A Pause

Apologies for the quietness of the blog recently. Even when I’ve posted my heart hasn’t been in it. I think I’m going to take a little break…a few weeks or so.
Everything is overwhelming at the moment, boxes, house stuff, moving and adjusting. There are so many ideas, directions, people and tasks that are clamouring for my attention that it’s hard to know where to start. I need to stop, regroup and prioritize, as well as have a think about the blog and its direction.

SO….I hope everyone enjoys the next few weeks and I will be back soon, bright, shiny and raring to blog again!

Hay Ewe!

In addition to improving the quality of the soil in our garden we had decided we needed some mulch as well. Preferably straw which is light, insulating and can be dug in to the soil as it composts down.

After an exhaustive and fruitless search of the Internet ebay produced results and for a nominal amount and a bit of a drive the straw bales would be ours.

Sunday was an early start, we borrowed a Ute and a trailer and headed up towards Bendigo. The day was sunny, the sky blue and wildlife out in force. We saw horses and sheep and cows of course but also many parrots, three very fat Kookaburra's and an echidna crossing the road as fast as his little legs would take him! (moving too quick for a photo unfortunately). However I did take a few shots during the day.

The open road...

Fields of green.

Fields of yellow!

On the way back some cows were very interested in our trailer load!

More exciting for me was the sheep...because sheep = wool = knitting. Also knew that in Bendigo there is a Woollen Mill although we didn't go there because we were on a mission. Can you see the sheep on the hill?

The long road home
The trailer load

Our Haystack! I keep going outside to look at it!

Dirt, dirt and more dirt

We had a bit of an adventurous weekend. As recent posts show we’ve been trying to get the veggie garden but one of our main problems has been the quality of the soil. In our absence the garden was badly neglected and in order to improve the soil quality and water retention ability we needed to do something fast.

We looked around and did our research, trying to be frugal at the same time, and we decided that we needed compost....large quantities of compost. After wandering around a number of garden centres....something that I am quite happy to do with or without a reason, we were about to purchase a trailer load or two when the grandparents came to the rescue. Gardening is a little beyond them now and their compost heap had been getting out of hand. It's a win-win situation!!
So Saturday was spent shovelling the most lovely loamy compost on to the garden! And the best thing is it was free!!!

The first bed to be composted....you can see the difference between the soils.
A trailer full of dirt

The garden bed after composting, digging and raking.
Carrots!! I'd bought a punnet of carrot seedlings not so long ago and when the bed was ready I was able to put them out. All 87 of them!!!!!!!!! eek
Of course that wasn't the only adventure we had this weekend.....stay tuned!

Argh me hearties

well I don't often post twice on the same day but I just had to share this bit of info....today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day!!

And in honor of the occasion I shall share my favorite joke in the world, which just happens to be about pirates.

Q. Why are pirates called pirates?

A. Because they Argh!


hehehe never fails to make me giggle!

Seedlings

Wow it's been a week of garden posts huh! Well it's what I'm doing at the moment I guess and I am rather excited by the fact that I have my first seedlings (that I have sown) of the season. Blurry but growing and I can see movement in a few other pots so by next week everything should be bursting with life.

Store bought seedlings are coming along nicely too

Pumpkins....

Red Cabbage...
Ruby Chard...
My strawberry runners (Red Gauntlet) have settled into their new homes and are putting out new leaves.And my rhubarb looks equally as happy to be here

Space utilization

Found this on the weekend and figured it warrented a photo! I know these will grow anywhere but this is a tad ridiculous right! Who'd of thought we'd have to check our guttering for plants!!
Pretty tho. Will have to find a spot in the garden and transplant it.

Fruit trees...my not so secret love

I love fruit trees. I love the blossom in the spring, I love standing under the trees and pretending it's snowing as the petals fall around me. I love the hum of the bees that are attracted to the flowers and mostly I love that something so beautiful will produce delicious fruit with very little help from me!

Surprise Socks!

I was very grown up a month or so ago and went through all my WIP's reclassifying some of them as "on hold" and some of them "No, never, what was I thinking". I even restrained myself from starting others I knew I didn't have the time for, what with the billion & ninety boxes I need to unpack etc.

This obviously triggered that part of my brain that is responsible for the levels of craziness my life aspires to and seeing those levels drop dangerously close to normal it has kicked into overdrive. I found myself signing up for the Ravelolympics. I didn't mean to, I sorta didn't want to...but I did it anyway.

