Curry, Dogs and Amputation..

More hot, blustery weather, which is keeping me out of the garden and in my work room making Solstice/Christmas presents – tiny Buzzy Bee broochs and small tile pictures. Everything is on a go slow today however, as I drunk a little to much white wine last night and I am feeling the effect.

We had three of our good friends for dinner last night and Tude cooked up a storm with Cauliflower and Pea curry and a Fish curry. My responsibility’s were the Coconut Rotis and the Eton Mess for afters.  Everything went down well and the huge bowl of Mess, which I had thought I had made way to much of, was decimated. I had two bowls myself and deservedly felt sick afterwards.

I could quite happily eat curry all the time. Except maybe not for breakfast.  My favourite curry, when we were in the U.K., was a vege one –   Spinach Paneer, love the texture of paneer.  Tude’s curry’s are very good but they just aint the same as the U.K. ones.  I think it must be impossible to make them the same, and maybe that’s a good thing, maybe we don’t really want to know what’s in them – something  weirdly addictive anyway.

My friend Yvonne was meant to come to dinner as well but was busy having her dogs leg cut off — fair enough.  The dogs name is Titan and I think he is the ugliest/cutest dog in the world and probably the happiest and friendliest dog as well.  He had an accident some time ago and had had to have a piece of metal put in his leg. Unfortunately Yvonne found out the other day that the metal has slipped and his leg is badly infected, he also had a small tumour in it.  He has been in great pain for a long time – but never showed it. Every time I have been to her place he has been just the most wonderful, madly lovely, loving dog.  I will try to get a photo of him to show you – he is apparently recovering well after his op.

I am hoping that we will be able to go to the Organic River Festival at the end of January. Had a good time at the last one, even if it did rain a lot. Will have to see how the funds are going. I am also hoping that we might be able to go camping when we get back from my Mums. Maybe spend a week either out at Mt Holdsworth or at the Pinnacles.

Tiny vintage comic pictures

Buzzy Bee broochs

New post, new post, new post, new post…

Ahh, it feels so good to be hitting the new post icon, it’s been a while.

Part of the reason is that my hand and arm have been hurting and I have been trying to cut down on the old internet thing in case it got worse and I had to have something medically done. That would not do.   However, handy-arm is feeling a lot better, so here we go.

At craft group today I made myself a felted pebble bracelet and now I have got the bug so will be making a few more – and necklaces – and a ring and earrings. Will be busy.

This is in addition to making paper plate woven brooches and knitting peggy squares for the guerilla knitting event in Greytown in January (our intended victim is the Town Hall bell). And wire, beaded decorations and any other crafty type thing that I spot and go – ‘That’s neat – I could make that’.    I think a little discipline wouldn’t go amiss and then I wouldn’t end up with so much unfinished.

Paid a visit to the Greytown library today and discovered an old favourite on their sale table. It’s called My Side of the Mountain by Jean George and I must have read it about five times when I was a child. Hopefully it will have held it’s own, like many of my favourite kids books, and will live up to my memories.

Also on the sales table was a slim volume called An Interview with Michelle Magorian. She is one of my most favourite children’s authors (wrote Goodnight Mr Tom) and who I have only just discovered. They are the type of books that I will reread and I still have a couple of hers to find which our library don’t hold. What a treat.

The other treasure I unearthed was entitled The Museum of Kitschy Stitches; A Gallery of Notorious Knits by Stitchy McYarnpants. Described  on the back as “the astonishingly awful collection of the finest knitting and crocheting horrors the twentieth century has to offer”, you can see why I could not resist the sixty cent price tag!

Wouldn't this keep your face toasty - not scary at all, is it?

 

By the way – don’t get me started on the topic of libraries selling off their books (especially gems like the above), I can feel my feathers starting to ruffle already.

