2paw

Lady Caroline La(m)b

Thank goodness The Ribbet has a Red Eye fix, or in my case a White Eye fix, because The Labradors' photo made them look mad, bad and dangerous to know. After their tea they decided to play rowdy games in the quite hard rain and in the dark. The Game also necessitated running inside, around the house, and then back out again.

After Byron threw Lady Caroline Lamb over, he married, and his daughter Ada was the woman who worked with Babbage on his computer. I wonder if I knew that and had forgotten? I think I did.

Earlier this week on our walk I was patting Peri and Gilly when I realised there were too many legs: Sandy had appeared out of nowhere. He is so strong, and the hill so slippery and gravelly, his dad lets him off the lead and we usually hear him thundering like a horse towards us. The wet ground must have absorbed the sound.

I've finished The Walk Mittens. I am not sure I need buttons and loops. I'll see. I made a little pop-top for the right thumb. It works well enough. I have torn both my thumb nails about half a centimetre down from the top at the edge. It must have been the cold snap and not wearing rubber gloves enough. I am nursing them along with nail glue and tiny squares of tea bag material. I've noticed that when I click on Popular Posts on Bloglovin' they are mostly fashion, and nail polish. I am not a nail polish person, I am too gung ho and chip it after five minutes, but most of the popular world is nail polish obsessed it seems.

Sadly, it hasn't been cold enough to wear my mittens, but I have been knitting away on the back of Dreamy Vision (Aislinn) I am going to attempt short row shoulders. I love the way it is looking, nice and long and such a nice green. I'll be ready to start a sleeve tomorrow. I knit a sleeve and a back to check how much wool I will need. The pattern says about 1859m, but so far I've only used 400m for the back so I may need less.

Today I wore my sleeveless Pear dress to Leukaemia Support Group. It did rain and turn dark and cold later on, but I'm pleased to be getting so much mileage out of my dresses. And speaking of dresses, my Sew Serendipity patterns arrived from the US is eleven days. That's right, eleven days. Excellent service, and great communication. I am very happy.

In other complimentary news, Nestles has thoughtfully put a little hemispherical dip in the lid of their condensed milk so that when you slip your thumb under the ring pull, there is extra room and it is so much easier to open. And McKenzies has released Gelatine Leaves, with instructions in Australian and a clear indication of how many leaves to use for the amount of liquid you have.

I used the leaves to make The Iced Vovo Tart. It's going to be my Friday Food this week. There is no actual baking, but it does take all day to make, so you need a wet day at home and some dedication. I went to The Dutches' for tea on Sunday night and saw the wonderfully cute Bay Zoe. She's gorgeous and doesn't have her nasal gastric tube anymore and eats and is starting to talk. I am so happy for all The Dutches.

I sewed a Bunny bag for The Dutches for a very late Easter present.

I can't add any books to my Books I am Reading list because Typepad and Amazon are having issues again, but I picked up new Library books and there could be a day in bed reading later in the week.

In other happy news my sewing machine is back. MrsReno's dad kindly cleaned it and said that the plates were tight. I am not sure what that means, but I am so glad to have it back. MrsReno's dad has gone back home but when he comes back to visit I shall cook him something delicious to say thank you. He said he was very pleased to fix my machine because he is pleased people still like to sew!! How cool and kind is that???

MrsDrWho and I went to see Star Trek Into Darkness last week. We went on Friday at 6-30pm and there would only have been twenty people there. We saw it in 3D, because, well why not??!! It was great, it was full of lovely nods to the original series and explosions and Starship battles and angst and running and sacrifice. Pretty fabulous all round. I think they have done an excellent job with their casting and I could slightly swoon over Chris Pine's James T Kirk and Karl Urban's Bones. Oh my!!! I know some people pooh-pooh reboots, but I lived through the long Sci-Fi and Fantasy drought of the 80s and early 90s and so I am just ever so grateful that someone has gone to the trouble of making a new film that I can enjoy. It was over two hours long and by my usual rating system I did not look at the time once, didn't even think of the time I was totally engrossed, and ducking debris, for the whole time: so that's 5 Stars, A+++ and 10/10.

I Just Can't Get You Out Of My Bread.

