Assorted rabbitings on

G'day all!

Thanks for the info about your local guilds - it seems that guilds are things for older people in the main.... So what brought on yesterday's rant? It was really that I had rung up and been told that the commissions were changing to 40% for non-volunteers instead of 25% across the board. I told the lady that as I normally work full time it is really hard to volunteer in a guild that is only generally open on weekdays, and that if I was lucky enough to have a day off, I was very unlikely to spend it at the guild volunteering my time. (I would be out gallivanting around the countryside, going plant/yarn shopping or working on something at home most likely.

I think both of us had lightbulb moments at that point - the lady by saying "Oh..." and me by hearing her say "Oh...," an oh that meant "We had not thought about that!" I really do think that the guild has not thought about making itself accessible to people who have to work. I am going up there today and will have a chat with any of the committee who might so happen to be around.

On to other things.

I am still dithering about Hedera. The purple yarn is too dark to show the pattern well and the white yarn I spun is a bit too thick and thin and is averaging out to a bit heavier than the guage of the sock needs. Now I could muck about with changing the size of the pattern (I already have) but that seems like Too Much Effort. I might knit up a different sock instead. Hmm, purple yarn with a dancing lady motif in a paler colour - sounds good!

I turned the toe up heel on Widdershins last night and discovered it was about a centimetre too short. It does stretch but it feels tight. So I ripped and today is another day! I don't think having the gusset a little longer than normal will hurt cos this sock is extra small against my other socks. It does stretch out, but it is basically a 2X1 rib with the odd cable thrown in.

Erg. It is raining. I don't like driving across town in rain. Maybe the guild will have to wait another day! But what will I do instead? Turn a heel on a sock? Pull back the purple hedera and turn it into a toe up dancing lady? Snort and snuffle in front of the heater - the cold is now going for my sinuses. Ick. Sinus remedies welcome! I don't want to go on antibiotics again - they give me the trots and the last lot made me itch like billy-o!

Let's do some pictures of things that happened yesterday.


Nathan and I made cakes. Do you like how my cake rose madly and then got a big goober on the side? I reckon I should call it Trek or something. Yes, I put green food colouring in and swirled it around a bit. It is greenish.


This thing got us very excited and Nathan took many photos. Oooh a UFO, but a UFO with starboard and port running lights and a big screen on one side. Hmmmm..... Turned out to be a blimp advertising a new car, though we never saw the tv screen side well - it basically flew around our house facing away. It was a holden blimp, not a ford. BORING! OK, I drive a toyota but I am a ford girl at heart.

Sunset was pretty





Nutmeg showed off for the camera, or at least for Nathan. I like the way her back feet are still planted firmly on the car at this point - she hasn't stretched up all the way she can.

Here's my political comment for the day. We watched the news last night and got riled up again about the situation in the Middle East. These are my thoughts, yours will most likely vary. All sides really know how to inflame the situation. Mobilise and militarise the moderates. The moderates are the majority of people, so you get them all riled up and upset cos their families have been killed and then the less able to cope ones run off and try to wipe out as many of the "evil enemy" as possible. The rest are much more likely to agitate for war. Wars, particularly wars about religion, really piss me off. We are all human, and jew, muslim, christian, hindu, whatever - we all bleed the same colour when you wound us. Maybe some people should go off and read G'Kar's "Declaration of Principles:"

The Universe speaks in many languages, but only one voice.
The language is not Narn, or Human, or Centauri, or Gaim or Minbari.
It speaks in the language of hope; It speaks in the language of trust; It speaks in the language of strength, and the language of compassion.
It is the language of the heart and the language of the soul. But always, it is the same voice.
It is the voice of our ancestors, speaking through us, And the voice of our inheritors, waiting to be born.
It is the small, still voice that says: We are one. No matter the blood; No matter the skin; No matter the world; No matter the star; We are one. No matter the pain; No matter the darkness; No matter the loss; No matter the fear; We are one.
Here, gathered together in common cause. we agree to recognise this singular truth, and this singular rule: That we must be kind to one another, because each voice enriches us and ennobles us, and each voice lost diminishes us.
We are the voice of the Universe, the soul of creation, the fire that will light the way to a better future. We are one.

(Copyright Warner's, etc, etc)

Now that is not written how I would write it, but it says the same thing. Why can't we all be decent to each other? Why do a few ratbags have to go and spoil things for the rest of us? Religion can be a force for such good, so why does it seem to go wrong so often? I obviously just do not grok how important it is that one god or one colour skin or one life attitude rule all others. "One (ring/god/colour/etc) to rule them all and in the darkness bind them."

anon!