Encycopedia of Me Meme: V is for ... Venturing Forth

Venturing into a new life.....

Today is Sunday - tomorrow someone is coming to take the washing machine (we hope) - a freebie because of its age and idiosyncratic ways. Our two lounges (sofas) and the dining room chairs ( a misnomer since we don't have a dining room!) are being collected to be recovered while we are away.

Tuesday, the moving people come and take our very few pieces of furniture and our 150 boxes to storage. Tuesday night we move our suitcases and files and computer to Maroubra to our daughter's place (she is in Canada at present) and sleep there until later in the week.

Wednesday, we come back here to clean up the yard and the inside. The cleaners are also coming in the afternoon to help.

Thursday, I go shopping to buy some summer clothes that fit my 15-kg-heavier-than-last-summer body. I'll also buy a swimsuit if I can do so without looking in the mirror.

Friday, we fly to India and Thailand for 4 weeks - and while the rest of our group are out looking at the Taj mahal and other things, I intend to explore the cultural differences of massages in the East!

October 10 we return to Sydney, stay with our daughter until October 13, when we move to her sister-in-law's (luxury, I have been told) apartment at Coogee where we will house and cat sit until October 23, when we will resume our nomadic existence until our place is finished - mid -November we have now been told, but I'm counting on Christmas.

When we do move in, we're faced with the enormous task of again sifting and throwing out, as our new place is for over-55s - that is, on the small size. About a 50 box size! I suspect that when we get there, so much of our stuff will be so obviously unnecessary that Vinnies and the Salvos (both within walking distance) will have a bonanza.

Encycopedia of Me Meme . . U is for Unknown

Yes, UNKNOWN - the completion date of our new home. My blogging has, of necessity, been neglected for the last couple of weeks. The sorting, packing and throwing out of 40 years of accumulated junk takes a lot of energy. When faced with an overwhelming task - I postpone/avoid. I have to confess to playing scrabble online instead of writing my blog. Writing my blog requires thought - of the introspective kind - do I say this - do I reveal that - what have I done that others might find interesting - while scrabble is in the moment - racing the clock and concentrating only on the things immediately on the screen. My apologies.

Somehow, despite my worst efforts, it all seems to be coming together.

Encycopedia of Me Meme . . R is for RIDICULOUS.

R is for ridiculous - I'm talking about the scrabble dictionary and the "words" that are allowed. How can words that have NO MEANING in English be considered words for the purpose of the game, when the rules say that no foreign words are allowed? eg "Li" is in the scrabble online dictionary is defined as:
1. A Chinese measure of distance, being a little more than
one third of a mile.
[1913 Webster]
2. A Chinese copper coin; a cash. See {Cash}.
[1913 Webster]

Yet "dux", being the "top pupil at a school", listed in the Oxford Dictionary, is not listed in the official scrabble dictionary. I have used the word "dux" (one of our daughters was dux - twice) but I have NEVER used the word "li".

Well, that's my wobbly for the day! Good news - we have a new baby!


I have been watching the possums for the last couple of months and have seen a certain expansion in the size of at least one. Then, yesterday when we were having lunch on the balcony, the possum opposite woke up and was fussing around in the box, when a baby possum appeared on it's head, squirmed across its Mama's back and generally made a nuisance of itself! Poor Mama Possum - she had a long-suffering look on her face as if to say "these broken days! I need my sleep!".

The baby is too small to ride on her back yet, and mama is very hungry - yesterday she appeared at her window before it was fully dark, and squirmed out and across to the feeding tray when I appeared with some fruit for her. These nursing mothers have big appetites! I am really going to miss the wildlife when we move.

R is also for ROOF - the roof is now on our new place, so the R is for RAIN won't hold the building up as much. It is now due to be completed in mid October until mid November, so we'll be homeless when we get back from India/Thailand on 10 October. Our furniture is being R is for removed on 11 September and goes into storage until the house is finished.

