Here Be Knitting

Australia Calling... Everything Old is New Again

My Blog is changing - big changes.  My Canadian friend, Shelagh, has very generously agreed to come on board and share this Blogging.  Soon, there will be a first post from Shelagh, introducing herself and beginning our new journey.  We are not sure how we will proceed - as "letters" to each other (similar to Mason Dixon Knitting) or another way, all our very own.  It is an evolving process, but exciting we think.  It will be fun to compare our differences (and our similarities) - weather being one that immediately springs to mind :)  Our summer, their winter; our winter, their..... you get the picture.....

Shelagh and I are thinking about a lace project for our own little KAL to begin our Blogging journey.  Shelagh has suggested the Icarus Shawl from Interweave.  It is very, very  beautiful but I am a little worried about all the stocking stitch.  Others who have knitted it have struggled with this and I wonder if I will be the same - I have a very short attention span at times.  Although, it would make good chess knitting and I always need those projects :)  I'm putting up a vote for Iris - I think it is lovely and I'm a huge sucker for lace and beads - two of my favourite things (I don't think Julie Andrews covers those, does she??)  What do you think Shelagh?  Is this something you could see yourself knitting?  If not, Icarus it will be - I am happy with that.

We have been away in Sydney for The Girl's chess.  Unfortunately, she was so sick with the flu that she only managed a game before we had to withdraw her.  So.... as we had already paid for our accommodation.... and just for a change.... we got to have a little, low key break in Sydney.  It was lovely.  Here are the photos.  Please click on the photos to embiggen - in this case, bigger really is better.  Most speak for themselves...

View to the City from our Parramatta Apartment:

The Harbour Bridge in all its glories:

On the Harbour:

The Giggler:

Enough for now...

Lovely, Lovely, Lovely

We have been away for a holiday - just Her Dad and I.  Bliss. And, scarily, at least 15 years since just the two of us were away together. Scary how quick 15 years can go by and scary how much weight you can so easily find in just 15 short years :)

 

 

I just love these little guys - bring back lovely memories from my not-always-great childhood.

No prizes this time for guessing where we have been :)  Results tomorrow (or maybe the next day) for the last competition!  New knitting and some big decisions made and shared then as well.

Enough for now.....

Milestones

Our beautiful Middle Girl turned 18 this week:

That is her, our Middle Girl, on the right. 

She was a lovely baby:

Who never slept, unless she was on or touching her Mum or her Dad.  We have photos of our Middle Girl sleeping peacefully on Her Dad's chest while he is totally jonked in front of the fire.  Our Middle Girl was a perfect baby who got everything she wanted/needed. That is how we parented all 3 of our girls - our belief that they demanded only what they needed determined how we cared for them.  It was exhausting but rewarding and, for us, absolutely right.

As a One Year Old, she was delightful:

She liked to run our MIddle Girl.  Whenever she left your arms, she would immediately run in whatever direction she was facing.  We took to leaving her in the backpack we carried her around in.  It didn't stop her running, but it slowed her enough that we could catch her up!

Our Middle Girl was/is a deep thinker.  At 5, she was interpretting books read by her kindergarten teacher as a 15 + year old. "John Brown Rose and the Midnight Cat" is a lovely Australian book meant at kindergarten/primary level to be about jealousy, new friendship and perfect for new big brothers and sisters.  At high school (and even older) it is a story about accepting death.  While all the others in Middle Girl's class are talking about jealousy, friendship, John Brown not liking the new cat etc etc our little Middle Girl pipes up and says that the story is about death and John Brown is frightened to accept death and let it in.  The teacher had to go home and look it up to see that it is exactly the meaning that the author intended!!  Frightening, her intellect....

But, our Middle Girl has been chased by her own Black Dog.  She has suffered from episodes of depression since she was 5.  At times, it has been very hard to live with our Middle Girl and her Black Dog.  We have had numerous professionals attempting to help.  They would make it better for a little while and then he was back, nipping at her heels.

