Friday, July 14, 2017

from yesterday with love x

So here's something a bit weird. I'm actually writing this on Thursday and not Friday, even though I'm posting it on Friday and not Thursday, and you're probably reading it on Friday and definitely not on Thursday. But if I didn't tell you that you wouldn't know any different. The internet is funny like that isn't it? All this information and all these assumptions and in the end we just have to sort through it all and decide for ourselves what we believe in.

But you can trust me I promise. The reason I'm writing it a day early is because we're going to The Australian Sheep and Wool Show tomorrow (Friday) and on the way home we're going to pop in on our old friends in their new house, and I don't want to feel all rushed or like I've got something at the back of my mind that I feel like I should be doing instead.

So here I am. It's Thursday evening and it's dark and rainy and cold outside. I'm sitting about as close to the heater as I can get, Bren's in the other room practising guitar, the smalls are next to me programming a robot that Pepper and Bren just finished building, and Indi is on a bus home from Woodend. When she gets home we'll have spaghetti with lentils for dinner.

The top photo is of the kitty cat hot water bottle cover I knitted for Miss Pepper for her birthday last year. I was just looking through my Ravelry page before and noticed that I had never taken a photo of it, so now I have. The details are here.

This is the tractor hot water bottle cover that I'm just finishing off now. Did I mention it's cold? 

I feel like overalls are the only clothing option that makes any sense these wintry days. I pretend that I wear them for work, but really it's the handy hot water bottle sized pouch up front. So cozy.



Speaking of sheep and wool and knitting and stuff, here's a little shearing shed drawing my farmer boy found in a box of his primary school exercise books. This one's from grade three. There are more pages of sheep drawings but I forgot to photograph them and now it's dark. Oops, hopefully I'll remember and add them in tomorrow. So cute!!


I'm reading my daughter's copy of Once & Then by Morris Gleitzman, trying to stay ahead of her so we can discuss it as she goes. Once & Then are fictional books that follow the life of a 10 year old Jewish boy called Felix living in 1945 Nazi Poland. I've only read 50 pages so far but I'm already completely engaged in the story. I'm so interested to see how the book progresses and how Morris deals with the horrors of the Holocaust through the eyes of a child and for an audience of children.

I'm also interested to see how the conversation with my daughter evolves. She says that most of the kids in her class have already read the books and she's grown up in a house where many discussions about the Holocaust have taken place in front of her over the years. But still it's pretty tricky subject matter for a kid. I'm hoping that I can trust Morris Gleizman to be sensitive to his young audience and their naivety, but like I said, I'm reading ahead just to be sure.


I'm thrilled to report that my onion seedlings have finally decided to show their sweet green faces a month after I planted them. These were the first seeds that I planted in our new green house so it means so much to me that they have. We also eat a lot of onions so it'll be great to have a big stash.



When we were first talking about and designing the green house I just assumed we'd use old windows for the roof as well as the walls. But then I was quickly talked out of that because their weight and fragility would make the structure unsafe. If we wanted to use old glass, we'd have to build a proper roof structure to support them. 

So after much research and discussion we ordered some poly tunnel plastic and popped it on up. We thought it would be reasonably priced, easy to fit and that it would be UV sensitive come summer.

What ended up happening is that it looked flat and ugly, and when it rained huge pools of water collected in the low points. We tried shoving bits of wood and tubes of cardboard up to stop it, but nothing stopped the pools and we were worried that one day the weight of the water would burst through the plastic and flood the space. 

So this week the plastic came down and some good old, practical Laserlite went up in its place. It's strong and sturdy and safe and now that it's up there I don't mind that corrugated look as much as I thought I might. It does the trick in the rain anyway.

And look at that. Remember in my last post when I told you that we'd been having issues with our Esse stove since it was installed in 2012? Well, on Monday Bren's Dad's plumber came back and after another big day they lit it and ever since then it's been running like a dream. Our house is warm, tonight's dinner was cooked on the hot plate, and if you sit with your back to that radiator in the photo above to write your blog you'll feel as toasty as a marshmallow. So my farmer boy is happy and so say all of warm us!