The Australianism for today is : "Received Standard English" - not exactly an Australianism, but this is the English to which we all aspired when I was a child - only people who had private school educations, or came from the upper classes in England spoke that way. All the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission") announcers spoke "Received Engish" - they spoke "proper" unlike the rest of the rabble. Nowadays RSE is not often heard on the airways - we seem to be quite comfortable with our own Aussie accent. Another blow struck for a classless society!

C is for .... and D is for

carton - but that's just a box which is" B is for box" - what a relief! That's C done! Just kidding.

C is for - what? Colour! Colour is an essential part of our lives - imagine a grey world with only shades of black and white - and yet, when I look at black and white photos, I'm blown away by the clarity of perception that they induce - have a look at Ree's blogs and scroll back through until you find her black and white photos - in one post she compares the same photo in colour and B&W. Somehow the essence of the face in black and white seems to come through in a depth not present in the colour photos - if that makes sense. I fell in love with B&W photos years ago when my youngest daughter was in a B&W photography phase - she is talented with her photography and does take beautiful photos.

Colour is also a thing that I'm wrestling with for our new place. The floors and paint coloours are set in stone by the builder, but I'm having the lounge recovered and have to get window coverings. But what colours to choose? The last time I had to choose colours I used the local interior designer and loved the final result so he is organising things again. But it seems to take forever to reach agreement! He is very keen to use a neutral palette with some hideous patterned highlights, but I love really bright colours - Noro yarn, Indian numdah rug colours. I have told him this and he takes NO NOTICE. He is keen to give us a "smart new look" - but I'm a slobby casual person! Yet I know that eventually I'll do what he wants and I'll be pleased with it. That's why I use him, as I'm no good with imagining things from a small swatch, nor am I good at putting colours together. My friend the ID just smiles and says "trust me" - just what the crocodile said when I smiled at it!

D is for dogs. We don't have a dog at present, but they have been faithful companions all my life. When I was child I had a black and white cocker spaniel called "Ben" (Chifley) and my brother had a golden cocker called "Doc" (Evatt). Later we had another cocker called "Timmy", then a pair of puppies whose mother was a pregnant stray that my parents took in. The twins were called "Boof" and "Tweedle". Later, after I'd left home my parents had an Irish wolfhound called "Gough" - no prizes for guessing our political persuasion! (Ben, Doc and Gough are all the names of Labor politicians - similar to the Democrats). Gough met with a nasty end, a bit like his namesake, and later my parents had another refugee - an English Border Collie, called Margo, that we were all terrified of - she'd been maltreated as a puppy and was very protective of Mum and Dad - she'd run snarling to the gate, barking and generally bluffing us all. I wouldn't go in until Dad came and called her off. Once inside, it was alright.

My own children had first a severely inbred Maltese Terrier - given to my first child on her first birthday - without consultation, by my father. This dog had the peculiar appellation of "Seaswirl Dodo Boy", but we called him "Smokey". Smokey nearly drove me to the brink of desperation - when he wasn't mounting my little crawling babe, he was having fits of diarrhoea all over the house - apparently a problem with some of these dogs. Charming with a little baby. Sadly, but fortunately, the wretched little thing kept escaping, and was run over by one of the neighbours, who was very upset. I tried to look as if I was upset, but I truly was overjoyed, horrible as it sounds. Our next dog was given to our son when he was five - we arrived in the country at the other grandparents' house after a VERY long drive. Grandma, who was waiting out the front, rushed over to the car and said "Pedro, I've got something for you, IF YOUR MOTHER WILL LET YOU HAVE IT" - what was a mother to do when a tiny little black and white fox terrier puppy was produced? Promptly named "Pooch" by it's new proud father, Pooch was a part of our family for many years. After she died, I would hear the jingle of her collar around the house for many months.

