it's christmas ...

have a wonderful christmas & a safe new year

here's my all time favourite

thanx for visiting 

it's finally done ...

g'day

a bit more news;
        
          "it's finally done after being a temporary fence for 17 years!" 

that'd be the chook pen i'm referring to. 
you see, when we first moved here we had chooks, lots of chooks (about 20 odd) & there was no chook pen so one was put up in a hurry & added to later but it was always just temporary. 

the new one was put up in 3 days, it's a bit bigger than their old pen and i'm very happy with it. 

first day all the posts went in, that's the old fence covered in grass

big posts for the corners & some midway points

along the south side (bottom) of the new pen

most of the posts were put in on the Tuesday of this week, i was getting eager as the humidity was killing us here (no storms to break it either) & though rain would've been nice i was hoping it would stay away til my fence was done.

a nice new gate

it's a good size yard now & needs more chooks!

front of the chook pen

there's still more work to do, as am in need of a new chook shed, the one currently being used is just rotting away (they used pine for the posts & studs) the fencer reckons it won't stand for another 5 years, so, he'll be back next year sometime to finish off the other shed & re-roof it. 

am still locking them up at night for now, not sure what critters are around at night here plus i need to put some boards around the bottom of the fence line as it's on a slope. will put them in & make veggie gardens for the chooks. 

all done before xmas, am very happy about that! 

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tried my hand at getting 'storm cloud shots' at the beginning of the month but i think i'm seriously going to need a decent camera. anyway here are 2 of my attempts; the phone camera kept auto-adjusting for more light, it was very hard trying to get it to what it was supposed to be; they were a lot darker & more menacing looking than the photos.

this was a lot darker, very hard trying to get accurate with the phone

still not as dark as real life, the clouds were amazing but alas phone camera shot poorly

hope everyone is surviving the heat here, humidity is just awful. those of you on the other side hope you're keeping warm!

thanx for visiting

end of year ...

g'day

something fresh for the season & a totally different colour scheme for me... 
we have had some good rains here over the last couple of weeks, grass always needs cutting, had help from my friend Nev for the back plus planted 5 more trees.

Cats are all doing fine though wish BJ would settle down & stop fighting with Poppet.  

think i'm staying home this year, not sure what's happening with that as no one has said anything. 
renovations are still ongoing as far as i know, time permitting. no more updates there yet.

on the knitting front; still knitting socks, just finished another pair which one had to be redone as way too short, they now fit, wore them on Sunday & they proved to be very comfortable. will be starting another pair soon, probably boot socks next with much thicker yarn (8ply). i bought another sock class from craftsy, one of Ann Budds lessons, she has some different techniques which i'm hoping will be helpful in my bid to conquer the sock making lol. have to finish my sisters alpaca beanie so i can start a vest(?) maybe, haven't decided yet. am still knitting my sons jumper; most of the projects i have going will be a priority in the new year to get finished as i have plans to make lots of beanies next year for the markets... 
                        
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Poppet is doing well & doesn't go outside much yet

when i go outside for any length of time Miss Poppet tends to seek me out, think she may have a little bit of a security issue there perhaps, the feeling of being left behind. her weight is good now & she is having 2 meals a day, her face has totally cleared up, no swelling. Rita is still a little unsure about her but getting better.

that's my little bit of news for now, how is everyone doing, got plans for the christmas break? 

thanx for visiting

just a sweet song ...

have had this song stuck in my head since i woke up this morning & thought i'd share, love his voice


Sunshine


hope everyone is cool/warm & safe in their neck of the world


thanx for visiting 

Here's Poppet!

as promised more photos of the lovely Miss Poppet

i actually discovered a rather nasty big bump inbetween her eyes at top of her nose which i've been keeping an eye on, now at least i know why she turns away when you try to pat her head, am thinking she may have got caught on the trap door, it's easily missed cos of her colouring. 

