belated birthday

I've been super busy getting sorted out for the start of teaching at uni which begins next week...it's always a jolt to the system at this time of year and it forces a massive re juggle of priorities...and it's been a slow week anyhow as it was my birthday on Monday which has started my week off in a lacksidaisical kind of way!

I was lucky enough on Monday morning to find that my teasing georgia and graham thomas roses were kind enough to give me some blooms for my birthday...ta t george and gra gra!

...and my mum in law came and gave me some beautiful sculptural flowers...

I had to work...*blah*...but I did manage to pop out to the posh op shop where I bought some pieces of retro poly knitwear (I can't resist!) and also this lovely deco vase which will be fantastic for my lax stemmed david austins when the next abundant flush comes...

My favourite pressie was from hubby P who after some serious hinting got me bananagrams (oh it's an anagram!)...I saw it at third drawer down ages ago and have hankered after it ever since...

This was the message I found the next day when I got home...which was particularly sweet since my message that morning had been "please unpack the dishwasher today" :o)

p.s. this is not the intended use of bananagrams, it's a fast paced word game that is side "splitting" and very a "peeling"

new things

I have some new beginnings lately...although I'm not really sure where I'm heading!
I finished the latest baby cardi...a friends new bub is just about here :o)

I got onto my elbow patch project, using an old well loved printed cardi, and some of the crocheted grannies I was working on here.  This cardigan was my favourite "go to" cardi around 7 or 8 years ago (my fav now is a big oversized machine washable grey woolly that came from the op shop).  There's a nice narrative of remnants and mending within it...

I swiss darned across a little ladder in the cuff, and used the granny squares to stitch over the elbow holes.  These particular grannies were made using the remnants from first of the sock yarn cardies which I made for my niece.

In this last pic you can see the previous mending - the darning which my mum did lots of years ago.

I'm taking my everyday craft practice into other projects...using leather remnants stitched together to make a thick leather yarn which I have then crocheted into a massive granny square using a 20mm hook...

I'm unsure how this will be applied to a garment form at the moment.

New things are popping up in the garden like these dwarf beans, the last for the season...I hope we have some continued warm weather for the last of the summer crops...

And the water tanks (1 in the front garden, and two in the back) now have a wire mesh covering to grow some lovely plants on them.  This one behind the workroom is filled by the water from it's roof, and connects to the watering system for the adjoining patch which you can see in the pic above.  I planted two old fashioned noisette roses next to it - Lamarque, and Mme Alfred Carriere in the winter, which now are able to be tied up away from the trampling doggles!  I'm hoping that next spring will see them flourish and bloom and eventually creep over the workroom roof to create some nice living insulation :o)

giant eyelets are go!

I went on a big eyelet expedition last Friday, but before I get to that, I failed to mention the watermelon suprise I had the day before.  The watermelon plant out the front was looking a bit wilted after the hot weather while I was away.  I was worried that it could be on it's way out if I didn't start to look after it more carefully, but when I looked closely I saw a lovely melon about the size of a tennis ball developing!

I'll be very careful to water it everyday now, I think that's what they need.

I'm about to start making curtains for the holiday house at Rye, and decided that eyelet top style would work best for the rods and style of the windows.  I've never invested in large eyelets and the equipment to attach them - I have wanted them, but never had a good enough reason.  So I popped down to Eyelets Supply Co. in Springvale to get my 40mm beauties!

I've never been to Eyelets Supply in person, although I've rung through orders hundreds of times.  I liked seeing their sets of old skool dies...

And their presses...

Here's the big eyelets...

And the lovely sales guy Luke demonstrated how to attach the eyelets and also told the story of how he amputated his hand 15 years before!  I think he felt he had to tell me because I asked if he minded me taking pics of him hammering and thought I might notice his hand looked a bit funny.  It was amazing that he could hammer with it and write normally...I won't go into more detail, might be too gory for here!

