Thar's a Moose Loose in the Hoose !!!

No...not a moose - a mouse - a cute furry little brown field mouse that should be living OUTSIDE!!!

• Cat brings mouse inside and drops it in the loungeroom
• Mouse runs away - cat can no longer find mouse - loses interest and walks away.
• I fling 3 camping chairs and a small pile of empty boxes (chairs should have been in garage, boxes in recycling bin anyway) outside in the vague hope that the mouse has a short, brief and violent ride outside.....
• An hour later, son #2 looks under the couch and locates mouse.
• Son #1 lifts up couch so we can 'catch' the mouse
• Mouse skedaddles out from under the couch, between son #1's feet and into the kitchen and under the pantry door.
• Sons #1&2 locate small furry timid little creature at the back of the pantry.
• Son #1 lifts out 3 of 5 heavy boxes of floor tiles (have been in the bottom of the pantry since we moved in) out of the way - leaving 2 boxes to trap the mouse in the bottom of the panty
• Son #2 tries to catch the mouse with his bare hands
• Father and mother laugh at their efforts
• Son #2 fails and somehow the mouse gets out of the pantry and runs along the floor.
• Before I can scream coherently for somebody to grab a towel to cover the damn mouse - it runs under and behind the cabinet that is heavily loaded with glassware and has a fishtank on top.
• I locate mouse on top of skirting board and poke a stick at it to get it to move out from behind the cabinet
• mouse moves from behind cabinet - across the carpet and behind the stereo/video/dvd/plasma/entertainment system.

We can't find the mouse any more, but I know it's there - waiting to run over my toes in the dead of night.
Bloody Cat!

I'm not so much worried about it creating a nest and chewing the electrical wires (although that is a high consideration) I'm more concerned that it will find my charts/floss/fabric
Tomorrow I'm buying a mousetrap!

A rundown of what I did on my birthday weekend.......

My birthday - and Harry's 12th was on Friday last. After the last 12 months of stress, I was determined to make it a great weekend for Harry. It started on Friday morning - I was given a surprise Morning Tea, with mudcake, dips and party pies - all the food leftover was put into the fridge and brought home for the boys to help eat up. Friday Lunch, one workmate (Wendy) took me out to lunch and surprised me by inviting along a retired workmate, Richard to share the lunch. It was great to catch up with Richard - he had given me a parting gift of a $100 gift voucher when he retired last May - along with a supurb written reference. I miss seeing him around at work, but it was a great lunchy time. Oh so short, and I had to get back to work.....
Friday night, I picked up some Fish 'n' chips for dinner - minus the fish - because we had an extra 12yo for the weekend - I just opened up the chips and let them all go 'seagull' on the contents. Of course, I had plenty of mudcake leftover from morning tea for dessert.
Saturday morning, I did the grocery shopping - and in the early afternoon, prepared honey-soy chicken wings for our picnic in the evening. We had arranged to meet with John's music teacher and his wife and spent the evening listening to a good 80's coverband and enjoying conversation, while the younger boys ran riot through the park. John was being a lovable teenager for a change and acting quite the clown. Towards the end of the night a bug (or a leaf - I don't know, I swear it had legs) fell into my cleavage and I did a sort of jumpy leap about in panic screaming 'Get it out - Get it out!!!!' Absolutely no support from Martin, because he was laughing too hard. At least I added to the entertainment for the general public in the area. I couldn't rip my bra and t-shirt over my head because of the stares from 2 bemused 12yo boys.
Sunday late morning, I cooked some potato salad, and prepared the fish in foil parcels for the family gathering to celebrate the two birthdays. I've never cooked fish before. They turned out great - AND there was no ucky fish smell through the house. Sunday afternoon at 4pm my MIL, SIL and our extra 12yo left. I slept until 6pm and dinner was then just leftover chicken wings. - no fuss.
Monday morning at work, another morning tea - this time organised by my boss to celebrate my birthday, another storeman's birthday, our temp storeman's welcome and impending farewell, and a welcome to our new storeman. More cake!
Lunchtime Monday, I was taken out to celebrate my birthday by my girlfriend (another Wendy), and of course ran a bit late back to work. I did very little work at all on Monday as a matter of fact. Today I managed to get back into the swing of things.
After all the stress of the past few months - this weekend was just good times followed by good times. I'm so over cake for a little while though!