And that's me all blogged up and no place to go. That is until the sheep and wool show tomorrow. Can't wait!

And just for fun, if you could have anything at all knitted into a hot water bottle cover what would it be? I think I'd like three little girls on mine, or maybe a sheep.

I hope you have a great Friday, honey bunches. I have no idea how to schedule a blog post so I think I'll just publish this early before we leave. And I haven't decided if I'll take my big camera along, but I'm certain I'll be posting to my instagram stories if you want to follow along over there.

Big love!

Kate
xx



34 comments:

  1. I read Once to my dyslexic kid a couple of years ago. It was a year 7 text. My dyslexic kid who struggles to read but loves to wallow in a good story. So then we read all the others. Lots of times I read with hiccups in my voice, swallowing back tears. To this day we still talk Zelda style at each other: "Don't you know anything?"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ahhh I've been wondering what year level it's been set for. And that Zelda, what a beautiful character. I think she'll stick with me for many years to come. I've been thinking about you this week, it's a year since I posted that bullying blog and when I reread it the other day your comment made me wish that you are as far from dealing with that shit as we are. Love xx

      Delete
  2. Oh I love the waterbottle cozy. I saw it begin on insta and had to come and take a look. We had the same experience with our green house too. we began with polly pastic but the wind and rain combo just tore through it. One morning I thought I was clever getting the broom to push all the water that pooled off, but in fact all I did was move it towards me, drenching my front, down my bra right through to my knickers. Classic. Safe to say the laser light is up now too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha soaking you from your bra right through to your knickers is such a great visual that I just shivered reading it. That's exactly something I would do. So good to hear your experience with the roof was the same as ours.

      Delete
  3. Still technically Thursday here in Calgary 😉 beautiful hot waterbottle cozy

    ReplyDelete
  4. I hope the sheep and wool show is spectacular! Do you still have sheep in your home flock?

    I was working in a bookshop when John Boyne's The Boy in Striped Pyjamas came out. I remember reading the proof and thinking that I really hoped that all parents who purchased it for their children read along too. Too many confronting images for young children to manage alone.

    I love your hot water bottle covers! I'm dedicated to my wheat pack but I think that I might converted to a hot water bottle with a gorgeous cover. I think I'd go for a sun on mine.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No we don't have any sheep at the moment but hopefully will again as soon as we can sort out some proper, secure fencing for them. We've been doing A LOT of mowing lately and the thought that sheep could be doing it for us feels terribly wasteful. And the company. And the wool.

      I've never read TBITSP, I'm adding it to my list.

      And I love the idea of a sunny hottie. Perfect. xx

      Delete
  5. Fab hot water bottle covers, just the ticket for the cold & wet months. Fab green house love that its mainly all repurposed parts.
    So glad your Esse is working well nothing Morse than feeling cold and dissapointed...as i know how much those cost!
    Have a great time at the sheep show. .m will you get any yarn?
    I'm in the back garden listing to the birds sing as the dog rummaged through the compost lol
    My knitted item would have a large pouch pocket to keep my hands warm and on it would be a cute wire Fox terrier ��

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didn't get any yarn at the sheep show. I'm still not sure if it was because there was so much or because I just didn't find anything that ticked all my boxes.
      xx

      Delete
  6. I think I'd like a stack of books knitted onto a hot water bottle cover. They are my one constant.
    I hope you had fun at the show x

    ReplyDelete
  7. Strange question for you sorry - how do you release your seedings from those green trays, they are nice and deep for root development, and I am thinking of trying to find some...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not a strange question at all.
      They have holes in the bottom for drainage that are conveniently finger sized.
      So I stick my finger in each little compartment one by one, and the whole thing, soil, plant and all comes out.
      I love them. I never plant in trays any more because this method seems to save one step in the pricking out process.
      Hope that helps. x

      Delete
  8. I'm very curious to know how on earth you got those onions to sprout... I have been trying and trying with no luck at all. Ive been watering my barren seed trays a couple of months now. It's so frustrating/ disappointing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm so sorry but I have no words of wisdom. I think it's a temperature and moisture thing but once they're up then the amount of daylight hours are important. But last year I didn't get any and then this year it took them about a month to germinate. So I guess my advice would be to keep trying. And plant leeks and spring onions too because they seem easier to me.