To those who are not knitters this is the Knitting equivalent of the Olympics. While the Olympics are on knitters all over the world take part in various knitting events and a whole lot of knitterly fun is had by all.

Having just finished my first ever sock (not pair...just one), decided to take part in the "Sockput". I swore to finish one complete pair of socks before the Olympic flame went out. I seriously doubted my ability to complete one sock let alone two in just over two weeks but what the hey! Socks are small right!

Of course the Olympics are long over now but I was unable to post about the socks until they had reached their new owner. Having just heard that this has happened I am now free to post about it.

Sadly I didn't complete the socks by the time the Olympic flame went out. I was roughly a toe short on the second sock and once the deadline passed (predictably) other things got in the way so it was almost a week after the deadline before they were finished. However they were infinitely better than my first sock which is good since they were a present and also gives me hope that one day I'll be able to do those lovely lacy socks I see all over knitting blog land.

I love the colour,

I love that I finished two of them with little trouble, I love that I got them done inside three weeks, I love that I was able to give my knitting mentor something so special and knitted AND I love that they fitted!!At the finish line I was here, just about to start decreases for the toe. I still don't understand why the leg part of the socks are the same (pattern wise) but they change at the heel. Very odd I reckon.

Close up of colour and pattern

And of course proof that, although I felt they were a wee bit on the small side, they do actually fit!!

Things of gardeny importance

Well I remembered to use the camera this weekend so there are quite a few photos to document what we got up too.
Below is the area that we have dug up in readiness for the tomatoes. We have had many discussions of late about the garden and in the end we've decided the lawn needs to give way to more productive plants. I guess this is the beginning of that.
The two newest additions to the family....2 rather nice looking blueberry bushes. Blue Rose is the variety. I am assured they are delicious and also prolific croppers.
One of my weaknesses. In the garden it's important to me for plants to have a purpose. Mostly that means food, however this little plants only purpose in life is to produce heavenly scents. It's a Boronia.
One of the staples of my garden. I finally managed to pick up a couple of Lemon Verbena plants. These are vital to my preparations later in the year but I will save the details for then...when it will all become clear.
Can't let a weekend go by without muffins! These are raspberry and white chocolate. They are also almost all gone!

Thursday night

It’s Thursday night right now…at least in the UK.

Thursday nights are Grey’s Anatomy nights.
Thursday nights are knitting nights.
Thursday nights are girly nights at my friend K’s house.

Thursday nights were great. We’d sit around waiting for Grey’s to start. We’d talk and catch up, we’d knit and talk about knitting and where I’d gone wrong this time. We’d discuss the allotment or bitch about work. We’d crack open a bottle of wine or perhaps just have a cup of tea depending on the mood. There would be laughing and gossip and planning of excursions. There would be knitting lessons, bead talk and the odd foray into crochet. The boys would disappear down the workshop and we’d be left in peace to watch our show, which might not be the most influence show on TV, but contains some great storylines, good acting and some extremely dreamy actors!! Thursday nights were the best nights of the week in the UK.

But in Australia…it’s Friday morning.

Some things I have learnt recently.

10 things I have learnt while moving back in to our house....

10. Nothing you order and want in a hurry will come in within the promised week.

9. There will always be somewhere you forget to clean.

8. It is best not to touch things that aren't broken (like the pressure valve on the boiler) in case they suddenly break. (ahem)

7. Cutlery multiplies the same way socks disappear.

6. Baking soda cleans just about everything.

5. Even when you have spent what seems like years scrubbing your walls and have taken a layer of paint off you will still find dirty fingerprints. Usually the minute you show someone what a good job you've done.

4. Nothing but nothing removes icky smells from the grout in the bathroom andno matter how many times you scrub the tiles in the end you will rip them up anyway.

3. Allow for the fact that some things will make it through 6 years of storage, being unpacked and washed only to break for no apparent reason when you dry them.

2. Despite the large grossness factor you will regret not taking a before photo of the toilet once you have it shiny and white again, if only to scare people with.

1. If you are looking for something it will be in the first box you look in....but you won't find it till you've looked in all the others.

Spring has Sprung

Well I’m going to ignore the fact that last week seems to have passed me by. I meant to post I really did but it was a hard slog of a week and somehow blogging just didn’t rate high on the priorities.

