A Lunar Eclipse Tonight

How cool- just found out this morning that there will be a total Lunar Eclipse this evening-starting at 6:51 pm Sydney time- (6:21 pm SA)....... I sure hope the sky remains clear for us to see things.

Have some yarn and a scarf drying - will photo them and post them here later- probably tomorrow now.

Busy weekend- Sat. saw us go for groceries and then once home again rearranged the front room to make things more accessible- what a nightmare! Mom always loved rearranging furniture- boy- not me. It is nice to have the space. But I am not sure the stress was worth it.
Yes- I do know it was.....room for Riley to have his train set out ( a figure 8 thing) and we can still walk passed him. That's a good thing. ;)

Sunday we spent most of it away geocaching down south- Normanville area. Saw some nice views- found 2 out of 4 caches we looked for...... 1 was at a skateboard/play park area that has pretty recently been bulldozed above the play areas- to make what looks like might be a level field for cricket games or the like- not sure the cache is still there! RPB and RJB did a thorough search and still came up empty handed........but it was a really nice park- so I think we will go back again to have another look. ;)

Then Sunday night found me sitting , once again, anxiously awaiting the new update at Ewe Give Me The Knits!- where, by the time it was all done, over 140 people had visited the store and out of 12 new offerings only 2 remain and I have no idea why- they are both so pretty...
I went silly and got two- well- 1 for me and one we'll fight over...... mine is a wool/silk mix-- and it is TUSSAH silk -also known as peace silk- which is harvested from the silkworm's cocoon AFTER it has hatched out. MUCH nicer than boiling the worms alive just so one is able to 'reel' the silk in one long piece. I was/am so grateful Mandie put that in the description so I knew it was veg. friendly. Then later an Optim on Acid choice came up and both DH and i wanted it- Optim is 14 micron wool!!! I simply cannot wait to try spinning some. :)

Will post photos once they are paid for and arrive. If you would like to see them now- at this moment they are available for viewing ( but will likely be removed by next Sunday's update)-
go here for the Optim on Acid and here for the Solaris Merino/silk top . What can I say? I like LOUD colours, not meant for the faint hearted! woohoo! :)

Yesterday ( Monday) found me up to my ears in household chores that were neglected over the weekend- so I didn't get much of anything done fun-wise. A bit of crocheting to finish the aforementioned scarf- and I got some wool plied from the two batts from Kathy B. that we got the first time we met her in Littlehampton,SA. :) I made the yarn for DH to use- am hoping he will like knitting with it......only 50g approx. - but it might make 'something'.......it seems to be about a worsted weight. (U.S. terms- I need to start doing the W.P.I. [wraps per inch] as I think that is a superior way to identify a yarn thickness/weight . )

A bit of frustrating news- a few months ago I splurged on a subscription to the USA magazine "Spin Off" - put out by Interweave Press......they said they sent the first issue and it should've been here by Aug.24th- no later.... but alas it has not arrived. The new issue will come out Sept. 12 I think it is- so have written to them to let them know I didn't get it...... does anyone else in Oz ( that reads this) get the magazine (or any others from the USA ) sent to them? If so- do you have any problems with issues missing? Would it be a customs thing? I sure hope not! I do not have the best of luck with them. ( Like them keeping my can of Old Bay Seasoning my brother Randy sent me- because it had cloves in it. Ground cloves!? What on earth could they have to cause concern or threat?
Mind you- if I got a special permit I could have it sent in then....
money sure talks- loudly. I feel worse for Randy- having spent all that money on the spice/seasoning and sending it- only to have it get taken away. Me thinks the quarantine folks are having nice boiled shrimp with all the right seasonings somewhere.........)
Anyway- I digress. As I often do. ;)

There is a new thing where we can put a video on our blog now...... somehow- so now i can share my RJP with you! Won't that be so cool? I shudder to think how long it will take to DL- but it will be worth it to be able to show him to my family in the USA.

Will try to write more later- but not sure.
Tacos for tea- whoopee! I am hoping RJB will like those better than burritos... the crunchy shell should do it. :)

Hope you are well.

Ketchup,err......Catsup,err........Catch-up!

