january gone

well, here we are on the last day of the first month of the

New Year

and what a month it has been

world wide

I mean

don't think anyone will be sorry to see this one leave

I just took some mail to the box

to find it is quite mild and dripping all over the place

but we are being warned about another storm making its way towards us

It is winter, it is winter, it is winter, it is winter

oooohhhhmmmmm

:)

Well I took the first attempt off the needles

it isn't blocked or even stretched

I sort of ran out of what to do next

it got easier to maneuver the yarn as I went

learnt how to hold it with my left hand, so now I can kinda sorta

knit continental!!!!

does this happen to you

you find something new and it takes over your whole brain

everything you look at becomes a pattern

I am surrounded by lots of different things

from lots of different places

and they each have a pattern of sorts

so I now have to put them on paper

somehow

I have looked and looked at fair isle patterns and they aren't anything very complicated

and with two colours only

anything can become an outline

plus things I see that have nothing to do with knitting

suddenly inspire

colours

shapes

texture

La Belle Helene

is going back to her roots, so to speak

and she has a picture on her blog that makes me want to buy more yarn

in the colours of her work

and "paint" with yarn and pattern

but I cannot, because I don't have the wherewith all at the moment

and

I have vowed not to buy new until I have used at least half of what I have

but I don't have pastel colours and that is what I would need

so I sit and look and drool

thanks Elaine!!!!!

xx

after I drew the pattens

I took up the needles

chose two colours

trying to be professional and using the colour wheel

and put the

"plum pudding" with the "gilded age"

basically

yer yellows and yer purples!!!!

and I'll see how far I can get with this new obsession

I did learn very quickly to do the seed stitch on the edges

no "curly whirly" on this one!!!!

so along with all the household duties

and there seem to be many this

grey and yucky morn

I will be sitting and knitting

and cheering the revolutionaries along

and hoping all of you are well

at the start of another week

:)



sunday scenes

the snow and ice are slowly melting

this was Friday as the snow fell on top of what we already had

Today the paper whites have finally started to open

they are so very welcome

and there are a few more to come

While the world changes

for the better we all hope

the animals still need to eat and make it through yet another day 

with a cold and snowy ground

they line up in the trees

and wait their turn

always on the look out

but finally able to pick and choose what they want

I am busy making X's on graph paper

while I listen to the chants for freedom

as I try to make designs to knit

the hardest thing is to choose the colours

but I have begun and hopefully

I'll have a something or other to show soon

thank you all for the comments

of late

it helps so much to get encouragement

to keep going and trying

;)

don't have a plan in the old head

just seeing what can be achieved

I did think maybe a tiny bag of some sort to start with

hope you are all well and happy

I am!!

:)

power to the people

isn't it amazing that we can sit in our living rooms and watch this live!!!!

a country standing up and making their voices heard

the sound of silence

broken only by the call of the geese

the song of the birds

and

the crunch of the snow ploughs

as they scrape the roads

of the snow and ice

that fell on us all.

about two hours after my last post

the lights went out

and they stayed out

we very rarely lose the power here

we are on a co-op that somehow stays together

as the big huge power companies a little further North

fall like dominoes

plunging hundreds of thousands of people into the dark

and cold

we have a gas fire place that works without electricity so we had warmth

the hubs bought an oil lamp that gives us a light

and we don't have kids to worry about

(well, we have kids, but not here at home

and yes, we worry, a lot, about them

being out in the cold and traffic

but you know what I mean)

the snow that fell on us all

came down at a rate of 2" an hr.

there was thunder and lightning with it

it has been named

"thundersnow"

and

"carmaggedon"

the traffic all over the area got so snarled

it took some people

12hrs to get home

cars had to be abandoned because they ran out of gas

people walked miles in the freezing cold because there was no other way

emergency and police and road crews were unable to get through the traffic

we listened to the  battery operated radio

and heard the stories from the people in their cars

tell of the nightmare they were stuck in

one of the reporters called every half hour to report on her journey home

usually an hour's trip that turned into an almost 8 hr crawl

and when she finally got home the lights were out and trees were down and then her battery died

so I don't know what happened next

our power came on at about 11.30 pm

I went to bed a little after that

 and the phone rang..... it was the power co telling us our power was back on!!!!!

at about 6.30 ish... I woke up because  husband was lighting the fire place again

the power had gone again

we have a gas cook top

so we were able to make some tea and I listened again to the radio

one million people without power

abandoned cars all over the place

hi ways and byways covered in ice and drifts and trees and branches

and live wires on the ground

Power company officials making all sorts of promises and giving all sorts of excuses

again

the system to get people out of a city that isn't that big to begin with

crumbled almost at the first sign of a snow flake

too many cars on too few streets

too many officials not using common sense and letting everyone go out

into an approaching storm all at the same time

kids in school buses

kids alone at home

parents stuck in traffic that was at a complete standstill for up to 12hrs

12 hrs

!!!!

when the lights came on at 11.30 I saw the pictures and heard the frustration and saw the anger

and the thing that hit the hardest was the

fear

so many asking what would happen

if something happened

this was a snow storm

and

the system broke down fast and furious

it has happened before

but never on this huge a scale

and it WILL happen again

but nothing ever seems to change

no one uses common sense

the "plans" never work and it seems no one ever learns anything

and one of the first things I heard when the TV was turned on

is that we no longer have a

colour coded system to show us how much

"danger"

we are in

home land security has done away with the "colours of fear"

but the fear of what is real and present

has no colours

well

that's another story I guess

people died in that storm

a man was crushed in his vehicle by a falling tree

no one could help him and they found him somewhere else

which means he got out of his car and went looking for help

he never found it

he died in the snow and ice

alone

if a snow storm,

albeit a freakish one,

can bring an area to a screeching halt

so fast and so completely

I wonder what will happen

when something happens

will a lesson be learnt from this

?

