Busy busy
Currently, I am caretaker for over a dozen birds - fantail doves, a racing pigeon, fluffy hens, black, brown and speckly white hens, three khaki ducks, three geese (potentially seven if all their eggs hatch), and wild parrots looking for a sunflower seed hit. Our neighbour is away while her husband is having major surgery, so I'm on feeding duty and letting the ducks and geese out in the morning and putting them away at night.
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I'm watching an awful lot of QI and knitting shawl. I am 52 rows in, halfway through the second of three chart c repeats.I am really, really chuffed with how it's looking so far.
(It's about twice as long now.)
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Yesterday, I chopped up a bunch of pears and stuck them in a scalded wide-necked bottle with brandy and sugar syrup. We'll see in time if it keeps or goes rotten. If it works, then I've got another thing to do this fruit season with our glut. I will have to drink a bunch more Pure Harvest Juice, since the neck of the bottle is lovely and wide, which makes them ideal for preserving fruit in. Speaking of fruit - the cherry plum trees have teeny tiny green fruit, as does across the road's peach tree! The quinces and apples don't yet; they are still either in full blossom or just past.
Unfortunately, one of the old apple trees in the orchard has split - half of it cleanly snapped. We didn't get any apples off this tree last year, so it's probably not very healthy. It does have blossom this year, though, so I'll be interested to see if it fruits this year.
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Last week, mum was here and we replaced the rubbish old masonite awnings with proper, corrugated stuff. I think it looks quite smart!
(The grey paint around the windows is undercoat. The paint was flaking off, exposing the wood, so it needed protecting. Eventually, they'll be a light blue, the same colour as the background of the sign. In fact, I've painted the trim around the door with undercoat too since that was taken, and today or tomorrow I'll paint the light panels in the middle of the door.)
Awning in action.
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Before Mum arrived, we had the October long weekend markets. Two days of sitting in the village hall. The first day was very wet and miserably cold, the second, not so much. I got two and a half bobbins worth of single spun, though. And I sold three skeins of my handspun - the brown and white marle. I wasn't expecting that. People of all ages and both genders were interested in watching me spin, though. That was fun; talking about the process, letting people touch the raw fleece and the finished product.
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The loungeroom walls are covered in paintings again, which makes me very happy. There are twelve up, and one that needs new wire. I'm pleased; I got a lot more of the ones I wanted than I expected, given the way my SIL put her hand up for all but about three of the nearly forty paintings. I ended up with a nice spectrum of older paintings, newer paintings, different buildings and vistas. I have mainly oil paintings, with one acrylic. Grandma also did a number of watercolours, but I didn't end up with any of those, which in a way made it easier to transport them. (The watercolours all had glass, whereas the oils didn't.) One of the ones I ended up with is one of the oldest, and I was worried for a while that it was deteriorating (the paint has split a little in places, showing another colour of paint underneath) but Luke (the artist who lives in one of the churches) had a look and thinks it's stable, which is a relief.
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Made drunken risotto last night, was amazingly delish.
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yuki_onna has said some very interesting things to say about gender roles, feminism/equality in employment/political correctness, and important skills that are being lost/reclaimed. Take some time out of your day to read Dorothy Sayers Explains It All.
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How are you?
*
I'm watching an awful lot of QI and knitting shawl. I am 52 rows in, halfway through the second of three chart c repeats.I am really, really chuffed with how it's looking so far.
(It's about twice as long now.)
*
Yesterday, I chopped up a bunch of pears and stuck them in a scalded wide-necked bottle with brandy and sugar syrup. We'll see in time if it keeps or goes rotten. If it works, then I've got another thing to do this fruit season with our glut. I will have to drink a bunch more Pure Harvest Juice, since the neck of the bottle is lovely and wide, which makes them ideal for preserving fruit in. Speaking of fruit - the cherry plum trees have teeny tiny green fruit, as does across the road's peach tree! The quinces and apples don't yet; they are still either in full blossom or just past.
Unfortunately, one of the old apple trees in the orchard has split - half of it cleanly snapped. We didn't get any apples off this tree last year, so it's probably not very healthy. It does have blossom this year, though, so I'll be interested to see if it fruits this year.
*
Last week, mum was here and we replaced the rubbish old masonite awnings with proper, corrugated stuff. I think it looks quite smart!
(The grey paint around the windows is undercoat. The paint was flaking off, exposing the wood, so it needed protecting. Eventually, they'll be a light blue, the same colour as the background of the sign. In fact, I've painted the trim around the door with undercoat too since that was taken, and today or tomorrow I'll paint the light panels in the middle of the door.)
Awning in action.
*
Before Mum arrived, we had the October long weekend markets. Two days of sitting in the village hall. The first day was very wet and miserably cold, the second, not so much. I got two and a half bobbins worth of single spun, though. And I sold three skeins of my handspun - the brown and white marle. I wasn't expecting that. People of all ages and both genders were interested in watching me spin, though. That was fun; talking about the process, letting people touch the raw fleece and the finished product.
*
The loungeroom walls are covered in paintings again, which makes me very happy. There are twelve up, and one that needs new wire. I'm pleased; I got a lot more of the ones I wanted than I expected, given the way my SIL put her hand up for all but about three of the nearly forty paintings. I ended up with a nice spectrum of older paintings, newer paintings, different buildings and vistas. I have mainly oil paintings, with one acrylic. Grandma also did a number of watercolours, but I didn't end up with any of those, which in a way made it easier to transport them. (The watercolours all had glass, whereas the oils didn't.) One of the ones I ended up with is one of the oldest, and I was worried for a while that it was deteriorating (the paint has split a little in places, showing another colour of paint underneath) but Luke (the artist who lives in one of the churches) had a look and thinks it's stable, which is a relief.
*
Made drunken risotto last night, was amazingly delish.
*
yuki_onna has said some very interesting things to say about gender roles, feminism/equality in employment/political correctness, and important skills that are being lost/reclaimed. Take some time out of your day to read Dorothy Sayers Explains It All.
*
How are you?