I made bread. Edible bread. Bread that is not a solid rock, or a damp squib. I was idly browsing the Bloglovin' popular posts when I spied the bread.

It is No Knead bread, and I started it yesterday.  As the weather is cooling I made a warm place for the dough to rise in a foil lined supermarket bag that is meant for carrying cold things home. I microwaved a towel, wrapped it around the bowl and then zipped it into the bag overnight. I renewed it in the morning. I cooked the bread in my new cast iron casserole that came with the new saucepans. I am most impressed with my rustic/artisan bread and it tastes delicious. I am looking forward to toast and soup tomorrow.

There's a video here and some written instructions here.

I see more bread in my future. I want to use some other flours, like spelt and rye. We will see how that goes.

Peri and Gilly have been sunbathing. They sunbathe on the black foam tiles until they are hotter than Mercury and then they come inside, drink a barrel of water, and cool down. Repeat all afternoon.

I try to sneak up on Gilly, but her young ears are alert and she looks up and wags her tail furiously.

I've started crocheting a blanket. I'm using two strands of Shiver, which is 12ply I think, and a size 15mm crochet hook. I am limiting myself to one ball's worth a day as the crochet hook makes my hand hurt after a while. I think I am up to round 4 or 5??

Last night I started knitting The Boo!! Socks with Opal Surprise in rainbow colours. I could not stop knitting until I had circled through one whole colour repeat. It is very addictive. I made an Eye of Partridge heel flap.

I sewed a DPN Project Keeper thing to stop the needles poking through my handbag all the time. There's a tutorial here. I tweaked it by turning a little hem to the inside before sewing the sides together so that all the raw edges were encased. My needles are 15cm long, and I cut the elastic 15.5cm. Next time I will just cut 15cm.

Tomorrow I am having Morning Tea with Jet's mum.  I am looking forward to it. Peri and Gilly are looking forward to their walk as Wednesdays are a day off.

I am also going to buy some wool for my new emerald green cardigan and seek out green jeans. I have found more!!! I am overwhelmed with the variety of greens available. I am glad to feel happy and well. Oh, my toe is behaving, it's not totally better, but I can wear proper shoes again. Hurray!!!

There are two new shoes (Edited  a bit later on: Thank you Lois, they are in SHOWS, wearing evil shoes!!!) about serial killers: The Following and Hannibal. I've recorded them, but I am not sure if I want to watch them. There is enough horror in the actual real world. Maybe I am over crime TV shows?? Instead I am catching up on The Great British Sewing Bee Part 3 and knitting the Boo!! socks.

All That's Left Of The Dreams I Hold, Is A Band Of Cold.

Yes, a cold front swept through and we are currently luxuriating in a second day of 26*C. Last night it was 8. 8*C!! Peri and Gilly are happy and I am feel so much better. I did some jobs today. I needed the first day to somewhat recover and today I sent the too big boots back to be exchanged for a smaller size, bought Vliesofix and made March's Craftsy BOM and even sewed and posted off a gift. I added some of the books I've been reading to my Typelist and read two more books. I cooked pasta sauce and had a proper hot meal along with the usual salad.

Here's the block. It's not the Craftsy Block. That would have involved drafting my own block and sizing it up from 9 1/2 to 12 1/2 inches. I don't think this year's BOM is really for beginners. Instead we chose a block from a Moda sewalong by Zen Chic. I have made a green one today and I'll partially assemble the aqua one so our Sewing group can see the steps involved.

In other good news I found my lost blocks. They were inside the unbound Spot On Kaffe Fasset JellyRoll quilt. On Monday I unfurled it and there they were. It is amazing how an invitation to afternoon tea with The Dutches can elicit this:

and this for Baby Zoe.

It's a wombat soft toy, each side is different, from Saffron Craig. I lined it with cotton batting and then some wadding. It will need to be washed, but baby Zoe will only feel the soft natural materials. She is so happy and so cheeky. She is starting to eat real food and almost say some words and crawl about. She's just lovely and gorgeous.