Before we lost Pooch, both my parents died. What to do with their animals? Someone took the peacocks and peahens, but that still left the cat and the dog. My brother was clever and got in first - "I'll take Chairman Miaow because I've already got three dogs and that's the limit allowed by the council - you'll have to take Margo". Poor Margo was so distressed after Dad's death that she was quite prepared to love anyone who'd feed her, so we became best friends. I drove back to Sydney from the country with Margo breathing down my neck and drooling in my hair. Once home, we had to let her sleep in our bedroom because she was fretting so much - I think she must have slept on Dad's bed after Mum died. I couldn't even visit the bathroom without the dog - she shadowed me constantly. And because Margo was allowed to go on the carpet (how could I stop her?), Pooch decided that if it was good enough for the intruder, it was good enough for her. SCREAM! That's how we became a doggy smelling household. So, we lived in smelly harmony for many years and replaced the carpet after Margo died. We lost both the dogs quite close together, around the time that the Fleas were leaving (and coming back and leaving etc) home. In the later years of their lives, the dogs would fret very badly if we put them in kennels when we went away, so we had to organise our holidays around a timetable that involved one of the children coming to stay to look after them while we were absent. So we decided not to get another dog until we stop travelling.

Possum paradise and next stop on the knitting trip around the world ...

Before we arrive at our new destination I have to share these photos of one of our resident possums. We are having the three big Fleas and partners and assorted little fleas over on Saturday to go through the various bits of furniture, books, junk etc we are not taking with us in the move. As Grandpa Flea was going around the house "making an inventory" (isn't that like a man , I was just going to make a list! ) we moved outside to the area referred to as "under the house" - it's actually an open carport under the house. On a raised concrete area to one side, various tools etc are stored and also the junk we didn't want in the house while we were "open for inspection". There, just cuddled up in a ball on the cold concrete floor, in amongst the various bits and pieces, was a fat furry bundle of possum.
It woke up and had a bit of a scratch,
decided we were only nuisance value, not a threat, and then went back to sleep again.
Today our magic flying shawl is landing in Scottsdale, Arizona where Rachel lives. Aaahh, I remember it well! It was the spring of '85 and I had a fifteen year old boy who thought all females were the devil's spawn, and a thirteen year old, rebellious girl in tow on our first ever overseas trip. We had just come from the Grand Canyon where the 15 year old had bought a book on walking in the Canyon. His favourite part was the page where it warned against taking menstruating women with you, as bears have a very keen sense of smell and are liable to give chase and eat everyone for breakfast. This fitted perfectly with his (then) views about women and if he read the page aloud once, I swear he read it out a hundred times. This did a lot to ease tensions between the siblings (ha ha) not to mention with their long-suffering mother!

Grandpa Flea had flown off to Houston or somewhere on business and left us to our own devices with a rented car. We stayed in a motel/hotel in Scottsdale. This was spring, remember, early May, and the temperature was about 50 Celsius - it was HOT. It was even too hot to swim in the pool! We were all very nervous about being in the US and even more so without the biggest male of the family to protect us (we're not stupid - we'd heard about the range of various violent crimes, race riots and serial killers that lurked around every corner).

The first day we were there I had to visit the doctor as my ears had started to give me terrible pain on the flight from Australia and then on the internal flight to Phoenix. And I mean PAIN. So we spent most of the first day in the emergency department of some hospital, where I was tagged around the wrist and put in a bed with the sides pulled up while the kids loitered forlornly in the corner. Eventually a doctor came and explained to me that I had a pressure build up in the middle ear, and he would have to bore little holes in my eardrums!!! - if I didn't have this procedure, my eardrums would burst and it would probably leave me partially deaf. Now, I'm a coward and I don't mind admitting it. There was no way I was going to have holes bored in my eardrums by some strange man in some strange hospital in some strange city while I was responsible for two kids and had no Grandpa Flea there to hold everything together. To be honest, there was no way I was having it done - period. So after much "discussion" and dire warnings, I was sent on my way with some antibiotics, but not until after I had signed a waiver acknowledging that I had been WARNED and if anything happened to me, it would be ALL MY FAULT. Oh, I also had to pay for the consultation, the drugs and TEN MINUTES OF HEALTH EDUCATION.

