The French Probably have a Word For This

Why is it that I have my best ideas at 4am and then never remember them later? At 4 am this morning, I was lying in bed, having got up to comfort a sick child (now son – daughter better) and was thinking about knitting (as you do) and the blog (as you do), and came up with a wonderful, wise, witty yet highly amusing take on life, the universe, and everything. Unfortunately, I have no idea now what I was thinking about then.

So unless it suddenly comes back to me, you’ve missed out!

Spring is definitely here.

These are living proof of why laziness is a wonderful thing – as is the fine art of procrastination. The first year we moved back to Tasmania (2000), I planted tulips in what was then a flower bed. Seven years later, we’ve ditched the flower bed, but I never moved the tulips, despite fully intending to for at least 4 years. They have now naturalised, and come up happily every year, spreading over a wider and wider area (which then can’t be mowed because of the tulips). Ain’t they grand?!?

Additional proof of spring is supplied by this:

This is the weeping cherry with the Mt Fuji ornamental cherry in the background. Don’t they look fine? Normally I don’t approve of pointless trees – especially those which only look good for about 2 weeks a year – but when they look good, they certainly look great!

My favourites are fruit trees, because they look great, then you get fruit. This garden has been established for a loooooonnnngg time. We have evergreen magnolias well over 15 metres tall, we have camellia trees – not bushes, trees over 10 metres tall (just ask Kate), quinces and apples, enormous old mulberry trees held together with equally enormous bolts and every spring flower you can think of.

The poor garden is horribly neglected, but does its best to look good under the most trying of circumstances. I have tomatoes I must plant out, but I am a bit loath to do so, give the fact that we’ve had gales and hail, rain and wind, sunshine and there’s STILL snow on the mountains.

It’s hard to believe that NSW and the ACT are sweltering, when it’s so cold here.

On the knitting front, I’ve been working on a sock design for SSS and hope to have it written up and on the needles next week. Some of it baffled me when I tried to translate a lace stitch into not only knitting in the round, but knitting in the round inside out and upside down. We’ll see.

The Happy Clappy will be finished tonight (having said that so confidently, I am bound to be struck down by the knitting Goddess, so I’ll re-phrase it). I hope to have the Clappy finished tonight – It looks beautiful, even if I do say so myself, and I can definitely see another one sometime in the future.

The Princess has improved, healthwise at least – I’ve considered listing her on eBay several times in the past week, but I doubt anyone would bid. Now Destructoboy has been struck down. It’s an odd lurgy, this one. Mild fever, general lassitude and off the food-ness, some headache and sleepiness, and a high level of whinginess and clinginess. Just what a mother needs!

The sad fact is, that when they’re REALLY sick, they’re actually terribly nice. Small, snuggly and sweet. When they’re on the mend they’re whiny, whingy and annoying – prone to tantrums and unexplained storms. When they started fighting and yelling at each other last week, we knew the Princess was well enough for school.

So, she only attended half the circus class, but did manage her entire 45 minute first swimming class yesterday and actually swam – huge excitement all round.

That’s more than enough. We’re off tomorrow to the northern Capital for a surprise party (ssshhhh! Don’t tell!) and I will finally get some sock knitting in on the lovely Tulip feather and fans. Hurrah!!

Hopefully life will return to what we fondly regard as normal by next week!

Rubber Ducky, You're the One....

Sssssh! Can you keep a secret? I sneak off for baths! That’s right – I slope off at early hours of the morning when I waken early and can’t sleep, and submerge myself amongst bubbles with a book, a face mask and my glasses fogging up!

Why do I sneak off like that? Well, much as I love my children, the only way I can claim a little time for myself is to sneak down to the bath very early on a Sunday morning and spend an hour floating in bubbles. Then I get back into my pyjamas and sneak back into bed. If I don’t get the timing absolutely right, I end up with a 5 year old girl – screaming (literally) down the stairs into the bathroom, stripping as she runs until she jumps in with me.

I really don’t mind my little girl joining me in the bath, and playing games and splashing. It’s just that my baths are a quiet and relaxing time, and always, by the time she gets there, the water is starting to cool off and I have to stay for another half an hour in increasingly cold water playing boat, bubbles or whatever other game she invents!

Yesterday was a lovely spring day – which can only mean one thing – spring cleaning! We attacked the courtyard, pulling up weeds, tidying the pot plants and planning plantings in the big bed against the wall. All winter, the courtyard gets no sun, then around now it starts trapping the sun, and the old red bricks of the wall start preventing frosts. So this year, instead of grass, I’m going to plant tomatoes and lettuces (and maybe a cucumber) in the bed to catch the sun. The warmth of the wall means no frost there as well, so even a late frost shouldn’t get my tomatoes!

On the Seven Things Challenge:
IN:
Well, the shoes – obviously – 2 pairs of Birkis (pls see previous post to admire their beauty!);
1 apricot top from the Op shop, and 4 patterns from same;
1 boys summer hat and 2 tops for children (winter sale at local children’s wear shop);
Vogue Knitting and Creative Knitting;
1 skein Marion’s sock yarn;
My Sublime lay-by paid off (plus the stash bag gift and 2 balls cheap Jo Sharp DK);
My Lay-by from Local haberdasher paid off - 4 balls leaf green Patons, 2 Christmas presents and buttons for the squatty sidekicks;

In: 17 balls of yarn, 15 other items

OUT:
2 bags cot sheets, baby blankets and ancillary stuff for the child care centre
1 toy also for above
1 bag of clothes for Lifeline
1 breadmaker (running) needs new washer and probably loaf tin – ready for Lifeline
3 Patons patterns – to Taph!!!
9 bags of childrens gear listed on Ebay (not yet sold – finishes tomorrow)

Out: 17 bags of stuff!

