How many days?

Only 4 more weeks of school to go! The year's just speeding by. The weekend's just about over too; just dinner and end of day things to do. Yesterday we spent most of the day in the garden weeding, mowing, and generally tidying up. Luke has been initiated into the way of the mower, so maybe the "normal" lawn will become his domain? We have about 1/4 acre that is basically paddock that Ron mows with a heavy duty push mower (it's too rough for a ride on). There's still more to do outside, but we got a good amount done-luckily it wasn't too hot yesterday.

Today we went into the city to the Botanic Park for Ron's work's Christmas Picnic. Even though the weather was hotter today, it was very pleasant in the shade. Everyone had a great time-Caitlin had her face painted, got a temporary tattoo, got a balloon animal from one of the many clowns, and went on one of the bouncy castles. Luke & Ron both went on the Circotron, and I had a nice back & shoulder massage. There was plenty of yummy food & drink, and a good time was had by all.

This week should be fairly straight forward-I was going to say "normal" but I'm not sure if that applies. Saturday will be an early start as we head down to Kingston for my mum's 60th birthday party. We will head back sometime Sunday in time for work & school.

I've been working on the secret project, which is coming along nicely, and have just realised that I will get a big chunk of knitting time in the car this weekend (at least 3 hrs each way). I also need to start Christmas decorations that I make for the kids' teachers each year, as well as my Embroiderers Guild Kris Kringle gift, and then there's the advent calendar that I need to sew.... Luckily I'm not planning on making lots of homemade gifts for Christmas this year!

The next couple of days are going to be much cooler than first thought-we were heading for 37-39C days, but now we've got 31-27C. Much more comfortable-and the forecast so far for the weekend looks to be warm (30C) but not overly so-thank goodness.

It's Heating Up

Well, so much for good intentions. First I had a day where nothing happened-well, nothing interesting anyhow. Then it got busy and I didn't have time to blog, and before you know it-here we are 9 days later.

Here's a few shots from the pageant-held through the main streets of Adelaide. We had a lovely day, but to get a good spot and allow for street closures it meant an early start for us (Luke & Ron left home at 5.15am, and Caitlin & I left at 6.15am). You can see the streets at dawn, and then later as the street began to fill up. We actually got to hear most of the bands (last year we seemed to be in a spot where every band had a break from playing).

Luke's camp went well, but he was very tired as he got home from camp on Friday afternoon, had scouts that evening, and then up at 5am for the pageant.

This weekend we hope to spend Saturday getting work done in the yard. Sunday is Ron's work family picnic in the Botanic Gardens. It's usually lots of fun, but the forecast is going to be fairly hot (36C) so shade will be at a premium. We've got another few hot days after that with 39C forecast for next Tuesday. We're hoping it will cool down after that as we have my mum's 60th birthday in the South-East at the end of next week.

Tomorrow will be me getting housework out of the way early so I can work on a secret project in front of the a/c and cricket before the kids get home from school, and the weekend begins....

Shopping!

I was going to take pictures of my purchases from our shopping trip today, but Ron had snagged the memory card from the camera, and now it is dark, so you will have to wait until tomorrow. Bobbie & I went to The Yarn Barn, which happened to have everything on sale, as they need to make room for new seasons stock. I picked up 8 balls of Jo Sharp DK Cotton in a nice blue, a skein of Filatura Di Crossa Centolavaggi (laceweight merino) in white, the Harmony Aran book, and a Fibretrends Mobius Scarf pattern. We next went to the Button Bar which stocks KnitPicks, and both stocked on up a few accessories we needed. Apparently the owner is also getting lots of Clover accessories-depending on the suppliers, maybe by the end of this month, or perhaps in January. We browsed Borders, Dymocks and Angus & Robertson, but didn't buy any books. It was good to see a lot of titles in print-some I thought I would like were not to my taste, and I did see one which I have ordered through Fishpond at a lot cheaper price. We also squeezed in a coffee and lunch break, before heading back to pick up kids, etc. All in all, a lovely day.