I had desperately wanted to drive out to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Park, but it was so hot that I was too anxious to go - I was worried that if we broke down and managed to escape the resident and transient murderers, that we'd die of heat exhaustion. Instead we lingered in the hotel room all the next day and eventually went for a walk downtown in the late afternoon. I bought myself a necklace in one off the shops and we bought a few trinkets for the rebellious one's friends back home.

Later, we set out to drive to some restaurant on the top of a hill with a beautiful view. It's main claim to fame seemed to be that if you wore a tie there, they cut it off and pinned it to the ceiling with the hundreds of others snipped from hapless customers. We drove around for what seemed like hours - hopelessly lost and me getting increasingly anxious. In the end we stopped at a some sort of chain restaurant, where we had one of the most memorable experiences of our trip (I'm like Roxie - easily amused!). We were trying to order our food and drinks from a waitress who spoke with some sort of broad Arizonian accent. We had trouble understanding her, and she didn't understand us at all! but there was goodwill on both sides. We were trying to establish if the orange drink on the menu was a fizzy drink or a cordial type drink, or fresh juice (my kids were fussy!). After several attempts, the answer was " Well, ah cain't say yais 'n ah cain't say no, 'cahs ah don't rahtly know what y'all tokking abaht". We still laugh about it. So much for English being a universal language.

Scottsdale (as it was then) reminds me a bit of Noosa - it seemed to be a tourist destination for the seriously trendy and well-to-do. Is it still like that, Rachel? It was very charming but I'd only ever visit there again in the dead of winter. With a bit of luck it would only get to 40deg.Celsius!

Back on the magic shawl and home to Australia. Next post we'll visit Janette, Kate and Miss Fee.

A knitting trip around the world ...

Thank you Lara, Carson, Roxie, Gemma, Willow, Kathy, Dianne and Emma for stepping up to the challenge! Your names are in the hat!

I had to refer to the atlas for Roxie - talk about the geographically ignorant! I always thought Oregon was somewhere in the middle of the US - about where Dakota turns out to be! And I'm the person who says that Americans are usually very ignorant about the world outside the US (no offence meant, but y'all ask us Aussies some pretty strange questions!) So now that I KNOW where Oregon is, I can say that the closest I have ever been to Orgon was on a shuttle bus en route from Vancouver BC (now I know there is another Vancouver in Oregon!) which passed through Seattle on the way to Bellingham (oh! I'll never forget the horror of it all- so near,and yet so far from the wonderful yarn shops of Seattle!). And because of the interesting "hub" arrangements of the US domestic airlines, I have flown over Mt St Helens en route to Vancouver from Australia via Los Angeles and Houston! What a flight that was - it felt like we'd left Sydney about 3 weeks before instead of thirty something hours! So I really know very little about Oregon.

Now, Emma from Merdrignac in Brittany in France - Bonjour! (that's about the extent of my French!) I found Merdrignac on Google Earth and on Google. I may have passed through there in a minibus tour we did in 2000 with a company called Back Roads Touring as we went to Normandy and Brittany before heading back towads the south-east but I think the closest I have been to Merdrignac is St Malo - I have fond memories of St Malo, as I had my hair cut there! I spent an hour or so in the hairdressers, practising my schoolgirl French while half the salon practised their English. It was good fun. The other people in the group went off looking at historical things, but I'm sure my memories are stronger. I was amazed (and probably very naive) at the regional cultural variations in France. The group leader come bus driver was an Englishman, who lived in France most of the time - he spoke fluent French and made sure we were introduced to all the regional specialties in food and drink. He was an outstanding guide. I think his background as a school teacher helped.