      Delete
  9. Oh wow. Well now I don't know which day it is. I'm having trouble sorting out days at the moment as it is. So is it Thursday or Friday? and if you published on Thursday for tomorrow does that make it Saturday today? Oh my head hurts enough of that. Hope you have enjoyed your woolly show. The greenhouse looks really good I'm sure it will be a great start to all your seedlings.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well all I know is that now it's a week later and it's Thursday here. I hope you've had such a happy week. xx

      Delete
  10. I think if someone made me a hottie cover I would love it regardless of what was on it or what it looked like.
    Lucky you getting to the sheep and wool show. Hope you enjoyed it
    Cheers Kate

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's so true, when someone else makes you something what's on it just isn't as important as the fact that they made it to begin with. xx

      Delete
  11. Hi Kate, we were in Maring yesterday and yes it was cold. This morning there was ice on the water fountain in the caravan park. We've pulled up at Boort Showground and OMG it is so cold. We are used to the mild winters of sub tropical Qld and are finding the cold pretty amazing. Thank goodness for heaters is all I can say.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh Jane, I know just what you mean because we're doing it in reverse. A week in tropical queensland where it's 27 degrees in the middle of winter is sublime. I wish we didn't have to go home til October. x

      Delete
  12. How long does it take you to knit the hot water bottle cover? I think I must be the slowest knitter in the world, takes me about a week to knit a simple dishcloth! On my hot water bottle would be pretty flowers. I too am keen to know your onion sprouting tip, my seeds never come to fruition :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Clarissa, I think it took me about three days to knit but I only knit at night and only for a few hours at a time. And I'm a pretty slow knitter too.
      Have a look at my response to Cateoh re the onions. Unfortunately some years they germinate and some years I've found they just don't. x

      Delete
  13. Hooray for your onions Kate! I look forward to you telling us about the sheep and wool show x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hooray for onions indeed!! How do you go growing them there Jane where it's a bit warmer? x

      Delete
  14. Loving your greenhouse. You guys make it all look so easy. MY big news is that we planted 2 apple trees today. One SnowSweet and one Frostbite. Both were cultivated at the University of Minnesota for our cold winters. Have wanted to plant them for years and we've finally done it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fantastic!! I hope you're biting into your very own crunchy apples soon and they taste as good if not better than you'd dreamed they would. x

      Delete
  15. I hope you had fun at the sheep show Kate! It has most of my loves combined in one so I'd love to visit it one day. I love you glasshouse, it's absolutely gorgeous. I think I'd like a spotty hot water bottle, ever since I made a spotty mug cosy I've wanted to knit spots into everything :-)

    Have a lovely week!
    Sarah x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope you do get to visit the sheep show one day soon Sarah, it's pretty awesome. And spots, love!! x

      Delete
  16. Love the greenhouse roof! And that your onions grew. I'd knit a hummingbird on my cozy hovering over some flowers. Enjoy the wool!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A hummingbird hovering over some flowers sounds beautiful. x

      Delete
  17. I think if I had anything on my hot water bottle cover, it would have to be a snail, a tortoise, a sheep or a succulent plant like Echeveria or Sempervivum. Those are the things that I love:)

    ReplyDelete
  18. It makes me happy knowing you've all had such a wonderful time together. xx

    ตารางบอล

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for stopping by...

I do read every single comment you leave and appreciate it very much, but I should let you know that I can be a wee bit on the useless side when replying to comments, that's just me, everyday life sometimes gets in the way....so I'll apologise now, just in case.

Kate XX

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Visit my other blog.