Zap Zap

Here is all I have managed for week 5 of embellishstitchenrich and I feel very guilty.
But I have made a start on the cot blanket, I have made another head and skun it but not painted it for the mermaid., I have had both hips and knees X rayed and I have been to the physio, so my back is feeling a bit better.
Lots of lovely rain and all the dug up drain trenches are now full of gooey sticky mud which is ok, but woe betide any one who walks it into the house.
Oh and I finished 'Wire in the blood', by Val McDairmid a scary sort of who done it that I couldnt put down at the end.

More Encounter Bay houses

I huddled over a heater for most of the day, I dont think the temperature got over 10 degrees all day, it rained and hailed off and on and I hope we got a lot of rain, we certainly didnt get much overnight.
I had the fire out and a new flue installed, thank goodness I had the fire lit again by 3.30 pm.
Somehow not a lot got done although I did skin another face for the mermaid as I really didnt like the last one. Still to paint this one.
I asked Dale what rayon she used to knit stuff with and it is floss!! I will need my glasses for that.
Our PM came into the district for about 1/2 hour to see the state the lakes and Murray were in, I dont think he was well briefed and he didnt let the local Mayors know he was coming, in the old days that was regarded as very impolite.
Not what you would call a roaring success and still no water for the area and the Coorong is on a world heritage listing.
Not good for Australia. I only hope he eventually learns and also stops opening his mouth, we are all heartily sick of the sound of his voice offering nothing.
Politicians!!

Walking Encounter Bay

As we walked yesterday, early on a Saturday very cold morning I thought I would turn the camera away from the lovely views of the beach and Islands and to the houses that look out over it.
They vary from the renovated very early cottage which is the first one, through to a slightly younger stone cottage, to the very modern ones that are replacing the old shacks to the little shack that is probably about 1950's it has been there for as long as I have been married any way.
Then the miriad of dog walkers, all with their "fluffies" which is my generic turn for todays designer dogs, mostly in this case Maltese Shiz Zu crosses.
Spoken of in a derogative by me, a breeder of pedigree dogs!! I just cant cope with these rather sweet little dogs as very often they have the worst physical problems of both breeds, and they yap.
Today I attended a very cold windy not well attended AGM of our Welsh Pony group, the lack of members coming was appalling, especially as after pressure from members we had it on a Sunday with a BBQ lunch.

Today I bought a book

Nothing unusual in that I buy lots of books but when I saw this on a throw out table I grabbed it.
It is one woman's ( Jean Holabird) description and thoughts in watercolor and poems of what it was like during the days and weeks afterwards when she was allowed back in to the red zone where she lived.
I have never been to New York and never saw the twin towers but I was one of the first allowed in to America after the shut down.

I was going to Doll U in Oakland California, on my own and then on to visit friends in San Diego and Houston before going on to Germany to stay with a friend.
At Doll U I met a young woman who was lucky, her railway station was under the twin towers but that day she had to be in another part of New York, we talked and talked about what it felt like.

While I was in America and before I left those images of the twin towers and the subsequent carnage were shown on TV over and over again.To me the whole thing was a very upsetting and moving experience and this book somehow encapsulates a time in my life I will never forget.

Nearly in the bedroom door

I hate mess and as I get older and less able to clean it up myself I like it even less.
today this was by the outside door to our bedroom, making a heck of a mess. I just hope my precious lemon tree recovers.
A huge amount of concrete has had to be pulled up as some where we have a broken pipe with roots in it, we thought the pvc stuff was much further out but unfortunately it wasnt so all along right next to the house there is an excavation.
So here is John with the excavator, whose owner Bronte White was at school with our children, he is a very nice fellow but oh dear, will the garden ever recover!
So dear friend Virginia whose Birthday it is today, that is why I was so late sending an e mail to you. I hope you had a lovely lovely day.

Book Cover

This is the cover I was supposed to be doing while at Grumpies the week end before last and I cut it too small for the book i had but today I found an Indian hand done paper book to cover instead.
Brown paper crumpled and bonded to felt, painted etc and a piece of lutradur and lace painted and distressed and sewn on, beads added.
These are fun and easy to do.
I do have a problem though, the book has lovely hand made paper but smells rather strongly of incense.
I did a lot of tidying up and not nearly as much work on stuff I am behind in as I had hoped.

Feeling overwhelmeed

I have so much on my plate at the moment and not a lot of time to get stuff done.
Yesterday I didnt blog as I cleaned the house, thoroughly due to the wind and dust we have been having, so too tired after that and nothing productive to say.
Today I have done these samples for my embellish course with Dale and and another one, skun a dolls face, not very well but time will tell how she turns out.
Fielded phone calls and helped John put some glass back in the door.
I hate to say how much is still to be done.
I enjoyed doing these samples, but the knitting takes time and I have some other knitted bits that need something done to them and tomorrow Dale will have another lesson for us.
July's TIF is there waiting for me and the sketchjournalling with Sharon has some exercises to be done as well.
It is my oldest grandson, Simon's birthday today, I think he is 22, how time flies.
Finally a beautiful day, after it blew all night and rained. A very disturbed night as things fell off the trees and hit the roof and rolled down into the gutter, the problems with having an iron roof!