I'm finally back! Just calling in to say that life interrupted the blogging.



After getting Penny and the kids and the two cars full of Christmas goodies back to Sydney in January, I noticed over the next couple of weeks how much more Mum was unable to do things and struggling to just get up every day and also to cope with the pain in her shoulder. I felt things were going downhill at an alarming rate and Mal, Maree and I all felt she had suffered another small stroke which made it difficult for her to walk as well.



I was facing a busy year with times when I had to be away for several weeks minding the grandkids and helping Penny and going to Rick and Peggy's wedding. I didn't feel respite care was going to look after mum all those times, so I asked for another assessment and that afternoon in answer to my prayers, I was offered a room at the aged care hostel at the local hospital. So at the beginning of March, with Mum not really understanding what was happening, we moved her there. She was not happy! She displayed behaviour quite uncharacteristic of her, but we now know it was related to illness and medication. She has had another stroke since then which has really depleted her ability to move around and made her very dependent. It was a blessing for all of us that there was a place in care for her and she is well looked after and reasonably happy now.



At the end of April I went to Sydney for a couple of weeks to mind Georgie and James while their Mum and Dad were away overseas for Dan's work. They were good kids and we got through our busy time of school cross-country, swimming for both, ju-jitsu for our little ninja G, tucker time (or cake day with G's class sending the cakes) at school, reading helper for Granma at school, mother's day stall at school, my birthday and mother's day. And that let Mal out of a big saga for our 40th (ruby) wedding anniversary as well.



Then having been home for 2 days I went off to Canberra to help Penny with a stall at the Wool Day at the Old Bus Depot Markets. And we are planning on one at Bendigo in July.

I'd like to thank my friends who called in to see Mum so she had some visitors while I was away, and to say that Maree has done above and beyond the call of very best friend duty! She is the surrogate daughter, and Mum thinks she is a very good one.

I have decided that I need to jump in and get the blog running again as we have done a bit of crafting as well.

a Monday in February 2010

We had a birthday cake for Dawn . . .

We do actually get some spinning done sometimes . . .

Maybe some knitting . . .

and we always share . . . especially help.

Magic loop, Noro, handspun and necessity

This year at Spinning Group we are going to concentrate on learning new techniques. They don't have to be spinning techniques, and we started off with one that we've been looking forward to learning. Fran showed us how to use magic loop, and to knit two socks at a time (for those who are sock knitters!). We started with a little bag.

I had many interruptions that afternoon, so concentration was very difficult and you can see the bottom of my bag is less than perfect. There are several holes and this means it's not the correct shape either. But when the interruptions stopped and I could concentrate without phones and doorbells, I got the hang of it. Thanks Fran!





This is another one for Fran, as this is her beautiful Noro yarn scarf (in her fave colour, green) in a very effective pattern.

I spun some autumn wool for a friend, Tanja. We are trading my spinning for some knitting she will do for me. That's a good trade! Tanja wanted an organic-look/feel yarn for freeform knit/crochet for a seasonal table. The fibre is from First Editions, Euroa and lovely colours and quality as usual.

And in case you are ever in this situation, and start to take the yarn off the niddy noddy before you realise you need to wash and block it, and it is i.m.p.o.s.s.i.b.l.e. to get back onto the niddy noddy without rewinding it all, necessity is said to be the mother of invention:

more treats

I love scrappy quilts, and I'm saving my scraps. Maybe one day!

I was going to do hexagons, but these look hard........

they really do look wonderful though. I'll think about it a bit longer. Yelena, Pam and Bev are good inspiration, but procrastination wins. Nothing to do with the 6 (cough, cough) half-made quilts in the craft room at all!

Patchwork treats

Leonie is making this beautiful 'Beechworth' themed quilt

Here's Ned Kelly...

....and the golden horseshoes

Watch for updates. It will be a stunner when it's all done.

They're back!!!

They are back again. The cockies. Summer and the dandelions are flowering. I took this pic from just outside our loungeroom window. They were aware I was there, but while I stayed under the trees they didn't feel threatened.

It's usually just on dusk when they come down and you can see the sun almost setting in this photo. We have no fruit left on our trees, and they have lined the chestnuts in their sites.

There's usually between 60-70 in the flock. You can see the grass has dried out, but since I took this pic a couple of weeks ago, we've had lovely rain during the night and it's much greener now.

And then they go to the pond on the other side of the house and you can see some on guard in the trees and a group at the edge of the pond drinking. It is usually just coming on to sunset, and then the noisy critters go further 'down the back' and roost in the gums there. They squabble and squawk during the night and then are 10 times as noisy in the morning about 6am, when they fly back over the house squawking and then around the town. I'm not sure whether they follow the ridge of the hills along during the day, they can usually be found in a flock down in the valley, but there will often be several flying around calling during the day.

Spinning group has started for 2010

Everything has started again after the summer holiday break, and while we've been in recess Fran has knitted this lovely fine shawl

Now headless photos are not my thing, but by request I have complied. I know my photography isn't photo-shopped like most other, but...

We have new chickens, which came from a poultry auction in time for Georgie and James to have fun collecting eggs and visiting them at Christmas--I can't say enough how much they love doing this. We have a lovely silver lace wyandotte hen and chicks, pekin bantams, australorps and barnevelders. (apologies for any names spelt incorrectly), and look at the variety of egg colours: white, pink, khaki and blue eggs from them.

And a lovely cheerful pic of 'Georgie's Sunflowers', which unfortunately didn't flower while she was visiting. I'll have to plant much earlier next year.