fiveandtwo

Bits And Pieces

 - Still forcing myself to finish the house maintenance painting. The most fiddly, working from a ladder part awaits.

- Enjoying Micky kitteh. Look, here he is snoozing on the windowsill.

Enjoy it now Micky. When you're grown up you won't fit there.

- The Oakleaf Hydrangea is flowering. Not so big and blousey as the "everyday" hydrangea. Different charm. I'm a fan of both kinds.

- I went to TAFE with assemblage sculpture and journal (to show that I actually did the work etc). I have filled out the enrolment forms. I've decided on a painting major, but I'm torn between painting and sculpture. There's only a major, no minor as well (which would mean I could do both).  And I'm not sure I can afford it anyway. My painting etc isn't dependent on gaining a Diploma , so it doesn't matter if I go to TAFE or not.

- The sunlight  coming inside has been particularly lovely lately. Out comes the camera!

- Giles and Ruby (girlfriend) have a pup. A Golden Retriever pup. He is waaaay cute. He spends time at our house and at Ruby's house. I have only one fuzzy photo of Cooper (not a fan of the name). Both cats and Suska think he's revolting. It's like Giles and Ruby have a new baby: many friends visiting to see the pup. Pup being passed around, "Can I have a hold?". Playing with pup and much baby talk. Goodness...

Actually, I'm hoping this is a sign that Giles will be moving out of home soon. Shacking up with Ruby or something. I have the room changearound all thought out and I will get a work room! Bring it on!

Big Ears

I've been dealing with the old knitting patterns I have. Since I am a non-knitter there's no point in keeping them once I've scanned the pictures. The pattern photos are what I enjoy, the more weird and unusual the better.

I've collected some boy knitting patterns. Is it me, is it the short-back-and-sides haircut or did boys have bigger ears forty or so years ago?

Behold:

Look at Mister Sneery on the left!

The ears are big? Yes? It's not just me? Splendid-looking boys, however.

 

Hot Cat

Micky isn't bothered by being in the same room as the dog, unlike Pip. Micky should be more wary, however.

Impossible cuteness.

Where's The Camera When You Want It?

The camera? Hundreds of kilometres away at home, that's where (insert sound of teeth grinding). I remembered when we were already two hours on the road.

We went for a long weekend to Canberra and Goulburn. This is what I did:

- drove many kilometres

- had horrible fish and chips at Cooma

- bought Clare and Ally a manga book each in Canberra (bribery)

- bought a pair of red rubber garden shoes (French!) fron a Canberra oppy

- had a truly ghastly meal at the Queanbeyan Bowls Club (frozen mixed veg, soggy chips, strangely flabby- textured steak). The other meals were equally bad.

- went to the Renaissance exhibition at National Gallery of Australia. If you have the chance - go and see it (buy your tickets beforehand though). I was so excited to be there, all that art...the general collection, the special exhibition, the sculpture garden. I kept exclaiming over paintings, kept telling the twins about famous works and those by artists I admire. We frizzed our hair in the Fog Sculpture.

- went to the War Memorial and was confronted once again, especially by the "hands on" Lancaster bomber exhibit.

- had a good meal at Goulburn

- spent three hours reading and ignoring Clare and Ally bickering while Mister 5&2 perused the merchandise at a "motorbike only" swap meet at Goulburn Showgrounds.

- finished Roger Deakin's Waterlog (loved it, along with his other books), read Marion Halligan's Valley of Grace (lovely, if you've been to Paris it will resonate) and Kate Atkinson's Started Early, Took My Dog  (I made the Mister do more driving than me on the way home so I could finish it, a page turner)

- caught up, briefly, with my oldest friend

- took no photos, obviously, but it was a good weekend.

Edited to add: While Marion Halligan's Valley of Grace is lovely it does have its darker aspects. The discovery of a child who'd been kept locked in an attic all its life, for instance.

Quick! Ring The CFA!

Clare and Ally made a "cupcake tower" birthday cake and managed to squeeze on 47 candles.

Here's the photo they took of me blowing out the inferno. Look at all that smoke!

The cake with all its candles.

The makers and I (yes, I'd been painting).

Thankyou for all the birthday wishes on facebook. As an aside, Clare and Al are watching season 4 of  The IT Crowd, borrowed from the library today, and it's just been called Friendface and then there's Gibber (I wonder what that represents...). When Linsey lived at home she had seasons 1 and 2 and we watched them a lot. I'm a big fan, obviously. We miss her copies of Blackbooks, The Mighty Boosh and The Young Ones (among others).

