Saturday 10 October 2015

Itchy feet, restless heart.

Hi guys - it's been a while since I've blogged. But life's like that, isn't it? It's like you blink and weeks have passed while you were just getting on with the 'routine'.

The 'routine' has me a bit bummed lately. I mean I dont want to sound ungrateful - Im so blessed that my life is routine enough to be boringly comfortable, and not ravaged by war and uncertainty! And the grass is always greener, isn't it?

But I've been catching up on Kate's blog and their family's trip overseas, and feeling a tad envious! Sometimes I want a bit of escapism! ...But then I look at our animals and think "Omigosh I coudn't possibly leave you for all that time, you smooshy fluffy Collie....*smoochsmoochsmooch*"



*sigh*

Still, next weekend, we're off to McCrae to stay the weekend in a friend's beach house, so Im looking forward to that! (AND the dogs get to come too!)



What else?

Oh yes - we finally got our spring seedlings in! We took the trailer and bought some market boxes for this year's garden! The bales were great last year, but eventually they do start to decompose and fall to bits, and you find yourself with a bit of a mess of plants going to seed and sinkholes and twine. We've planted Choy Sum, Broccolini, Peas, Strawberries, Beetroots and I got one tiny tiny tomato to pop up - so fingers crossed it takes! Today I'm going to pop out to Mt Evelyn and grab some Zucchini and Leb cucumber seedlings. The cucumbers were prolific last year!



The apple trees are blossoming, the apricot's looking good, the plum is... not as 'fruity' as last year. And the Hill Shadow Feral Bees are hard at work each day, you can hear the hum of them wokring all over the farm. Bless them x

Our 2 new goats got a haircut last week, and now they look like skinny little drowned rats! Poor boys! Their fleece hadn't been maintained at all, so they were quite matted and dread locked round the chest, and I just didn't have the heart to try to comb and pull at them. So we rang a mobile shearer and he popped out one day between jobs and now I have 2 cashmere fleeces in bags and two tiny skinny goats. I had high hopes of selling/using the fleece, but have found removing the guard hairs an absolute nightmare. Commercial cashmere gets dehaired by machine, and because this is shorn and not combed, some of it is a matted hairy mess. Still, when Im feeling patient, I clean up enough for me to use, and blend it in with something else.



This is our cashmere, blended with some alpaca I dyed orange and yellow, and plyed with the softest 16 micron merino - turned out ok, huh? Im planning on knitting this into a little beanie for my friend's baby girl.

Currently on my needles is Ben's birthday present (I've got til Dec 31!). It's a v-neck jumper in TARDIS blue, with a pattern of Daleks and the TARDIS round the bottom. I spun all the wool myself - it's half alpaca, half merino, indogo dyed by the Shepherdess herself, Niki - and Im hoping I'll have enough... :S And Im kinda thinking about more socks... socks with cables... mmmm.



ok, I've ground to a halt. Time to go shower and get these girls dressed for the day. And feed the horse and let the goats out and break up the fights and put the washing on and tidy the breakfast things and...

*sigh* Oh well, at least it looks like being a beautiful day. And Im going to meet my friend Tash to check out the Lilydale Psychic Expo and have a coffee.

What are you going to do to make this day fun? Where are you travelling to next? What are you putting in your garden? What's on your knitting needles? Who's blog are you loving?

Tell me everything.
xx