That has to be in front, doesn’t it?
I’ve also organised pram, cot, portacot, car seat and so on to be listed in the classifieds – though that will be next week.

We also attacked the wine cellar – although that does not qualify as de-cluttering because we work out what needs to be drunk, but organising it did mean removing and re-organising all the half empty boxes, so maybe it qualifies – 5 empty boxes gone!

Further to a post from a while back, I have seen two movies this week I really enjoyed – for entirely different reasons.

We watched 300 the other night, and I was very impressed. It was stylised and stylish, used lots of CGI as an integral part of the look, told an old story well (even if it did takes some liberties with Herodotus), and I really enjoyed it. Deeper than it looks – lots of allegory and poetry mixed with the mythology. I can see that it wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but it was mine – and considering some of the pap I’ve noticed recently, a huge step up!

The second was ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’, also a non-Hollywood production. This is Spanish (the Spaniards are making some noteworthy films) and set in the era of the Spanish Civil War – gorgeous, interesting, phantasmagorical, surreal. In the words of Molly Meldrum ‘Do yourself a favour’. It was beautiful, but not great for complex knitting (subtitles!).

Knitting. Here is one repeat of the cable pattern from Juno’s collar.

I am enjoying it, but I can’t let my attention slip at all! Luckily, the pattern is written out, rather than charted (I’m not great at charts), and is a 16 row repeat over 38 stitches. I’m having trouble coping with the cable needle – which keeps trying to escape, especially on the cables at the very beginning of the rows – first stitch goes onto the cable needle! So far, I’ve only had to tink half a row (although I’m sure that will change).

I love the way the cables look, and I’m very proud of the 3D nature of the knitting, but I cannot see any way in which I am likely to become a FAST cable knitter. In one and a half hours last night I did one pattern repeat. 16 rows over 38 stitches- hour and a half! – even the monkey socks I could do 2 repeats at least! (11 rows over 60sts on DPNS)!

All tips on increasing speed and growing 3rd hand gratefully appreciated!

The grass is as high as an elephant's.....

Well, there’s Father’s Day over and done with for another year! The Accountant received a beautiful coaster from the Princess (made in Kinder) along with the requisite hand-made card and key-ring, along with 2 shirts and a lovely silver punch-server. I also extended myself and made Brioche for breakfast (the little bobbles on the top were the most popular bits for children).

Took daughter to the local circus annual performance. These guys run a circus school and the Princess has been hanging out to turn 5 and thereby be allowed to go to circus school. I’m hanging out until she turns 15 and runs away to join the circus!

She’s been able to turn somersaults since she saw a child do it on Playschool when she was 18 months old. She’s also in love with being upside down on the monkey bar on her swing – so anything which might allow her to swing in the air turning around while upside down has her vote. I prefer the idea of circus school to ballet – as a veteran of the ballet wars (I danced for 17 years) I know what the injury rate is. I stopped being serious about it when I was taught how to wrap my toes so that when they bled (not IF – WHEN they bled) they wouldn’t ruin the inside of my pointe shoes.

I have the feeling that circus is a wider range of skills and possibly more fun and less seriously pink and girly.

I took Princess to Cirque du Soleil when we were in Canberra earlier this year – she didn’t take her eyes off the stage and sat with her mouth open barely speaking through the entire performance. Anything which renders the Princess speechless is to be seriously encouraged.

Just returned from assisting with a post Walk-a-thon BBQ at the school, so am feeling seriously diligent and dutiful – quite enough overt motherliness for one day, I think.

Juno is progressing nicely – up to the armholes on the left front, despite having to frog 25 rows because I forgot to do the increases, and then frog 10 rows after re-knitting because for some weird reason my subconscious decided I needed increases on both sides (I probably do, but let’s not get into that).

I also followed Taph’s lead and am trying to spring clean. Two boxes of toys are ready for the local not-for-profit child care centre, along with a ride on toy, one very large bag of assorted clothes etc is off to Lifeline, one bag of nappies and baby stuff off to a friends for her little one, another off to another friend for her little one. A box of crockery and kitchen ware is also half finished for Lifeline – so that’s seven boxes and bags and lots more than 7 items. – Still heaps to go to attempt to de-clutter this place!!

Kate was talking about the nude Olympics her children engage in – my children love running around sans clothes and now that Destructoboy has been toilet trained and nappies are a thing of the past – he is often to be seen sprinting past – willy waving in the breeze. Now that spring is here, summer’s not far away, and that means nudie splashing in the paddling pool and slippery sprints through the garden (although I insist on shoes – some thistles always get missed when I chip the lawns - well grass – not nearly well enough looked after to be actual ‘lawn’. I don’t worry about lawns – I’m like Peter Cundall – lawn is just green stuff you walk over on the way to the fruit trees and veggie garden).

Garden's currently doing a great job of burgeoning – first of the blossoms (Kentish cherry) have bloomed, as have camellias and rhodos. I have 2 camellia trees which stand over 10 metres high – yes, 10 metres. I think they are probably quite old. They look very beautiful at the moment, as do all the others about the place.

Hurrah for spring – and for all the things which grow and require me to do absolutely nothing to make them look beautiful!