Whale of a Time

Denise and I have been going stir crazy recently, and we just had to get out of Adelaide for the day. After being washed out a few weeks ago, finally had decent weather to go to Victor Harbor.
Weather was warm, although a bit blowy. We went for a walk around Granite Island, although we didn't see any Fairy Penguins. I'm offended, the name of these cute penguins have been changed from Fairy Penguins, to Little Penguins. Why? Because it might offend gay people?!?!?!?! That's political correctness gone overboard.

Some of the rock shapes on Granite Island are amazing. This picture of me isn't to show how small I am, but rather how big the rock is. It's quite an large hole that I've sheltered myself in.
Denise found herself a similar hiding place, although it seemed to be a well worn path. There were trails all over the island, some leading dangerously close to the rock edge or cliff, some going over the middle of the island, and one we took led right into a collection of rocks, with no sign of which way to go. I'm writing this, so we did figure it out.
And after all that exercise we just had to reward ourselves with strawberries and cream. And had to endure music pumping out of the kiddy ride.
We also went down to the Whale Centre to see if there were any local sightings. As luck would have it there were 3 in the next bay around, a 10 minute drive away. They would have been maybe 200m offshore. Thankfully I had my binoculars, so we were able to get an even closer view. Seems there was a family out there, two adults and a calf in the shallow surf playing in the waves. He surfaced several times, riding the waves, rolling around and blowing water into the air. The zoom on my camera isn't the best, but the black mark in the water is a whale fin as the calf went on a spin.Yes, I know its been a long time since my last blog, and the date stamp is really out on this. I've been saving and adding to the post several times, swearing at how long it takes to log in and load up a picture. Finally managed to do it.
Will try to post a bit more often. Have plenty of pictures waiting on the camera.

Cat Ate My Homework

The title of this blog relates to our darling furry daughter, and her antics the other evening while Denise was spread out over the bed with papers and text books. Frankie, being her cute self and wanting attention, did it in the best way she knew how.She didn't quite understand that it was mummy's Evidence lecture notes for an assignment due the next day, and not her dinner. She was so cute when she did it though.
Why is it cats know exactly where you are reading, and sit right on it?
Unfortunately Frankie is now shitty with us. She attempted another escape attempt on Saturday. As responsible cat owners we don't let her out to roam, mainly so she doesn't kill wildlife, but also because she is rather anti-social when it comes to other cats. We have many cats in our block of townhouses which she'd like to fight. She even tried to beat up our vet's cats.
Anyway, the escape attempt involved her scaling a 2m high corrugated iron fence (with no capping, so a sharp edge) and down over the other side. When I got the roller up, she stared at me with that guilty look. So, trussed up, I carted her back inside, and gave her some time out in the 'Sin Bin', which is the downstairs toilet. Small room, high window, she hates it. A minute in there and she scooted upstairs to sulk when we let her out.
This time of the year I get to enjoy one of my other passions. Gardening. Finally having the owners permission to remove a small Candle Pine from under the washing line, I've done a bit of renovation in the garden. Gone are the miniature roses that were neglected when we moved in, and slowly being replaced by a practical herb garden. Flowering, nice smelling and useful. Plus any future tenants don't have to attend to it like roses should have been. Part of the agreement I had with the owner about removing the Pine tree, was that I would replace it. We now have a lemon tree. Sick, iron deficient little thing, but I have bags of chook poop to nurse it back to health. Against the fence is a trellis, the remnants of something still entwined around it. I found raspberry canes at the local plant store. This year I hope to taste my first real fresh raspberry (not frozen or in cordial).
Also 'borrowed' a few polystyrene boxes from the bins at the Central Markets. They make the best portable vegie patch. From winter I've still got broad beans and brussel sprouts growing. I bought a punnet of lettuce seedlings, and they are now big enough to pick a couple of leaves for the odd sandwich every week. I planted radishes for Denise and I'm waiting for the tomato seeds on the kitchen window sill to get stronger before planning them out into the garden. I also have chillies and capsicum coming up everywhere. Whenever I use one for cooking I'll put the seeds in a pot and see what comes up. Lots of plants to give to friends too. Although I still have my four year old chilli plant, and it's still going strong.
Being a little lazy in the garden recently, I still have some plants that didn't quite die over winter. The rainbow chard has picked up again, and the rocket has gone to seed now the butterflies are about, hopefully to give me a huge box full by summer.
It seems like a lot of fuss to go to, and the results will be a handful of things to eat, probably what we'd eat in a week, but the results are so much tastier.

