Yarnivorous

G'day all! Long time no post.  I have the nasty feeling I didn't post because I'm a bit stupid and got too hot. Yes, it got hot in Seattle.  I seem to remember saying last time that there are two things I never thought I'd say in Seattle: 1) It's too hot, and 2) We need rain. Well I have a third thing to say: 3) Too much sun. The tomato and the eggplant at the ends of two raised beds are going great guns, as is the tomato by the house.  They are setting fruit like crazy.  I've got hopes of even getting one ripe eggplant, which will equal the record of anything I've grown in Melbourne. This isn't meant to be a shot of my bust but it does show how tall my huge tomato is. BTW, that is not a euphemism. But the rest?  I had to go and get shade cloth for the vegie patch to get things growing.  I know that sounds absurd but they were in full sun from about 8am to 7pm and apparently between that, the northerly wind and the complete lack of rai...

G'day all! It is a year since we flew off to London to get our new visas.  A whole year! Sunset is now almost as northerly as it goes. It's been a good year, a year with a fair bit of travel - London, New York (twice), DC and most recently Boston.  Family visited.  Family grew in size with a baby born, and more distant family has also grown. But it's been a year!  How did that happen! Since my last blogging, the days have stretched out further - the sun is setting after 9pm now and rises not long after five.  Twilight lasts a good hour.  I always wanted to go roaming in the gloaming and it seems I don't have to go to Scotland to do so.  The light outside tonight at 9:30 was an amazing pearly mauve.  It won't last, it doesn't last long, not all night, but it is lovely whilst it lasts.  (We are still southerly compared to London, but London is surprisingly far north.) Prettiest house in the area. I'm trying to make the m...

G'day all! (Oooh, bottom, sorry 2paw, I've forgotten to send your yarn again! Argh! Tomorrow fer sher) So DH was down for the weekend again. Whilst he was here, we applied to refinance our mortgage with of all things a Queensland building society. They are a long way away if we need to visit a branch (1000 miles almost) but they have a good deal, good phone service and good internet, if I can believe the online reviews. ( A tea rose, precursor to hybrid teas, whose name I cannot remember - I thought it was General Gallieni but it never flowers red, only ivory pink ) He left this morning to go back to work. I've been waiting for something all day. Nearly 12 hours after DH left for Sydney again, I realised that I am waiting for him to come home. ( English Garden, with black spot. Awful spring for black spot this year, so wet and humid! ) I'll be waiting a while - he isn't coming down until closer to Christmas. Then he has nearly two weeks here before flying out ...

G'day all! It is horridly warm here again today. Am starting to envy the -6C temps in Fort Collins at present - that almost sounds pleasant! Work was quite dreadful as the air con has passed on with a seized compressor and is being replaced. Home ended up being no better. I put the little portable fan on and at first basked in front of the moving air put out by it. After a while, it didn't seem to be making much breeze any more. The louvred front was still whirling around so I thought I must just be not in the right spot to catch the breeze as it moved around. I had noticed an odd smell but it wasn't very strong. Ahem. Fan not working but louvres still pushing around! Guess I'd better go buy a new fan. We have the big black monster fan but even on low it blows all the papers off the desk. And it is in the attic behind other stuff that I cannot be bothered moving at present. I have a little computer fan blowing air on my hands and the laptop. It is very pleasant...

G'day all! I am totally zonked. That is Australian for exhausted. So far this week, it's been Too Friggin' Hot. Sunday night, Nutmeg couldn't settle and kept me awake half the night (wash wash, jingle jingle goes her collar's bell, wash, jingle...argh! Rock rock goes the chair she was sitting on. Rock, jingle wash!). Monday night was hot. Tuesday night was hot. Wednesday night is promising to be hot. On Monday, they started digging up the curb on the other side of the road, work starts at 7am and they moved the equipment into place at 6:45am. They aren't allowed to do any work before 7am but apparently they can move their massive road (and curb) munching machine into place and also the big dump trucks (or lorries as we used to call them) can drive up and down and unload bobcats and stuff. I much prefer the men who just wheel down barrows full of concrete. Anyway, when one gets to sleep at midnight and the cat plays up and then at sunrise the workers s...