The Federal Government is mooting higher entry scores, Emotional Quotient tests and Literacy and Numeracy tests for Teachers in training. The tests will be in Year 3. By then they have been on Prac. every year, surely they need to be tested and show excellence before they begin?? Way back when I trained, to win a Studentship you needed the highest Matric results, you needed to front a panel and be interviewed and convince them of your passion to teach, and in First Year we all took Literacy and Numeracy and needed to show we were more than just able. In our whole State there were only fifteen Primary studentships awarded and I am very proud that I was chosen. I am sure the teachers who must facilitate learning should themselves have a very high standard of education and be creative and diverse thinkers.

Google Reader is being closed down. Why?? There must be quite a lot of people like me who are not all tablet and smart phone-y and like the organisation and convenience of an RSS aggregator. Bah Humbug. I will wait while other more techy people come up with some solutions.

We solved the sprinkler problem. I placed the sprinkler on an upturned bucket and then the initial spray wasn't in anyone's eyes or ears. It was like rain and Peri and Gilly spent many happy times in the  sprinkler rain, being cool.

When not under the sprinkler, Gilly was improving her digging skills in the paddle pool and getting nice and wet.

Peri had some enforced time under the hose when she rolled in something smelly and grubby. She was inordinately happy to be smelly and grubby and didn't mind smelling of colloidal oatmeal when she was clean!!

I'm turning on the oven and cooking an apple pecan banana cake tomorrow for Friday Food and I'm also having a go at making my own tomato sauce. Not sure how that will go, but I have lots of tomatoes from people's gardens and I love home made tomato sauce.I always choose it over commercial sauce when there's the option. Maybe I'll make some relish too. Yum.

And soon, very soon, I hope to be knitting myself Slow Line and Alight. As soon as I finish Petrea: I just need to sew it up and knit the button bands. Come on the cooler weather.

How Could I Not Believe, When Ita Tells Me Too*

Christmas is long past, but I am well on the way to completing MrsDrWho’s presents. Today I gave her a Christmas Penny Rug. It is a traditional American craft. I discovered my sewing machine will do blanket stitch and so I used it to sew the 27 coloured felt ‘pennies’ to the larger green pennies and then to the same sized penny backing. I did blanket stitch the Santas and holly by hand. It is for the centre of her coffee table.

I also finished the Santa and Reindeer wall hanging/table runner. It too has some machine blanket stitch and hand quilting. The reindeer are very cute and I found dark blue material with a small white spot to represent snow in The BlackSpot of Doomlight™. I was exceedingly happy!!

Oh and a Zombie parody of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I had only skimmed it, but MrsDrWho read it properly and there is a spelling error. Oh dear.

There has been quite a lot of publicity about how much food is wasted each year in Australia: $6 billion I think. Not at our house. All food is used up. Peri and Gilly are hoovering up the end of the salad that went slightly icy in the fridge. I love the way their noses scrunch up a little bit. I think they are concentrating on eating fast.

We had rain last night, quite a lot, though not the end of a cyclone or the tornadoes they had in Queensland. I know it rained because the wind was very noisy and Peri needed to go out and just check almost every hour. That meant Gilly went too, and then there was a lot of towel drying of furry creatures and that woolly smell until they finished drying. I am looking forward to the end of the week when the BOM has forecast 20*C. I might be able to start some socks!!!

Ita Buttrose is our Australia of the Year, and a very worthy recipient. I checked the list and fewer than 20% of AOTY have been women. I think there needs to be more consideration given to that.

Ita has a song written about her by Cold Chisel*, and was in charge of the HIV/AIDs campaign with Death and a bowling alley of people. She is a great advocate and works hard for the causes she supports. Ita is truly an inspirational person and I can remember her being so for all of my life.

MrsHouseOf, some young HouseOfs, MrsDrWho and I went for afternoon tea on Thursday. The waitress (serving person??) accidentally dropped the tray of bubbly and a raspberry cordial, smashing the glasses and MrsDrWho was splattered with bubbly. They were so apologetic and brought her a towel and cleaned up and apologised again, and when MrsHouseOf went up to pay they only charged us for five plain afternoon teas and not the bubbly ones. Excellent service and follow up at The Charles!!! My favourite thing, apart from the egg sandwiches, is the tongs. I love snapping them and playing posh ladies!!