No email is able to be sent out so far this morning- so will work on my blog a bit.
I need a distraction. The pets are driving me over the edge (both are having 'relieving themselves' issues- the cat is OLD and peeing in her bed- Jade (dog) is going on day two of poopie-dom....one more day of this and she will have to go to the vet....it's not as bad today as yesterday, so am thinking it was something she's found to eat- as she is known for having perfectly good pet food in the bowl and she will sniff it and head straight for the cat box to eat poo there! At the beach she eats any and everything from rocks and sand to seaweed to cuttlefish bones!) RJB is being very good this morning- perhaps he can feel my stress from the pets and other household duties weighing in on me today. So this is a nice distraction..this blog thingy I mean. :)



It's about time I shared details about Saturday's SACSOS (SA couloured sheep folks) fibre fair.

I have lots of photos to share of what we got- but none of the show itself as they were in darkness for most of the time we were there and I wasn't blinding anyone ( or annoying them!) with my flash in effort to take some photos. If I were doing it for a magazine or something it might've been different. Something had happened ( they were blaming the Toyota Car Rally that was going on at the other end of town! lol) and they had NO electricity for the first few hours of the fair. It was small and all contained inside the Soldier's Memorial Building. There were about 14 vendors if memory serves me correctly. Friendly and chatty- we had a nice time learning more about wool and meeting folks. Kathy Baschiera was there as hoped! We did our most damage there- but to get 4 coloured/dyed wool batts for $5 ( 100g) is just too good to pass up- I just went crazy! I got majority- Richard (DH) got a few. :)

But he made up for it by getting a 500g roll of wool roving......$15- it is soft and nice quality. A lovely heathered chocolatey brown- the last one they had. This company is world known for its' wool......got a pamphlet and have read it since. They had really nice items-all in the natural colours sheep come in. I'd just left Kathy's stand- I was ready for rainbows and dazzle! lol

We also got to meet Suzie Horne! She is well known also for her yarns and rovings. She was a delight to talk with and we wanted to get some roving from her- but was just too dark to see the colours so we thought we'd go back before we left- which we did- but ended up with a bag of wool from my favourite raw wool folks from Mt Bryan- years ago when we first thought we wanted to spin- there was a wool gathering at Port Noarlunga ( about 7 mins. drive north) - and we met the Lucinvale folks there! So friendly! We didn't get the chance to chat- but knew when I saw their bags of fleece that I wanted one....came home with a 1K+ bag of COATED wool that is sooooooo soft and nice...... with that lovely sheepy farm smell. and ohh the lanolin in it is to die for at this time- it is so nice. I am eager to spin it- but Richard is using the spindle I use for raw wool spinning. ( I find it preferable to stick with one spindle that will get all that lanolin in- rather than 'mess' up several of my spindles. Although my Ashford Turkish could use a finishing coat of something on it! LOL!!!)

The B.O.M. ( weather people) had called for showers and cloudy weather but we found ourselves graced with nice temps and a gusty wind. So we took our Subway subs we had taken along and found a picnic table at the little park just behind the building and sat and watched the trees blow in the wind and children playing and just loved being OUT in it. I really really miss trees and green land and open spaces. ( cue music- "Wide Open Spaces" by the Dixie Chicks)

After we ate we went across the street and looked around at a little eatery that had train stuff ( RJB was insistent there had to be train somewhere nearby- all excursions should be to TRAIN destinations for him. ;) ) and some lovely pastry items. The shop next door had some flowering hyacinth bulbs in pots for sale so I smelled them and reminisced alot about home at Little Bear Creek- Mom adored hyacinths as well. We always had some- never much luck with the outside ones it seemed- but Dad would always bring home some potted ones or mom would get them when we went to the store. Ahhh- nothing says spring like Hyacinths and Lilacs.

After we had a look around a bit we went back inside and got the Lucinvale wool, put it in the trunk/boot of the car and went to play some more in the play area. Oh, forgot to mention that as we were leaving the fair the first time- Barbara from Yarn Mag. had just come in- but RJB was so hungry and we'd made him wait already- and she was talking with Suzie- so timing was all wrong- Richard had wanted to introduce himself as they are both on the same knitting board on Yahoo! groups- but when we got back inside- we didn't see her. :( We are hoping for the next gathering of woolies we will get the chance. :)



So-we got back in after a nice play and got ourselves figured out how to get out of there and head some place interesting next- and off we went........ en route to Melba's Chocolate Factory!

It was just off the road we needed to take to go home so it was a nice hours' diversion with a yummy bag of assorted sweets coming home with us. RJB got a construction vehicle made of plastic that had a little chocolate bulldozer attached to it- so he was happy! I got some dark chocolate frogs ( shape only of course-it's a thing here- chocolate frogs...(shoulders shrug)- and two pink( strawberry) white chocolate piggy shapes for Richard- as well as some hard tac black licorice like he remembers from England. Some fudge ( caramel and coffee- neither are terribly great but they are sweet!), something else caramel-ly- but not that nice....... and the best of all-

choc. covered ( milk and dark came home with us) coffee beans! YUMMMMMMM!

