Is that knitting content??!!

Oh yes - at last. I have at last finished the Noro Eloise cardi for the oldest Flea - this will no doubt elicit many rude words from youngest Flea Katie, and her partner FiFi who will remind me of the Jo Sharp jumper I started for FiFi some years ago - it was a wide loose fitting style, but FiFi wanted it much shorter with longer sleeves. It languished half done for months because I couldn't bring myself to make it shorter when all the cold air would just circulate up the body - when I eventualy checked the fitting, it was too big (in MHO) so despite FiFi's protestations, I frogged it - then reknitted it - and it was too small - so I gave it to my DIL. Every time I see Katie & FiFi they give me stick! When I mentioned this to eldest daughter, she reminded me that she's been waiting for a handknit for longer than we have known FiFi ...... still, I MUST do the FiFi jumper - I just don't think I can face that Jo Sharp pattern again - it was a pain to knit. Mmmm - maybe I feel another Eloise coming on in a different colour.

Eldest daughter's Eloise is longer than the pattern - I humoured her on this despite my reservations. I used knitting in elastic with the yarn because my own Eloise has stretched so much - the fact that I have worn it nearly every day for the last 10 months hasn't helped! Originally I was just going to put it in the ribbed part, but decided to do it all over as my own was getting bigger by the day. The elastic made the fabric much firmer and denser, but I like it.

Last weekend while the 11 year old little Flea was here she spotted a scarf at Cherryhills and wanted one - that instant - BUT (why do my family always want variations?) she wanted pockets at each end for her hands. The yarn is Funky Fur (or some similar name) and the scarf was done on 10mm needles, so the pockets stretched when sewn up and I had to gather the tops in, but it should do the trick. Ms 11 has just read Roxie's book - Sanna, Sorceress Apprentice. She loved it, and can't wait for the next in the series. I loved it too - Roxie writes very well (and I'm very critical), and it is a delightful story incorporating Roxie's love of knitting. Apart from nagging me to ask Roxie to give her a pre-release version of the book (which I declined to do, as I want to buy her one for Christmas so she can have a matched set - and I also want to support Roxie's foray into the world of publishing), Ms 11 was very keen for me to knit her a pair of self heating mittens, the pattern for which is in the book. Unfortunately, I flunked out of sorceress school, apart from a low grade in ESP, so I can do the mittens (if I ever get the book back - it's been reread at least once) but can't do the self-heating part. She also has a yen for a bag that is bigger on the inside than the outside - you can see it hanging from Sanna's waist on the cover of the book. I must admit to a hankering for one of those too! Guess I'll have to go back to sorceress school! I asked Ms 11 to do a book review - here it is as left on the voice mail:

"Hi Grandma - and Pa - can't forget about you, Pa - just calling and here's my book review. I finished it in 2 days which is a new record for that sort of book, Grandma. And here's my book review. It was funny, romantic and very obvious that the writer is also a knitter. I couldn't put it down and I can't wait for the next one, however I think the ending was a bit short and that it didn't finish well - it could go on a bit longer and I never found out what happened to that cape, unless I skipped some. Would you please knit me a pair of self heating mittens, thank you. That's what I've written down on a piece of paper, but I still stand by that the ending was very, very short. He arrives and then he just says some stuff and he leaves. And then you're sort of left with the impression that the horse is just standing there and you want the book to go on. So, all in all, I think it depends on the sort of 11 year old reader. If it's someone who's into books, they'd enjoy it. And if it's someone who really isn't into books and more into, like, magic and sorcery, they should also enjoy it, but if it was someone who wasn't into things like that, they should also enjoy it. I keep laughing when I think of the power gem in Sanna's mouth, with the two chains coming out of her mouth. " (There is more, but I have mislaid the piece of paper I transcribed it on. I will post it, Roxie, as soon as I find it.)

I have explained to Ms 11, that books with sequels always leave you wanting more - but she still wants the contents of the NEXT book, in this one! I think you have a hit on your hands here, Roxie.

CORRECTION
I said in my last post that the glider possum was a squirrel possum glider, but after talking to the Council's wildlife officer today, and checking the internet again, I realise it is a sugar glider.

I'm doing a workshop at Cherryhills on Sunday with Lynne Johnson - I'm really looking forward to it.