Carson comes from the inner western suburbs of Sydney, an area that I got to know when my youngest daughter lived at Stanmore. What a great place to live - close to the city, buses around every corner, coffee shops around every other corner, beautiful old homes, many semi-detached, but a lot of old "mansions" from the 1800s, interesting shopping (I love All Buttons Great and Small at Newtown) and despite the high density of the housing, an amazing variety of wild-life to be seen. I'm really sorry that we didn't move in towards the city when our daughter was living there, but "old dogs" are hard to shift! And sadly, now that my "old dog" has retired and is involved with lots of locally based things, it would not be a good move.

Now I know the area where Lara hails from. It is not that far from where I live, and I have an amazing knitterly friend called Pia who lives there. She is absolutely delightful and a beautiful knitter to boot. Denistone East is a good place to live - there are buses and trains to the city, good local shopping and and it's closer to the city than Beecroft. But, Lara says, she is considering a move to Granville. Granville is not that far from Harris Park where I lived when I was first married, but the area has changed greatly since then with an influx of people from middle eastern cultures. So, I must take a trip to Granville soon and wander around to feel and see the changes.

Having asked everyone else to nominate where they live, it's only fair that I should 'fess up too. I currently live in Beecroft, a leafy suburb in the north-west of Sydney, but later this year we are moving to Epping, two suburbs closer to the city. Epping is much more densely populated than Beecroft, with many more blocks of home units and some medium rise office buildings.

The shopping centre in Beecroft has a variety of small boutiquey type shops and is a nice place to meet friends for coffee or lunch and a wander around, window shopping. Epping's shopping centre is much more spread out - the railway line and a main road divide the shopping area into two parts and there aren't the same number of small boutiques. However, Epping has many restaurants, two opportunity shops (thrift shops to those who don't speak the Queen's English!), a branch of the local library, a public swimming pool, and a railway/bus interchange that allows you to travel to many places by public transport quite easily. Where we will be living also has nice long, flat streets for walking as opposed to the mountain we have to climb in Beecroft - perhaps I'll lose some kilos!

We won't have the wildlife that we have here and we'll miss that, nor the privacy which will be hard to lose. I love having all the blinds right up and hate sleeping in a room with the windows covered. We can do that here without any worries about casual passers by looking in, but in Epping we'll have a street frontage. Our children think we'll have a lot of trouble adjusting to living so close to other people. I think we'll have trouble adjusting to living in a much smaller space! I'm cleaning out cupboards, sorting and throwing (and packing!) but hate parting with things like the hundreds of knitting patterns I've downloaded from the internet and will never, in my wildest dreams, get knitted. Despite this, I think it is a good move for us, and a timely one. Grandpa Flea turns 68 this year and I'll be 63. I've seen too many people leave the decision to move until someone else has to make it for them. And much as I love and respect my children, I'd rather choose, myself, where I'll live!

This is turning into a really interesting project - I'm learning so much - I was just looking for some Beecroft photos on the internet and discovered that:
"On the main northern train line from Sydney’s Central Station, Beecroft is a natural bushland village. Within a few kilometres of such attractions as Koala Park, where you can get nose-to-nose with Australia's cutest marsupial, and Cumberland State Forest, the only metropolitan forest in the southern hemisphere, Beecroft is less than 25 minutes by car from Sydney along the M2 motorway.

The main north rail-line which passes through the suburb offers links to the city, Hornsby, Parramatta and neighbouring suburbs.

The small but compellingly quaint shopping precinct of Beecroft is only minutes from the major commercial centres of Epping, Castle Hill and the Macquarie shopping complex.

Beecroft and neighbouring Cheltenham are rarities in the metropolis that is Sydney. They are just a 20 to 30 minutes drive on the M2 from the heart of Sydney, yet they retain the charm and tranquillity of bushy, elegant country villages." (Travelmate.com.au) Now, when we moved here 40 years ago, the shopping centre could have been called "quaint" but I wouldn't use that term these days! And the "elegance" of the "village" as some of the locals like to call it, is fast being knocked down by people who are building fence to fence Mc Mansions. True, there are some absolutely beautiful old homes in Beecroft (not ours!!) but the trend to knock old places down (and all the old trees in the garden) is very disheartening.

