Who turned off the lights?

G'day all!

Today I have to start with a small whinge about the weather.

For the 12 days of the Commonwealth Games, Melbourne's weather was perfect. One morning was a little cloudier and cooler than we wanted but otherwise it was light clouds at most and clear and bright and sunny and warm. In the evenings light jackets were the most you needed.

The games ended on the 26th of March. Bingo bango suddenly since then we've struggled to even reach 20 degrees (this is celcius) and most of the time temps have hovered around 15. We've had several strong cool changes. The evenings are cold. The trees are starting to turn (the one good thing about it being colder). Did someone put the weather under a spell for the games and now we have to suffer with weeks of crud weather? It hasn't even rained much despite being pretty grey and gloomy. So who turned off the lights?

At least it gives us something to whinge moan talk about in the lift at work. And believe me, we do! LOL

Now onto more important stuff. Like what I've been up to recently.

a) being crook. Being crook means being unwell or sick or not good. An old saying is, "Things are crook in Tallarook" which means things are just generally bad there and the town (any town, not just Tallarook - Tallarook is an example and it rhymes with crook) is struggling to survive. Yes, there is such a place as Tallarook - it is about 60km north of Melbourne in the Great Dividing Range (which is not so great there - just a series of ripples about 200m high, rather than a great escarpment like it is down much of the east coast of Oz). Considering the way Melbourne is expanding, I am surprised Tallarook hasn't been swallowed up. In other words, I was not well - I had a 24 hour gut bug which thankfully seems to have passed.

b) I've been dyeing lots. Now that is adding colour to stuff, though jeez when I was crook there were moments when I wondered about the other. LOL

c) I've been knitting lots and frogging lots. I reckon that if I had just sat down and knitted either of the two hats on the needles just as straight hats, I would've finished 8 of the blighters now, but nope I keep not liking how I've done something and frogging it back, sometimes to almost the cast on. Plus the jackety thing I am making? Had to frog back 10 rows on a sleeve cos I had left the second row of the clover lace out. Doh!

d) This is a busy weekend. Two garden shows on. Must go to garden shows. Yesterday's was fairly dull, it's normal self until I heard the dulcet tones of one of my favourite TV guys, not that his show has been on for two years....

e) and then there is that thing called work. Blah. I had a week off less than a month ago and now I need a month or two off. I have much to do at work and I am getting it done but... I wish I could go part time.

Now, I'm guessing you would like piccies? Boy, are you getting them! Actually, if I put all these up now, you'll be here for ever even if you have cable, so I am go)ing to split them over the next day or so. Plus it means I have blog fodder for a coupla days. :-

Here's some of the dyeing I have been doing:






If you like any of these, ask me for more details. I'd be happy to swap or sell them :-)


I have to say that this bloke holding the Verticordia grandis (one of my favourite native hard to grow/easy to kill plants) is one of the nicest blokes I've ever met. That is unusual in a celebrity. He is a garden and bird freak. He raises native parrots and desinged, ran, produced and hosted one of the world's first gardening/lifestyle shows called Burke's Backyard for 17 years. Just to show I am no fly by nighter and did actually like the show, here's my blog entry for when it ended. I listened to him talk yesterday and his general gardening knowledge is amazing, he is polite, he listens to people and he answers their questions with respect. For those of you overseas, his name is Don Burke. Aussie knit-gardeners, if you get a chance to see him talk, do so. I was lucky cos I didn't even know he was giving a talk and just so happened to pass by the tent at the right time. Another thing that is interesting is Don started off as a SYDNEY radio gardening personality. Melbourne people do not normally welcome Sydney personalities, but after 17 years on national TV, we rather seem to like Don. BTW, the bloke in the background is Phil Vaughan, an interesting character who has an amazing range of Australian native plants. His nursery is on the Bellarine peninsula - drop me a line if you want details. The nursery is conveniently on the way back from my brother's house.


Do I look delighted? :-) Note that Don is NOT wearing a handknitted jumper - he wore jumpers on the show cos they were quiet nd warm - it was often yucky weather when they shot stuff in witner and the jumpers don't rustle and don't get ruined in rain. The suede jacket felt lovely, btw :-)

You'll have to wait for the rest of the pics and updates on actual knitting! Yes, knitting! Ohmigoodness, honest to god real knitting! I'll even throw in some pics of more handspun! Strewth! (Strewth = god's truth said Aussie style.)

I should update the house blog - we've made more progress on the garage and the garden. Nathan is making progress on the greenhouse out the front. I could blather about it here on this ostensibly knitting blog, but I should blather about it on the house blog.


Whilst I think of it, Cheshire, pictured here on her current favourite chair in her favourite sleeping position, is starting to get quite thin hair on her lower back and her skin feels scabby. One of our cats years ago had a hormonal imbalance that caused something similar. She doesn't have fleas. Any ideas? I guess I should drag her off to the vet but I don't know any vets around here and the one we would use is near our old place.

anon!