This week, however, for the first time in ages I am feeling positive about the house and the move. I can feel us moving forward now, not just treading water in an ocean of bubble wrap! Also now that we have a phone and internet at home things are starting to feel much more normal and the blog should return to its normal levels of mindless drivel soon. The house itself is starting to feel more like home. Sometimes we come in and do a double take as it’s looking very much like it used to. It’s familiar and strange all at once.

The eternal struggle with the boxes continues and as time goes on our ‘stuff’ from the UK draws closer. I am going to have to make an effort this week to get some more things unpacked so we have room when the UK boxes arrive.

We bought some seeds and vegetable plants over the weekend and have started with the planning of “The (veggie) Patch”. Now all I have to do is wait for it to magically dig itself…….but more on that later.

I think that the little bit of sun over the weekend is what is helping with this change in our frame of mind. After two winters the signs of spring are in the air and the way everything seems to be bursting in to life with so much joy is quite contagious.

I managed to take a few photos around the back yard before the camera battery died…..and then another photo before the second battery died. Some things never change!!
Below is a fruit tree.....we planted quite a few before we left. But after 6 years away who knows what survived and what didn't and we no longer remember what sort of fruit it is. It's quite exciting really!

Disappearing act

Another Monday morning, another spent weekend. And what do I have to show for it? Well….not as much as what I’d hoped for, certainly I didn’t get everything on the to do list done but then my to do lists are rather long and so long as I get the top five done I’m happy.

Saturday started out with a wild search at a local park for a farmers market. We never found it and suspect that the date was wrong on the advertisement, however we did discover that the park had a farm/zoo. There we were, driving along looking for farmers and suddenly there were Emu’s by the side of the road!!! I whipped out the camera and took this….
Well when I say whipped I mean, turned it on only for it to tell me there was no card in it and then I had a fight with my phone camera, which is useless anyway since I can’t download photos from my phone then in desperation I turned on the digital again and lo and behold there was a card in it after all….
While all this was happening the mother and two baby emu’s wandered off so I can’t show you a photo of them. I guess that means I’ll have to go back next weekend!
(the above process is becoming more and more like the norm. Mr Blueyarn now turns the car off whenever I get out to take pictures.)

Sunday was spent at Bunnings. I know we did others stuff…and possibly went other places but all I remember is Bunnings. I think in future I’m just going to check my wallet at the door and tell them to help themselves….what a dangerous place it is! However we were there on a mission as it seems we are missing various household items that we should have. Since the storage unit is now empty of boxes we have to admit the truth.....

The mice have made off with our laundry basket....
the gremlins stole all our pegs...
the pixies have hidden all our coat hangers...
and the ghosts have appropriated our dish washing rack!
Luckily for us Bunnings stock all such items and our household is starting to look normal again!

Just your average weekend

The weekend is upon us and I can’t believe how excited I am to have two whole days of nothingness.
Of course I’ll be filling the nothingness with a whole mess of stuff. Remember I have a gazillion and ninety boxes to unpack, plus the garden needs to be stared at harshly in the hope it will fix itself, the bathroom needs a good talking to about its personal odour and there are muffins to be baked! I suspect there will be several visits to the hardware store and at least one to the plumbing store. There are several family members that need visiting and Mr Blueyarn has promised me breakfast at the local café.

In amongst all this I am determined to sleep in, go to a market, see a movie and get some beading done!

Just your average relaxing weekend really!!

We are in the Building!

Yup, you heard right, we are in the building. In fact we have been in the building since Saturday when we (with the help of some wonderful people) managed to transfer just about all our junk from the storage unit to the house in one trip!! it was a site to behold...
Not only are we in the building but we have carved out a small area that is classified normal (read no boxes allowed).
It's spartan, lacking in the personal touches and both the walls and carpet are in need of more cleaning but it's home.

Matter over mind

I'm busy at a course for work for the rest of the week. It started today and I think it perhaps has something to do with the very large box of fabric I opened Tuesday night that when ever the guy taking the course said "text styles" I heard "textiles"!

I can't wait to set up my very own craft room

No visible movement

Well despite working our buts off over the weekend and even taking Friday off to get a little extra done we have yet to move into the house.

I think that if we were younger and less exhausted and if mums place didn't have an open fireplace and a large supply of wine we might have made the effort. However the bathroom still smells (despite do everything I can think off including a little angry dance), the doona is
at the dry cleaners and we have (so far) one chair and a beanbag between us!