 

Strawberries

I grow strawberries. They aren't very productive, really. This year, with lots of rain, I've harvested the most strawberries ever. No, it's more "who spies the ripe one first gets to eat it". I doubt I'll ever make a jar of jam from the crop. Actually, the crop never makes it to the kitchen (except for photography, and then they're promptly eaten).

They're very yummy, very sweet and intensely strawberry.

How do people grow enough for jam if they don't have a paddock full of plants?

Choko Vine

It sends out its tendrils. Seeking here, seeking there. Mostly trying to engulf the nashi tree.

An aside: I very much enjoy the long evenings at this time of year. Dusk now at nearly nine o'clock, I love it.

 

 

Clare's Photos

"I think I might be a draw-er, or someone that takes photos, when I grow up". "That's great Clare, you can use the camera when you want to". And I was very happy with "when I grow up". Sometimes I think Clare and Al are far too grown up.

I am still on my house painting jag. Maintaining the momentum, since it may not happen again for another decade.

So, off Clare went with my camera. Snapping away. Here's a selection, most of which I've cropped (I do that to pretty much all my photos, in the olden days I used scissors). She's taken some great shots. DSLR was set on auto.

The main vegie garden.

Wrinkly elbow lady painting, supervised by kitteh.

Camouflage kitteh. The tabby markings are camouflage. Squint your eyes and he nearly goes away.

I really like this one.

Shadow kitteh.

Not ripe Satsuma (blood plum).

More shadow kitteh (bottom left).

 

I reckon Clare's developing a good eye. The ability to see what might make a good photo. I take lots of these kinds of photos but most are deleted. So many are out there on the internets already. However, Clare is eleven years old, I thinks she's good. Linsey and Leah have travelled a similar path and neither of them take photos now. People still admire the photos of theirs I've framed and hung...sigh.

 

 

 

 

 

Bits And Pieces

Christmas Lunch! All the offspring in attendance plus Linsey's very likeable boyfriend, Lachie. Now that the older kids have "other halves" I guess the future will be alternate Christmas lunches. I'm rather taken by Lachie's Mum's hosting of a Christmas breakfast. That's a great idea if family members will be elsewhere for lunch of dinner. This is do-able for me, being a morning person.

"Where's Clare?, where's Clare?", "Oh, of course, she's the one taking photos...". Laughs, good company, good food (if I may say so myself), I'm a sucker for family gatherings.

Furry Christmas decoration.

Micky discovers the Christmas tree and all those decorations. Entertaining kitteh.

Pip is less than impressed with said kitteh. Complains.

The triffid hops vine that is supposed to be growing on the arbour that spans the front gate. It has evil designs on the letterbox. Mwahhaha. Did I prune it back? Nah, took a photo and let it grow. Tomorrow we won't be able to open the gate.

Siezed the day, as the cliche says, and scraped, sanded and primed the timber parts of the balcony.

This has needed doing for at least three years. Capitalising on the mere-est sniff of an urge to do house maintenance. Massive prune of the climbing rose that rampages along the balcony, for painting access.

The door has had "the treatment" as well. The primer is white. The door will be turquoise and the balcony timber a very dark turquoise/teal, the colours they were before maintenance. I kind of like the white but it's quite blinding when you look out at/walk out to the balcony, and the twining trunk of the rose looks better against the original dark colour. Once this is completed the pergola out the front requires work. May need to wait until after the grape harvest.

New Family Member!

Nah, no pregnancy for me. I have nowhere to grow a baby these days.

I have been brooding about another cat. Clare and Al were exclaiming over the kittens in the newspaper pound report. So, on a whim, off we went to the pound. Looking for an outgoing, "personality plus" kitten, to cope in a household with dog, cat and kids. The first one, a gorgeous ginger, was taken. The first to come and greet us, that is. Next was a male tabby-and-white. He has become our Micky.

Pip, our 10 yo cat, is disgusted. Introduced, Micky ran up to play with Pip. Micky was greeted with a loud hisss and Pip stalking off. Suska, the greyhound, was also disgusted. "Why did you bring that thing here?".

Oh no, boy cat! Minus reproductive parts.

Pip and Suska want the kitten to depart. But..."Ah, Micky, he's so fine", etc. Welcome kitteh.