A silver lining.

I have been knitting Himself a jumper. I purchased the yarn during lockdown and it wasn't exactly the colour I had hoped it would be. It was quite pink, and while Himself doesn't have a problem wearing pink, this particular shade was not really flattering. I had nearly finished the body, had made several small mistakes and just wasn't really feeling it.

This morning at around 5 one of the dogs was scratching at the door. Himself got up and the next thing I heard was "What is THIS?? BAD dogs". Oh shite, I thought and got up to see what had happened. Someone had decided that the knitting in my bag was rather nice and had dragged the knitting bag to the back door, removed the knitting and had eaten the wooden needles. Fortunately the bag was unharmed as I am rather fond of it. Himself was rather surprised I wasn't angry but deep down I was quite thrilled. Now I had a good reason to buy a colour I prefer and knit with more concentration and fewer mistakes. Hooray - a trip to Little Woolie Makes in Hastings. Best yarn shop in the world.

I put a call out and T came with me. I bought yarn I am happy with. Had a drool over all the beautiful new yarn they have in stock and got some cotton to crochet face scrubbies for the daughters in law. They work up really quickly and are a great way to wash your face/remove your makeup without using those indestructible 'disposable' wipes.

T and I then went and had lunch. My shout to pay/thank her for making a doll for me to give Alice for Christmas. I just don't have time.

Home to spend a couple of hours weaving and I now have 3 more runners to take to L'arte tomorrow. Tonight I will cast on jumper v.2.

It looks as if Boxing Day lunch will be here. Himself doesn't appear overly thrilled but too bad. I just have to do all the prep myself and not get stressed. I am thinking we will do everything (bar the wine) from Aldi. And keep my fingers crossed people can behave like adults!

Craft group tomorrow. 

Now it's wine o'clock.

M.I.A.

I have been feeling very blah of late hence the paucity of posts.

It is, sadly, the norm for me at this time of year. As I have mentioned before, being the mother of boys means that I don't get a look in over the festive season. They all go to the other side of the family. 

I used to love Christmas. The shopping for gifts, the planning, the wrapping, the decorating etc. Now I don't even bother. One would think shopping for the grandkids would be fun but they have everything. Even books are hard as I have no idea which ones they own. 

This year is added to by a rift between Himself and Other Brother. OB and his wife came over between lockdown 77,098 and 98,452. Sister in law and I made the mistake of going and picking veges from my garden leaving the blokes alone. Himself and OB got into a "discussion". Not sure exactly what it was about but it would have been political. OB yelled for SIL and when we came inside he was shaking with rage, Himself was sitting looking bemused but determined and a hasty retreat was beaten. To this day we have two different stories from two different husbands. Sadly, my brother never forgets a slight (disagreeing with or questioning him is a cardinal sin but Himself chose to ignore that memo) so it is unlikely we will get together with them over Christmas. I have put it out there and we shall see. Dr Teacher will agree although Mrs Teacher #2 is questionable. #1 was lovely. This one seems to need to prove something generally by lecturing everyone so conversations are difficult. 

I caught up with Sister in Law today and we had lunch and a really good chat. She is the sister I never had. Living with my brother is a challenge and he doesn't get easier as the years go by. At least Himself has mellowed over time. A bit.

So, my blogger friends, that is why I have been missing in action.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better and my funk will have lifted.

Debby posted this. It made me snort into my wine. 

Musings

After reading Andrew's post this morning about music it got me thinking about some of my favourites. Here, in no particular order are some ...

This is my favourite carol and this clip has a bonus - DRUMS!!

This cracks me up every time I watch it.

I could go on but that's enough for today.

Music calms me down, revs me up, makes me happy, brings me to tears. Sometimes the tears are because I can't stand what I'm listening to but on the whole there is little I really don't like - apart from opera. And doof doof.

Speaking of bringing me to tears - this does it every time.

They were only kids.

Weekend

I couldn't get up the energy to post yesterday. It was a lovely day with craft group, a sleeping Alice, steak for dinner and a really nice red wine.

Today I am planning to do another 2 runners after swearing I wouldn't but I will make them simple. Hells bells, I might even do 3.

Himself is pottering in the garage whilst watching Bathurst (super car racing for those non-australian/nz).

I have a loaf of bread proving and pizza dough in the fridge for dinner.

Below I will post the before and after shots of the driveway. As much for Chris who has had a shocking time with tradespeople lately. What has happened to customer service?

This was after they had dug up original patterned concrete driveway and were laying the crushed rock.

Getting ready to lay the brick edging. This took a good 2 days.

The completed drive. Neat and tidy.

It's a loooong driveway!

The path. They didn't bother ripping the old one up. Just laid bricks and poured the asphalt. Thank goodness it's not a slipping hazard any more.

So there you have it. We love it and whilst it wasn't cheap, it was less than we feared. The company is local and the owner is a lovely young bloke. The care they took was refreshing.

Right. Off to get the bread in the oven and start weaving. I should probably change out of my jammies but it is Sunday!