Lesson No. 4: You can't knit socks while you watch SBS ...

SBS is our multicultural TV channel, and it has some great movies and series - most of which are sub-titled. Our current favourites are: a gory Argentinian detective series, shown late on Monday night, called 'If the Dead Could Speak'; and our extra-favourite 'The Eagle: A Crime Odyssey', a Danish crime series set in Copenhagen with little sidetrips to other parts of Europe. We particularly like this show as we spent some time in Scandinavia a couple of years ago, and it's wonderful to look at the action and recognise the places. It brings back a lot of memories.

However shows on SBS have the disadvantage, for us monolingual knitters, of being sub-titled. Grandpa Flea is very well trained now and gives me a running commentary if I'm distracted by the dropped stitch or frogging-in-progress, but I have learnt this week, after many aborted attempts (five in total!) to turn the heel on the second of my first ever pair of socks that I cannot watch SBS and do the sock thing simultaneously. This poor pair of knee length socks has already been dragged all over New Zealand, to and from various other places, been frogged once already from the ankle back up to the basque below the knee (because it is a K3 P2 rib and on my return from three weeks sightseeing in NZ I discovered many purl stitches where I had dropped back into the habit of K2 P2 - damn!) and they are looking quite old and pilled (it's Patonyle). However, I have at last turned the heel and whilst I'm not proud of the quality of the knitting and the turn, I'm ecstatic that I have managed to do it! I think I'm about to develop a sock knitting habit. One more FO to send out into the world. I'll add a photo to this post as soon as I can pin Grandpa Flea down long enough to wrestle his shoes and socks off so he can model them for me!

Lara has started coming to the Cherryhills knitting group, and at a recent meeting she had some hand-dyed Patonyle which looked great. I think I might have to give it a try. Lara used food dyes, and I have just bought a pile of extremely toxic looking food dyes to make cup-cakes a la Yarnstorm for the littlest Flea's 5th birthday next weekend.

Stash ....gulp ..... enhancement ....

You know how it is - one minute you're vowing that you'll reduce the UFO pile, that you WILL NOT start anything new until you have finished more than one UFO - and then, across a crowded yarn shop, your eyes see - someone else, holding THE most beautiful combination of yarns that you have ever seen .... all the good resolutions run out the door. You feel the silver tongued devil sitting on your shoulder whispering in your ear - go on girl - you KNOW you want it - what harm can come from a little bit of wool? - the little Flea will look bee-ute-i-ful in those colours - you know she's been asking you to knit her a pink shawl FOR MONTHS - and you haven't even started one - how can you look into those big brown eyes again and tell her that?? And if you're careful, Grandpa Flea need never know!!

Five minutes later, you're walking out the door, bag heavier, purse lighter - justifying yourself, as the guilt slowly creeps up to meet you - it wasn't very much - less than $50 - only $49.99! - of course I'll need to put some other yarn with it - but little Flea will LOVE it - she'll be so pleased - I hope Grandpa Flea doesn't see the bag ..... he'll say "I thought we were decluttering" - "you've already got more wool than you can ever knit" - "you could knit all day, every day until you die and you'd still have wool left over" ....."where are you going to put it in our new house - it's smaller, REMEMBER" ... "you should be selling it, not buying it". Who needs self generated guilt when Grandpa Flea's around? But he does have a point .... just a small one, but a point, nevertheless.

Once home, a quick flick through the SMALL amount of stash that has not been packed away during the house sale, and the yarn for the prospective shawl has grown to this.
An hour or so later, and a shawl is on the needles. What happened to the UFOs? I hear you ask - ah, well, um .. it's like this - the squares for an indeterminate purpose have been hastily put together for a doll's blankie - and the remaining yarn returned to stash. The long socks - half knitted in New Zealand last year, have made some progress - one is finished and the other is up to the heel. It would have been finished except that two balls of Patonyle were not enough! and I had to join another ball in, half way along the instep, so I decided to frog back and make the join before the ankle. The last sock should be finished very soon and it can then go to the elderly gentleman with cold legs who lives near my daughter (I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I did buy him a pair of long possum fur and wool socks while in NZ as it was clear the socks wouldn't be finished last winter. Possums are a protected animal in Australia, but they are an imported pest in NZ and cause a lot of problems for the NZ wild life - destroying the native habitat with their voracious appetites, and breeding like fruit flies because there are no natural predators to keep the numbers under control).

