September Round Up...

My goodness! September ends tomorrow and I really don't know where the month has gone...it's passed in a flash! 

Spring starts in Australia on September 1 and I always like to pick a posy of flowers from the garden...nasturtiums and geraniums this time.

There have been the usual monthly K4BN Knit and Natters of course. Early in the month at the Paddington K&N in a local cafe, we were visited by a magpie which 'hoovered' up the crumbs on the fake grass...

We've had birthdays to celebrate...

Eduardo the family cat turned 16 on Sept 16; he celebrated by having a leisurely day and a spoonful of light cream in the afternoon. 

On the same day, DH and I went to the 70th Birthday of a friend. Surprisingly it didn't seem 10 years since we celebrated her 60th! 😳 This was a surprise party and her quite devious husband managed to get her to the venue without arousing too many suspicions. There was a further surprise when my friend's daughter who lives interstate, went up to her mother, 'Surprise mum!!' 

My 2 girls have September birthdays and a Sunday night when everyone was free, was chosen for a family dinner...

I previously wrote a post about my potted tomato plant that was covered in fruit...but I wondered whether the wildlife would cause havoc and leave us with few tomatoes to enjoy. Well I'm thrilled to announce that this one plant has so far yielded 48 tomatoes this month, plus 2 that were eaten by possibly Mrs Possum.

The first of the crop which I cut open expecting to see fruit fly...but nope, it was perfect.

As well as the Heirloom variety tomatoes, the cherry tomatoes have been producing well too.

There's a bit of flashback in the next photo, but it's one of the tomatoes that got eaten by wildlife. Both tomatoes were eaten half at a time.

 

This September DH and I went to two performances at Harvest Rain, a local theatre group...both were appalling and I guess I won't get that 4 hours back again!!! Lol

Once again we spent time with the 'grandies'...

A bit of secret knitting for a surprise for a former colleague who is battling mental health issues for the last few months...just a back view...

And I managed to get some cotton yarn at Spotlight's 40% off sale. I plan to make some baby blankets for some summer babies arriving early next year.

The family has been organising an event which my friend will be catering for. I've spent a bit of time at my friend's cafe over recent weeks while we fine tune the menu of finger foods...and lots of coffee and taste testing too of course! Lol

And tomorrow is that catered affair when DD1 marries her lovely Cameron. The dressmaker delivered the dress here and it's hanging on the curtain rod in the little front bedroom I call my sewing cave. Ulla, the dressmaker wrapped it in one of my sheets...

I thought I'd better mention the sheet, otherwise you might think it's a rather shapeless outfit! Lol

The wedding is a real family affair too. As a second marriage it's quite low key and small scale...phew! DH's cousin is the celebrant ( and also my daughter's godmother), the venue is my BiL and SiL's lovely garden, the caterer and cake maker is a friend whose parents were my parents' friends, DH's daughters have all been given a role in the wedding...and so it goes on. 

So that's my September 2017! 

An old USB...

I have a smallish tin, in which I've stored USB sticks so they are all in the one place. The other day I decided to look through this tin. Some of these memory sticks have been with me for years!

And there in the tin was the very first USB I ever owned. I remember it had very little memory compared to ones I bought in recent years...

I inserted it into the PC and, amongst a number of files, I found some photos of my Year 2 classroom from 2007. Ah...what memories! I have edited some of the photos using the 'Dispersion tool' in Picsart...so the students' faces are disguised somewhat.
One of the units of work in SOSE ( Studies of Society and Environment which was to be discontinued and replaced by the separate disciplines of History and Geography, when the National Curriculum was introduced) the class studied, was Food Production. So we had a classroom 'supermarket'.

I called our supermarket Colworths, which is a combination of Woolworths and Coles, the major supermarkets.

Even in a classroom supermarket, there can be long queues at the Checkout at times ! 😉

But some people are so cheerful and don't mind waiting in the queue...

But you might have to pack your own groceries!

Finally at the checkout....

I love this next photo! Note the second cash register which one of the students made out of boxes. I have this vague memory of it being made at home and proudly brought along to our supermarket.

These two shoppers start to 'sample' their shopping! 😆

Now also in this Unit, our classroom also featured a 'farm'!

Another favourite photo...the little bantam is actually some polystyrene balls covered with glued on feathers. I didn't make it but found it in a homewares store. I fell in love with this little rooster a few years before, and lol and behold, as an early years teacher, it came in handy to set up these learning areas in my classroom.

