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!