They are very nice. Melba's is good about having samples out of some things to try- and the coffee beans were so yummy! We saw several areas with folks working- packaging, and enrobing, and in the back big room I think the man was making a chocolate caramel or something.....it was quite a dark brown coloured hot mixture we was rolling out repeatedly- then cut it and moved it onto another table...... it's so neat to watch. When we all had made our choices we got into the car and headed home- via Hahndorf - where we stopped at the fruit and veg place we like there and got some broccoli, apples, a HUGE orange and some other good for us stuff ( to balance out Melba's - LOL! ) and then came home the familiar way. We had taken the more 'city' route to get there- thinking it should be faster- but don't know if it was or not- as we forgot to make note of the times left and with stops made along the way home..... well.......

let's just say the non-city way is much more enjoyable and relaxing. I love it over that way.

:)

Without further ado- I will now post pictures of said goodies...

In the bag- back and front view- did I say how much I appreciate people who put coats on their sheep? There is so little VM in this wool- it's fantastic!

A pouf of wool out of the bag- oh so fluffy!

This photo of a lock of wool- it isn't really as long as it might appear here-
it is actually a nice long 4" ( 10cm)- lovely length- not too long not too short.

Am thinking of trying to teach myself to spin from the lock...not quite sure I 'get' the concept- but won't know 'til I try! :)

This is Richard's roving- it really is soft as.

The above picture is pretty true to the colours- the green is a kiwi fruit colour....has the depth like that- some darker some lighter- all we needed was black seeds! LOL The pink is not quite what it is showing on my monitor- it's true colour is about where the too bright meets with the darker part.. the blue is pretty right on- and the yellowy is the colour of mango flesh. Kensington mango to be exact- YUM! : d

It is really difficult to get the true colours of the mango-ey multi batts-

we tried lots of different lighting- the following are what I deem best photos.

Kathy carded in sparkle in this colour- I got every one she had at that time! I would've gotten more if she'd had them! The colours are awesome- bits of blue, white,yellowy mango, kiwi, the sparkle in a 'majority' base of the darker orange-y mango colour. I can hardly wait to spin this- but am going to wait until I know what I want to do with it... each batt is approx. 25 g- so that is 225g of this colour and the plain kiwi and mango I got will compliment this perfectly- so might actually have enough of this for a sweater- even for a large person like me! I am not sure and am afraid i might need to learn to knit to find a pattern I can use homespun yarn with. *sigh* I will have to hide them from me so I don't get impatient and spin before I have the project.

This one ^ is a bit dark.......but loved how the picture came out. :)

These two are showing off the sparkle... above ^ is a bit dark for the true colours- the pic below is the closest to real colours we could get.

OK- I have been at this for a long time- I better get going and pay some more attention to my son- he is not used to me 'ignoring' him for this long! Bad Momma! BAD fibre! lol

Will post the other pictures later or tomorrow- will try again with getting the colour right- pinks are the hardest with oranges right up there....purple is a challenge too- but I don't have any of that to photograph! ( maybe next time?? November......scarf exchange...... we'll be there!)

Will try my email again now- before getting offline.

Hope you are well.

Trains! (Warning - pic heavy post!)

I have way too many train pics chosen to post here- so will try to keep them small so it doesn't take too long to download the page. Descriptions for each photo is above it.

Happy RJB with a happy Thomas.

Thomas being attended to by the train folk. His real name is "Bub". He is small gauge train.
Here is the full size locomotive they had running that day - named Peronne. :) You could get really close to it.
This is inside the second class carriage that RJB & RPB rode the day they went- we rode in FIRST CLASS (woo hoo) the day the 3 of us went. ;) In first class the seats were individual-ish and facing backward and forward rather than 'in' ...and the guardsmen let us look into the back area where packages and such were kept. Was very nice of them. :)

Here's Thomas passing Peronne- or was it Peronne passing Thomas?!? A photo taken out the window, very artsy don't you think?

Here is Peronne as he is pulling away- yes- they back him out of the railyard- down about 150 yards and then back again! What do you want for $2.00 !?

This one is called "The Red Hen"- it only runs on weekends- so I missed out on riding it. But the guys got it on the first trip.

