north saanich reveal thyself!

ok i can't stand it anymore - there is someone from north saanich in canada who has been reading my blog for the last little while and i have no idea who you are!

you keep appearing on the parchment scroll of the live traffic feed and i am dying of curiosity...

and my regular sojourners from latvia - i would love to know who you are too :)

dodgy is as dodgy does

long haul textile seahorse readers may remember that i have what is known in medical circles as a dodgy back. remember this?

well i have been an absolute goose for the last couple of months denying there's anything wrong with my back and that it will fix itself etc etc.

and of course now find myself up in the murk midnight more often than not taking painkillers and blearily surfing the net while i wait for said painkillers to kick in. although tonight they're not. and i find myself wondering if i was really sold tramadol or some pale placebo....

and, interstate last week, i seriously contemplated ringing reception to help me get dressed as i couldn't reach my feet.

call me a meta-goober - i'm off to the physio to be righteously chastised and hopefully fixed

when is a nickname not a nickname?

when it's an ekename.  one of my small delights is etymology and wandering around the dictionary and one of my favourite evolutions is nickname. it started off as 'ekename' in Middle English meaning other name and gradually 'an ekename' elided into 'a nickname'. isn't that cool?

one of my favourite goon show lines is eccles' joke on the subject
'i've got a nickname, you know'
'what is it?'
'nick'. 

doesn't look so good written down but heard over the wireless in ecclesian tones it's hilarious.

i was musing on the theme of nicknames this morning as i thought of how many mutations of names i use for my nearest and dearest:  the kids each have at least 3 or 4 nicknames as do the animals and everyone at some point gets called goober and has 'alicious' tacked onto some contraction of their name - billalicious for example.

billthedog is also known as b, billy, mr b and mr b kidney. this last evolves from other nicknames thusly: bill -> billythekid -> billythekidney -> mr b kidney

toby cat is also called toby tuber, mr t goober and my lord goober.

molly is miss molly moth, good golly miss molly and miss m moth, spinster of this parish (not one i use to call her in from the backyard).

lily is lilyacaei (i can say it but not spell it), miss lily, ceiling cat and the first mrs rochester (because she lives in the roof)

that's all - you can reassume normal activities now :)

after a short blast of summer it has been raining here since wednesday. last night we had the most incredible glowing sunset which seemed to be soft-focused through the rain. 

 i took these photos from the back door (note the triumphant curlicue of grapevine emerging through the fig tree)

one step forward and the brunswick street gallery

anyone dying to see some textile seahorsery in the flesh can be partially sated - if you're in melbourne over the next few weeks that is.

i had 2 pieces accepted for the victorian quilters' art quilt exhibition one step further which is currently on at the whitehorse art space, box hill.

you can see jealousy

and desert landscape triptych 

 in all their glory until 22 december

and from 10 december until 16 january 2011

the heart of the text

 and purple flow

 will be at the brunswick street gallery, brunswick street fitzroy as part of their small works exhibition.

today's post is brought to you by the letters

O (for octopus pasta sauce)

 and P (for pink peony - all starting to open in the heat)

of cumquats and cake

our cumquat tree has been looking very much like an overburdened christmas tree, literally weighed down with fruit. and there's only so much cumquat marmalade one family eat (or make) so we were invaded this afternoon by a small army of food bloggers led by the lovely and culinarily gifted suzanne who came bearing wondrous sponge filled with excellent home-made strawberry and rose petal jam and luscious oozy cream.

 anna and david brought pizza from loafer in north fitzroy and sarah brought some lovely but as yet unphotographed peonies.

then we attacked the cumquat tree and stripped it bare.

we picked more than a laundry basket full - they will now be taken away and distributed to various cumquat lovers across melbourne.

billthedog was so excited he couldn't sit still long enough for a decent photo

cat in a bag

if there's one thing miss molly moth can't resist, it's a paper bag

10 things about me

seeing i'm awake i thought i might as well do a small post and this meme seems to be going around again

1. i like having crimson toe nails
2. i hate bad manners
3. i am a grammar-phile and an apostrophe nazi
4. i'm afraid of heights, and other people's anger
5. i love sleeping in
6. hell is having nothing to read (as well as other people)
7. colour IS its own reward
8. tea is a great restorative
9. chocolate is a great comfort
10. love is all you really need

oy what a week!

this week has been just flat out: we had the annual members' forum, the annual general meeting and then a board meeting today. and i am ti-ired.

and a little cold around the heart.

this weekend i am going to try and make a calm space. and maybe make some stuff - i'll keep you posted

still here

the week has been busy but not particularly blogworthy - much traveling to the post office in pursuit of passports (and oh frabjous day! the man who served me in the post office this morning was called carl marks - swear on my mother's grave)

i did however make waffles for breakfast yesterday, viz

and produced these soakers or nappy shorts, as they were known in this house when young w wore them in his extreme youth.

 they are destined for my sister who is expecting a Happy Event (or rather they are destined for her offspring)

 and a photo of miss molly moth, ever the opportunist

community singing 2050

friday night

 rod laver arena

 crowded house

 along with a few thousand other people, emily and i had a foretaste of what community singing will be like in the nursing homes of 2050

weekend noodlings

the weekend has been spent Getting Things Done - planting, lawn mowing, trips to the nursery and the large hardware emporium to buy things like hoses, metal chook food bins and new mesh for the back screen door.

it took a while before i could make the bed yesterday

 and the time had come to cull my side of the bed and return books and magazines to their lawful places - i think when the reading pile reaches the windowsill, Something Must Be Done

little to report on the creative side although i had an idea for the next component of the piece i started last week...

mango-arama

we are luxuriating in luscious mangoes thanks to suse's school funding raising activities.
they are drippily, gorgeously redolent of sunshine and warm air - i could bathe in them....

have i shown you my possum?

i found this on ebay and couldn't resist. it's ok - he's from new zealand where they are noxious vermin - an introduced species that is bent on wiping out the indigenous flora and fauna.

i'm sure he died a peaceful death, surrounded by family and friends.and toby looooves him

lancefieldian loot

i made a successful foray into the lancefield op shop yesterday - looky here
a depression glass butter dish in perfect condition, ready to protect the seascrumpian butter from the depredations of miss molly moth

i also bought some old linens - currently in the wash - and this little nighty - all the smocking done, just waiting to be made up then i found some amazing vanilla slices at the bakery (a couple even made it home to a grateful family)

and here is the chocolate cake i made for sunday night's dessert - my contribution to the sewjourn common weal
while i was away i redunked the silk in more beetroot and added a doily and some aged cotton sheet to keep it company