A paper farmyard made in art lessons....

When I retired in 2011, I handed on all these resources that I'd purchased, to other teachers, rather than bring them home. I had no real space to store such items while I waited for grandchildren.
I don't miss teaching but it was lovely to look back at these photos... 

Fathers' Day

Last Sunday was Fathers' Day here in Australia and DH was able to do two of his favourite things; a day out at golf and then a family gathering in the evening.
If you look closely, there's  the guest of honour at the head of the table


Miss Holly is at the 'everything goes in the mouth' stage...😉

The only photo where Miss Anthea is visible is this next one where she is sitting on grandpa's knee...and where her aunties are making funny faces for the camera! Lol

For quite a few weeks before last Sunday, the retailers have been really 'pushing' the need for people to buy Fathers' Day presents. We try to discourage big spending so a bottle of red wine, a mug and a gift card for Netflix were all well received.
Here's the mug...😀Lots of laughter ensued after DH opened this box...he is renowned for his joke telling.

Just in case the term 'dad joke' is unfamiliar, I'm including this definition from Wikipedia.

I was interested to see that the term has also been used in a US sitcom. My stepdaughter's regularly tease their dad about his jokes...'dad joke alert' they cry! Lol

Wool on Sundays

Once again I'm joining in with the Rainbow Hare's blog monthly link up for Wool  on Sundays.
Two weeks ago I finished the pink and black throw that I had been making as a wedding gift for my hairdresser.
Usually I finish a project and hand it on straight away to the new owner. But this time, I had almost a full week before hand over, which meant that for once, I had something to take for Show and Tell at the August Sunday Stitchers meet up. ( Thank you Helen Mc for taking this photo 😊!)


At the moment I'm using up some of my yarn stash...this is an Italian yarn. Years ago, I bought it on EBay, just on the spur of the moment. It was a bit expensive, so just sitting in the cupboard all these years was such a waste.

As the yarn is so textured, I'm just knitting the simplest throw possible...just garter stitch. It's on 9mm needles so has grown rather quickly.
There's a good chance this throw will be what I post for the October Wool on Sunday...😊

Many years ago...

Many years ago, I read a story which was in one of my childhood books and which left a lasting impression.
My mother had bought me these Bumper story books...I think they were from the U.K. and these books contained short stories, comic stories, non fiction informative articles and I remember the paper of the pages seemed a bit like blotting paper! I read and reread these books...no TV in my childhood home!
I had a bit of a look on the internet and sure enough there were images of Bumper books similar to mine!

The story that I mentioned went like this...a young lady (dressed in what looked like early 1800s gear), was walking back from the markets in another village carrying a basket of eggs that she had just purchased. As she walked home, she imagined the chickens hatching from these eggs. She then imagined herself taking these chickens to the market and selling them. In her imagination, she would make a big profit from selling these chickens. In a thought bubble the reader saw the girl dressed in the grand gown she would buy with this money! And so the girl walked home with all these exciting plans swirling around in her head.
And then, before the girl reached home, she tripped and fell, dropped the basket of eggs thus smashing them. Moral of the story? Don't count your chickens before they're hatched! 😲
Fast forward to the present day. Each day I tend my veggie patch and this year one particular tomato plant has been doing really well; it's an heirloom variety and I've grown it in potting mixture in a large pot.

In the last few weeks I've been imagining what these tomatoes will taste like when they ripen. Will they have the flavour of the tomatoes my dad grew? I've been imagining salads, home made passata etc with these tomatoes. 🍅 🍅 But am I 'counting my tomatoes before they ripen' ? to paraphrase that old proverb? Lol
That netting might deter the possums, but not the bush turkeys. However another enemy of gardeners in many parts of this country is the 'fruit fly'. That's why I usually only grow cherry tomatoes as the fruit fly mainly leave these varieties alone. A few years ago I grew the beefsteak variety of tomatoes. The first one I picked was perfect. Every other one, when cut, revealed grubs and a mushy mess inside. Oh dear...fingers crossed for these but being a winter crop, I should be lucky.

I might check out the bottling preserving process, one must stay positive! 😊
PS. While I was looking for images of old story books, I found an image of a favourite storybook Annual that I had once received for Christmas. I loved those Girls Crystal Annuals...also from the U.K.

Such memories!