A cats cradle!

We didn't really go far this week but none the less it has flown past...  It has been a really lovely week, weather wise cool cloudy starts to the day followed by the gentle warmth of the Autumn sun.  When pegging out the washing first thing in the morning I've noticed the clothes steaming bringing flash backs of past Autumns.  And there has been that gorgeous fresh air smell to them when I've brought the dry clothes in later in the day.  Not long now till the official start of winter.

The sun is rising about 7 am giving us a civilised chance to watch the misty dawns and it's dark by about 5.30 these days.  A good excuse for yummy comfort food, soups, slow cooked stews and the like.

The birds are taking it in turns at the moment to herald the dawn.  Just recently we've been woken up by Laughing Magpies, Lorikeets, Crows and Kookaburras, amazing sounds and surprisingly loud.  Who needs an alarm clock it is much nicer being woken up by the birds. Every day more flowers burst out on the neighbours Red Cap Gum.  The Wattle birds have been feeding on the nectar and at last they have been found by the Lorikeets.

Eucalyptus Erythrocorys or Red Cap Gum

Rick has been working on Dora fitting her up with new rear shock absorbers making her ready for our next adventure.  Meanwhile I've been doing the 'normal chores', gardening, having another go at spinning.... oh and learning how not to rewind a skein of yarn.

I remember as a child Mum and Gran getting me to sit still (they must have bribed me) and helping them rewind the skeins of yarn into balls ready for knitting.  What I'd completely forgotten was the trick of draping the yarn around a fairly stationery object prior to cutting the ties.  Clearly over excited about the beautiful skein of alpaca I made a start and very quickly realised I'd got the biggest cats-cradle ever to sort out. Wrapping the yarn around feet propped up on the coffee table is not the go. It's taken 4 days but I have at last got it into 4 decent size balls ready to knit up... phew... hopefully I will never do that again.

The beans at the block had got worse so out they came, in their place I've sown another bush bean and some Barlotti beans.  Hopefully these will do better than the last lot.  Everything else is just romping away, very exciting and hopefully not that much longer before I can start harvesting.... something....

It took me at least an hour to set up the spinning wheel. Starting with practising getting the treadle going at a steady speed, 'row row row the boat' is apparently a good rhythm to treadle to.  That 'mastered' I set the tensions and spent quite a lot of time getting the wool to feed onto the bobbin.  At long last I did it... very exciting for me at least and once it's all going smoothly it is very soothing to do. Rick arrived home and very kindly straightened the wheel/bobbin up before we knew it the maidens had moved, bobbin was on the floor and the belt off the wheel... whoops.... oh well it is good to have the practice!  I will hopefully get quicker each time I do it.

Morning and sunset in the beautiful Padthaway wine district just 45 minutes drive from us.