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.

Some Photos To Share

Hi! I have some pictures I'd like to share- many more to come but for now- here is DS in a hooded vest I made for him. The pattern is from Spotlight- www.spotlight.com.au- and can be more readily accessed via Ravelry if you are a member there. :)

These were taken several months ago- still in 2010- but think it might've been just before the cool weather was going to set in. He does wear it occasionally still! :)
The next photos are of the Bottlebrush plant ( bush) ( Callistemon is the 'proper' name, though I'm not sure I have spelled it correctly....)
It's still quite small but has grown ALOT this last year- it's 3 years old now.


ANd here are our Halloween pumpkins... You cant' tell it but the one on the left is an actual "Jack-o-Lantern" type pumpkin! It was originally $22 for ONE pumpkin from the local Woolworth's..... we got it reduced at $8 and I have saved virtually every seed from it in hopes of raising more from this one outlay! lol
More photos in future posts... for now ~
Hope you are well.

It's Nearly Summer *and* The End Of The Year!

Aw heck- it's been more than a year since I posted- I am not even going to try to catch up or apologise profusely... If you are reading this, please know I am thankful for your visit!

Not much new/different to talk about.....
I just thought I would copy a post I had on Ravelry and put it here for posterity's sake....
about the hopeful wantings for our garden. :) It was a pretty wet winter for us here so things have really responded and the soil has even been diggable in places it hasn't been for 8 years!
I am planting things in hopes of the sun being 'nice' this year and the weather cooperating for us to have a very nice garden.... I'm also investing in some more pea straw and potting mix to help improve the chances.

I'm still spinning / creating yarn- and even used a good amount of it making a 6 pointed star blanket for DS. :) It's a continuing work in progress... it's big enough for him now- but probably not so much by next winter so will spin some more soft smooshy merino for the rest of the blanket.

OK- here's my garden line-up......
in no particular order:
I/we have plants: 2 wax begonias ( 1 green, 1 red )
2 coleus- 1 green with pink, 1 burgundy with pink /green
1 dusty miller
3 cockscombs ( yellow,pink, multi) (DH’s choice) (can’t think of the proper ‘latin’ name for them- will fill it in when I do! Celosia!)
1 snapdragon (pink) (DS’s choice)
2 strawberry plants & a petunia mix ( in hanging baskets)
Seeds/seedlings started at home: Popcorn avocado watermelon pumpkin( halloween ones) dill basil lemon balm silver beet/swiss chard (white) thyme cucumbers Marigolds (african, not calendula although we have these as well!), snapdragons, alyssum, cosmos, nigella (love in a mist), salpiglossis(painted tongue), rockery and cottage garden packet mixtures , and nasturtiums. Oh and volunteer tomatoes in pots out front. (fingers crossed)

The lily of the valley plants ( 2 of 5) are coming up! I AM SOO excited about that!),
a tuberose is also coming up that I didn’t know if it would make it or not!,
Iris/Flags from freecycle,
------------------ ended here as it was time for school drop off! --------------------------
On the way home from school this morning we stopped at the McLaren Vale nursery where we found rose scented, pot-pourri scented, and peppermint scented geraniums, of which the latter has come to live with us. :) I also had DH help me pull up a healthy piece of Vinca Vine from the outside the Kindy fence….. I love vinca although I know it is a big old pest going crazy and filling up space- but that’s OK with me! ( except things like that tend to be a haven for the snails….). They had an amazing little plant that looked like it was a cross between a small dogtooth violet and a maiden hair fern that was growing everywhere - it is sooooo pretty and charming- it obviously wouldn’t grow here too readily as it likes moist shade, but when I asked about it all he said is that it is a weed and that I don’t want it to get started! :( I would say it’s my business if I want a lovely delicate looking weed like that to grow in my garden- but I just really wanted to know what it was!!!!!! I also know one needs to be careful so as not to cause a problem. ANyhow- now I am back but I am out of sorts as to what I have plants/seeds wise that I haven’t listed. I know I would like to get a zucchini plant or two in….. still waiting to see if my old seeds are going to sprout at all before I go buy new ones- or seedlings likely at this late of a date.
oh! I have seeds that I saved from a nice butternut squash/pumpkin we just had the other day… so might plant some of those and a few of the seeds from the halloween pumpkin that I saved as I mentioned before. ANd ohhhhhhhhhhhh I would just LOVE to grow a few cantaloupe/rockmelons! But not sure.
( chives, parsely, and choc. mint plants from last year/earlier in the year also should be mentioned I reckon!!! The first two varieties having been put into the ground after surviving last summer and winter in pots…… )
Also hope to manage a few pea plants and red /purple runner beans. :)

Yellow peppers and zucchini plants came to live at my house today too.

