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Showing posts from April, 2014

ANZAC

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G'day all! Another Anzac Day has come and almost gone.  I can't believe it is almost May - no wonder the weather keeps pretending to be nice every now and then! Does anyone here not know about Anzac Day?  Aussies and Kiwis (and peoples from the islands surrounding us) do, of course - have a look at the letters in ANZAC.  Australia and New Zealand Army Corps.  Really, the corps is misspelt.  It should be corpse, because that is what Anzac Day commemorates, the day that thousands of young Commonwealth men stormed the coves around Gallipoli in what is now called Turkey.  Why?  Because it was part of a push to ensure that the Black Sea remained open to Russia (then an ally of Britain) and then capture Constantinople and thereby ensure the Ottomans (now Turks) did not back up the Germans. Well, it was an unmitigated disaster.  I won't go any further, but many thousands of men died (on both sides) for very little gain by the Allies.  If you can, look up the movie "Gall

Spring Sprung

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G'day all! Last weekend was amazing.  The weather was warm - so warm I ended up wearing shorts.  I got to blind people with the glaring pink purple whiteness of my glorious legs.  It hit a whole stinking 21C! LOL Apparently my ideas about what hot is have changed in my time in Seattle. This weekend?  Brr!  It got to about 12C today and it seemed cold, especially when the skies cleared and the wind came up cold from the south-west. Spring isn't the only thing that is sprung. The days are getting longer and we are well into Spring.  I usually love Spring, though I'm starting to loathe the pollen that is blowing in the wind.  A lot more plants are wind pollinated here than in Oz. Last of the camellias There's so many flowers blooming now.  The crab apples are in full bloom along with the ornamental peaches/almonds/whatever they are, and even the early flowerers of the edible apples are starting.  Gardens are looking simply amazing. The gardens

Retreat and regenerate

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G'day all! Since my last post, I've been away, on Island. Leaving San Juan Island, wearing new or recently finished knits It was lovely. The last two Aprils, I've gone away to a magical place and met like minded souls. We are all knitters. We come together and we knit and we talk and we relax, away from the humdrum of daily life.  Deb Nolan prepares amazing food for us.  We don't have to wash a single dish or cup or make any of our meals... It is wonderful!  We leave politics and race and religion at the door (mostly).  Last year's group spawned "the kindness of knitters" and this year's group was "a quietness or calmness of knitters."  (Lord knows how we managed that with me and another lovely lady who could gasbag loudly with the best of us!) And did I say that we get to knit as much or as little as we like? This chullo (choo-yo) was most likely knitted on bicycle spokes!  (Not still on the bike, silly!) And as we

Here and there

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G'day all! Still all over the shop here at our new Modest Manor.  I've been playing way too much 2048 in its various guises (doge2048 crashes my video card badly - the monitor says it is getting no input!).  The problem with playing games like that is I get to mull over things.  And at the moment I don't like what I'm mulling over. Many years ago, more years than I care to think about, I did something that was quite quite bad to someone who deserved so much better treatment.  I was young and foolish, and I hurt someone deeply. An image of beauty to offset the nasty. Did you know I'm a cheater? Yep, I cheated on my first boyfriend.  I learned the error of my ways, and what I did still haunts me to this day.  It was wrong on so many levels.  I had reasons, I had excuses but I did the wrong thing.  It has informed me for oh so many years, trying to be careful not to make that same mistake again. You can see the phone's imperfect stitching - maybe i