However, we have some smaller bits of furniture, the bed is screwed together, there are towels in the bathroom half the kitchen stuff is unpacked and about half of that is washed and ready to go and the pantry actually has food in it!!

Plus miracle of all miracles the fridge (that is mum's as mum has ours...very confusing hey wot!) started after 9 years in storage. Ooh they don't make em like they used to!

Opening the boxes has been a little exciting. 6 years is a fairly long time and without realizing it your tastes and opinions undergo subtle (and sometimes not so subtle changes) There's a lot of stuff in storage that I wouldn't buy now and much I would have thrown out over the years had we still been using it. I suspect a giant garage sale is in my not too distant future!

SO things have progressed somewhat...just not as much as we'd hoped and so it will be another week at least before we move back into our house. If I'm grown up and sensible this is for the best. This will give us time to unpack a bit more and get organized, which will make the eventual moving in much smoother.

Now if only I could convince myself that I wanted to be grown up and sensible!!!

More house stuff...

Finally got a moment to sort out some of the photos we've taken of the house. Things are a little more positive now but every now and then we stop cleaning and look around only to realize just how far we have to go before this place is comfortable and ours again.Above is the backyard. It's in better condition than we thought with the drought and all. A lot overgrown and very neglected but workable. My veggie patch will go in against the far fence I think. Although I'm a great believer of integration so some stuff will go in to the garden with everything else.
This is some roof damage. Three separate leaks in this one spot right above the chimney. We think we may have fixed the leak but repairing the damage is another issue all together.
Lovely!
The gutters or as I prefer to think of them...my rooftop garden
The oven...after 5 goes with "easy off". It's approaching what I would term normal. I wouldn't be happy to have my oven in this state myself but I don't think it's out of the realm of normal now.

What a difference 6 years makes...

Right well the house....I'm not sure that I really want to go over it all again but I'm sure your all curious so here I go.

We did a walk through the house as soon as we got the keys back last week. It was dusk and there was no electricity but it looked ok. There were issues to be sure but overall the house was still standing. However Saturday morning in the harsh light of day, with our sleeves rolled up and our sponges at the ready things looked a little different.

It took two days of constant scrubbing to get the place somewhere near decent. I'm not discussing the toilet and the oven might need to be replaced because even if we can get it clean I don't think I could bring myself to trust it not to poison me.
Aside from the cleaning there's a leak in the roof, rubbish left everywhere, gutters that have fully grown gum trees sprouting from them, (well almost) dog poo all over the garden and various items missing or damaged, including walls, doors and light fittings.

Cleaning wise I'm sure there are much worse houses out there. I also sure that I've never been inside one of them. We both get that it's a rental and that people don't look after them like they would their own place but I still don't understand how anyone would want to live like that. We fully expected wear and tear, what we didn't expect was the complete lack of care these tenants had, not just for the house or for their own quality of life but also for their kids.

This has been a lesson in just how 'different' people can be.

However we have a choice here. We can stew over the unfairness of it all giving ourselves ulcers and generally being miserable. OR we can roll up our sleeves, hold our noses against the strong doggy smell of the carpet and get on with it!

And we are doing exactly that...getting on with it. We've cleaned till our fingers bled and we are all set to move in this weekend. (bleeding fingers crossed) We've toyed with the idea of painting everything (goodness knows it needs it) before we moved in but quite frankly it's been 6 years since we lived on our own and we just couldn't wait.

Once we get our furniture and belongings in there it should start to feel more like home and I think that's when inspiration for the colour schemes will come.

Can't wait for me to be sitting on my couch in my house watching my TV and knitting my sock!!

Sock-tastic!

The sock is done! It isn't perfect but it is finished. It is also warmer than my other socks, which is good motivation to start on the other one!

I'd have more/better photos but am still pretty flat out with the house. More info and pics (maybe) of that when I can bring myself to relive the weekend by typing it all out.

But I have my first ever sock!

No more cold ears!

Apologies for the photos that are less than inspiring however I figured that without photos this was just another post of me saying I'd knitted another beanie (everyone shout YAY!) and you must be sick of them by now. Even with photos I think I'm pushing it but hey...with all that's going on right now your lucky to even get a beanie post!!

Knit on 4mm circulars in Stockinette Stitch (or all knit as it's in the round). The yarn is Cleckheatons Nature Country Spun, colour no.83 (i think) and is a lovely pale mossy green closest to the photo below.

Now my ears are all toasty!