Next door is a Chinese temple too, which was so pretty, I love the ceramic details :o)

update...canis vs rattus

Gem and Hugs had a crazy hour tonight at a bushy park that we specially drive them to (for local peeps, darling park, malvern which gardiners creek runs through)...plenty of rats there which they flush out, and sometimes catch.  No success tonight though (don't worry, they're feral rats, we check for the long tail!)

When we got home, even though u might think their rat chasing desires have been fulfilled, they were straight to the veggie patch.  To prove what I was saying earlier, here they are...

Reiterate note to self: must get smaller gauge mesh!

have beans

Where have I been?  I hardly know myself...too many everyday things and holidays getting in the way!
We went down to P's families holiday house for "Oystralya Dai" (last Thursday, quote Pen!), and spent the weekend...I didn't get back till Monday night...

But we had lots of fun, and did more renos which are now nearly done, yippee!  But onto beans now...firstly a bean shaped Gemma pet on the bed at Rye (couldn't resist!)...

But what I really want to get to is the beans in the garden.  We had lots of broadbeans back in December...

Which were yum when I cooked them with my meatball dish

The purple king beans growing alongside the espaliered citrus trees on the back of the house were growing beautifully at the start...

And we were picking some lovely beans too...

But a few weeks back I noticed that not many more beans were coming and the leaves were looking poorly with some browning off.  On close inspection I discovered tiny aphids on the undersides of the leaves.  I've never seen these ones before, they were almost invisible and almost like a coating of sticky green.  I'm not into spraying at all, even with a soap spray and I'm glad I didn't because some ladybirds moved in and then a week later I could see their larvae, which are so small it's hard to take a pic of them!

These beans are pretty much a write off now, but there were a few flowers that are developing into beans now, so fingers crossed!

I have the next lot of beans planted out the front, and they are looking good, so it doesn't really matter so much.  I have the attitude (and this is true of the ratty issue and this seasons plum situation too), that I'll take what I can, or reasonably should, and if other creatures or plants in the system need to do this too, that's ok, it's a bit of give and take.  Having said that, it is just as well that I'm not relying on my garden for absolute subsistence!   But I'm learning from what does and doesn't work, conducting the garden activities in a more orderly manner now and documenting the process, which should all help as I trundle along.  Oh, and mentioning the rats again...the games continue as when I came back from Rye all of the half developed corn cobs had been stripped from the stalks.  When the dogs are away the rats will play....oh the woe of these before and after shots!

The doggles have been going nuts trying to get into the fenced garden now...my bet, clever rat knows it's the only place in the garden they can't get to!   Gems and Hugs can get their heads quite a way through this mesh if they want to and are now destroying whatever plant matter within reach in the effort to get to rattus.  Note to self...need smaller gauge mesh!

rats!

We have some resident rats here...I'm was never worried about them as we've never had any (or mice) in the house and they keep the dogs endlessly amused as they run along the fence railings.  That was until now!  I came home from the beach with the doggles as it was getting dark last week and there was the little blighter (well, no so little actually!) up on the apple arch.

I had been wondering for a while what had been causing this kind of damage to the apples.  Definitely not birds who peck bits here and there...this was consistent nibbling to one apple at a time until the last bit would disappear.  I was suspecting rats and that was well and truly confirmed.  I called the dogs and they went nuts once they saw the rat up there...they were jumping and yelping, the rat didn't know which way to go and finally launched itself off one side of the arch and unfortunately doggles were not quick enough.  There were two repeats of the same, one in the early hours of Sunday morning (aarrgh, followed by a very drooby Sunday).  Although the apples are being saved from rat nibbling, the kerfuffles have caused most of the still very green apples to be knocked off the tree.  I've saved these couple...the bigger one was looking beautiful too :o(....with the hope that they might ripen off the tree.

Besides the failures in the garden (there have been more too - grrrr!), I've gotten back to making with some leather and have been finding that as I make I'm sorting the remnant pieces into streams suitable for their use.

