ECF

Allotment fun!

Secret Pal Revealed!

Its a little bit superhero, but today my secret pal finally revealed herself - well, her blog anyway! I knew her name and that she was from Estonia, but today I find out her blog is http://tikrimari.wordpress.com/ - you should go check it out, it is cool!
Anyway, show off pictures from my most recent (and possibly not the last!?) secret pal parcel - I am so very very spoiled!



Aren't I lucky! The yarn is (a) reddy pinky laceweight alpaca silk (!!ooooh!)perfect for my first go at lace knitting (actually probably far too good for my first attempt, but it is so delicious! I feel a mini knit-along with print o' the wave with Claudia and maybe others...?) and (b) bright light green 100% alpaca (another oooh!) and (c) beautiful leafy olivey green merino, which is absolutely on the mark as a Clare colour. Unfortunately it has rained and rained and rained so the pics are a bit dark - the individual yarns are better representations of the colour.
And then of course there is sheep! I have not been able to take a decent picture of dear lamby yet, but will keep trying. He is the perfect reading pillow and so cosy!
Thanks again, unsecret pal!

More Pics....

More pictures - I cannot seem to get the formatting on this right, so you get all the text up front! Pics are of boy & me in various disguises, mum & me, the gorgeous (winter!) view, and a turtle (look very closely...). Enjoy

Pictures! Millions of Pictures!!

Guess what ..... our phone line is back! Which means I can start posting some pics.
First call I think is holiday - later this week I will try and do pics of my Secret Pal parcel and of our allotment.
So here tis....
We ate a ridiculous amount of these lovely big orange things....although they weren't all this big! (Gotta love a country that makes giant replicas of prawns!)

We saw a real emu (actually, we saw a few!), as well as some of his metallic mates...














My brother caught this fantastic coral trout, which was delicious!











And we caught this cutie in a beer box!


















I swam with some real ones of these for more than an hour! (At least this big!)



















I caught up with old friends (and the latest in Melbourne street art)



















And more old friends - on rooftops! Aren't we all Melbourne cool!














I think thats enough pictures for one post....but more to follow I promise!

Secret Pal Adventure Continues...

I got to work this morning after an infuriating drive in the rain, and there was a lovely big parcel waiting for me! My wonderful Secret Pal had sent me a box full of delights! I got a sheep (you will have to wait for pictures of this - I am not even going to try to describe it!), lavender soap (mmm!), lavender tea (mmm mmm!), cherry chocolate & blueberry chocolate (perfect for Friday afternoon tea), an Estonian-English dictionary (excellent!), and yarn! Beautiful beautiful yarn - a skein of alpaca in a light appley green (nothing immediately springs to mind, but good for the patting and looking!), three balls of merino in a lovely olivey leafy green (I feel a hat coming on...) and two balls of gorgeous deep raspberry red coloured alpaca silk - perfect for a Print o' the Wave stole! Of course, Secret Pal had paid much attention and noted that i wanted to try knitting some lace! And this is great timing as I don't think I have mentioned that I inherited my grandmother's knitting needle collection, so I am all stocked up with any kind of needle (and some crochet hooks) that a girl could possibly need! (well, I am sure I will find an excuse to buy new ones every now and then, but for now I am set).
Thanks Secret Pal Carol - you really did spoil me terribly! I can't wait now to find out your true identity!

Welcome back....to the silence

We had a fantastic holiday, and happily returned to the UK last Friday to find that our phone line has died. BT is on the case, but it is pretty dire stuff involving the digging up of many things. Fingers crossed, but in the meantime, there is no internet! Disaster! Not only that, but no phone and, in an unrelated matter, our TV blew up! It is very very quiet at our house....

So apologies as still no pictures, but everything was great! As you have heard I had many marine close encounters. I also met my new nephew, and caught up with the rapid development of my other nephew, who is now two. Very hard to say goodbye to those two! I visited my parents in Tasmania, which was as cold and as beautiful as ever! I spent most of the visit in front of the fire with the cat, finishing off a pair of fetching fingerless mittens for a friend in Melbourne. We caught up with said friend, and a whole host of other friends, most of which appear to be expecting! I found out that a melbourne friend reads this blog, which is admirable as she is not in anyway a knitter! So hi D - I hope all is ok, and we are thinking of you & yours.

Anyway, not much point in rambling on here. Hopefully BT will get on the case sooner rather than later, as these non-pic blogs are getting a little tedious!

Holiday Update!

Hi! Am having a great time on holiday, enjoying the lovely weather - around 25-30 degrees and sunny every day! I have seen dolphins, dugongs, turtles, sea snakes, humpback whales, minke whales and a hammerhead shark! Also I swam with whalesharks for an hour or so! Amazing amazing stuff. Highly recommended.
Off to the Karinji gorges tomorrow, then heading south the next day! More updates soon.