Sharing this morning's walk with you.

Morning all!!

After so many morning walks in the dark and not seeing much of anything - today was magic!!!

Firstly, just as we'd turned the corner onto the gravel path, at the darkest point of the walk, I heard this unearthly cry - not something heard at 5:45am. I swung the torch around and all I picked up was the reflective dots on a couple of marker posts....
hang on... there is NO marker post at that point of the path! I swung the torch around and that reflective dot was gone....hmmmm
As I neared the spot where I'd seen the dot, I heard some scrabbling in a nearby tree and sure enough - there was a large brushtail possum, somewhat startled clinging to the trunk of the tree at my eye level. I said good morning to him and moved on.
As I moved towards the turning point of the walk, I noticed two roos sitting at the edge of the streetlight's beam in the bowl of the court. I watched them watching me. As I got closer, I could identify a further 3 roos - two of them different sized joeys. Once again, I wished them a good morning, as a further 4 roos moved into the edge of the light and therefore my vision. I sensed there were more in the darkness, but rather than cause them greater alarm, moved on my way.
Cresting the top of the hill, on the footpath now, I called out to the bunnies - asking them to make an appearance. Well, then one broke cover from the naturestrip and raced across the road to the safety of the bush that marks the edge of the new estate.
A full set!!! Of course that sets a goofy smile on my face for the rest of the day.


I had a brilliant birthday weekend - still feeling rather euphoric from it all - so little stitching involved - OR chocolate, but a good mellow feeling from Friday through to Monday - great!
I did receive a new camers - but have I taken any photos of stitching yet???? I've yet to process all the photos I have taken - there are some that I deem suitable to share....even a self portrait! Won't be long at all - I promise!!!

February TUSAL - Progress on BBBBB's and Snowman and a giggle

A day late, but here is my TUSAL for February - flanked by my two current WIP's.
The Sampler of B's is now onto the bottom row of B's - moving into the specialty stitches now.
On the right is LK Cold Hands Warm Heart snowman - on hand dyed aida.
Glass collectors will note the two Vallerysthal dishes at the back. They both date back to about 1880 - the one on the left was copied by Fenton, but the swag of shells on this one does not have the break in the shells that the Fenton one does. This dish is in perfect condition an is a high quality of milk glass. The Pinapple dish on the right is a marriage of top and bottom and the difference of milk glass can clearly be seen in this example. The lid has the original sticker and each have a lovely feel to the glass - a more translucent quality of the FireKing milk glass (of which I also have an extensive collection)

My TUSAL is growing - mostly for the threads for the Sampler of BBBBB's. I daresay by next month there may be some more white as the snowman progresses.

Oh yes... check out Coni's blog. For those who have not stumbled across this lady (and her little dog) - she has a wizard way with words and her latest post in relation to the Winter Olympics is the funniest I've read in a long, long time.

BBBB's on the sampler of BBBB's - WIP

I thought i'd better show you the current state of my WIP - The B sampler. I'm leaving the phase 'till the end, because I'm not looking forward to the over 1 section - unless I'm concentrating I just know I"ll make a goof! - and I hate frogging over 1.
I am enjoying this. However I confess to serial starterdom - I started a Lizzie Kate chart last night - but it IS a snowman!
Cold Hands - Warm Heart.
There is no pic of that one at the moment - just a few rows of white on a piece of hand dyed aida.
More photos soon - If I can work out how to transfer a movie taken on my son's mobile phone (and the quality is reasonable) I 'll try to show you what we found around the corner from home tonight. About 28 roo's grazing in a paddock near the road. Magic!