I also found on www.answers.com that: "Beecroft residents tend to vote conservatively, and for fiscally conservative political parties, while often being socially liberal in their political views. Its leafy, tree-lined steets are reminiscent of a village in the home counties. Some of Sydney's most historically important houses are found in Beecroft, many of which are distinctively Australian, including several Federation houses on one of Sydney's oldest and most expensive residential streets, Malton Road." What a surprise! I will never forget the day the Governor General sacked Gough Whitlam (a reformist Labor Prime Minister in 1972) - I was on canteen duty at the primary school with all the "socially liberal" mothers of the area - they all cheered when the news came through. I ended up having to go home early as I was so upset by their joy!

More tomorrow.

40 years of memories ...

It's hard to believe, but our house has sold and now we have to condense 40 years of accumulated junk into a much smaller home! I'm very pleased, but every now and again (5 minute intervals!) I get the heebie jeebies about how much there is to be done, will I be able to live in close proximity to other people? (I hope so), will I miss the possums (YES!), the birds (YES!) and the echidna (YES!), a couple of the neighbours (YES!). We have 12 weeks before settlement which helps. Our stuff has to go into storage for a couple of months so we'll be living out of suitcases for a while. Theoretically our new place should be finished by the end of August, but I doubt it will be ready then. We are going to India in mid September, so we'll potentially not be able to move in until mid-October on our return. Once we're actually homeless, I'll feel better - it's just the thought of it ... some people are never happy!!



The other day one of the possums had a bit of a stretch and left two little toes peeping over the hole. I just love how much detail it's possible to see with a photo - I could never get this close to little possum toes, and if I did, they'd probably be moving very quickly in the opposite direction! Although we built the box according to the specifications from WIRES you can see where the possums have been gnawing the wood to make the hole a better size.



I've had a knitting week so far - went to the Guild yesterday and quite enjoyed the morning - we had a spinning demonstration, but I couldn't manage the treadle with my two bad knees (my "bad" knee, which is still visiting the physio twice a week is now my better knee . I'd post a photo of the bruise on my "used to be good" knee, except that I haven't waxed my legs for a long, long time! I'm not vain, though!!). Today I had an enjoyable lunch and lots of chatting with Janette and then a very productive wander around the shops (I love helping other people spend their money). Tomorrow is Cherryhills knitting group and we are having a birthday celebration with cake and champagne and probably very little knitting. It should be fun. Perhaps I'll post some knitting content next time (but don't hold your breath!).

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!

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 42 - Question 2

This post has been in draft mode for a while, waiting for some photos - which leads me to: QUESTION 2: how do all you bloggers out there get the time to read all the blogs on your "Blogs I read" lists? let alone do your own blogging?

Answer: Beats me! I have had broadband for about two weeks now - I used the entire download allowance in the first week - developed a wonky knee and hip from sitting at the computer all day (and night) - got next-to-no-knitting done, did absolutely no housework (boo hoo!) and read thousands, well, maybe a hundred or so, blogs. Each blog leads to another - it's an infinite regress - I'm trapped in a never-ending cycle and can't get out - HHHHEEEELLLLPPPP!

Speaking of blogs - I stumbled across an amazing blog - Yarnstorm - the photography and use of colour are amazing. Check it out if you get a chance.

It's hard to believe. but it's raining again here. It started two nights ago and after petering out has been honouring us with quite heavy downpours, alternating with drizzle. The best news is, that there have been some falls in the catchment area for our drinking water. I hope it continues. So far we have had no more leeches in the house - and no, Roxie, they don't climb on the furniture like spiders - just across the ceiling and floor. Poor old Grandpa Flea had one drop off the ceiling onto him while he was in bed . He felt an irritation in the corner of his eye - and it was a leech, just about to attach. He was a bit put out about it! As I said before - the joys of wildlife!

