Posts

Seattle Six

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G'day all! 12 is a big number around here, being all to do with Seattle Seahawks and the 12th man - did you know that American football has 11 players active on the ground at any one time and the twelfth man is the spectators watching the game?  I didn't.  I know about the 12th man in cricket but not this thing that has been adopted here regarding what I usually call gridiron. But I don't want to talk about American football and I don't want to talk about 12, I want to talk about six. Yes, we have now been in Seattle for six years (and a number of days). Six years. Where has the time gone? This is our seventh winter - how have we managed?  Some people love gloom but we are solar powered.  And Seattle tends to be rather gloomy in winter.  I manage by making stuff like crazy, I wear bright colours, and I hang out online on Ravelry.  Without my rav mates, I'd be bored out of my brain.  I'd get a job but I don't have a work permit and that means no

Ten years

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G'day all! Today marks ten years since we first moved to the US. Ten whole years. My doesn't the time fly? It has been interesting - I've learned a heap along the way, seen a bunch of stuff.  I've learned and grown and changed.  One can't really help it. And I must publish this as a little note so that it gets today's date on it, not tomorrow's - 23 June 2017 is ten years since Colorado. Ten years, stretching out.  So many memories, good and bad!  Some of my writings from June 2007 are a hoot, so enjoy! anon!

Heavens to Betsy, a finished object (or two)

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G'day all! I've had a frantic few weeks.  Okay, couple of months. We've finally reached a detente on the crappy weather here - we're getting glorious summery weather interspersed with mank - pretty typical in June here really. I've been busy making a quilt.  I didn't realise making a quilt could be a full time job and more but boy did I work on that quilt for weeks for many many hours a day.  However, until it reaches its recipient, you can't see the quilt. Instead, I offer you a bit of knitting.  It's a cardigan, believe it or not.  I started off with a bold choice for me - burgundy and gold and white stripes.  And I hated it.  Not me.  Not colours I wear or have stuff to wear under it.  So I changed it, overdyed the gold yarn to make it green, changed the burgundy for blue and SURPRISE!  Colours I will wear happily. This is not an FO ::Rolls eyes:: I've had some quilts done for ages.  I'm having a bit of a love/hate with the fi

The long winter

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aka the winter of our discontent. G'day all! Long time no blog.  It's been a pretty rancid winter here, cold, wet, even quite a few snow days!  And very very grey. Daffa-daffa-daffa-daffa- daffodils But Spring is now here, or at least the plants assure me that Spring is here - the (cherry) plums are flowering and so are the daffodils.  The crocuses have croaked and the pears are getting ready to flower, along with the tulips.  The stellate magnolias are coming into full bloom. Hellebore Plum Stellate magnolia So nice to see Spring at last. Crocuses-wot-croaked I've been making stuff all the way through.  DH started a new job and that has been umm interesting, often in the Confucian sense.  We've had a trip to California out of it, a trip that brought almost record amounts of rainfall to those parts (yay us?).  And we aren't mentioning politics but that is hella interesting too.  I have learned a lot about how politics works in

Home, glorious Home

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G'day all! What an exciting few weeks I had! We flew Home for over a month.  Yep, home to Australia. I was having a very big birthday you see and wanted to be in Oz for it. Cake!  Yum!  I think this was my third or fourth cake. Turns out my government wanted to send me a birthday present - it was a bit late for my birthday but hey... My government cares about my innards and doesn't want me to die early. Best birthday present EVAH??? The trip (and the birthday) were most  excellent .  I caught up with a lot of friends (and missed some but hey, they didn't contact me after I directly contacted them) and got to see family and new family.  And I didn't do the screening because I already am being screened. The US Department of State (which grants us visas to live here as temporary residents) will be very pleased to know that I still call Australia home  (gah, can't handle this in any of its versions and when I read the comments, I'm not the on

A summer of lace, part one

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G'day all! I thought I should do a knitted finished object post - I've been knitting like crazy for the last couple of months. I've been taking part in a knitalong my favourite group on Ravelry (RemRants), Summer of Lace 2016.  I guess it isn't so much a knitalong where you all do the same pattern as a group encouragement thing where we show off what we've been knitting and it should have some lace in it. A couple of weeks ago I took some of my new knits down to the beach and did a photo shoot of them and a quilt I finished months and months ago. First, for your delectation and delight, we have Dawn : Convenient driftwood, and colours match the shawl! The pattern is  Girdle of Melian  by  Raven Knits Designs  (links go to Ravelry).  Light yarn is aptly named Dawn, in a  silk, wool and seacell blend  by Fidalgo Artisan yarns.  Its colour is more subtle than my pics show.  It really looks like that clear blue light of just before sunrise.  The dark

Life happens, even when you aren't looking!

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G'day all! Time is slipping through my fingers.  How did it get to be near the end of the day already?  How can I not have blogged for all of August?  How can it be September already?  Signs of autumn are showing up everywhere - stressed trees are losing their leaves, non-stressed trees are starting to go orange and red.... No, not yet, I'm not ready! My garden is going bonkers but I'm starting to worry that I won't get many more tomatoes ripened.  I've got many many green tomatoes, like I'd say at least 20 kilos/50 lb of the things are still green.  The weather has been pretty average the last week or so, though it is meant to become a bit sunnier now. Thriving, half-fallen over tomato Big tomato! Little plant, many capsicums/chillies/bell peppers Eggplants! I would like my eggplants to keep producing/start producing.  The little finger sized ones have been going great guns but the bigger ones have only really just started getting