Show Time

Yes, the Royal Adelaide Show has come to Adelaide, and I managed to build up enough flexi time to get a day off of work.
The main aim of the day was not to stuff our faces with sugar and hurl ourselves around on rides, but rather to enjoy the real show things, the stalls, the produce, the animals, and to hunt down some beautiful wool. I think we succeeded. My stash bag was full, and the ideas and inspirations just wouldn't stop. Money did eventually.
My first purchase was at an alpaca stall. Big bins full with skeins of alpaca yarn in 5, 8 & 12ply in cream, brown and pitch black. Some beautiful twists of cream and brown, huge skeins to make jumpers, some ready made scarves, jumpers and mittens. I fell in love with a small bag of black 8ply wool. It was the only bag of black wool, which was a pity as the wool smelt strongly of mothballs and mustiness. I hope it washes out because the wool is so soft and beautiful. When I went to pay for it the woman commented 'Oh that will make a lovely scarf.' To which I replied that it was going to make a lovely pair of socks.
Next stop was the Spinners and Weavers Guild, where I found several small skeins of an electric blue handspun wool. Each skein was small, so all up I think I got around 300g. Again 'that will make a lovely scarf.' No, this will be used to make a vest, I've got a pattern in mind. Leftovers from Knitty.com. It will just be plain, not striped though.
The hall this was in also had a lot of old fashioned machinery, sheep shearing, processing and a guy who talks about how to use many of these things, while surrounded by ducks, hens and a dog. Rather fascinating, but I am so glad I don't have to go through all of that for my wool.
We made our way though the craft entries for judging, and found the SACSOS stall (South Australian Coloured Sheep Owner's Society). Beautifully coloured wools, and after looking at the wool I realised this is where I got the wool I made my big thick beanie from. Almost considered getting some more of their chunky wool for those bed slippers I still haven't made. But I did find a nice fine skein of reddy brown wool that I realised would go well as an edging for my planned vest. Denise also found two balls of purple wool because it looked nice. (tut tut, buying wool without a plan, not like Denise at all!) Again the comment 'that will make a lovely scarf.' No, this will go with some other wool I've purchased to make a vest. And I pulled out the electric blue wool, and she marveled at the colour too.
One last place had balls of wool, and that was in the fashion hall, where a lot of clothing companies who mainly made woolen and cotton clothing were set up. There was a stall selling Marino wool clothing and a small stash of wool. I picked up a tightly wound skein of lace weight yarn. Yet again 'there's enough there to make a scarf.' And then she told me that the 80g skein was $28. I smiled nicely, put it down and walked away. It was veeeery nice though.
Anyway, you may have noticed a pattern developing here. Everyone thought that this 20ish couple had fallen down in the latest wave of knitters and only knew how to knit scarves!!! And talked as though scarves were the only thing to knit out of the most beautiful wool. This wool was sitting there waiting to be turned into something beautiful, something artistic and creative, something that would enhance its colour and characteristics. I was almost tempted to buy more to save it from being turned into metres of garter stitch. Denise and reason saved me. Next time though...
We visited more 'real' show things too. The kids farm barn is always a good visit. Piles of baby animals, adults making goo-goo noises, kids in strollers, pigeons mating. Snapped a couple of photos, though not of the pigeons. In the main pen they have sheep, goats, ducks and more baby chicks than you'd think natural. You can imagine that after 4 days the animals are getting tired of thousands of faces and these peeping chicks. One of the goats had sat down to rest, and the chicks decided that this was a good place to sit, one even making it up to his horn. I remember my chicks use to love perching on high things, shoulders and window sill a favourite.
But the best place for baby hens was in the Agriculture shed, where the agriculture schools and TAFEs had set up stalls with animals and other farming related things (wheat, bread, solar power, oysters). By far the most popular part was the shallow pen with hundreds of fluffy chicks and 4 students carefully handing chicks over the young kids (and the occasional adult) to hold. I picked up a little runt, who contently sat just under my chin. My chooks loved sitting next to a warm body when they were babies. Yes, they loved it under my top.
Denise's chick seemed a bit flighty at first, but quickly got comfortable, and soon seemed asleep in her hands, as you can see. We had to come back for a second visit that day.
We also spent time wandering around the stalls selling amazing new inventions that have no practical purpose, businesses trying to cram a whole shop into 4m², and lots of samples. We were having a great time, holding hands in public (not just so that I wouldn't lose Denise in the crowd), we walked past the Christadelphian stall, with their smoking volcano with two of every animal depicting the Garden of Eden, or God's Kingdom, or something bible related. The two extremely conservatively people looked at us then deliberately turned their backs on us. It wasn't just turning around to see something, it was deliberate. Once we got over the surprise, I cracked up laughing. Really, what else can you do? Had half a mind to go back and find out their explanation of tolerance from the Bible. Hmmm.

