Autumn has Sprung!

Happy Autumn to the Southern Hemisphere
and Happy Spring to the Northern one!

Either way it means more mild temperatures if we are all lucky.
:)

We have a butternut pumpkin that looks like it is ready to pick any day now.
It was a complete surprise- a volunteer from the compost bin. I don't remember the last time we had butternut pumpkin- so you could've knocked me over when that is the kind of curcurbit it grew to be. The little female flowering fruits are so adorable- and quite big for an unfertilized "fruit"- the first one we had I thought for sure must've got pollinated without our help, it was so large when it withered. But since that happened the next one we made sure we helped Mother Nature along. We had plenty of bees around when the gum tree was blooming- but that was done by the time this blossomed... and now we have a lovely butternut to grace our table one of these days. I need to look up on how to best take care of it after picking. Some pumpkins do better left on the vine as long a possible- but since the butternut is so thin-skinned- I am not sure.

Made some cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day- will try to place a photo or two here to show them to you. I baked and iced- DS decorated.







Hope you are well.

Homesick

Even after 10 yrs of being here and making some lovely friends and owning my own home ( well- paying it off), which is a lifetime dream- I am still homesick.
Homesick, family- sick, friend-sick, tree-sick... the whole lot.
Not everyday, but often enough that I wonder that even if we won the lottery (Which we don't play, BTW) would moving to the bush/countryside make me happy enough to want to stay? I don't know how one figures this kind of thing out.

I know I should be thankful for what I have- and I am- but I long for more peaceful surroundings. Sirens and loud vehicles, smelly exhaust, and constant human voices are my daily life and it doesn't sit well with my interior. I don't know how to help that either.

It was a lovely day today- mostly sunny with cooler temps- about 23C as the high.
I got laundry,dishes, and two skeins of handspun all washed and dried. That's saying something for a Monday!
I also got an entire batt of fibre from Kathy (www.KathysFibres.com)spun!
Just into singles at the moment.
Last week I did a pair of slippers (as a test for a designer) in crochet and finished up a hooded scarf that I was testing for someone else. I have been quite prolific for someone who seems to get little done in a week most weeks! I am feeling happy about that.
Now I've agreed to test crochet a pair of baby slippers- if they turn out nicely I'd like to send them to Karla- my friend Jane's daughter - who, along with her DH of course, is expecting their first child this September!!!! I am so very excited for them!!

Thanks for reading.
Hope you are well.

Happier Post

Since it's been so long since I had posted before the last not so happy post- you'd think I would have so much to write and tell. Not so. Well- not to my mind so much.
It's summer- it's already 25C/80F in the house.(at 6 in the morning!) It's been hot this summer- not so many days of over 35C but we have had a few bouts of around 35C and it stays warm at night (in the 80's- fine for a deacde but not so fine for a night temperature!) and is just hot hot hot outside- and in. I am VERY thankful it hasn't reached 40C too much this year. Enough about the weather- let me just say I am ready for summer to leave and cooler temps come back.

DS is in Class 2 at school. This year is more like 'school' than the previous years. They are even learning to write in cursive this year! ( Wasn't I in, like, 4th or 5th grade before I learned that!?) It is very interesting how Waldorf schools teach/help children learn.
I recommend it.
( I don't like the forced socialization of the adults/families, but that's me. Most others seem to enjoy it. But as far as learning goes- I couldn't ask for more/better by the end of the year!)

Still spinning and crocheting. Not as much as I'd like.
Still disorganised and messy- at this age I am wondering if I will ever be neat. I aspire to it- is that good or bad?