.......

while the power was out we were home safe and sound

the ploughs came and cleared the roads

our neighbours drove in and out of the neighbourhood

the clouds parted and the sun came out and the snow started to melt

the sky turned that blue that it turns, after a storm has gone through

the hubs cleared the front and I tidied up the house a little

and made things easier in case we needed to move around in the dark again

he read and I knitted

and drank a lousy cup of coffee!!

we had grilled cheese for brunch!!!!  because we have a gas cook top

(we did that on purpose, because, we live out in the country and the lights go out, once in a while)

we know how to do things to "survive" for a few hours

we collected snow in buckets to use in the bathroom.....

I filled bottles with water because we lose that as well, because we have,

well,

a well!!!

 and thought about cooking some things

.....

and

 as soon as we had made ready to maybe go through another night without power

the lights came back on and they have stayed on

but there are thousands, hundreds of thousands,

 who still sit in their cold houses just a few miles outside

of

the nation's capital

and life continues as always

the house is back to it's "used look"

and the cat is settling in for a long nap

after watching the birds outside, eating as much as they can

 she is warm and fed and safe

the kids are OK

the people made it home



except for one

......

PS I just looked outside and it's
snowing
again!!!

wednesday works

so this is what I did today

I even show the back

ta-daa

decided to make a rustic apple pie

and some pasta sauce for tonight

it started to snow

and it still is

this is one we aren't going to miss

it's coming down

fast and thick

and all she wants to know

is

are my bowls going to be filled anytime soon

yes mummies angel

right now

see ya
!!!

:}



frozen no more

First of all

Tammy ...... :)

the geese are NOT frozen in the ice

they "froze" in place when they saw me coming

they were very carefully strolling across the lake from one side to the other

when I decided to go out and try the zoom lens again

(it doesn't make a difference that I can see  ? )

If they had been frozen, I would have been out there with hammer and chisel

believe me

they stopped stock-still

and just stared at me

as they always do

the day before, the water was not frozen like this

it was the coldest day we have had

and the water was free of ice

but the night was even colder

and the lake froze completely

so they had nothing to do but stroll around

(I tried the video on the camera so you could see how very very careful they are with each step

so as not to fall on their bums and make a fool of themselves,

which happens!!

and also hear the noises they make

but

there is no zoom and the wind was all you could hear!!)

a little later there was a spot that melted and all the ducks

not the geese

waddled over to the water and had a bath

they do that you know

splash and dive and preen themselves

it was too dark by then to shoot them

and they would have flown away anyway

so you will have to imagine them

here ends the farm report!!

this was all the sun we saw yesterday

the storm that is causing all sorts of weather problems was beginning to cover us

and it was quite warm

well compared to the day before it was!!

with a sky as wintry as that

I took pictures of the blazing sun inside

the hubs has a thing for

gerbera daisies

and we got some to brighten up the inside

they really are this bright

:o

I love the black centre

I feel I'm being watched

somehow!!!

you lookin' at me?

the others are still going strong

and even thought they aren't as

day-glow

as the daisies

they are still so pretty

I played around with some graph paper

and decided to see what I could come up with

the light here is dreadful

we are getting rain and ice and snow

 so there is no light whatsoever at the moment

 I guess today will be another winter day spent

with yarn and needles

and hopefully a brilliant idea

and

the ability

 to bring it

to

 the

 needles

Hope your day is bright and cheerful

and if it isn't

well

it will be one day soon!!!

:)

how not to do it!!!

"it"

 "is"!!!

I did it!

it's bad

:{

for a first it isn't as bad as it could be

but it's still not good

alas

I said I would show it

and

I am
showing it

I can see all the puckers and bumps and lumps
and a very obvious badly done join or carry

it isn't

blocked

and I'm not 100% sure how to do that

but I'll look it up and see if that helps

I haven't got a clue what to do with it

if anything

I think this is one of those things that you have to learn

as a child

at the knee of a professional
.

teacher
.

grandmother
.

mother
.

aunt
.

or a really nice neighbour
....

I did learn a couple of things

how to carry the yarn across the row

how to use the bobbins

how to swear

and have a hissy fit every 10 mins or so

as you look back over the row you just did and discover two mistakes

or threeeeeee

learning to take your time

it isn't a contest

well it is

against yourself

and it isn't a big deal

coz it's a practice piece

(I am very hard on myself and always think I should get it the first time
and having looked at the example in the book
I'm actually not that far off)

!!

and when the hubs keeps asking

what's it going to be

:P

learn to smile sweetly

and

not answer!!!!!

Now an explanation of what happened to this page yesterday

I decided it was time to change the

header photo

as you all know I am wont to do

I loaded a new one

and it came out tiny

I then went into the

templates

and discovered that

Blogger

has given us new fonts

and

as I am wont to do

I started playing

and got totally lost in all the

newness

I never go to the help page or the blogger updates

so I had no idea there was a problem reported with the

header uploads

so I had to leave it as it was

I have now changed it back

and the header is working once again

so

thank you

blogger

I'll check in with you once in a while

but I may go back and change the

posting font again

I like the one

that looks like I

wrote it by hand

well

after I figure out how to block the block

see ya

:)