 

Wire and bead decoration

My new pebble bracelet

Bingle Jells…

Tude has taken the dog for a gallop around the bush and I am sitting here trying to digest an enormous brunch. I really should have gone with them but I am running out of time to do the other stuff I had planned like writing this.  The other thing is that it is really hot today and so climbing hills does not seem like such fun. I will walk to the felting course this afternoon as a token gesture and then walk home again, this will help to make me feel slightly virtuous.

Today’s post is on a subject close to my heart – Christmas.  Even though I am a pagan I love it. Actually because I am a pagan I get two celebrations at once. If I am in New Zealand I get to celebrate the Summer Solstice, the longest day, around the 22nd December. Or if I am in the U.K. I get to celebrate Yule, the shortest day. The U.K. is best for celebrating Christmas I think because it is actually cold there. It is appropriate to eat roast dinners, whereas in N.Z it is usually B.B.Q weather. And I even don’t mind that it seems to start earlier each year.  Some of the shop windows in Carterton already have their Christmas trees up.

• Sparkley Stuff – I love tinsel and decorations. I love visiting other countries near Christmas and seeing the different decorations. I am unable to stick with a theme to decorate trees so mine always look a bit mad.
• Lights.  I have never decorated the outside of my own house but I love other people to do it. I like to walk or drive around and see what mad decorations have gone up.  When I lived in Swansea I used to walk to work along a hill. One of the houses I passed had the large window of its lounge hard up against the pavement and the people who owned it would decorate the room beautifully.  Every morning I would walk past and they would have lit their fire and switched all the Christmas lights on. I never saw anybody in it. As it was still dark and cold out, it was a wonder to behold and I would give myself a treat and a warm by stopping and gazing in for a minute .  They always had their curtains wide open and no nets so I used to be sure they did it for me and others, trudging along to work.
• Being around children who still believe in Santa is pretty cool.
• The peace and good will message.  The world can’t be reminded of  that enough.
• I have a huge fondness for carols. Possibly because I used to be in a church choir and loved to sing them. Just luuve Bing Crosby’s White Christmas as well.
• Don’t ya just love holidays – community holidays, where you know pretty much everyone is not working. I like going for a walk on Christmas or Boxing Day and just hearing the hush. And seeing the kids playing with new toys.
• Presents.  I love them. I just do. Giving and getting, it’s all good.
• Food and parties – what’s not to like?

 

I Love Birthdays

I have a new printer, hurrah!!! A birthday present – the result of a joint effort between Tudor and my Mother, I got to choose a Canon  Pixma, and I am very happy with it. Have just been installing it and having a play around. Far superior to my old Brother that has just died.

And many thanks to those who have sent me birthday greetings. Anyone who knows me knows that I love birthdays. I am not one to poo, poo people being extra nice to me and even giving me presents! I am a founder member of the Campaign for a Birthday Week. As at the moment there are no other members, but I am positive that there are others out there who agree.

My birthday went well, as it usually does, although I have had two spectacularly awful birthdays whilst travelling in Europe, but we will save those tales for another time.

We scooped up the Mother and took her off printer hunting and then after lunch, when she insisted on staying at home to make Pavlova and have a small sleep in front of the telly,  we sloped off to Petone, where I ate far to much Berry and Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding and walked Polly Cheese Hound on the beach. We picked up a pile of sea glass, which I will probably do nothing with – I just love sea glass.

Then in the evening my brother and two of his children, 17 and 19, arrived and shared dinner with us.  My brother is a compulsive talker and I am occasionally pleased that I am not actually blood related to him because I might have inherited the talk gene. He is in the Diplomatic Protection Squad and knows a great deal about stuff that I will hopefully never have to know about – like how to shoot someone properly. The day of my birthday he had been practising at the range and so that was on his mind, hence I now know in detail, how to load a Glock with one arm ( the other one having been shot). So useful.