Speaking of possums, there has been a lot of fighting going on over the last couple of weeks, and the shy possum who nested in the tree house opposite our deck disappeared and there was quite a lot of possum fur around on the ground all over the yard. I'm not sure if the possum was taken by a cat or fox, or vanquished by a superior possum and gone off to sulk somewhere. The possum box is inhabited again, but I think it is a newcomer - it's a bit hard to tell. The other night the inhabitant of the second box, who is REALLY shy, was making its appearance, well after dark and I managed to catch part of it with the camera. It's hard to take photos at night as I can't see anything on the little screen, and just have to point and click and HOPE!

Possum Magic ...

For everone who loves the possums - the other day we were having lunch on the deck when a couple of large dogs sudddenly charged through our bush - the neighbour's dog immediately started barking and within a few seconds there was a dog chorus in progress. It's usually very quiet around here and it's unusual to have dogs wandering in, so the shy little possum was understandably rather concerned about the noise and its implications for her safety. However, she is not as sleepy as she looks - every time she looked out of the nest and saw the camera pointed her way, she'd bob down! I managed to get a photo at last - she looks so sweet. I seem to be obsessed with possum bits, but I love being able to see the detail, although this photo has been enlarged beyond sharpness - look at the stripes on her toes and the strong nails.


Kate, Carson, Roxie and Susan for your kind words about the possums and your concern for their future. I hope the new owners will care for them and resist the urge to remove the possum houses - although once they hear the noise the pesky little things make on the roof and the deck at night, they might be tempted! I think there was a possum party in progress again last night, and judging by the possum poos and the HUGE brown pools along the rail of the deck, they were there for quite a long time - it's like hearing the rain on a tin roof - the noise makes me drift off to sleep.

Thank you all for the words of encouragement about the process of moving - I had to laugh at the way Roxie expressed it - "This is how you eat an elephant - one bite at a time" - I think she captured the process very well!

I met Lara at Cherryhills on Wednesday - she had that beautiful look that pregnant women have - and I'm glad to hear that all went well with her scan. I'm amazed at the amount of technology that is routinely employed in pregnancy these days - when I was expecting either my first or second child, my obstetrician was using ultrasound as a very new procedure in very special cases. None of us knew what it was.

The other thing I noticed when my eldest daughter had a baby five years ago, was the amount of support that is offered to new mothers - she was put on a "depression watch" because of my history of severe depression, and the birthing centre stayed in close touch with her. When she had a few "settling" problems they sent the "settling team" out to visit and helped her develop a routine get the littlest flea to sleep. Same when she was finding it took her an hour to feed the little twerp when she started on solids - someone came out and stayed at mealtimes to see what she was doing and to advise on what was a reasonable time to persist. We used to drive our baby around and around the block to get her to sleep! And as for feeding! I used to breast feed and also complement with a formula so I had all the boiling up of bottles and making the formula as well. I did that with my second child too and in both instances was advised by the Baby Health Centre to stop breast feeding at three months. I felt like an absolute failure. But with the third child, I had heard about the Nursing Mothers' Association (now called something else). They lent me "The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding" and I went to their meetings - the poor baby only went to the BHC every now again - and we both thrived on breastfeeding for 12 months. I used to say I'd still be feeding her except that she weaned herself - but after watching "Little Britain" I've changed my mind!!

Scrabbling Around ....

This is my excuse for not posting for some days - the "new" home that we are moving to, and the need to sell our current home of 40 years (how can I be that old!). Our unit is the one on the right as you look at the sign. There are two in the front and nine behind.

I asked permission of the two men working on the site to post their photos on this blog - I promised them fame and stardom and of course they both agreed! This young man is working in "our" new garage.

I didn't worry about asking Grandpa Flea's permission - he looks very happy and proprietorial standing in "his" new car space.

This is the head honcho in the block laying department. The builder tells us that he is an expert and that his skills are highly in demand. The walls for the garage are nearly finished and once the suspended concrete floor is poured, the frame should go up in no time.