a very curious young cat & wanting lots of affection, her colouring is gorgeous with a little bit of tabby stripes that you can just see in the 1st photo. 

this gorgeous girl was very curious & also affectionate

Poppet took over the bed the first night she was allowed out

cuddling up while knitting

loves the bed

ALL 3 cats on the bed with BJ at the back glaring daggers at Poppet

Rita "can i have my bed back mum?"

loving attention

absolutely loves Rita's smell, was rubbing herself silly in Rita's spot

hope everyone has had a great week & you're enjoying a relaxing weekend. 
stay safe & warm/cool in your neck of the world

thanx for visiting

she's arrived!

Poppet arrived last night, DD1 brought her up, she has to spend her time lockecd up in a room mostly as my other two are not being the friendliest cats at the moment; i let her out every few hours for a wander around & a cuddle. will try to get photos soon.

Introducing Poppet - Miss Poppet

g'day 

here are some much awaited photos of Poppet

she is very small & is being cared for by my eldest DD1.

in Cairns pound on deathrow

helping DD1 with the folding

visiting the vets for her vaccination

still helping to fold clothes  

adorable with her tongue out & getting comfy on DD1s bed lol

she is slowly putting on weight, she is not used to the food yet, we are waiting for her to toally dry up before she is desexed.

apparently she is craving affection & always wants pets & cuddles, she is settling down quite well. 

when DD1 asked me to think of names, i came up with 'Penny' at first then as we were chatting about her that clip of the ugly bloke out of the Pirates of the Carribean chasing 'Elizabeth through the house came to mind. POPPET! brilliant, suits her too. am going to go with Miss Poppet for her records. 
can't wait to get her here, it will be a little while yet, after her desexing. just hope Rita & B.J. will like her, it has taken B.J. months to get used to Rita.

DD1 will keep photos coming, she likes to keep me updated.


on another note we have had almost a good week of rain, ground is sopping now, so much water, thanx, that'll do us nicely! 




hope everyone is having a good week, stay happy & safe in your neck of the world.



thanx for visiting

Rain, Rain, Rain, falling upon my head ....

g'day there!

as the title suggests it's raining, been raining since thursday ohhh & the ground so needed this soaking too.
it's lovely weather to just sit & knit or cozy up with a good book. 
no idea how much rain but we are getting puddles now & everything is green & you can see the grass growing! 


DD1 & SiL2 came up on the weekend SiL to do a bit more work to the house, he scored a new back door (free, building sites are so wasteful!) so that went up on saturday & so did some cornices. lovely DD1 crocheted some towel tops for me & her fundraiser, she was also happy with the dish cloths i made, sorry forgot to take a pic. 


on the rescue note, haven't got my photos off my phone yet but 'Poppet' arrived Saturday morning at my DD1s place, she is settling in & is very affectionate.



hope everyone is getting some of this rain, it's awesome!

stay safe & take care where ever you are


thanx for visiting

Socks & Cats

g'day! 

i have finished one sock in the BWM Pastel multi & i'm quite pleased with it, got all the decreasing right, 14sts on either side YAY! i kept the stitch markers in from when i did the gusset, swapped one out to a different colour & away i went!

even on top & bottom

then it came to do the kitchener stitch, not my favourite sewing by far, i do have a really easy YouTube tutorial that i have saved & she keeps it so simple!

Kitchener Stitch 

I got near perfect toe this time! i was so chuffed!

i have cast on the second sock & hopefully it goes as smooth as the 1st, i just had to share my 'success'. 

will post more photos when i have finished the pair.

my DD1 rang me Friday & asked if i would make her some dish cloths for her fund raiser at the end of the month, of cos i said yes, so i've been madly knitting those since friday. photos when have a pile.