I also just remembered I have a “Rose of Sharon” bush that was given to me ( small stick with leaves! lol) last Autumn which needs a permanent home…. it’s a deciduous hibiscus….not sure what it’s called here.


Hope all is well.

July is Busting Out All Over

Hello!
Gosh- it's been so long since I posted- things have changed from the pre-published side of things.
I think I like them!
:)

So- how is everyone?
Not much new here at the moment- but soon RJB will be starting kindergarten!
Little did we know that at the tender age of 5, he is out of the loop already with school things!
We called the local kindy place at Moana and were promptly told he couldn't be there as he was too old! Children who are 5 go to first grade!
Now- for most children that may be OK- but we live rather unsocial ( for lack of a better word) lives so being among a bunch of strangers AND expected to know all about school and how it works ( being in first grade and all) seemed daunting to US let alone DS. He had even lately gone into hiding behind me when people spoke to him...much to my embarrassment. I mean- I didn't expect him to talk away,but did think he would be able to say HI or at least wave!
Ah well- how the tables have turned- we've got an interview with the Willunga Waldorf (Steiner) school this coming Tuesday (followed Wed. with a dental appt. for me- can anyone say 'suffering with nerves?'), then at some point they come for a home visit to chat, then he should get to start their Kindy program ( first year of Kindy is age 5 and three part days a week, age 6 is second year kindy where he goes all day...not sure how many days a week- I'll worry about that when we get to it......). They have a gentle approach it seems, and while I think he will be disappointed that he is not going to have a desk and all that- I am hoping he will enjoy getting the social skills that we were unable (or unwilling in the case of daycare) to offer him. PLUS he has now taken to wanting to go ( alone! "Mum/Mom- you stay here") visiting the neighbours. Thankfully the folks he goes to see are very kind and caring and don't mind at all that he comes to visit.....although I am sure if he visited like he wants ( every day all day) he'd wear out his welcome quickly.
These folks have places to go and things they do!
Anyway- trying to cut down the visiting to one house/person per day and only once a week per person! lol The odd part is how he much prefers to go alone! I will not lie and say it doesn't hurt my feelings. It does. But only because ( I think) it feels as though I've done something wrong that he doesn't want me around while he talks. Not sure what I've done to create it- if I have...
but while it's nice to have him out and being social and having a bit of time for myself- it does feel weird/odd. I figured I'd lose him to school before I'd lose him to friends! lol
So- I do intend to update things about school and all as it happens- or during.....
fingers crossed we can afford to keep him in the Waldorf system- all school costs 'something' here (as opposed to the USA where public school is free to attend), but this one is def. more expensive. But hey- what price can you place on FREEDOM!? -He doesn't have to wear a uniform! YAY! Although- again, is this my child?- he actually wants to wear one- he has a shirt all picked out for it- a deep golden yellow colour. Not sure if he has the bottoms figured out yet. We'll worry about that part later too! lol
We'll be driving him there- about 20 mins each way....... which I am mostly not looking forward to- but there are no school buses that I am aware of to take him there and I wouldn't put him on the public bus ! I am also not keen on early mornings. But that too will be dealt with.....it'll be interesting to see how it goes for DS as well. He likes mornings- but gets up when he wants- no schedule. I don't expect I'll have any trouble the first day. ;)

Well- that's about it for me....
I continue to spin- am loving this time of year with lots of fresh fleeces available...
the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show is happening in Victoria at the moment- so most fleecey folks are at that this weekend. Maybe next year for us. But for now I have so much fibre to spin it isn't funny ( delightful to know, but guilt inducing when I buy more and cant' figure out where to put it as the spare room is about full to the ceiling with boxes of fluff now!), and Aug. 8 is the second of two events we like to attend- Mt Pleasant's SACSOS fibre event day. And this year- Jane from Moseley Wool over in Kimba is making the trip to sell her fleeces- which will be the first time I get to touch before I buy! and of course I am looking forward to Kathy B's things- her batts and 2 new colourways in the roving/tops!!! By the way- she has a new online store- I haven't posted since she opened I believe- all her colourways are there except the 2 new ones- I am sure she will be adding them soon..... why not go have a peek and treat yourself to some amazing colourways on 24micron wool? Plus lots of other things on offer- including matching yarn to the spinning fibre colourways! I think that is brilliant. She offers lots of interesting fibres on her webstore- click HERE for Kathy's webstore . :)

Well- I hear my little angel calling for his Dad- so I better get going.
This has been an EXCEPTIONALLY wet winter for us here in SA and I am loving it.
This is the most rain I've seen in 7 years in Australia! Woo hoo!
Everything is so green and lovely.
I do wish winter would not hurry so much.
Spring will see the grass start to turn brown and I am not ready for that-haven't had enough of green yet.
Maybe we will go to Kuitpo Forest tomorrow!

Must go- "Dad" is not responding the bleats!

Hope all is well.