This is a kitchen in one of the other units - I'm not sure yet whether we will have the same colour scheme or something different.

I am glad Janette declined my invitation to hold her breath in anticipation of my next post which would be about knitting .... my excuse is that we have been very busy trying to keep the house clean and TIDY while it is on the market. We are surrounded by large eucalypts and various other trees. Eucalypts are supposedly evergeen, but in reality they shed copious amounts of leaves all year round, and bucketloads of blossom and gumnuts in spring and summer. Every day we need to sweep the driveway, patio and deck so that we appear to live a tidy life in a natural environment, every day I need to make the beds (darn, now you know I don't always do it!!), unpack the dishwasher, clean the mirror in the bathroom, not hang the washing on the line, but manage to miraculously dry it anyhow (you can see the clothes line as you walk up the front steps),etc etc, and every night I need to bring the cyclamens inside, off the balcony or the possums eat all the leaves. Then in the morning I need to put them out again ... Yesterday I had moved the two kettles with pineapples growing in them, so the large pot of red cyclamens would have centre stage on the outdoor table - and today, I discovered that the possums had been trying to eat the pineapple leaves ... fortunately for both the plants and the possums, they hadn't eaten too much - I think the leaves were too tough.

For the last few days I have intended to photograph ALL my UFOs and post them, so there would be evidence that I DO knit - but each day something has gotten in the way - today I was racing inside to get the phone and in my haste, fell UP the step onto my (used to be) good knee. It now feels as though I have done some terrible damage to it, whilst my BAD knee, which has been responding to twice weekly physio, seems like a two year old's by comparison. C'est la vie!

We had our first "open for inspection" day last Saturday after a number of weeks without advertising and "by appointment" inspections. We had a few people come back several times to look at the house, but no offers. However, people who had looked at the house twice before, and had arranged a pre-purchase building and pest inspection, indicated to the agent on Saturday that they were going to see their solicitor today with a view to buying! Until they actually sign on the dotted line we are not getting over-excited, but it's looking hopeful. The good news is, that if they buy, they are the sort of people who will appreciate the wildlife and not pull down the possum boxes. Speaking of possums - a few more possums for your enjoyment. There were two in the tree near the feeding tray last night - one up the top, looking very hopefully down at the other:

And one hanging on to the tree and greedily eating the apple peel we had put out.






Monday seems to have turned into Scrabble day - you know, that game with all the little letters on tiles .... I hated it when the fleas were little, but on my recent trip to Ballina, I started playing with some other "500" widows and fell in love with the game - and now we are continuing to play every other Monday afternoon or so, leaving the Scrabble widowers to amuse themselves! I feel an overwhelming desire to read the dictionary in bed at night - and do I need to! One of our Scrabblers was born in Malaysia and has only been in Australia for ten years or so - she often asks for clarification of not-so-common word meanings - and it's unbelievable how many times it's a word that we might use in our speech quite appropriately, but have absolutely no solid idea of its dictionary definition! Needless to say, I can't think of an example right now. English as a second language is not a major disadvantage for our friend - she is an excellent player, and has a very competitive spirit when it comes to snaffling those triple word scores!

No Knitters' Guild yesterday - too busy, and no Cherryhills group tomorrow as we have to see the solicitor about the sale of the house! And tomorrow afternoon I will be seeing my friend the physio and asking his opinion about my once GOOD now BAD knee!

Time Warp: Wildlife Wednesday - on Thursday

So - autumn is definitely here when the spider webs become cities suspended in the air - we have lots of golden orb web weavers (Nephila (Tetragnathidae)) here and in autumn they are prolific. In this first photo you can see a small spider above the large female - it's the male, waiting for an opportunity to mate with the much larger female. I had always thought that the male was killed and rolled up in a little cocoon after he had performed his duty, but the Australian Museum site indicates otherwise. Have a look at it if you want more information and better photos!


I love this last photo - I'm sure spiders were the first knitters - how wonderful it would be to knit such a fine, strong shawl.