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last night DD1 texted me with another request, to save a beautiful tortoiseshell cat that was up in Rockhampton pound on death row, ughhh how could i not? she had got herself caught in one of those cage traps & they discovered she has/had a litter of kittens somewhere but they couldn't find them, so sad, poor thing. well anyway she is on her way down here & will stay with my daughter til she is desexed & microchipped. i have a photo which i'll post when i get it off my phone. 

goodness & i still don't have a fence up & now i'm about to have 3 cats! 

i would like to one day help out with foster care for cats, there is such a need for it, so many rescuers are full & so many of the foster carers are overbrimming as well. i think giving them up will be the hardest thing lol i'll want to keep them all!

BJ still chases Rita when outside but is getting more friendly with her inside (about time!) how she is going to handle another cat? only time will tell, maybe she'll like this one? fingers crossed! 

hope everyone is keeping safe over in your neck of the world




thanx for visiting

a little relief from the heat

sunday 1st October was a windy day & another hot one but not quite as hot as the previous days which were 39`c inside my house & probably 40-41`c+ outside, most of last week was like that, that is summer temperatures! in spring! even i was complaining about it, there was no gentle transition just straight to hot. 
we had rain late sunday night, which was such a relief as we haven't had rain here for months & many tanks were getting very low, i only have a 2000g@ & it was below half! i don't depend on it as i'm hooked up to the town water but rain water tastes so much better.
it rained steady all day monday which was just great & a nice surprise, today it was overcast but the rain has gone for now & the temperatures should be back to the high 20s (fingers crossed) 

bunderberg apparently had some flash flooding, hope all are safe & well up there (only 2hrs from here) 

so there has been a bit of rain getting around the place with different areas getting some. 

well that's all from me here;  hope everyone is safe & well 



thanx for visiting 

something new ...

g'day

a little while ago i bought myself some plain merino sock wool, i wanted to have a go at dyeing it,  with mulberries.
i was late up today but thought bugga it, i'm going to dye the wool today, i found good simple instructions here , very simple. 
 i was a little nervous when it came to putting the wool into the hot dye but it all went very well (unlike some of my other projects namely soaps!)

2. cook mulberries & salt

1. soak the wool while mulberries are cooking

3. the first colouring after a minute

4. looking good

5. drip drying out on line for almost 2 hrs

6. almost dry, finishing off in the bathroom

there, all in pictures, i had some fun & was pleased with the result.
it went out on the line as there was a lot of water to drip out of it, i turned it around about 3/4hr later so the bottom was at the top.
there's a nice little bit of variation in it, am loving the colour, will do another photo once i roll it up & of course when i've made the socks too.

mmm, wonder how coffee would go as a dye? 

i buy all my pure wool from Bendigo Woollen Mills Australia, they often have specials throughout the year. i'm a sucker for specials, especially when it's wool!


has anyone else had a go at dyeing?


hope everyone is doing well in their neck of the world & are safe 

thanx for visiting

A Reserve!

g'day there! 

we have crown land across the road from us & council has been tidying it up of late, got a little curious as to 'why'? as you know often when they clean up their land it's usually put up for sale & 'whammo' a new estate has gone in before you know it.
not this time however, they are turning it into a reserve to continue on & join up with the koala corridor! about bloody time! they are getting rid of all the horrible pom pom trees that grow here (pest) & are going to put in more koala friendly trees, am even loosing the big tree out on my vestige/curb, can't wait.

                      
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 the renovation of the front room is almost complete thanx to my son, SiL & family friend, just need sanding & painting now. 

old ceiling came off, there's now insulation up there

this was done when i had tin put on the outside, it has now got new boards

this wall almost fell out! SiL had to put a few nails up the side 

even the floors got pulled up, we will decide later on flooring

all boarded up, it has been plastered since this photo was taken

i will have some photos later as more work is done, it's looking good & feels great.

the laundry also got cemented the same weekend they did the front room

SiL up to his gumboots in cement

the laundry has since had a make over as well with all new insulation & new boards.

not so many drafts blow through anymore, makes the house just that little bit warmer.

have yet to get an electrician in to do the wiring & then it all just needs a sand & painting. then it'll be onto the next room.