This piece goes into the unusual/unique/interesting stream where anything might go!  More to come on this next adventure...

back to a different kind of work

I'm finally getting around to doing my post christmas/new year catch up post.  P went back to work this week, and I was supposed to get back to serious PhD work, but this little beggar has gotten in the way a bit this week!

I finally took the plunge iphone wise and I've dressed my whitey in a pink bumper...I think I must have been subliminally channeling this vintage cloth I have on the table at the moment when I made this choice!

I wasn't really going to take a holiday break from study, but with the other half home and so many renovations in the pipeline, I had to give poor P a hand.  So it was a working holiday.  At home we had a fence to fix after Hugo did a runner on christmas eve (lightening induced)...all was well, he got picked up by the police, drunk and disorderly with a golden retriever pal he had found along the way, and taken to the local emergency vet.  That was a very relieving phone call I recieved at 4am!

We stabilized the old fence posts with star pickets and concrete then reattached the palings side by side with screws.  It doesn't look terribly pretty (hence no photo's!) but it does the job and it is down the back behind the workroom.  I did however glean the surplus palings and came up with a thrifty use for them.  I've been having probs with the vegie patch - it is divided into 4 sections, but as I mulch and the plants grow, everything spills into the other sections.  So, I used some long chunky stakes, malleted into the ground, and screwed the palings on horizontally.  It has made such a difference in feeling organised and on top of everything...I think it's a bit of an analogy for the PhD, which definitely is in need of some set boundaries and clear direction!

Other renos have included re-laying paving in our patio, fixing an outside wall and painting windows.  We also had a little getaway down to Rye to P's families holiday house, but also did renos down there too, so it was only a holiday for the doggles who got to have lots of lovely long walks, not for us!

The vegie growing is going ok, but a little slow, I don't think there has been enough consistent warmth.  I've only had a few beans and zuchinnis so far.  One thing I am excited about is a watermelon plant in the front garden which is looking promising - I've never succeeded in getting one to grow before.

And on the making front...
I finished the green tones baby cardi...
I joined all of my cardi knitting remnant granny squares together.  It's about the size of a place mat and I find it very lovely, it reminds me of Sophie Digard.  At the moment it's over the arm of the sofa...I'll keep adding to it and maybe one day it will be big enough to cover the bed...

 And, I have started another baby cardi...moving along swiftly with this one :o)

 There's a few other bits n bobs going on, but definitely time to get back to another kind of work!

gold elbow patches are all the rage in downtown carnegie

I've been meaning to get back to the ol' bloggin' the last couple of days...I'll do a proper catch up post tomorrow, but at the mo I'm bursting after stumbling on something quite amazing while walking the doggles at the park this evening...

Downtown Carnegie we're talkin' bout here...there was what seemed to be a usual posse of ol' guys at the local park, but as I walked past I caught a flash of a full set of gold teeth from one of them...flavor flav style...boo yeah!  Then as two of them walked down the path in front of me I saw this...fantastic!

I couldn't resist stopping this gentleman and asking him if I could take a pic....

It's an old skool double knit cardi which he told me that he likes so much that his wife put the patches on when the elbows wore through (I did ask him if he put the patches on himself!)  He looked very suprised when I said I liked them very much...ooo I so do!  I didn't realise at the time either how striking the rest of his clothing was until looking at the pics...I was so absorbed by the elbow patches!

Can u believe it, gold leather, bling-ca-ching...and so effortless!  I've been thinking a lot about visible mending and alterations along the lines of Kevin McCloud endorsed readable history...what a beautiful example this is!...I actually have a project in the pipeline along these lines already so what an incredible thing to stumble upon ♥♥♥

solstice greetings!

It was actually the solstice here in Australia yesterday, so I'm a day late, but happy solstice to all anyhow!  P and I were discussing this the other day when we were thinking that "seasons greetings"  was a bit of a strange thing to say.  I thought that "solstice greetings" would be a nice general holiday time greeting for all, not only Christians, but P thought that "happy pagan day" would be better!  But this is my blog, not his, so... SOLSTICE GREETINGS y'll!