We arrived home a few days ago from our rushed trip around the world (well, not quite - it just felt like it!). We had one night in Canberra with GrandPa Flea's brother - there are 5 "boys" in the family and brother Noel is what you'd call a dinky di Aussie - his speech is peppered with the metaphors and similes that used to mark the speech of the true blue Aussie. Unfortunately, this mode of specch is becoming less common as we become more educated, more exposed to other influences (especially American TV programs and advertising) and more multicultural (which compensates by bringing other interesting things to our culture). Once I even had to consult The Macquarie Dictionary when Noel said he'd been "flat out like a lizard drinkin' " - extremely busy to you and me! I took particular note, the next time I saw a lizard drinking - and the tongue movements were indeed very, very fast.

The next three nights we spent with my brother, Mr Mooney, at Tumbarumba in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains. Mr Mooney lives in Canberra but has a small hobby farm - off the beaten track, seemingly miles from the nearest neighbour, surrounded by a creek, acres of trees and a national park. Wild brumbies range through the bushland and across the meadows. Those who are fortunate - or unlucky - enough to come across them have to be careful, as I've been told that the herd disperses quickly, while a large black stallion turns to confront the intruders. Call me a wimp, but I didn't go looking for them. Mr Mooney's house was built of mudbricks and found materials by the original owner. It is delightful with white painted walls inside, slow combustion stoves, and a larder which has been built to stay cool in the hottest weather. Little leadlight windows appear in unexpected places, the floor is mud brick and the the house has a wonderful warm, tranquil feel.
There is even a tiny dog - Snooky - to keep watch from his sunlit spot on the day bed.
The only draw back is the "long drop" - a pit toilet across the yard away from the house, to those of you who are city born and bred! Long drops are just not on as far as I'm concerned. I spent far too many of my formative years having nightmares about children who slipped into the pit, redback spiders under the toilet seat and boogey men waiting in the dark as you made the long trek across the yard in the night. So Grandpa Flea and I stayed at the local bed and breakfast "The Lazy Dog" - it has a website "www.thelazydog.com.au" but for some reason my computer tells me it can't find the server. We were very comfortable - warm beds, attentive hosts, Margaret and Peter, and a beautiful, placid dog - a big black labrador called Ebony.

So after three days of sunlight, family, food and wine we headed down to Melbourne for three days with an old neighbour of ours, and three days with our youngest flea - Ms Katie, her partner Ms FeeFee and their two delightful teenage fleas - Mr Lex and Ms Mary, three dogs, three cats, two axelotls and one guinea pig. It was another six days of sun, family, friends, food and wine. We caught up with our friends, The Captain and Tenille, who live near our daughter - it was good to see them again. I don't have enough time to go into details of our Melbourne visit, except to say that we didn't need wheels on the car to come home - we could have rolled on our spare tyres!

Oh, and I visited a wool shop in Melbourne - Wondoflex Yarn Craft Centre - where, surprisingly! I bought some Zhivago and two pattern books. The range of wools was good, but I still prefer my LYS, Cherryhills - it's a smaller shop, but the range of yarns is wonderful - I could be biased of course, but I don't think so.

I had lunch today with my knitting pal, Janette. It was good to catch up and to see the latest photo of her twin grandbabies - they are beautiful. My next post will be devoted to knitting - hold your breath!

Here's looking at you ....

I can't believe it's over a week since I last posted. We have listed our house for sale again and life has been very busy. I have also had a bad knee - for months - but why go to the doctor when you're in pain? Eventually the chiropracter referred me back to the GP and after x-rays and an MRI I now know I have a Baker's cyst behind the knee which has ruptured - perhaps if I'd had the sense to go to the GP a year ago it might have resolved by now. Fortunately it is improving but I have to wear an elastic bandage thing that keeps rolling over and cutting off my circulation - what do they say about the cure being worse than the disease? We have also had a couple of days off-line after a blackout the other night.


I missed Saturday sky and am in advance of Wildlife Wednesday as we leave in the morning (Tuesday here) for a trip to Ballina with Grandpa Flea's Probus club. We'll be back Sunday, late, but I'll post a Saturday sky next Monday (I hope).

I will miss the possums when we move - I've been fiddling with GPa Flea's camera and having fun. This possum was awake the other day, just lazily peeping out from his house. I can't get Blogger to put the hand and eye alongside each other - probably because they are different sizes - you'll have to use your imagination.We had a visit from a pair of King Parrots during the week - they are very shy birds and hard to catch on camera - the male is much more brightly coloured than the female - who heard the beep of the camera and declined to be photographed!