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in other news, Rita has been spayed/neutered & micro-chipped, almost 3 weeks now. will probably take about 6-12mths for her to settle down & stop wandering.

i also have a new phone which i'm still learning how to use, as yet haven't figured out how to take the photos off & get them on the PC yet.

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the surveyor came today & i now have marked borders, am very happy about that, only one of the old fences was on the border, the rest are way out, one is from just over one metre down the bottom & over 2 metres up at the top, a big difference & so glad i didn't go ahead with just winging the fence plus my neighbour has offered to pay for half of his, it's great, now to save up some more moneys.


hope everyone is staying cool or warm in their neck of the world! 

thanx for visiting

my place

g'day
i know it's been a long time between posts of late but not a lot happens here, one day blurs into the next most weeks.
i knit & i am also trying to teach myself some new crochet stitches, yesterday i learned how to do the Half Double crochet, so will make a few dish cloths with that one, some straight up & some in a 'granny square' style too.
am still knitting my sons jumper, that one will probably take me awhile, what with all the other projects i have as well. 

well, i thought i would show a little of my place seeing as someone asked, it's not much & over the years not much has survived here, i give up then i try again to get trees to grow here, these photos are back in March not long after i mowed the whole back (when i was badly burned) i have about one & half acres total, the house sits on almost an acre.

this is the half acre looking up the small hill am right near the fence here

looking up towards neighbours house (on right)

looking up towards my house, the bushy mess to the left here is the chook yard

in March on the day of these photos i planted two trees, a yellow & a red kabala (spelling? couldn't find it in the native list on google, too many!) they are supposed to do well in poor soils.

i have since planted another 3 natives down there, a candle nut & a bumpy ash, but all are natives, hopefully they will do well. i'll be putting the odd large fruiting trees in as well like avocados.

 

today i finally got onto a fencer who is coming out Monday to look & measure & give me a quote, this is my 5th attempt. yay! 

today i'm mowing............................ again

the weekend gone i had my sons come up & start some renovations for me, my sweet eldest has been putting money away to do work on my house, instead of birthday or mother's day presents. i think that is absolutely wonderful! i've asked if i can contribute too but it will have to wait until i've done the fence.

the laundry was cemented, looks great, it's still to get tiles put down but needed to be level with the toilet & bathroom. one front bedroom had all the old walls & ceiling taken down & nice new plaster boards put up, it's still ongoing, needs all the joins plastered. can't wait to see it all finished. SiL also put in new power point boxes to be wired in later. it's also fully insulated, so it will be warm as toast or cool as a cucumber  :))

i planted the other 3 trees a couple of weeks ago & had a little help

Rita Skeeta helping with the holes 

that's my news for now, i will try to get some photos to show of the recent renovations, (my son posted them on FB as well).

hope everyone is well in your neck of the world

thanx for visiting

Easter been & gone

my eldest came up for almost 3 days over Easter, it was wonderful! 
on Saturday we made (or rather she did with help from me) candles & soap. on a previous visit long time ago (far, far, away) DD1 brought up some melted wax, which i added to my ever growing pile, there was almost a full tin. so on Easter Saturday we got out the pot & started the wax. i collected all the votive containers & a couple of jars with lids too, took close to an hour to melt all the wax & put it into the containers. 
  

they sunk like souffle` once they started drying

then we got down to the soap making, she got out the scales, weighed everything up & i set to stirring the lye, while she got the oils combined then we stirred the lye into the oils, we made Rhonda's soap recipe out of her first book Down To Earth. DD1 brought up the lye & calendula oil, i had all the other oils, made plain soap for me & she made the calendula soap for herself, mine had gone off but we swapped a couple of bars. the mixtures hardened really fast, took hers out within a few hours, mine was in a loaf tin so took longer, did it before going to bed the same night, just as well too, it was so hard it was difficult to cut.