On Friday The Labradors ran away on our walk. They ran 700m up the steep road, way farther than they had ever been before. Jetty and his dad were with us and Jet was such a good buy. Peri and Gilly would stop just out of reach, turn and look to check we were coming, and then run ahead again. It was only when Peri was too tired and hot that they came back. I was too tired to be cross because I walked 1.4km, half of it uphill. I fed them and they went to sleep and I did too for a couple of hours. By tea time I was tired again and had another sleep from 6 till 9-30pm. Then I had some supper and went back to bed to sleep some more!!

I had forgotten tomorrow was a holiday for Australia day, I’m glad when I made The Labradors’ appointment at the vet I made it for Tuesday because there is a Public Holiday surcharge. They are going for their annual check up and vaccinations. We are all Very Excited!!

Surprisingly, I may just have another cup of tea- chamomile- and then perhaps a little reading or TV before we go to bed. We live life in the Fast Lane here!!

January, Please Be Cold, Don't Be Angry With Me.

Things I didn't know about Pilot: they were Bay City Rollers, and went on to be part of The Alan Parsons Project. I have a few TAPP CDs. I particularly loved their Gaudi album.

In December I had a bout of depression, and so my blog and the World have been on a break. Wonderful friends and the excellent anti-depressants I am taking have helped me feel balanced again. Kind people have started emailing asking if I am still here, so I thought I would make this year's first post.

Christmas mainly featured MasterSingapore(MrsDrWho's nephew) and his Snail Backpack. His mum emailed me and asked if he could possibly 'be' a snail with a backpack, and then somehow be enveloped in a shell. Her wish was my command.

Here is MasterSingapore wearing his Snail backpack:

The pattern was free on the Husqvarna site, but was adjusted to eliminate the head. Then when you undo the zip, out comes a huge fabric 'shell' which can envelop one, and then one can slime about the house being a snail called Gary who meows. I think this is SpongeBob Squarepants.

Our island and the eastern part of The mainland experienced terrible bushfires. The temperature reached 54*C as the fire passed through one town. Many houses were lost here, but no lives. People in the bush had been urged to prepare a Bushfire Survival Plan and these plans must have worked very well.

Peri and Gilly had birthdays: they are now 12 and 4 respectively!!!

We had their seemingly annual holiday trip the the vet: Peri with a sore paddy paw as a result of her allergy and then Miss Lorelai Gilmore with an insect bite on her urethra. Yes, it is as painful as it sounds. So it was hospital at home with antibiotics and ointment for everyone.

There was swimming in the dam with Jet. Or standing in the water at the dam if you are Gilly. Peri won the stick retrieval swimming race.

There hasn't been much knitting after the Great Advent Calendar of 2012, but yesterday I whipped up a mug cosy for MrsMadcage's birthday today. It's the Owl Do You Like Your Coffee? Cosy.

And there may just have been an owly tote bag too.

I have been wearing my new dresses all the time. I ended up cutting them both shorter and re-hemming. The batik-y one is my favourite, as it is so lovely and cool in the hot weather. I am contemplating using the same pattern and cobbling together a dress with straps instead of sleeves.

MrsDrWho and I and our Sew Quilty friends are going to be sewing the new Craftsy BOM. I have made the first pieces already. I am using Christmas material. I like it because it is mostly green and aqua!!

And so I am getting back into the swing of things. I've been catching up with friends at lunches and afternoon teas, and lolling about when it has been too hot whilst saving the world from demons and/or Baskerville Hounds on MrsDrWho's iPad that she kindly lent to me. I've even had a bit of a go at Plants vs Zombies and Angry Birds!!! I am not very good.

Today five fat Library Books came at once so I shall have to buckle down to some serious reading.

I am answering comments afresh this year, and so a pitiful blanket "Thank you" for the lovely comments on my last post. And wiggly waggly tails from The Labradors!!!

Mama, Just Quilt'd A Man....*

Pulled a needle and a thread,

This Quilt is doing in my head.

Mama, who knew that I was done??

Now I've gone and sewn it all away, ay, ay.....

Mama, ooh ooh ooh ooooh,

Didn't mean to moan and sigh,

I sometimes thought I'd never be done at all,

Sewing on, sewing on, as if nothing really matters..........