Bushfires in Victoria - Black Saturday Feb 7 - one year on

This is not going to be the light and easy post that I normally make. Admittedly I've also cut & pasted from the 123 messageboard because I've typed it once already - and it's a sobering bit of typing. I don't think I've quite covered everything. The Bushfires hit Victoria just 6 weeks after I'd started blogging. I posted my thoughts and impressions on the monday with photos. We'd had a lead up to Black Saturday, by a week of abnormally high temperatures. We as a community are not that naive, and although expecting bushfires, did not expect one so large, so fast, so ferocious, so deadly.
********************

One year on.
I remember the heat building the days before Black Saturday - knowing that it was going to be a bad bushfire day. Having it in the back of my mind that there would be a slight possibility that 'a fire' could come over our hill or close enough that I'd need to take the boys and get out of the area - possibly to MIL's down on the coast.
I remember, telling Martin & the boys that it would not be a good idea to go to the swimming hole we'd found the week before near Drouin.
I remember watching the smoke, trying to find out if it was coming our way.
I remember knowing that our neighbour, a CFA dude would not leave his wife and girls in danger - as they stayed put, so did we.
I remember using the internet to track incidents on the CFA site.
I remember worrying more about Drouin and Lang Lang than Kinglake.
I remember listening to the radio, hearing that the Princes Highway was blocked to traffic, just a few miles up the road.
I remember thinking - we're in outer suburbia - we should be fine (and remembering the stories of Canberra a few years previously)
I remember waking up on the Sunday, to the gradual news that whole communities were lost - which meant a whopping loss of property and more devastaingly, loss of life.
I remember getting the Herald Sun newspaper for the pictoral coverage - I don't buy newspapers. I think I still have that issue somewhere.
I remember the photos posted on the 123 board - links to footage shot. This is where I came to make sure that our stitching family were safe.
I remember that Melisa's parents had lost their home the week before all this devastation - we were already rallying to support them any way we could.
I remember photos of Sam the Koala.
I remember the shock of realising just how far-reaching these fires were.
I remember calling my father to make sure he was ok - he had been working on the SES radio room for the day.
I remember callling my sister - and her speaking to me - she worked a 20 hour shift that day in the CFA radio room, helping with the Horsham fires. She knows people who were directly affected by those fires. She also knows people killed in Kinglake - she had lived there for 15 years. The farm she lived at is no more.
I wept.
I remember listening to radio reports - how people were on mobile phones to loved ones as fire swept over them.
I wept.
I remember reading stories of survivors - and of those who lost families.
I wept.
I remember the days of not knowing the full total of lives lost.
I wept.
I remember the feeling of helplessness - not having had to evacuate, not knowing anybody directly, not being able to supply my time to help. Not being financial enough to donate more than a few dollars at a time. Not having space in my home to host somebody. Not owning a caravan to donate to somebody now homeless. Not having clothing to donate as everything had gone to the thrift shop two weeks previously.
I remember two weeks after the fire, going to that same waterhole the boys had wanted to go to.
I remember seeing and smelling the scorched earth right up to that waterhole.
I remember seeing regrowth - the aussie bush is like that - sometimes it needs fire to re-generate.
I remember travelling down the highway towards Warragul and Moe and seeing the line where the fire stopped and crossed.
I've not travelled to visit Marysville or Kinglake yet.

I remember the sense of Aussie Mateship as the community rallied to support the victims of the fires. I know some people will never recover, but there are scores of families rebuilding their lives.

Remember.

A sampler of BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

My current WIP - started on Saturday 30th Jan - this is the progress so far. YES I KNOW IT IS NOT A SNOWMAN CHART!!! This was purchased for me by a friend - and somehow on Saturday morning it called to me. I am enjoying it so far -the fabric is Belfast linen - mint green - not quite showing up the right colour on the photo. Also a quick finish last night - Happy birthday gift for my workmate - we stitch at work together & I noticed she needs a scissor keep.

First Day of School - 2010 and a prize winner!!

Firstly - it's the first day of the school year and Harry, my youngest started high school today. His older brother John is in year 11. I took a number of 'first day' photos, and this is the bes that I could get!!!!

boys!!!

AND

I finally remembered to draw a winner for my Christmas pillow pattern - I had 7 comments (including the 2 who asked not to be included in the draw) and asked Harry to draw from the pretty pink bowl of destiny!!!!

Bette !!! You won - I'll be in touch to find your snail-mail address and will post the chart and extra threads to you.
Congratulations!!!!!