I like being 47. For a start, I am quite surprised I have actually made it this far. So if I die now, I will still be well impressed.  Also at the beginning of the year I realised that I had forgotten how old I was (I always do that in the middle bits) and asked Tudor if he knew. He looked serious for a moment and said 47. Because he looked like he had actually thought about it, and I couldn’t be arsed figuring it out for myself, I believed him. Result? I thought I was a year older than I was for about three months.

I wanted to share a favourite photo with you. I was reading an article regarding a book to be published about women in the American West. There are so many things I love about it – her dress, the flowers and her donkey. Who was  she? What was her life like?

A Bit More Voom..

Feeling a lot better from the dreaded lurgy,  nearly over it in fact – but still could have quite easily been in bed by seven tonight. Didn’t get as much work done on my necklaces as I would have liked today, I am getting there though.

It is my morning volunteering at the information center in town tomorrow. I am a little bit worried about it as it’s only the second day on my own and I just bet that someone will come in an ask me something I won’t know. I do have a huge list of people I can ring and ask stuff and have made friends with the deputy mayor, who is kinda cool, and will probably slope in and help me out. Or I should say cruise in and help me as she is in a wheel chair.

Will start my search for a part time job tomorrow. Moneys tight and I reckon about 15 -20 hours a week ought to do it as well as allow me time to make and sell craft. Trouble is, applying for jobs is one of my least favourite things to do in the entire world, as you will know if you have read my profile page. Wish me luck!

A Nice Day Out for the Whole Family

Remember The Glass Half Full

Back again and sorry for not posting yesterday. Was not in the mood really. You get days like that.

Many thanks to all of you that commented on the last post, we appreciate your good wishes.

Although it’s totally gorgeous outside today, little is getting done in our garden. This is because both T and I have colds. He is starting to come right, he thinks, after having over a week with it. Mine is just starting. I am hoping that my new smelly habit of eating a raw clove of garlic a day will help me get better sooner. Whatever – there has been a noticeable lack of vampires around here recently, and that’s got to be good.

I am SUPPOSED to be making felt necklaces. What I am ACTUALLY doing is sitting around in the sun, thumb up bum, reading books and generally feeling sorry for myself. My dog is dead, my head is stuffed with cold, and I can just feel the Mountain Of Things I Am Meant To Be Doing, slowly starting to tip towards me. Oh WOE!

Really, I am a sad git. All I have to do is bring myself back to where I am at the moment and realise that everything is actually fine and dandy. I am parked up on the sofa, with this piece of technical wizardry on my lap, writing to all you thousands five wonderful people out there in web land. I am sick, which is a fine excuse to do f-all, read lots of lovely books and generally have a jolly good rest. My dog may be dead, but she is not suffering anymore and we have had lots of good years with her. I have still got another rather cute hound, curled up on the sofa with me and if I was so inclined, I could get another, which I won’t, but I could.  The Mountain Of Things can be sorted into stuff/ projects I want to do, but which I can put off easily till I’m o.k. – and necessary evil stuff like house work, which can just go to hell.  So.  Sorted. I feel better now.

Vintage Weirdness for your delectation

Tuesday Lite

Cheese Hound Report

Although a lot better in most respects, Titch has taken to weeing inside. Cannot seem to last an evening anymore. I will be talking to Richard the vet tomorrow and see what he thinks.

Favourite Poems

Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep A Gun In The House

The neighbors’ dog will not stop barking.
He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark
that he barks every time they leave the house.
They must switch him on on their way out.

The neighbors’ dog will not stop barking.
I close all the windows in the house
and put on a Beethoven symphony full blast
but I can still hear him muffled under the music,
barking, barking, barking,

and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra,
his head raised confidently as if Beethoven
had included a part for barking dog.

When the record finally ends he is still barking,
sitting there in the oboe section barking,
his eyes fixed on the conductor who is
entreating him with his baton

while the other musicians listen in respectful
silence to the famous barking dog solo,
that endless coda that first established
Beethoven as an innovative genius.

Billy Collins

Vintage Picture