(* I am singing along to part of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen)

Yes, I have just sewn the last two blocks for the Craftsy Block Of The Month quilt. I made the Executive Decision that we would not be making the sewing-on-paper or the curvy Drunkard's Path-esque blocks. So last night and this afternoon I sewed the last three blocks. Block 18 is still at MrsDrWho's house with the first 17, but here are blocks 19 and 20: untrimmed.

And now my blocks are going to be put away until next year. I am going to quilt-as-you-go. Maybe when school goes back I will do one block every day and it will be ready for Winter. In the meantime I have two Jelly roll quilts to make and here is my new Kaffe Fasset Spot On jelly roll.

While I have broad beans from MrsDrWho's mum's garden, (Yum, I love them as a kind of salad with home made mint sauce)

Peri has a carrot she's worried I might want,

and Gilly has her happy silly expression on. She's such a funny girl.

I also have two little Secret Knitting items which, I swear, have more ends to sew in then rows. It is a good thing I have become addicted to Modern Family, and can while away a few episodes on The Apple TV while I sew them in. Season 1 is done and I am making my way through season 2. I didn't think I would like it, but it is laugh out loud funny a few times every episode.Who knew???

Here's the material Jubbly'sMum aka MrsReno gave me for my birthday. It is enough, with some purchased lining, to make a dress the same as the one I made last week. It is washed and ready to go. I am going to 'fussy cut'  it so that the border is the hem and the fancy-schmancy centre piece is the bodice and skirt front. I could not buy the exact colour green for the lining and decided not to go for gold!!!

I have new sock wool, some Dream in Smooshy in a gorgeous emerald semi-solid and some fun Opal in a lovely teal/aqua colourway. I think these will be sitting in the sock wool tub until next year too. My sock knitting has ground to a halt lately.

I have had to spend quite a lot of time reading: at first none of the books on Hold at The Library came, and then eleven mostly big thick books came all at once:

• Dominion
• Thirst
• The Blinding Knife
• Traitor
• Airmen
• Oblivion
• The Isles
• Sharp Objects
• Night of Masks
• Catseye
• Winter of the World

I am down to just The Isles, a History of the British Isles. I wish I had some new books to read now. I keep checking my Holds every hour or so to see if a book has arrived on the shelf for me. None today.

I have two tickets to go to the cinema burning a hole in my pcket. MrsDrWho and I must see the new James Bond film ASAP. I hope she has finished editing her school reports and sewed her last two quilt blocks so we can go. It has been getting very good reviews. I love a good Bond film.

Tonight I am braving my favourite Bill Granger curry for tea. I have not had a proper curry since I was first sick in September and I am just making enough for one serve, with not much curry, and I will see how I go. I have lots of coconut milk to dilute the heat and my stomach-settling tablets at the ready.

I've no idea what I am going to cook tomorrow for Friday Food, it will be just as much a surprise to me as to anyone else. And now I am just pressing the Publish button and being damned.

It's A Dress, Jim, But Not As We Know It, Not As We Know It, Captain.

The pattern envelope said the dress would fit smoothly below the bust at the top of the rib cage. Not on me it didn't.  So, no dress by Friday. But there was a dress by Saturday and I had my revenge on Supposed Dress #1: I used it as lining. Ha!

I sewed Simplicity Amazing Fit 1800, view B. It has an interesting construction and I am very glad I basted it together first:

 

 

 

 

 

The next thing I did was clean the mirror!! I found 2.5 metres of fabric in one of my tubs. The perfect amount if I didn't add the giant pockets and I used the other failed dress as lining. The pattern has extra wide seam allowances which I utilised. And then immediately un-utilised. As usual I overestimated my size. And I liked the sleeves narrower. All in all this is a great dress. It is so comfortable to wear and it will be nice and cool in Summer too.

I did try to take some self-timer photos, but Gilly was helping....

But I managed one reasonable picture. It has a 1950's vibe, according to party goers. The sleeves are attached last of all and form the shoulders after they are faced at the top.

I stayed at the party for two hours and talked to lots of friends, had a glass of posh bubbly and some finger food. Then I had to go home and go to sleep immediately!!