I disturbed a baby gecko when I was moving some pots outside. We often used to have these inside our house, but when we painted the dark brick walls a cream colour, they moved outside - easier to blend in with the surroundings. The first time I disturbed one of the bigger geckos, it barked at me! It was happily ensconced under a cane basket full of toys in the children's room (40 years ago) - I'd never seen one in the house before and didn't know that they could bark - what a fright.


When will there be some knitting content on this blog? Your guess is as good as mine! I have finished one legging for my grand-daughter; done half the front of a jumper for another GD; knitted a lot of spare cotton into dusters and wash-cloths - straight knitting is all I'm really capable of, at present.; finished a Noro garter stitch scarf for Sue at Cherryhills; and ignored Eloise for the eldest Flea. I have to pack some knitting to take tomorrow so may give Eloise a whirl. One day I'll post some knitting photos - promise.

Thank you everyone for your comments - I'll respond when we get home on Sunday.

Wildlife Wednesday .......... well, everyone else has a day .......

More wildlife- this time a largish kookaburra which landed with a thump on our deck rail as soon as we sat down to eat lunch. It had been in the tree, but fancied its chances when it saw food - it's obviously used to being hand fed. Grandpa Flea went to place a piece of meat on the railing and the kookaburra lunged forward to take it from his fingers.

We are a bit wary of birds that get too close when food is involved - once we were quite innocently sitting in a national park eating our lunch, surrounded by birds that were apparently used to being fed scraps by visitors (as they kept invading our space and were not too happy to go away when we "shoo'ed" them). Grandpa Flea was about to put a piece of sandwich in his mouth when a huge crow swept down, snatching the piece of food from his fingers. In the process, it gave him a nasty abrasion on his hand from its sharp beak. We decided to sit in the car to finish our meal and .... shades of Alfred Hitchcock .... dozens of these birds landed on the bonnet pecking at the windscreen, making it quite clear that if they could break in, they would! It was very unsettling - well, let's be honest here - it was downright frightening even though we were inside the car.


It's amazing how some birds within a group, all with the same colouring and all about the same size, can quickly become recognisable as individuals. This is our favourite - "Cranky Pants". We assume he is male, as he is the dominant bird of a pair that visit regularly. He scolds at us if we approach too close, and he gets very annoyed when I take his photo. You can see him giving me some very explicit advice on where to go in this photo! I must do some reading up on lorikeets - I would have thought that it is too late in the season for mating, but Cranky Pants was in fine form today, doing an amazing display for his mate - almost a snake dance with his head, whispering sweet nothings in her ears and making an enormous display of flapping his wings. When he became a bit too amorous, his "meek" little partner gave him a peck and buzzed him off!


And for Carson a visit from a large brushtail possum.

And so to knitting - I bet you'd forgotten that this is a knitting blog .... today was the Knitting group at Cherryhills, my LYS. A whole pile of Debbie Bliss books have come in - but how many knitting books can one person use? I think I'd like to live in that shop - I could have yarnball baths at night - go to bed on a pile of yarn as soft as featherdown, cuddling several balls of soft Annie Blatt angora - tie pieces of ?Annie Blatt "Fleur" around my neck for necklaces - knit myself bedsocks and hot water bottle covers in any combination of yarns I fancied - wear the smell of new books for perfume - aaaaahhhh - the list is endless.
Despite my obvious yarn addiction, I came home with only ONE ball of plain wool to add to a skirt I'm knitting for one of the little fleas,and a pattern book for Freedom wool - I think my daughter-outlaw would look great in one of these vests - let's hope it gets finished instead of FROGGED numerous times before being forever consigned to that great frogged pond in the sky - whoops - I mean the back room.

I'm off to bed.

Do you haiku?

