fiveandtwo

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.

Weekend Of Goodness

Oh, how I love these weekends with like minded women at Sewjourn. K, S, G, C, J, T, E, K and J who doesn't have a blog. These women enrich my life so much. At Sewjourn and on the internets.

I made two pairs of pants, lightweight for summer (another pair is in the offing) and a boat neck t-shirt, an Ottobre t-shirt, a successful experiment top and an unsuccessful experiment top. In the to-do basket is another top for summer. I'm going up north at the beginning of October, hence the sewing of warm weather clothes. I may or may not post about the tops and pants. Depends if offspring are around and the light is good when I'm wearing what I made.

 
This is the only photo I took at Craft Camp. Taken because I was trying to tell the husband about this dressing table-turned-into-vanity at Sewjourn. We need to replace our homemade falling apart vanity and I have a dressing table just like this. He knows what I'm rabbiting on about since showing him this pic. I have an avocado green drop-in basin from the tip shop ($5!). This is a goer!

Ahh, Sewjourn love.

Easter Wrap-Up, Sort Of.

I like school holidays generally, throw in some public holidays = even better.

On Saturday and today I caught up with mates from Melbourne and St. Andrews that I haven't seen for ages. A couple of years I think. Very good. Clare and Ally re-aquainted themselves with the offspring these lovely women. The friend who came on Saturday originally came from Bairnsdale (hasn't lived here for about 30 years) and was visiting her elderly mother and even older Nan. I met her on the train to Melbourne! About three years ago. Clare and Al struck up a friendship with her daughter and she and I talked about stuff & etc, then kept in contact. My today visitors lived in Bairnsdale for a couple of years mid-2000's. We met at a Steiner Playgroup. Rachel introduced me to the making of little felt animals. We have kept in contact. Rachel was the "two" part of fiveandtwo. Her two children and my five children made up the name. We had a little craft business going for a while, before her return to St Andrews.

I worked on Leah's Deb. dress.

 

I made a little prototype owl, while I was waiting for Leah to finish work so I could do the dress-try-on thing.

 
Just a little fellow, about ten centimetres tall. Owly is lying on some wool patching I've been fiddling around with this weekend. Bags? Scarves? Probably both.

I set up the pots and did some dyeing. I scored two lengths of wool jersey at the oppy last week, in the off-white "spencer" colour. So, I dyed these,and the recycled fabrics waiting to be dyed.

 
All these fabrics were off-white/cream coloured originally.

L-R: dismantled silk blouse, felted wool jumper, wool jersey, wool scarf (probably a mix as it didn't take the dye fully) and wool jersey.

I gardened. Quite a bit of hauling out the kikuyu grass, and I dug out two more tree stumps.

 
One from that dirt area, top right of picture.

 
The other the remaining tree stump next to Sammy-cat's grave. Grave marker made by Clare, Al and Leah.

And I "did something" with the last cucumbers instead of having them rot in the fridge. One lonely jar of Garlicky Cucumber Pickle Relish from D.I.Y. Delicious by Vanessa Barrington.

 
 
(Photo happened when I was checking the battery status of the camera) I like it.

Children enjoyed their chocolate fix. This year they all got a big Lindt rabbit. The single rabbit choccie is a result of all the whinging last year. It used to be a little (op-shop) basket of choccie stuff, eggs and what have you. Last year the four at home moaned and complained that Linsey had a "nice rabbit" and they didn't have a "nice rabbit". Huh, discounting the basket of choccies that they did have.

So...this year all have a "nice rabbit". Complaints were heard and ignored.

Easter = all good. No camping, no traffic wrangling. The best: I caught up with Linsey (eldest daughter). Very good...so loved.

Hope you had a splendid Easter too.

Hey, Thankyou

I really appreciate all your kind thoughts regarding my Dad's death. Thankyou.

Today's news: Took the dog to the vet to have a dew claw injury attended to. Don't know how it happened. Caught up on something and mostly wrenched out. The claw kept catching on things, and bleeding. Removed to a stump by the vet.

Is this a sad dog, or what?

Next: From the op-shop two new (to me) pairs of shoes. I have been looking for nice black flats for some time (even looking at new shoes). I encountered these at the local Salvos, and then saw the sparkly slipper ones. At two dollars, I risked the sparkles, and four dollars was a bargain for the black ones (all leather except for the sole).

And we're on flood alert. Nothing like what's been happening north of the ranges. It's always strange to have a flooding river with not much local rain.

Just some overflow on to the river flats. Grazing and vegetable growing. Hope it's not destructive of the major river flat vegetable growing area of Lindenow. That would mean local spring vegie crops would be washed away. Lack of local broccoli, cabbages and lettuces.

The road was closed, eventually. Minor stuff, but prevents people ploughing through in 4WD vehicles.

I missed a Sewjourn weekend with all the happenings. Damn and bugger. Much as my family is important - see, I let a Sewjourn weekend pass - that meant it was really important to hang with my family. And it is.

Family, Sewjourn, splendid women met via blogworld. Very important to me.

I Hung Out With Awesome Women.

Yep, spent much of this Queen's Birthday weekend at Sewjourn.

I sewed three long-sleeved T-shirts.

No, you don't get pictures of my sewing, you get pictures from my morning walks. That plastic bag on the fence annoys me.

I sewed two-and-three-quarter pairs of trousers (didn't finish the third pair). 

I finished sewing a dress which was bloody aweful. Potato woman extraordinaire.

 

We ate wonderful food. Delicious winter food: slow-cooked lamb, Portugese chicken, lemon tart, sticky date pudding, it was immensely satisfying.

I got to hang out with wonderful women, really interesting and talented women.

I got to see my favourite eldest daughter, her really nice boyfriend and some of her other friends (the lass lives "on my way home").

Maybe I'll post the tops and pants, maybe not. It was satisfying to get some winter clothes made, but the company - the women - was the best thing.
  
 
  

  
   

I Went To Bendigo, Again.

Yes! It's now three times in the last twelve months. Beginning to be a habit it seems.

Ah, but this time was special. A mate and I conspired to vistit this exhibition:

 

Go, go if you can. The most wondrous garments are there. Day dresses, cocktail dresses, suits...and ballgowns...sigh.

I can't ply you with pictures - the garment images are copyright V&A (the origin of the collection).

Our approach with two not-terribly-interested kids each was: visit a public monument (the cathredral) with a bit of quiet inside.

 A bit of running around outside.

 Visit Rosalind Park with magnificent old trees, walk up (steep) Camp Hill to the poppet head tower on top, brave the WIND climbing the stairs to the top of the poppet head, a play in the playground nearby, milkshakes/iced chocolates and cake at the gallery cafe...then, on to the exhibition. Restive towards the end, the offspring were good for about two hours. Just enough time.

If I lived in Bendigo I'd be visiting once a week. Well, maybe not. When something like this is on your doorstep it gets taken for granted - "Oh it's here for months, plenty of time". I lived for some time within cooee of Kakadu (at Humpty Doo on the Arnhem Highway) and did not visit. How silly is that. In defence: we were going to move back to Darwin after time in Alice Springs. I enjoyed living in both those places. I enjoy living where I am now.

Clare and Ally were actually quite interested in the Couture Exhibition. I noticed Clare tucked her top in to her skirt and lifted the top of the skirt up to her waist.

 But really, they just wanted to get back to the swimming pool at the caravan park!