Cheered by my dress success I decided to fix my green dress from earlier this year. I basically took it apart. I raised the shoulder seam by 4cm, re-drafted the sleeve heads to take out all the excess puffiness, and then sewed it together again. In spite of this, the neckline still gapes and I feel I must keep putting my hand on it all the time to hold it close. I threaded hat elastic through the top stitching channel. I just need to adjust it one last time and stitch the ends in place. It is not perfect, but as good as it is going to get.

So not a dress by Friday, but two wearable dresses by Sunday. Not too shabby.

The weather has been very warm today, but now we are having thunderstorms. Peri and Gilly needed to cool down in the paddle pool. But only their feet and in Gilly's case, only one foot!!!

I re-potted my zucchini plants into three bigger pots after a lot of helpful advice. Imagine my surprise when I saw actual zucchinis had appeared. Two actual zucchinis, but it is two more than I have ever grown!!

I  am still quite tired after my outing yesterday, so I plan to get some extra sleep this week. I did something every day last week, and two things on some days. I also have a huge haul of thick books from the Library. I had 15 books on Hold and they all seem to be coming at once. I need to do some dedicated reading. I was so slow with one book, and we have three weeks, that I missed the due date and now I have a $1 fine to pay on Monday. I think we may just be able to sneak in a quick nap before tea!!

Please excuse any errors, I have read through twice, but my brain is a tad sleepy and slow.

This Royal Throne Of Kings, This Sceptic Isle...

If I said I was a republican right now people would think of the 'Grand Old Party' in the US of A and elephants and Regan and Bush and Mitt. Not so, I am quite happy to have Barack Obama returned as President, especially as a woman. The kind of republican I am is the kind that cares not a jot when our Colonial OverLords visit, other than to think what could have been done with the $100,000 the five hour visit to the south of the state cost us all. I am happy for them to go royalling about in their own countries, and I like being part of the Commonwealth, but I think we are way past ready to stand on our own two feet. Right about here I usually say I am sure they are very nice people, but seeing the way some of them behave, I'm not so sure.... Also I'd like a new flag in the same vein as Canada's and relevant to our country. Maybe just the Southern Cross on a blue background?? Definitely not The Boxing Kangaroo.

WeeJock and Bessie's mum is having a significant birthday and sent out an invitation with a photo of herself at age three. I replied with a photo of me, possibly at a younger age?? It is Very Old and I know my dress was yellow and my mum would have knitted my cardigan. In the picture on the left is my Uncle Ian and almost obscured by me is my dad. I hated being all sandy and sticky even then!!!

Heston Blumenthal's pudding has made it all the way to one of our supermarkets. It is ready to steam for three hours and costs $18. I considered buying one, but I am allergic to oranges and really, think of all those food miles.

My next door neighbour took a fervent and unshakable dislike to a tree, or group of trees, growing in my garden. I don't know what it was, but it had spikes or prickles. Now it is gone, she and the next to next door neighbour cut it down over several weeks. I am a bit sad it is gone, but good neighbourly co-operation is more important. You can see Uncle Dutch cutting down the oak tree below it in the before picture!!

Peri and Gilly are very loyal and when you arrive home, they are both generally waiting at the gate, tails wagging and even making little happy whining sounds. I try to always have a treat for them. I know it is spoiling them, but who could resist those beautiful faces and wiggly waggly tails??

My Book List in the sidebar is working again. At last. After months and months. I read all of Desmond Bagley's books, which were a birthday present, and I love them. Then I discovered Hilari Bell's fantasy books and I am borrowing them from the Library. I saw Monica McInerney on Tuesday Bookclub discussing The Chrysalids, one of my very favourite books. I sent an email to both writers, not expecting a reply, but the both sent back lovely emails. That was a very nice surprise!! I did confess to Monica that I had never read any of her books, but I borrowed her first book from The Library today.

Over the last few months I've been doing some secret knitting. I have completed 75% and know that it will be ready in time. The project has been disguised to protect the recipients!!

The weather has been very windy and it made me think of all the people affected by Hurricane Sandy on the other side of the world. Yesterday a helicopter flew low over our house and that made me think how lucky we are to live in a place where it is a group of tourists or scientists and not soldiers with bombs. We're being a bit grateful this week. I think a little gratefulness is good for the spirit.