lovely creamy soap that turned out! 

i really enjoyed making the items with eldest daughter, it was quite satisfying when everything turned out too, compared to my last 2 attempts to make soap this felt really good. 

i hope we do it again soon. 

i gave her one of my old plant stands to take home & her hubby is in the process of doing it up, can't wait to see it finished & in use once again. 

this post was a little late as Easter was last week but i hope everyone had a lovely Easter break 

thanx for visiting

wandering kitty

g'day!

sunday, yesterday, at our markets one of our neighbours was having a chat about a kitty who had wandered into her sons place (he's her neighbour also) he looked after it for just over a week. his cat didn't like it one bit & was totally stressing out, they had asked all round town if anyone had lost a black kitten, but no one had. am guessing she could be from a feral family as there were quite a few around before council got to them. 
well anyway, our neighbour had exhausted herself trying to find where it came from & said they were looking for a home for it instead, i came in on the end of the chat & said "who do you need a home for?" she said a beautiful black kitten that was a few months old. i said, "i'll take it." well she threw her arms around me in a huge hug! "we'll bring him/her around later in the arvo", me, "great! "

so now i have this little critter running around my house ...

sorry it's not a great pic but she shot off secs after it was taken

she was so hard to take a photo of this arvo when i got home, running around, rolling over & shooting off to god knows where then back again! doing circles around me, had so many blurry photos or blanks

well she is not named yet, am having a bit of trouble feeding her, had to buy all tinned food (yuk) but she wouldn't touch the raw mince, at all. mmm.

so much for the promise i'd made myself, not to get anymore animals/pets til i had a fence up ...

well she is adorable, has the most beautiful amber eyes, is not all black, has a spot on her chest & a streak between her back legs on her lower belly. 
extremely affectionate, very talkative & passes out quite easily once she has exerted herself lol

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craft day again today & another lady brought in a quilt top she was working on
for a friends birthday, she actually called it a "friendship quilt" 

some of the projects the ladies bring in are quite amazing, this one has only been quilting for 3 years. it has hearts all around it (i thought they were shamrocks when i first saw it) she was putting the edging in by hand. 

well that's my news for the moment, not much doing except for mowing & more mowing, the neighbour hood is noisy with all the mowers going. love the smell of cut grass.


hope everyone has had a good week & looking forward to the next one, hope you're all safe, warm or cool in your part of the world



thanx for visiting 

Busy Bee Craft Group

every second Monday we have our group here in Kilkivan & every other Monday over in Goomeri. i came back to it late last year, thought seeing as i sit & knit on Monday anyways why not do it in company? (i knit everyday actually)

thought you might all enjoy some of what the ladies are making, they tend to swap their crafts out from week to week, & i thought i had too many projects going!

first up the dazzling butterfly quilt, my camera phone isn't doing the colours justice here, it's actually quite bright, she has matched the butterflies to the patchwork pieces around the borders.

next is some colourful Candle wicking

sorry, it was hard to get a good photo of this, it is to be another quilt

this is a cushion cover for a friend & it's in cross stitch

another lady was doing some very cute animal embroideries, think this is a quilt too.

we have a Pumpkin festival coming up in May & there's a small competition going with a pumpkin scene of course!

here is another using up scraps of material & then just doing many running stitches in all directions, says it's very soothing.

these are teeny, tiny hexagons, that's a pair of applique` scissors i left there so you could see the size, she is making these into flower blocks then those into a queen size quilt! 

this last one is a very colourful Bavarian blanket, a few of the ladies make them & donate them to elderly nursing homes in the area.

hope you enjoyed the pictures of one of my days out, i myself am knitting a sweater & will post it up when i have a fair bit more done. 

do you go to a group? for a day out to socialize, to learn a new skill? 


we finally got a bit of rain last night, need a lot more yet


thanx for visiting