G'day all! I would like to thank all of you who have commented or sent emails over the last few days. I am touched (in the good way, though I may be a bit crazy in the other sense of touched too!), truly really touched, and humbled. Thank you for your messages of support. I really appreciate them. Please excuse me if I do not respond privately to each and every comment (blogger doesn't send me your email address and also, I'm a little overwhelmed). I went for more scans today - chest xray and a liver ultrasound. Can I just say the liver ultrasound was more uncomfortable than I expected cos he pressed down a lot to get good pics, and I had to hold my breath whilst he did so. If my liver wasn't annoyed before, it is now! The ultrasonographer took lots of pics of my liver and gall bladder. Apparently when you lie down, your gallbladder flops anywhere it pleases, and when you stand back up it responds rather well to gravity and slithers downwards, making it hard to f...

G'day all! What a fun week so far! In more than the usual sense of the word. I've finished a couple of things, I've had a pap smear (and now have to have a pelvic ultrasound, a mammogram and blood tests - have to check up on previously diagnosed fibroids, mammogram screening starts at age 40 here and I haven't had bloods done since umm years ago when I had no exercise tolerance and then found out that I had been accidentally eating stuff with milk powder in it), I've got more things to make, DH woke up today all dizzy and I had to make him breakfast and look after him (you might think breakfast would be a no go but he was hungry), it is STINKING HOT today - it has cracked the old ton in Campbell and I was out on the bike doing the shopping.... Anyway the new doctor is a heap better than the other one and didn't do the revolving door trick with me. I cracked funnies all the way through cos the alternative was to clock him and run out the door in a backless gow...

G'day all! We are getting a taste of summer here in the Bay area. Oh boy! If you read all of this post, you will see it has addled my brain. I hope it doesn't addle yours too! We went for a walk to the library this afternoon, in the heat of the day. People have this weird idea that the hottest time of the day is when the sun is highest, just like there is some idea that the hottest weather should be around solstice, when the hottest (and the coldest) weather is usually around a month or so after solstice. Can I just say that where I've lived, the hottest parts of the day are the late afternoon, when the sun is slanting and everything's broiled for a good part of the day. Admittedly it was only about 33C but sheesh, it felt amazingly hot with the sun blasting down from a cloudless sky, the heat radiating off the concrete path.... (last time I remember heat like that off a road or path was the first time I went to Bobbin's Nest and it was a 100F day...) This week...

G'day all! Good news! (Old pic) Apparently Cheshire came home none the worse for wear. Lord knows where she has been or what she's been up to, but it was Easter and maybe she got locked in someplace she wasn't meant to be. In more good news for those of you more interesting in knitting than rambles, I have finished one Not Lenore sock. (excuse the hair in the pic - it was the best shot of the sock despite the hair.) It is Not a Lenore because I knitted it in the wrong direction (toe up). I might knit the next one top down and do the lace pattern properly. (Ever photographed something thinking it looks fine, only to realise when you are editing pics that there is a lump of really obvious fluff on the item being photographed?) I had Big Plans today for doing a heap of knitting and sewing, but I just remembered that I have a dental appointment this arvo. That will take a fair chunk out of my day. Of course on the bright side, that means I will be sitting in air condition...

G'day all! We are back from our trip and recovering from driving from U-tah! in two days via a rather circuitous route. There are some mountain ranges that I would like to have a few words with.... We drove over 2000 miles in a week. Doesn't sound like much but it sure cut into my knitting time cos I drove. All. The. Way. So, I got hardly any knitting done - half a sock and the first (ie easy) 25 rows of a top down raglan cardi were my knitting triumphs. I managed to read most of one small book. I read through a book on the southwestern states of the US. We saw gobsmacking scenery. DH and I took over 2500 digipics - that'll take a while to edit out the good ones, which will mostly appear on my travel blog . Now I am back into shopping at the farmers' market, cooking, cleaning, clearing the car out, doing the clothes washing, all that sort of boring stuff. And dying of heat exhaustion. We went from this: (Wednesday, Grand Canyon, embiggen the pics to see more ...