The Sixth Fence

"I see dread, people". 

Or as Split Enz (almost) sang: I see dread, I see dread, I see dre-ead.

Yes, there was dread in our hearts, we were afraid that the fence would fall over and/or The Labradors would escape. So Operation Fence commenced last Thursday with a kind next door neighbour. There was a lot of aerial whipper snippering. I am not sure of the names of pruning tools.

And then some sawing and a lot of bags of vegetation to be taken to the tip. And help from The Labradors who were banished inside when the electric tools were operating and then had to sniff double time to make up for it.

After a couple of hours the fence looked like this:

A  trip to the hardware shop and there is now lattice ready to be attached to make the fence more stable and escape-proof. The top of the old trellis has to be chainsawed off before we can proceed.

After that effort I have had to have quite a big rest over the weekend and, ergo, there has been a sock knitting fest.

I started a new pair of 8ply socks (Sake to Me) in Teal Patonyle. The wool is just so soft and snuggly. The second pair is in some hand-dyed 4ply and my own pattern to fit my foot: The Green Style socks.

All my Library book Holds are taking forever and so while I was idly browsing the shelves I found and borrowed The Knitter's Book of Socks.

I am quite taken with most of the sock patterns and so I have decided I will knit my way through all the socks without fair-isle or intarsia. I am trying new things and so I learned Judy's Modified Magic Cast On, and I am knitting toe up. The gusset increases are made in the sole, so is very interesting.

On Saturday I helped the Wool Shop lady with a double stitch heel. For me, this is much easier than a wrap and turn and now I am up to the heel turn before the flap I am using the double stitch instead of W&T because there are no holes!!!

I am going to knit the 8ply Stepping Stone socks next. This pattern is free and there's a link on the Ravelry page.

MrsDrwho and I have completed August's Craftsy Block of the Month block #2. Of course, even though I sew a very scant 1/4 inch my block is still too small. When all the blocks are completed we are going to sew a plain background border around all the squares and then cut them to the 12 1/2 inch size. I am beastly careless because when my quilt is finished it will be lain on by Labradors in a trice. And grubby ones at that!!

My mini garden has moved to a new higher Labrador-proof table and when I came out the back door this morning there was Miss Peri Pumpkin, sunbathing on the warm foam squares atop the little table. She was all warm and snuggly and had a lovely nap. I think she looks a little worried that she is being naughty by lying up there.

Miss Lorelai Gilmore, who does not have her Naughty Ears on, is standing near the other new lattice that contains The Forbidden Zone.

I am very unhappy with The Typepad at the moment. For perhaps a month I haven't been able to add any books to my side bar. The linky thing to Amazon is broken and all they can say is that it is a priority and that we should all become Amazon affiliates or something and use a widget. The very reason I pay for my blog to be hosted is that I am not computery enough to add widgets and be affiliated. I am reduced to scrabbling for my Library print outs and taking photos of my book covers. Now the Spell Check is broken. I thought I was doing something wrong for weeks as when I click the Spell Check button the incorrect words are highlighted momentarily and then the Spell Check turns itself off. Many people have complained about both these issues and the Typepad Satisfaction Staff ( and believe me I do think this could an oxymoron) ever so nicely say it is a priority and they are working on it, but nothing has happened. Typepad users are trapped because if they are sad un-computery people like me their blogs are pretty much held hostage because we don't have the skills to take our blogs somewhere else. One Satisfaction person offered me some free months of blogging, but I don't want money back or compensation. Shall I tell you what I want what I really, really want? I just want my blog, and all it's bits and bobs, to work the way it used to. I do not understand how things can just stop working all of a sudden when they have been working for years.

I have no recourse. Consumer Affairs would find it too difficult, or get no response from an overseas company. So I shall just keep replying to the Tickets I have opened, stating my case, albeit more crossly as time goes by, and hope that it might be fixed sometime soon.  I cannot recommend The Typepad to you right now. I am very disappointed, which is worse than being cross really.