Lodged

 The rain to the wind said,

"You push and I'll pelt."

They so smote the garden bed

That the flowers actually knelt,

And lay lodged - though not dead.

I know how those flowers felt.

Robert Frost

I love Robert Frost's poetry. Yesterday's evening storm put me in mind of this poem. At least it wasn't as ferocious as the last one although the wind initially was a bit scary. Then lots of thunder and lightning (which should actually be lightning and thunder as that's the way they happen). Heavy rain which left us feeling hot and sticky with the humidity. Eventually the storm cleared and the air was cool and washed and lovely.

Today I caught up with the craft group. Only a handful of us which was disappointing. People are busy at this time of year but a personal bug bear is replying yes then not turning up. Alice was unsettled. I have spoken to Three and he has agreed to have both girls tomorrow afternoon so Amy can have some true down time. Granny can only do so much.

Chris makes amazing runners and I ordered these. They arrived today. I giggle inside every time I look at them.

I really need to get into the Christmas spirit. Like do some shopping. 

Maybe next week .......

Friends

I caught up with T and K for brunch today. We are different in ages (65, 56, 41) and circumstances but we all share mental health challenges, a love of craft and a wicked sense of humour. K has a lot of issues at the moment and is being taken advantage of by so many people including her family. It upsets me when lovely people are treated like this. I hope our 3 hours of nattering helped her.

I then went to the $2 shop and got some Christmas crap for my front garden to add to the elf and next year's diary (the diary isn't going in the front garden). I do like a paper diary as it enables me to check things that happened ages ago. I should start culling them I guess. Maybe I will get a yearly planner thingy and write all the important things in one place. I don't really need to know when I had coffee with a friend but health things and animal things and stuff like that are important and my memory ain't what it used to be.

Himself has gone to the supermarket. We need vanilla ice cream. I told him to get the vanilla bean ice cream from Aldi. He asked which one. I told him to decide how poor he felt when he was there! He'd better get the expensive one - it's a whole $2 more but much nicer. Aldi lasagne again - his choice - with salad for dinner and fruit and ice cream for dessert. My virgin wine box arrived yesterday so we have some very nice reds to choose from. If the change doesn't come through soon I might have to have a beer as well. I don't dislike beer but it has to be one I like and only one; more than that and I start to feel uncomfortable. I don't understand how people can down so many in one sitting. Wine - now that's another story!

The rains are coming....

Ikea wins.

We got the quote from Barb. She came in slightly less than Ikea but because everything we get with Ikea is brand new and with Barb we will still have the existing cabinetry we have decided to go with them. Himself has spoken with Amy's step dad who did our bathroom and other renos and he can do it around March. Next step is to make the final appointment with Ikea to pick exactly what we want with fixtures and drawer innards and so on.

The call with the aunt and the financial adviser and step cousin went ok. She said she has a credit card which is $7,000 in credit. That freaked me out as if it gets stolen the bank will only reimburse her the credit limit. I am calling her this afternoon to find out what the story is there. Otherwise there were no surprises. She is still very naïve when it comes to finances and is easily confused. I am ringing her at 4pm. Gin o'clock will be early today!

They came and cut up the remains of the big tree that came down in the great storm of 2021. The needed a crane to get it onto the flat bed truck. A contract chipperer will come later to turn the rest into mulch. It's too much for the council chipperers to do. Shows you how big it was. Himself had a lovely chat with the blokes and found out that every single tree in the City Frankston that is on nature strips and parks (not the bushy bits) is identified and checked every two years. If it turns out this was overdue or nearly due we might have a case but I'm not holding my breath.

I am giving the brioche one more go. It's outside on the balcony proving (it's over 30* C today). We are having Aldi fish cakes with salad tonight so some fresh bread would be nice. If it doesn't work I won't buy it again. Simples.

Pruned the roses this morning before it got too hot. I tried yesterday but burnt my feet so I wore flip flops/thongs/jandals. Poor things are really struggling with the black spot and I think I have lost one. Once the weather cools a bit I will spray them and feed them.

Right. Time to get some weaving in before The Phone Call. I think I will have Green Ant gin and tonic water tonight.

********************************************************************************************

Well, the best laid plans and all that. I rang Amy to see how she was going and she wasn't coping so over I went. Alice was very unsettled. Even Super Granny couldn't calm her down for long. I tried a few things and they worked initially but I think the heat and impending storm had her discombobulated. The aunt rang at 4.05 as I was wrangling a screaming baby. Told her I'd call back in half and hour. We bathed said baby and in the end gave her some panadol. Something was obviously causing her grief. She settled and I was walking out the door at 4.35 and the aunt rang again. I wish I was closer as she gets very stressed. Got home to Himself all stressed because he broke the secateurs he bought me FOR MY ROSES cutting up rosemary and couldn't find the receipt. And the brioche loaf I left him with strict instructions for? Burnt. 

I ended up having a very strong gin.