For Christmas, one of my daughters gave me "Knit One Haiku Too" by Maria Fire. I'd seen this book in Borders and been tempted to buy it ... but resisted ... so was really pleased to receive it. Only to be really disappointed when I read it. I don't know what I expected, but it didn't hit the spot. I've done a few searches for reviews, but only came up with a couple of raves on booksellers' sites and a deafening silence elsewhere. Why? After long consideration I came to the conclusion that the book failed to please me on two fronts:

Firstly, the short musings did not grab me at any level - it was a bit like reading a blog in paper form - the main difference being that I expect nothing when I read another person's blog - if it doesn't connect with me at some level I just surf on out and look for something else. When I read a book I have a certain level of expectation - that I'll be amused, engaged, or stimulated or .....the list goes on. And if I'm not, I'm disappointed.

Secondly, I found the haikus to be ?too contrived, and, at times, nothing more than nonsense - I wondered if the Japanese form does not translate well to English - there is so much subtley in Japanese culture and the Japanese language that it seems naive to think that you can just take a 5-7-5 form in Japanese syllables and replace it with English words and bingo! you have haiku!

Then in my search I found this site and aha! my discomfort was explained. Jane Reichold and Keiko Imaokai in "How-to-Haiku" write on both the symbolic and grammatical structure of the haiku form. At one point Reichold says " Suddenly I could figure out by myself what was wrong with a haiku that failed to jell as I thought it should. I could ask myself if there was a comparison, a contrast or an association between the images and if this relationship was clear and understandable for the reader" . Perhaps the comparisons, contrasts and associations were present in this book, but, in general, they were not clear and understandable to me. Imaokai's essay on the grammatical structure of Japanese haiku and the difficulties this presents for the form in English, further explained why this book "failed to jell" with me.

Ahh - it's a hard life being an armchair critic! I'd be interested to know what other people think.


Today was knitting-group-at-Cherryhills day and when I picked up my friend, I couldn't resist taking a photo of her beautiful red flowered eucalypt - the flowers were so new that she wasn't aware they had opened. If you look carefully, you can see a gumnut about to "pop its top" - they are magical. I have always loved our eucalypts- when I was a child we'd collect the empty gumnut ends (I don't know what they are called botanically) and put them on our fingers to look like witches' fingers - those eucalypts aren't native to the area here, but if they had been, I guess my kids would have pretended they were Edward Scissorhands! I used to knit gumblossom hats (a fad - I tend to have them) and everytime I photograph something this beautiful I vow to use the photo as inspiration for colour or form in my knitting - but end up doing nothing about it. One day...

As usual Janette and Roxie have made me smile with their comments. Just as well I was born a pessimist, Roxie! Thank you Willow for your good wishes, and before too long I'll post some more wildlife photos for you Carson - you said you had possums in a built-up area - they're amazing little blighters, aren't they? There was one in my street that had a dray in a deciduous tree branch right above the footpath - almost within reach. I must have walked under it dozens of times without seeing it and only noticed it when I was looking for a bird with an unfamiliar call. It wasn't there last time I looked - I think the electricity commission had lopped the branch too close for comfort. No doubt it's happily scratching away in someone's roof! I don't have fond memories of The Magic Pudding - the banksia men used to give me nightmares when I was little. I should revisit it (do I have the right book?).

Day 52 - I'm just froggin' along ...

Well, it is with great regret and joy that I announce that Annie Blatt has bitten the dust! The wretched thing has been blocking away for days (I was too busy/lazy to pick it up) - when I went to sew the sleeves in, I discovered that I had done the three needle cast-off shoulders by joining the fronts (knitted on 2.75 needles) to the original back, knitted on 4mm needles. Do not even ask how this could have happened! So, I undid the shoulders and dropped several stitches. I dutifully frogged back and redid the shapings, then immediately rejoined the small needle front to the big needle back ... need I go on? It only gets worse. Eventually I decided that it would be kinder to all concerned to send it to the big frogpond in the sky. I have now bought the (ever so slightlyfrogged) yarn from Cherryhills and intend to use it to make a small pillow for my granddaughter.

The weather has been hot and steamy here. Monday I went on a group excursion with Grandpa Flea - a two hour train journey to Cronulla of the beautiful beach; a twenty minute ferry ride to Bundeena, a small community across the bay;
a walk along the beach;

lunch, a walk around the town and repeat of the travel, in reverse. It was a hot and sunny - the water was a a clear blue - magic. I love the beach - the way the waves roll in and out,


the beautiful shapes, patterns and colours in the rocks, and the amazing little rockpools just waiting to be explored. I lived near the beach for some of my childhood and I guess it brings back memories.