This afternoon has been busy with baking (supper for Luke to take on his camp) and packing, but tomorrow should be fairly quiet, so I should be able to catch up before a busy end to the week.













Here's a few more pictures from our holiday-kangaroos which would come and feed on the grass in the caravan park in Hall Gap (in the Grampians in Victoria), and various pictures around that area, including one which shows some burning off far in the distance.

Don't forget (especially those of you who don't read lots of blogs and may not know) that you can click on the photos to see a larger version.

Nearly every day

I knew I would miss a few days-because I've been blogging at the end of the day, it can easily forgotten with all the activity that happens.

Sunday was a quiet day as predicted, especially as we had a maximum of 14C and some more rain. The rain is more than welcome, but it does make strange to have the fire going in November.

I got organised and took some photos of some of my knitting-finished and in progress.

The pink/black thing is a lace sock (knitted in TOFUtsies-a soy/cotton/chitin[something to do with shellfish] combo). Next is the beginning of a log cabin blanket-similar construction to the quilted kind-the pieces are knitted together-not sewn. The somewhat bright item is a short-sleeved jacket I'm knitting for Caitlin out of Lincraft Bamboozle- a bamboo/cotton blend. Lastly is a cotton dishcloth-commonly known as the Ballband Dishcloth.

Tomorrow I am off shopping with one of our knitting group. Should be fun browsing craft and book shops together before the "fun" of Christmas shopping starts. Luke has a 3 day camp starting Wednesday and the weather looks great for that.

My Boyfriend's Back

Well, my husband's back. He got back this evening, and things are getting back to normal.

I took a look at my blog archives, curious to see what was happening a year ago. The main events early November were the craft fair, and the Christmas pageant. This year I have decided not to attend the craft fair. I told one of my friends at our knitting group this, and we decided that we would rather go shopping in the city, and also to the Yarn Barn, a LNS that is not so local to us. So hopefully this week we will be off to shop! Weather permitting, the pageant will be still on-next Saturday, in fact.

I was going to add a few more holidays photos, but blogger isn't co-operating at the moment.

Tomorrow should be a quiet day at home, with maybe some gardening and knitting.

Every Day?

Firstly, I want to thank those who read my blog, and those who leave comments. I am planning to write very regularly this month. In the US (and anywhere else that wants to join in, I guess) a thing called National Blog Posting Month, where participants post to their blog each day for the month of November. Being realistic, I don't plan to post every day, but would like to give it a go for most days. We'll see how it goes.

Ron is currently in PNG (Papua New Guinea), and has taken the camera with him, so I will have to use photos already downloaded, rather than taking anything new, for the moment.

Since I last posted we took part in the Long Walk. The weather was particularly nice-around 23C and sunny.

Here are a few photos I took during the day-vineyards, walkers, and a picture of the kids outside the Bridgewater Mill which was built by an ancestor, John Dunn.

The next day the weather was not so kind, with very nasty winds and rain which almost caused disaster at the wedding of Ron's workmate that we attended.

This tree top fell during the ceremony, but as it was on the other side of the winery, no-one knew about it until afterwards. Somehow it fell between all the cars, and hit nothing and nobody. We had a lovely time, and did much dancing, although many of our muscles protested with the aftereffects of the Long Walk.

I promised last post that I would have pictures of Caitlin's socks, and as it has been a while since I had a FO (finished object) to show-here they are.

They are knit using a basic sock pattern by Ann Budd from her book "Knitters Handy Book of Patterns" using Sullivans sock yarn. The yarn is quite thin, and as I have a fairly loose tension, I used 2mm needles. The first time Caitlin wore these, blue dye stained her feet, but after a wash (in the machine) the colour lightened and the yarn "bloomed" a little. The ball is a 120g ball, and even though these are a women's small size, I have quite a lot left. The main thing is that she likes and wears them, and they wash in the machine.

I think I will end off there-one of the advantages I can see about posting every day is that the posts won't be so long. All that "catching up" makes for big posts.