Our second foray got us going through the centre of the city with the driver acting rather hyperactive, getting petrol, washing the windscreen, plus all the other windows and fussing about the route to take. In fact he fussed about the route about every five minutes once we got into the country, consulting Karen (the GPS) repeatedly. This did not stop him from going past the same scenery three times at one point!!
We made it to a winery for lunch after a bit of a stroll near the Kangaroo Creek reservoir,
Kangaroo Creek reservoir nice and full
where the water is nearly up to maximum, although not going over the spillway. Last year it was so shallow, you practically had to hang over the side of the dam to see any water in the bottom! We are very pleased about the break in the drought.
Spring blossom in the Adelaide Hills
Anyway, Chain of Ponds Winery Restaurant was a very attractive place with tasty wines and a lovely lunch menu. We chose a large platter of antipasto to share which had lots of locally made tidbits with various sauces and dips- yummo! We also shared a dish of cheddar and leek tart with salad before moving to dessert and coffee. We had Turkish Delight flavoured cheesecake with coconut ice-cream and strawberry coulis (although it was listed as a toffee orange sauce which I couldn’t eat because of allergies). Nom nom- what a delicious cheesecake! The coconut icecream was nice- good texture, but the flavour wasn’t as good as my homemade one; I’ll know next time. Incidentally the 2005 Amadeus Shiraz-cabernet-merlot we drank was absolutely scrumptious- not to be missed. I could also go their liqueur which is based on Ligurian Bee Honey made locally on Kangaroo Island where the colony is kept pure.
After this we whizzed through the countryside, turning backwards and forwards on our tracks due to frequent consultations between John and Karen (the GPS!!)! It was a bit manic at times and we only got a few photo stops! However, we got nice shots of the Torrens River in the gorge
The Torrens River
, then some nice scenery shots, flowers and some of an emu in a paddock!
Mr Emu at Mt Gawler
On the way back through the Hills it was fairly hectic and we didn’t stop for anything- despite which Spotrick managed to sleep all down the freeway until we reached home!
So I’ll stick a few photos in here, plus you can see the Flickr ones in the column to the right!
There- I’ve blogged- not thrilling, but done! Woot!
PS. Was reading about Mindfulness Therapy for depression and discovered I hadn’t been doing it properly as my therapist has skipped over it too lightly, really. Now I will try to do it more mindfully! Fingers crossed for me!
I had this amazing set of dreams last night- I’ll have to blog about it! There were millions of little fish shapes in 3D cut out of paper on pages I was trying to read, the fish cutouts swirled and curled like a printed endpaper into waves and paisley shapes- very psychedelic. If you can imagine that each little segment of the print below is a tiny paper fish, you’re on the right track!
Marbled endpaper similar to my dream imagery
There was also a horse trying to suck on my hair- it was in the bedroom trying to wake me up- thank goodness it didn’t have foul breath and I didn’t seem to be allergic to it in the dream, as I am IRL!
Considering all the animals around, it was just as well there was also a pile of vets who inconveniently drove away with seven children with muddy feet in a small car.
There were an awful lot of my [deceased] Uncle Norman’s rust coloured cattle dogs; a university flat with too many people in it (including a past work colleague who was not impressed with the lack of space); some exotic flowers, like very branched grevilleas, that I put in a salad and the Queen came to inspect an ecologically sound road-building project! “They” said it was eco-friendly, but it looked like the usual pile of jagged boulders chopped off some hill and dumped in a ravine!
Maybe some of it was inspired by Evangeline’s tales of the early 70’s when she journeyed from derelict houses in the hills to Adelaide Uni to buy LSD tabs from a large bikey!
I’m having trouble making the miniature paper fish, so I may have to draw one! Mine are not much like this, but it’s great, so I’ll insert a pic:
Won Pak's Rupiah Koi
I’ll put a photo of my own paper fishie when I’ve made it presentable.
