Regularly Scheduled Programming

I have a sneaking suspicion, going by the profusion of daisies that have blossomed in my back yard (from the plant I planted last year), and by the pervading scent of Jasmine in the air, that Spring may have finally sprung!

I also have this insane urge to buy some lattice and drape a wisteria plant from it. I may yet do this. I’ll see how much they look like setting me back at the nursery when I go for a walk sometime in the next week!

But what have I been working on? Well you may ask! For some reason I fell in love with a bullion stitch bookmark on Ravelry and scheduled a lesson for myself to learn this amazing new (to me) stitch.

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Being in a crochet type of groove, I was inspired by this magazine, which I then bought,

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Because …

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So I decided it was high time that I learn Irish Lace Crochet. So I headed off to this site, and downloaded myself a 100 year old DMC instruction manual. (Specifically Dillmont, Th. de, ed. D.M.C. Irish Crochet Lace. Mulhouse, Dollfus-Mieg & Cie, [c.1900], 63 pgs and 7 linen patterns.) (I love the internet!)

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I began with some leaves,

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Then a flower,

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Then I decided that my thread was FAR too dense to get the intricacy I was aspiring too, and so I headed back to Morris Craft for a finer gauge.

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In between all of that I have also been slowly progressing with the Crown Prince Square. It’s repetitive, and not all that challenging, so I’ll need to finish it fast before I lose interest in it all together!

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Just one more repeat of the middle section, then the border of crosses, then it’s on to the outer lace!

Somewhere in there I also made a gnome. *grins*

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I’m not sure Elizabeth is as impressed as I am …

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Ghoti Travels Pt5

Cairns. It’s a relaxed place.

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Where after dredging their beach back to mudflat,

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they created a man-made beach to make up for it.

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We found a really relaxing café,

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and sat there ‘til the sun went down.

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We made use of the hotel pool.

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We listend to the bats fighting across the street, and I wondered when they ever find time to sleep. I mean they seem to squabble all day, and fly all night so …

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The promenade was testament to the community determination to be fit and healthy. There were activity points all along it on one side.

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And spectacular mudflats that teemed with life on the other.

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All kinds of life …

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I love our sunburnt country! *grins*

Regular posting resumes next week! See you then!

Ghoti Travels Pt4

Yes we did it. We snorkeled on the outer Great Barrier Reef. Not only that, we did it on a day with a severe wind warning! Choppy doesn’t begin to describe the trip back! But the trip out was akin to the Manly Ferry going through the heads.

We went with Quicksilver to the Agincourt Reef, and I can’t recommend them highly enough!

As you step in the water is teeming with fish. Even on the steps off the pontoon!

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Himself has an underwater camera, and mine was underwater equipped for the expedition.

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What with the severe wind warning, the water was choppier than expected when you were out swimming in it!

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But there was so much to see!

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We only got out of the water long enough to eat lunch in the middle of the day, and while that settled did the tour on the semi-submersible. Only on that boat did we see a shark or sea turtle.

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Before you knew it the horns were sounding to drag everyone in from the water to take the hour and a half long journey back to dock. But there was time to get submerged in one last fish feeding frenzy!

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Just one more entry to come in the tales of our adventure!

Ghoti Travels Pt3

At our final theme park for this trip we found our way to Movie World.

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Where I may have become a bit of a fan girl.

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I’m not saying I like Batman …

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But, you know …

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Sometimes … Yeah.

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But there were other characters too!

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Then we checked out of that hotel and were on to the next leg of our journey!

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It wasn’t long before I spotted my first ever glimpse of the Great Barrier Reef.

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In our next exciting episode, we was swimmin’ with the fishes, see!

Ghoti Travels Pt2

In today’s exciting episode there was breakfast

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a change of hotels

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and dinner.

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Then there was Dreamworld. Where we took their oldest tiger for his morning constitutional!

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His name is Mohan, and he is 16 years old. Go to the drop box here for more info.

These plants make him sneeze.

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He was all grumbly and grumpy and whingey because his belly was still full of last night’s horsemeat dinner!

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When walking along the train line he stays to the sleepers to protect his sensitive paw pads. Makes him a quiet hunter.

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Definitely the highlight of our day! Though dirty …

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And it was all over by 9am. But we wouldn’t have given it up for ANYTHING! We had the biggest grins on our faces, and given that we spent the rest of the day on the high adrenaline rides, we kept grinning all day long!

There aren’t any photos of the rides. We were too busy riding them 😛

More to come!