Today we went down to see the hole where our new home will be:

Well (no pun intended), it has been raining! The builder assures us that the drainage (yet to be installed) will cope with future rainy days - we hope! It looks like they will pour the slab in the next week, weather allowing. Now all we have to do is sell our house so we can afford to pay for it!

I went to the Craft Show at Rosehill with a friend, Nunel, on Friday. I know Janette was out of there in an hour, but we arrived before the doors opened and left when they closed! Of course, there was some time out for coffee, lunch, gossip and putting our feet up. It was a much smaller show than I'd imagined - Janette gives a good round-up of what was there. Nunel and I are not focussed - we spent hours looking at beads which we rarely use,, vintage buttons which I love, cross-stitch for Nunel, and needle felting, amongst other things. I came home with a needle felting kit (I've already broken the needles), some heavy duty cotton to use for a button necklace if I can work out how to do it, some button backs to turn old buttons into pendants or earrings, and five buttons which I don't need but liked.

At the beginning of the year I intended to knit from the project a day calendar, as lots of the small things looked good for street stalls for The Shack but so far I've only done one thing, an angora scarf that turned out a lot smaller than in the pattern. But then again, I wasn't using the recommended yarn, but a Wendy angora I've had stashed away for years. The scarf is very cute - I think I'll give it to one of the little fleas and knit another larger one out of mohair for The Shack. There is no way I'd buy angora for a street stall - people want bargains and won't pay a realistic price. How inadequate can one person feel - I'd love to have the eye for colour and design that Yarnstorm has - I'll keep trying!

I have started Lucky from Pipsqueaks and have finished the back, two fronts and am on the sleeves. It is a very quick knit, but I think I've knitted it once too often - there's only so much moss stitch a girl can do ..... but it is a great pattern for tiny people - the button does up below the chin, so they don't have wool irritating them, especially when they have a little chuck-up. And the Zara is beautiful to knit with.


Eloise is still on the back-burner and Annie Blatt's ........ blocking.

Well, it is now Day 46 and at this rate the draft will never see the light of day - so, as someone once said (any idea who?): PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED.

Day 30 - I Forgot Our Wedding Anniversary!

I have NEVER forgotten our wedding anniversary - but today I did. As Grandpa Flea rarely remembers it, it was not such a disaster, but I can't believe that I forgot. 42 years married might explain it and I have had a lot of other things on my mind.

Good news - today I signed up for broadband - it will take about two weeks for the modem etc to arrive, and I'm really looking forward to it.

I finished another little jumper for Africa when we were travelling - they look really cute in the bright colours. Annie Blatt is no easier than before - I discovered last night that, despite careful measuringand counting, one front is longer than the other - you know what happens next - creative blocking! I've unpulled it too many times to do it again. I'll start the two sleeves tonight and with a bit of luck will finish the cardi by the end of the week. Then I'll have to go back to Eloise or it will finish up as a permanent UFO. I have just tried to upload some photos but it is taking forever so it will have to wait until our broadband starts.

We have a meeting with the builder later in the week to finalise our contract for the townhouse. The year will go quickly, but I wish it were already built (hope the tense is correct - people in glass houses and all that ...). We have taken our house off the market over the hottest part of summer but the pressure will be on to get it sold before our new place is finished - otherwise I'll be putting out a call for food parcels!

Our garden is looking soooo bad - I think we will lose at least two tree ferns this summer - they are all self sown, and have all prospered until last summer when we lost a couple in the heat. Every time we go away we lose something in the garden - this last four day absence meant we missed the watering day and it coincided with very hot weather. There is not much we can do about it.

I'm glad you didn't mind the rant, Roxie - I'm not as tetchy today, but still not happy about the state of the world.