This is inside museum- they had what seemed to be hundreds of trains all parked inside buildings- many of them you could see set up as they would've been back in the day... some of the engines we could climb up into and have a look around. Having LONG legs is a real bonus for this exploration! They had some of the BIGGEST engines I have ever seen- literally giants. The wheels were probably a good 5 & half feet tall- if not more. Literally awesome. No photos could be taken where you could truly appreciate how HUGE they were. Maybe next time we go we will try though.
One of the many steam engines they had at the museum. I can't imagine a more comprehensive collection in all of Australia. So if you or someone you know is a train enthusiast- let them know about the National Rail Museum here in Port Adelaide in South Australia- they won't be disappointed any time of year! There is ALOT more in the museum, so much that I couldn't even *begin* to tell you it all. I am not the biggest enthusiast- went for Riley's sake- but memories of Dad talking about trains & all the memorabilia he had kept in the shed while he was alive, and remembering the museum my brother Randy & I discovered accidentally one weekend just riding up to the New England states for the day...... I have good feelings and happy memories linked with these iron horses.
Besides - who can not smile and wave at a passenger train full of happy people waving at you as they pass?

Thanks for looking- hope you are well!

PS) The red hat RJB is wearing- crocheted by me with commercial yarn. It is meant to be cuffed so it isn't so BIG- but well... LOL! ;) And he chose the colour. :)

Before the Blog

A little about life before I started the blog that I thought you might like to know-


Last Sunday we went on a train ride in the Adelaide Hills- it's a small diesel train called "The Junction Jogger" that runs a short track in Mount Barker, SA. It only cost $7 for each adult and Riley rode free. It normally goes to a junction of some sort- hence the name Junction Jogger- but for some reason that day we, for an extra $2 each ticket, got to go to Platform 1- a train 'museum' of sorts- that has alot of old train stuff for children to see and play on ( alot of old train lights/lanterns were on display- reminded me of Dad's that he had saved) and some farm animals to pet and feed.




Here is one of the inmates- er, I mean, animals- what a sheepy grin, eh?

This calf was friendly and enjoyed her head being scratched.

There was a miniature pig there too - that forgot to be miniature, (read: FULL sized piggy -woohoo! ) but s/he looked so unhappy to be there, so no pictures please.

There were rabbits, a chicken, a few other sheep with lambs. We normally would not patronise a place like this- but RJB didn't care about seeing them anyway- he was all about the train stuff.

Here's our little Junction Jogger- he was insistent
that he sit on the seat by himself, nevermind that he couldn't see alot of what was outside. It was just having the experience, I guess. :)


( He is not keen on having his picture taken- but was ok with this one...)



OK- well- we need to go get some groceries and get moving on this chilly Sunday morning.

Hope you are well.

7 am already?

Seems I just got to bed and it is time to get up already! Besides one awakening by RJB because it was too warm in his room ( not sure what happened there, but the little heater must've been turned up too high) and being so excited about this blog adventure and life in general spinning around in my head, I couldn't get to sleep ( happens alot lately- going to have to start taking some White Chestnut Bach Flower Remedy to stop those thoughts from circling around and around-it really works! More on BFR in the future) . Of course there is the constant night time ritual of fighting with the dog to get/ keep covers. She must've been very chilly this morning as she wasn't about to give up any blanket space and she was trying to get to my foot space ( lower corner of the bed)! Cheeky thing! That is the one place I refuse to let her sleep! I need my feet to be able to mooooove! So, here I am enjoying the silence (but for the clacking of keys) of my morning time. I remember many mornings waking up and going to the kitchen to find mom already up and having her coffee and wondering why on Earth was she up every morning so darn early! There are alot of things I understand *now* that I sure didn't then. I wish I had her here to thank in person, but do know she isn't far away. I talk to her often- Dad too. Sometimes RJB is ALOT like Dad. I just smile. Unless he mumbles. Then I grumble. Man- that is so annoying to have happen- "grumble mumble", "I'm sorry- what did you say?" "Nuffin' " says he- waving me away with his hand ! At 3 years of age!?! OY! :)

Off to the library today to return the many spinning (fiber/fibre, not strange bike thingies), crochet, and recipe books I borrowed a month ago. Did I have time to read them all? No-o-o. Would I like to own copies of about eleventy-seven of them? Ye-e-e-s! These were books we got from the library at Noarlunga Centre-which is about a 20 min. drive away and we get there - well- once every 4 years! lol I have started using the reserve feature now and ask for books to be transferred to our local library for pick up- that is within walking distance. Still don't get there as often as I'd like- but well- life happens.
Better publish this and get some other things done before my 'me time' is over for the day.
Hope you are well.

me