Fun Summery Days

Denise and I had the greatest day together on Saturday. The weather in Adelaide was just perfect, nice and warm, but not too hot. Also the new East End Markets had opened up in the city, and we just had to visit.
Got quite a compliment about my knitting and designing skills that day. I was using my felted shoulder bag I made last year, and one of the craft stall holders commented on it. When I said that I made, it she mentioned that I should sell them. It got me thinking, while the bag may take me a bit of time to make, felted purses, small shoulder bags and coin purses would be perfect. Be a good excuse to perfect my pattern for the bag too.
Also picked up some jams and a loaf of sourdough bread while there. Then spent some time in at the Central Market and did the healthy thing. Bought lots of salad stuff, lots of fruit, large turkish pide, then went home and feasted on the whole loaf of bread and the jams while sitting in the backyard watching the cat meow at birds. It was so relaxing. Almost made me forget the housework! (Almost? queries Denise sarcastically)

Anyway, I have to go back about a week, because I had pictures I wanted to share but couldn't get them loaded onto my computer. Denise and I took our knitting goodies up to the Guardian Pharmacy to send over to Mongolia. We get our little thankyou badge in the mail after they order more in. In total we had 17 items this year, although some where items I finished just after last years closing date.
We had:

• 9 beanies
• 5 pairs of socks
• 1 pair of booties
• 1 pair of mittens
• and the Beige blankie
  

The socks were so much fun, playing around with different sizes, trying to figure out how the pattern worked and how I could adjust it. I've got some small mateless socks sitting in my knitting pot waiting for me to find the time to cast on a match.
There was another crocheted blanket that I was going to send off, but in comparission to the Beige Blankie it was tiny and I realised that it might fit a newborn but that's about it. So I hunted down some more mottled yarn and started hooking some more chains around and around and around. I'll let it continue to grow until I run out of yarn. The ball is 170g.
The Beige Blankie finally finished off at 1m square, which is a lot of beige, brown and muddy coloured yarn. Despite the holes in the blanket, it is actually quite warm. I'll miss having something so nice sitting on my lap as I work.
One thing is for certain, our little girl is not happy about losing her nice place to sleep. When laying the blanket out on the bed to photograph it, the cat decided that it was hers and she was going to claim it. She was looking at us as if to say 'Sorry mummy, this is mine and I'm not moving for you.' Thankfully we were able to get rid of the blanket and keep the cat. Although I have promised her that I am going to make her her own blanket out of the nasty big cone of super chunky yarn I picked up from the Goodwill Op Shop. $5 for a cone that is 10cm in diameter!!!
Other good news, my shoulder problems are slowly lifting. I spent a week of absolutely no knitting or crocheting, and it's worked. My problems have cleared up enough that the physio was able to get to the root of the problem, not just fix the symptom. So I'm doing exercises that are strengthening the core body muscles. It seems to be working. I'm slowly picking up my knitting again, and it takes me longer before I get to the stage of having to stop. I've got more movement in my shoulder than I've had since I started work. Its great, although I am very aware of my posture. No more slouching for me.
And because I can knit again, my Tubey jumper is now at a length that it covers the essentials, although not much further yet. And I've started on an urgent pair of wrist warmers for work. This spell of lovely warm weather has meant I went to work the other day in a t-shirt, only to realise that the airconditioner still works. In fact, with a completely sealed office, no open windows at all, the air conditioner will continue to work and spread its nasty cold germs. So by lunch time I was ready to go and sit in the sun to thaw out, only to go back inside and lose feeling in my fingers as I typed. So wrist warmers for work are the call for the day. And I've set myself a challenge too. I was knitting at lunch in the office lunchroom and one of the women who works in my area did the usual, "what are you knitting?" To which I told her wrist warmers. She laughed and commented "oh, they'll be ready for next winter then?" "No, next week!" I replied. I can get them done in that time, it just depends on whether wrist warmers also suffer from second sock syndrome.

Vegetable Patties

This is one of my mum's recipes, loosely based around German Kartoffelpuffer (Potato Pancakes).
This recipe is another great way to get rid of vegetables, and getting kids to eat those nasty vegies, like spinach and zucchini.

Potatoes
Vegetables (such as grated sweet potato, zucchini or carrot, shredded spinach or silverbeet, frozen diced vegetables, corn, peas)
Salt or Powdered Stock to taste
Herbs such as basil or thyme (optional)
Eggs
Plain Flour

Grate or shred vegetables as needed.
Add salt/stock and herbs if wanted. Mix.
The amount of eggs and flour needed depends on the amount of vegetables it needs to 'glue' together. Roughly two eggs to every one cup of flour.
Mix until the egg and flour are well combined and no longer lumpy.
Heat a frying pan, adding a light covering of oil.
Add spoon-sized dollops of mixture to the pan, spreading out to the size of a pikelet or
Cook until golden brown and easily comes away from the pan. Flip and cook other side.
Serve with sauce. Tomato, BBQ or Sweet Chilli tastes good.

Variations: for a meat version add finely chopped cooked meat, or seafood meat/stick. Works well with most leftovers, including BBQ sausages.
Also similar to Okonomiyaki, or Japanese pancakes, and can be served with oyster sauce and mayonnaise.