I am still homesick on a daily basis. Some days I think I am just tree-sick- or greenery-sick. The train station is horrifically moving along as they plan. And the govt. has decided to turn the fields below Seaford into more suburbia- and many trees lost their lives for a new $18 million overpass at McLaren Vale. We needed to do something about the clogged T junction there- but this answer is extreme. UNLESS you are the govt. and knew in advance that you were intending on eradicating one of the major drawcards to the south- the green area. It is my firm belief they knew more than 10 yrs ago they were going to do all this. However what they 'promised' was no more urban sprawl beyond Seaford. They'd fill in and not extend building any further South. So they have filled in alright- again at the expense of Nature and healthy living spaces. And they are not 'technically' going much more south than "Seaford" because they just keep renaming the areas built to be "Seaford SOMETHING"-Seaford Heights, Seaford Meadows, Seaford Esates...
Of course we won't mention all the housing (read: tiny houses on virtually NO land all packed together like sardines in a tin...)they have not only allowed to be built in Seaford and the northern areas from us, but also McLaren Vale, McLaren Flat, Aldinga/Aldinga Beach ( horrific for sure!), Mt Compass, even Victor Harbor can't escape the grip and greediness of the govt. and the developers. I complain- but the real losers are the animals. The kangaroos and koalas are being pushed out. Well- road kill for the 'roos... there aren't many Koalas anymore because there are virtually no trees and they apparently just move on and don't try to live with humans and their stupid ways.
Hmm...... I thought this was a happier post??
Let me see.....
happy... happy....
oh- I know! Fruit has been very lovely and affordable this summer! Mmmmm.
Coming into apple and pear time now. And some oranges too. But I'm not buying those yet- we will have all winter to eat them- I am sticking with peaches, nectarines, apricots, strawberries, and melons! Oh - and grapes! Goodness the grapes are lovely this year too!- until we can't get those in season anymroe ( Nothing has beat how nice the peaches were this year overall though! We've eaten several kilos over the last two months!) :)
There! Something to smile about.

Hope you are well.

A New Year- 2012

I am missing Skylar.
Needed somewhere to write it. Here it is.

Yarns Made Recently

It's nearing 6 am- been up since 4 am....after going to bed around midnight(?)-

so I am not going to try to be fancy or even too coherent !

Just thought I'd show some yarns I recently finished- washed and everything (now, but not in the pictures)- although not measured. Some show the singles before plying, too.

This yarn is from 2 Romney sliver balls from Kathy's Fibres (http://www.kathysfibres.com/) that were done in the "Tequila" colourway. Very easy to spin and made the nicest yarn- it passed the 'prickle test' on a 6 yr old's bare skin! Pretty impressive! I love the colour.

Singles on the bobbins above, the yarn is below:

This shows a partial bobbin left of singles made from a special extra batt made by Jane of Moseley Wool ( http://www.moseleyparkhome.com/ ) that had been included with the last fibre club mailing of 2010. ( or was it the next to last- can't remember at the moment...)

and I plied this singles with some plain dyed English Leicester ( EL) /Merino in the Electra colourway - also from Jane.

This singles made from alpaca,tussah silk, & wool was plied with a solid purple singles spun from wool batts in the most divine purple from Kathy ( the photo I took of them turned out MUCH too blue so haven't included them here....

to create the yarn below: Soft and squooshy- I think it will make a very interesting hat and mittens set... I hope there's enough anyway! ;)

Thanks for looking!

Hope all is well.

Summertime Delights!

Well! Over the holidays we certainly did have some fun going around to some different places on a PYO fruit/fresh from the farmgate sales search!

Our first venture out we found some peaches and tomatoes. And some sundried bananas.
Also got some cherries from Beerenberg Farm in Hahndorf and some from a place called Adelaide Cherries just outside Echunga...wouldn't recommend the latter of the two.
Wasn't too impressed with the fruit or the waitstaff sorry to say.