Early last year, our Middle Girl attempted suicide.  Horrible, horrible, horrible does not even begin to explain how absolutely terrifying it was.  We were lucky, we didn't have enough pills in the house for her to take enough to make the event final.  Months and months and months of a long, slow, painful journey back to wellness.  Sometimes, we were close, I think, to her trying again.  Waiting for the medication to have an effect.  Hoping that this Psychologist would know her stuff and that our Middle Girl would let her in.  Painfully breathing in and slowly, ever so slowly breathing out.  And, one small step at the time, our Middle Girl came back to us.  The black hole that had opened beneath her and beneath us all began to close. 

Her birthday was the real gift.  A girl on her way to wellness, laughing, contented, open and honest again. 

Our gift to our Middle Girl was a celebration of this journey.  We gave her a Pandora Chain and some items have a special meaning:

   

Her March Birthstone.

Her first initial for her stunningly beautiful name.

For Our Middle Girl's beauty.

A locket for our love for our Middle Girl.

The Chines symbol for Happiness - our wish for our Middle Girl.

Happy 18th Birthday!

Enough for now....

And the Winner is (Part Two)... and Tomorrow is Important

We spent the rest of our tourist time in Sydney in and around the city centre. My favourite photo from our time away:

It is from The Rocks region of Sydney.  It reminds me of what cities are all about - The People.

Her Dad's favourite photo:

No longer in service, but these buses faithfully took him to and from school when he was a wee lad!

The Girl's favourite photo:

She loved the aerial roots of the Port Jackson Fig.

We all loved:

The beautiful sandstone in and around the foreshore.  Mrs Macquarie's Chair is a very famous example and here is Our Girl having a great time on it:

Tomorrow is a very important day for all Australians.  Our new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, will issue an apology to Indigenous Australians for what are now known as the Stolen Generations - when Australia forcefully removed young Indigenous Australians from their families.  An abhorrent practice that began almost as soon as Europeans arrived and continued into the 1970s.  This Apology has been a very long time coming, marred by Political fighting, and that length of time has, I believe, lessened our Nation.  Tomorrow is the historic first step in beginning the Healing.

Just a few more photos of beautiful Sydney:

And the ability to survive and thrive; the palm growing in the chimney pot:

Enough for now...

The Ramblings. And the Winner is Sydeneeey (Part One)...

I'm still feeling pretty cr*p - so we won't even go there.  We will, instead, have a tourist break.

We have spent a few weekends of late in Sydney.  It truly is a beautiful city. 

We came down to Bradley's Head:

Especially famous for 2 things  -

1 Because of its position on the Harbour, it has been seen as important in the defence of Australia.  Firstly, from the Russians during the Crimean War. (Also during the two World Wars, but I don't think that's as intriguing as the defence effort we put in for the Crimean, which when you think about seems to have been an awful lot of effort for not really a very great risk?? - so therefore much more interesting) 

Military machinery and extensive tunnels dug into the hill for the men.  So dark, you can see The Girl feeling her way through them:

And some more of these extraordinary tunnels:

2 And, of course, Bradley's Head has spectacular views of the Harbour.

Here are some natives enjoying the view:

A termite nest with arguably the best real estate in Australia - position, position, position!!

And the views?  See for yourself.

Enough for now.....

The Ramblings. Down and Even Further Down....

I haven't posted to The Blog like I promised.  I have been feeling really low.  It doesn't happen to me very often, I am essentially "The glass is half full" sort of girl, but this week and last I have been dragging my heels and not wanting to do anything.  I have emails from friends (sorry Shelagh and Lynne) that I need to respond to, comments from readers of The Blog that I haven't answered (very rude of me) and I have essentially just come home and flopped in front of whatever was on the tele.  Don't know why, it is just how it is for now.  I know it will pass (it always does) but, just right now, I have managed to fall into the pothole and I'm just struggling a little to get myself out.

Knitting of course has been affected.  Here is the evidence of a pretty meagre haul:

I have completed the third repeat of The Hanami.  I still love this pattern and the alpaca yarn is so, so soft.  I'm not good at memorising pattern repeats, so have to keep on concentrating on the pattern, but otherwise it is a straightforward, enjoyable knit.

I have finished the second Feather and Fan sock.  They look absolutely fantastic, the STR yarn is great in this pattern and they are an easy knit for good results.  But, they don't fit me or The Girl so it made them harder to complete.  Mmmmmm I wonder if this is when the current low mood began to appear......