Kate has asked why I'd move from a beautiful, bushy environment to a big, wet hole in the ground! Grandpa Flea asks the same question, but as he currently has a knee like a balloon, has to hop down stairs and can't sleep at night because of the discomfort, I think he has answered his own (and Kate's) question. Sadly, it's age - it happens to us all and I know that if we don't move now, it will all become too hard in a few years time. Happily though, I can report that the big, wet, hole in the ground is now
a big, dry hole in the ground ... quite an improvement!

Well, I'm off - perchance to frog a little!

Day 37 - It's Raining - Leeches!!

A couple of hours ago thunder and lightning started and then came the rain! Not a lot, but it wet the ground and rainwater seems to revive plants in a way that chlorinated water doesn't. Along with the rain came the leech - since we have had so many possums around, we have been getting the odd leech in the house when it rains (that's the only reason I can think of to explain 35 years or so without a leech and an influx since we've had possum boxes around). Grandpa Flea has just had a tiny one on his wrist, and is bleeding like the proverbially "stuck pig". Ah, the joys of wild life ...

Knitting group today at Cherryhills - it was good to see the group again and to catch up on what has been knitted over January. I came home with three balls of Zara in a pale blue to knit a baby jacket from Pipsqueaks (a Rowan book) - I was going to post a photo from the book - but can't find it! And I wanted to cast on tonight! My chiropracter is having her first baby and I want to have it finished for her before she goes on leave. Guess I'll have to battle Annie Blatt a bit longer. I love Pipsqueaks - I have knitted so many things from it over the last five or six years.

I was roving around the internet tonight and made a terrible discovery - Grumperina and The Knitting Curmudgeon ARE NOT THE SAME PERSON! My apologies to each of you. I have removed the offending reference. I was sure that I had read in Grumperina's blog somewhere that she had posted previously under the other name - I was devastated when The Knitting Curmudgeon seemed to disappear from the internet and had a bit of trouble reconciling the two writing styles when she "reappeared" under another name - okay, so someone now tell me they are the same person and I can feel doubly foolish!!

My apologies again.

Day 36 - Knitting Groups Start Again - Yay!

First day back at the Guild and for the first time for months I was looking forward to it. I haven't been for quite a while as I haven't been enjoying it. The group at Cherryhills starts up again this week too and I'm REALLY looking forward to that - there's always something new to see, feel, try on, read - and it's good fun.

Everywhere I go I look for the local knitting shops - sound familiar to you? And whenever they agree, I take photos or get a photo taken in there, so I'm very generously sharing them (?boring you) with you! This is a photo taken in Victoria, Vancouver Island at The Beehive Store. For some reason the link won't work: "FORBIDDEN" was the stern reply - if you don't already know it, I'm sure you can google it. This was a wondrous store, stacked with yarn. I bought a skein of Fiesta in African Violet there. It wasn't available in Australia then, but now my LYS has it - and I keep drooling over it, and one day - soon (after I knit all my stash up - ha! ha!) - I'm going to get some more.

I haven't done much knitting other than wrestle with Annie Blatt.
Janette assures me that the pattern has suffered in translation, but I'm not too sure about that - I've had these problems with English patterns too - but then, we speak Australian here - maybe that's it!

We had a busy weekend and I got lots of kisses and hugs from Ms 4 during her sleepover and Sunday we had some friends over for lunch at 12.00 noon. They left at 8:00pm so that's why nothing got done in the knit department. Last night we put some of the scraps out for the birds and the possums. (We don't do it on a regular basis so they don't become dependent on us.) And just for Roxie we had a visit from a small glider possum. They have a wide fat flat tail and a flap of skin between their front and rear legs which acts as a parasail? when they glide between the trees. This particular glider is quite large - usually two of them are on the tray together and they still have lots of space. They are cute little things, and it's always a relief to find that they are still around, as a lot of the bushland around here is being cleared for housing.

I'm off to bed - this broadband thing just means instead of sitting around for hours getting frustrated, I sit around for hours making typos and looking at blogs - Grandpa Flea is no fool - he told me I'd be going to bed at 1:00 am - again.