Aung San Suu Chi visited the US last week and was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. She was given 2 minutes 9 seconds on the ABC News. A young footballer on an end of season trip to Las Vegas who was extremely inebriated and died while trying to jump from a hotel roof to a palm tree rated 2 minutes 5 seconds.  In fact his funeral was given greater coverage than that of an Armed Forces member who was killed in Afghanistan. It is very sad for his family, but I ask you what is the world coming to??

And now, here is The Magic Path. Gilly believes that when she walks back along the track to the gate Sandy the Labrador will appear. It is variable reinforcement, because sometimes she comes out the gate and he is there, and sometimes he isn't. She's positive that Sandy will be there and surges ahead, making Peri and I walk faster. Sandy wasn't there today. She saw some people getting into their car by the Look Out and after they went she ran like the wind just to see if Sandy was there. He wasn't.

Ahh, true love!!!

How Toe Marry A Millionaire

The sun shines in our bedroom window ever earlier as Spring progresses, The Labradors wake up earlier too and sometimes I am listening to the Early Risers' radio quiz at about 5-55am. One day last week they asked what was unusual about a photo of Marilyn Monroe that appeared in a newspaper years ago. I really had no idea, but then they gave a clue: something to do with The Chrysalids by John Wyndham (one of my favourite books Of All Time) I knew immediately and rang up to ask if, like Sophie, she had an extra toe? Indeed that was the answer, though it appears to be an Urban Myth. Nonetheless, I chose a prize and it arrived on Friday: a DVD entitled Francesco's Shakespeare in Italy. Oh, I am intrigued as I know so many of his plays were set in Italy.

All the individual parts of The Evergreen Vines cardigan are complete. Now I have to wash and block it and then sew it all together. I used my notes about the sleeves I knitted for my Short Scene Vignette cardigan last year. I would have dipped the bell shaped sleeves in every cup of tea I drank. I have no idea if these sleeves will be right, I will have to sew it up and see.

When I popped into the Hospital this afternoon I noticed a quilt on display. What's the betting the creator of the George Town lighthouse block is a Doctor Who fan?? I am so happy that I am able to watch the new season of Doctor Who on The iView barely half an hour after it has screen in the UK. And we are not getting the weird explainy USA credits at the beginning either. I am very pleased about that. iView is our ABC's catch up TV website. It doesn't work for other countries, but the UK and USA won't even let us watch teeny tiny video clips on their interweb.

My parcel arrived from Target in no time flat and I went to pick it up this afternoon at the shop. The young woman behind the counter wanted to take my licence out the back, and would I mind?? Yes, I did mind and said I liked to keep in where I could see it thank you. I didn't think she would want to steal my details, but better to be safe than sorry.

Gilly has a new toy. A new toy that I confiscated and she is not happy about it. Miss Lorelai Gilmore decided she would steal my soaking your feet tub and chew it up.

She was easy to catch because she insisted on holding it over her eyes so she couldn't see where she was going.

Peri took two unexpected dips in the creek. Unexpected for Gilly and me!! We were walking across the little bridge over the creek and Peri just veered left and hopped in while she was still on her lead. I quickly let go before I fell in!! She did exactly the same thing the next day.

Afterwards we all got a little bit wet when she shook all over. She was as pleased as punch with herself.

The deli at the corner had some freshly shelled local scallops and I bought 250g for $10. After I cleaned them I coated them in cornflour, dipped them in a beaten egg and panko and then shallow fried them. I ate them with a good squeeze of lemon, salt and aioli.

Peri and Gilly were disappointed. They could smelly the scallopy goodness, but none of it came their way.

My mini garden is surviving and growing. All the potato onions have sprouted tops, the parsley and mint have both grown and the red spring onions and rosemary aren't dead. Which is a bonus.

My computer came back safe and sound. A Gold Star for me because I had no viruses or unnecessary downloads or programs!! The anti-virus was updated and they made my computer wi-fi friendly. I haven't connected it yet because I need to be in tip top thinking condition. Which I am not.

Tomorrow I am off to see an Exercise Physiologist. It's part of my new Health management plan. Then I'm meeting our new Leukaemia Support person for a cup of tea. MrsDrWho is on school holidays and proposed a luncheon outing, but after walking The labradors and two other appointments I won't be fit for that!!