But our next adventure out was FABULOUSNESS!!
We headed out for PYO strawberries in the fields of Beerenberg Farm instead of just buying from the shop like last time. After paying $3 each for the two adults to get into the fields, we picked nearly 3kilos ( 6.5 lbs) of strawberries. Paid for them and then decided since we were that close to Melba's Chocolate Factory and DS LOVES the place we'd go there... after that I drove and we were going to go through Lobethal to get to Lenswood to have a lovely drive and if we happened upon some cherry orchard/s- all the better...
well! What an adventure!- on the way we saw signs for cherries- so we followed it to Charleston and voila! We arrived at Balhannah Nursery where they had their orchard open for PYO! I think we just happened to luck out- but let me tell you- I wanted some sour cherries- well! -they didn't have 'real' sour cherries- but "sour-ish" ones- the man rode his motorbike out to the orchard and showed us where we could taste a few to see if that was what we wanted and then directed us to the Vans ( a variety of cherry here) if we decided we wanted some sweet cherries instead/also.
What a wonderful time we had= nearly the only people there and the sour cherry trees were just loaded with BEAUTIFUL fruit. Riley was nibbling as he picked and kept saying "Mmmmm~" every so often! I think he likes sour ones more than sweet ones! We only picked just over a kilo as we had no idea how much we had or if we had enough money with us to pay for what we picked! lol ( Thankfully we did!)
We picked a kilo of sweet ones as well and made our way back. Drove through Lenswood on the way home and we saw a few cherry places, but were too chuffed with what we had to worry about stopping for more! There only 3 of us and not alot of freezer space- and we were pleased with what we had! Oh- yeah- somewhere in there we fitted in a stop at The Wooden Toy Factory with the Big Rocking Horse. :) Riley had wanted to stop there too. It was SOOOOOOOO crazybusy! We couldn't believe our eyes!
We didn't stay too long. Were going to get some hot chips as we'd not eaten all day- but the wait was at least 40 minutes! No way were we waiting that long for hot chips!
( we stopped at a Foodland grocery store that was open instead and got potato chips and a 1.25 litre of soda instead! lol)

Anyway- below are some photos of our spoils from a very productive Adventure Day! :D

This is the cherry pie we made today. OMG- I havent' made a pie in YEARS! It's cooling now- hope it is nice. Sour cherry pie is about the only pie I actually miss from the USA, not being a crust person too much. Love the fruit- prefer it fresh over any other way. But sour cherry pie is one that I really do love.

So here it is before being baked:

And here it is after. My oven is much too hot and always burns things- esp. in the back right corner- so I try to move things around. Didn't remember to with this .....*sigh* but It wasn't too bad in the end. Next pie I will try the 'cover it with foil' trick.


The last two pictures are of wee little Sugar Pies made like my mom used to do with her pie scraps. Riley and I filled 3 wee little pie tins with dough and then put in brown sugar, butter, and milk- i popped them in the oven and a few minutes later out came these 3 adorable and YUMMY sugar pies that tasted as good as mom's did! I was / am very happy about that. :)



I will try to add on a photo of the cherry pie once it's been cut a bit later. Will probably do a separate post though- to save on confusion. :)

Oh and that night Riley lost his 3rd tooth,too! He was so excited about the day and how special it was and then to lose his tooth too- that topped it off! :D

Hope you are well!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011

Some Lantana flowers old and new- to celebrate New Year's Eve and Day. :)

Well- today's date has got to be mentioned!

1/1/11

I am the nerdy sort who thinks that is brilliant!;)

How was your Christmas? Ours was nice and peaceful over all! The weather even stayed cool enough that I could cook a 'traditional' roast meal! ( Sanitarium brought back their veg-friendly roast so we could have that plus potatoes, stuffing, and brussel sprouts! :D)

Here's what Riley left out for Santa (and the reindeer!)He even made him a small card. It was brilliant!


Being early in the whole Christmas eve parcel delivering- Santa was hungry! He ate nearly ALL gone!

I hope your holidays of 2010 were wonderful and my the year of 2011 find you enjoying life even more than you did in 2010.

:)

Summer has hit us here in SA- temps have been pretty darn hot!
Thankfully no long spells of it. And with all the winter rains in 2010- I've seen some amazing flowers and such growth on things that haven't grown this well in all the years ( 9 ) I've been here!

This is a short post this time. Just wanted to be sure to wish you all the best 2011 you can have! And then some!!

I hope you are well.