A second Ovation Scarf with beads - this one for me.  A good quick knit that is very feminine and pretty.  As you can see, it has been a while since the poor spinning wheel has enjoyed some use.

And now for Something Completely Different...

A few weekends ago, we ventured into Victoria, passing through the small town of Holbrook in NSW to get there and back.  Nothing very interesting in that.  But, they continue the famous Australian theme of large tourist attractions.  I am thinking here of Australia's Big Things (keep your mind out of the gutter, at least for now...). Holbrook's is slightly different because it is real.  Behold, The Submarine:

We thought this was lovely (but strange) for a few reasons.  Primarily, I suppose, is that Holbrook is about 250 kms from the ocean.  We didn't check for any very large dams nearby :) 

The other slightly odd thing was they seemed to us to have a fixation with things below the waist.  Behold:

And:

And:

Just sayin.

The Girl had another good tournament last weekend.  She began 46 of 56 competitors in a strong field and finished equal 14th.  She won her rating division and collected some $$.  She was happy.  We have lots and lots of photos from our trip to beautiful Sydney which I will put up soon.  For now, a taste of what is to come:

Enough for Now...

Ramblings. The Cat in the Bag

Sapphire, our lovely 12 year old Siamese loves boxes and bags (she's not alone there).  We caught her the other night at the end of a loooooong love affair with a plastic shopping bag:

She looks very worried (NOT) to have been discovered and very unceremoniously carried around in her bag for a while doesn't she??

Her Dad's toe is still giving him jip and this has greatly curtailed activity.  I don't mind :)  Our weekend, then was pretty laid back and consisted of very little activity.

Rain and much cooler weather

forced us indoors for a little while where we enjoyed warming coffee and wedges (which they do with crispy bacon, tomato salsa and chilli and sour cream - yum, yum) at one of our favourite coffee shops.  It was all gone much too quickly for a photo. 

We took a walk along Telopea Park and down to Lake Burley Griffin.  We spied a wedding at the Greek Orthodox Church of St Nicholas, but the Bride and Groom had already escaped:

We really liked the elegant simplicity of the Church and thought perhaps it was built in the 50s? (I couldn't easily find any info on the www, so if anyone knows, leave a comment).

The fairies had been here before us. But very unwisely left their house on display:

The spider webs almost looked like little houses, all covered in seed puffs from the willow trees:

We discovered an errant fig tree - left by the birds or the fairies perhaps?  Figs are one of my favourite fruits and even the leaves smell heavenly:

 

And, birds and their young everywhere:

Both the goose and gander were ready to chase us away if we had gotten any closer - cute huh? And a final bird photo of a very cute white cockatoo:

On the knitting front, I have decided to give Rain and Mira a small knitterly something for their guesses for Shelagh's gift.  Both were surprisingly close on a number of the items.  All will be revealed when Shelagh receives the package :)

I have finished the first of the Dahlia Socks.  As with all love affairs, the edge has come off a little... Here is a photo, not very good, but I'm tired and its blocking:

Its mate and the red-brown cotton Makaha are what I am concentrating on at the moment - and I'm getting very itchy hands!  It won't be long now before I will have (have, have....) to start something new.  Socks, lace, top, cardigan, bag, hat, mittens......  Oh the choices!!!

Enough for now....

The First Time

Well, I've gone and done it.... decided to launch myself in the world of blogging.  A little late, I realise. You could even argue that I've missed the boat and am furiously paddling behind on a piece of flotsam, hoping to catch up sometime this century.  But you would only say this if you weren't nice.  And, I'm sure that could not possibly be the case, so, please be kind to me and let me have my ramblings :)

What is it that I want to blog about? A good question, and I think I can answer, at least partially:

Knitting (so now I just don't want to think about knitting, I also want to write about it all the time - poor you)

The "Getting onto our own Piece of Heaven Saga" (we have recently purchased 200 acres of bush just outside Canberra). We have no power, water, sewerage, phone, house (house, did I say house!).  A virgin block that we want to make our own.  It should be a fun journey.