Not such a g'day all! It is 46.4C in my home city at present. It feels like 49.8C. That's 115F and feels like 121F in the old scale. Whatever system you use, it is extremely hot for a place with a Feb average of about 25C. Alas our garden of interesting native plants, roses and fruit trees. I am not sure how any of it can survive this heat. Tank water and grey water can't be enough. Hopefully some plants will tough it out. At the same time, it has rained all day here. Not really heavy rain, only about a centimetre since midday, but it is rain which is desperately needed both here and Back 'Ome. We've only had a couple of inches of the 12 or so expected this rain season/winter. So when the going gets tough, the tough get into their sock yarn collection and pick out some yarn and some patterns for the mystery grab bag! Alas I don't have enough smallish bags to stick the yarn and patterns into. Also I don't have every month covered but given I probab...

G'day all! Yesterday it seemed to be a little warm in the afternoon. Before I go out to get to the post office to pick up a parcel and send some off, I thought I would check the weather forecast. Yikes! I am used to it being about 20C (low 70s), and I see this: ..EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH IN EFFECT FROM THURSDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH FRIDAY AFTERNOON TODAY MOSTLY SUNNY AND HOT. HIGHS IN THE MID TO UPPER 90S. NORTH WINDS 5 TO 10 MPH BECOMING NORTHWEST 5 TO 10 MPH IN THE AFTERNOON. TONIGHT MOSTLY CLEAR. LOWS IN THE UPPER 60S. NORTHWEST WINDS 10 TO 15 MPH BECOMING NORTH AROUND 5 MPH AFTER MIDNIGHT. THURSDAY SUNNY. CONTINUED HOT. HIGHS AROUND 102. NORTH WINDS 5 TO 10 MPH. THURSDAY NIGHT CLEAR. LOWS IN THE LOWER 60S. SOUTHWEST WINDS AROUND 5 MPH IN THE EVENING BECOMING LIGHT. FRIDAY SUNNY. HIGHS IN THE UPPER 90S. LIGHT WINDS BECOMING WEST AROUND 10 MPH IN THE AFTERNOON. Highs of 102 tomorrow! That is about 40C! Hmm, better make sure I water the plants both days - they will...

G'day all! You know how I was whinging about the short days coming up on us here in the southern hemisphere? Well I take it all back. Give me short days. Give me numb fingers and a purple nose (reminiscent of an alcoholic's but alas without the alcohol). Give me COOLTH! I want to feel COOL! It is 28 degrees at the moment and nearly 10pm. That is hmm, let me go consult the thermometer for you in the imperial age... 82F. It is frigging hot. It got to nearly 35 today and this is supposed to be autumn! (BTW, autumn began here on the 1st of March, not on the equinox.) It was humid too. What is with the humidity? Melbourne does DRY heat not this lousy humid stuff that means I drip sweat, oops I drip *glow* And I can't have a shower still. (Good news about the bathroom here ) Cats are sorted. Our cat sitter is available next week. Hooray! Thank you to those who have offered assistance and meet ups next week. It is great to hear from you! (And if anyone knows Krist...

G'day all! Phew! Hot again today. Actually, it is not that hot just humid. We Melburnians understand dry heat but not humid heat. We live here cos we don't like tropical heat. However for the last two weeks, or more is it now?, we've had 30+ degree days and humidity. I've been a bit busy recently doing not a great deal. Funny how that happens, isn't it? I finished the lonely sock - it will never have a mate as there is only one skein of this yarn, which was shoved in the pot to sop up excess dye. Do you like the way the pooling changes up the sock? It started off as a 64 stitch sock, then pooled on the gusset (toe up with gusset), then after the heel went down to either 62 or 60 stitches and then I started a little cable. This sock was intended as a plain sock to check out if the 160m of yarn promised on the ball would knit a sock. Umm, yep, it did and I had about 10g left over after deciding I couldn't stand doing plain any more, how about a little ca...