BIRDS BIRDS BIRDS

BEAUTIFUL MORNINGS

MOSAIC, KNITTING

NOT ENOUGH TIME IN THE DAY  even though i'm not going anywhere and hardly seeing anyone.   I must get onto the sewing machine and start some masks and i want to make dresses for mara and me for summer.  

MASKS - the new lipstick  😕

i have the pattern ready - it's too beautiful outside to be indoors sewing but the coming week will be cold so i'll light the fire and 

sew :0)    also enjoying Schitt's Creek while knitting another jacket 

for etta. 

But i've been into mosaic over the past week, using leftover tiles to 

do three metal tables for the garden.  Now i have a spot in the sun at different times of day with a chair and little table set up

    SEAL OF APPROVAL

TABLES FINISHED but i still had the bug and leftover bits so i made a swish new lazy susan for the scrabble set.  used a cute lazy susan i'd bought at the op shop ages ago, silver edge, little cream bakelite knobs to whizz it around.  i'm very happy with it.

SLOWDOWN

LOCKDOWN is a paradox - we're all confined to doing things in a very limited area, not visiting, not travelling.  and yet the days seem to fly by more and more quickly.   here it is, sunday again and it seems like only yesterday it was last weekend. 

even adding to the blog i'm always surprised to see how many more days have passed than i thought. so . . .  apart from my two little clips i haven't written anything since july 20.

TIME FOR AN ETTA UPDATE :0)   

she's coming along nicely 

JULY 7   etta finally fits one of the 

little knits i've made

JULY 19  eyes wide open, nearly focussed

JULY 22  filling out nicely

JULY 24

LOCKDOWN CONTINUES - masks are compulsory in victoria now

I'll see if mildura residents are complying on the 7th's trip to doc.

               LOVE THIS PIC

   Luke is teaching online from home  -  now he's back on

   campus but still remote teaching

BIRDBATH ENCOUNTER

I was looking through the window and this beautiful ringneck parrot was intrigued by two noisy miners having a bath.  one flew off before i could get the camera but this one hung in there trying to have another dip while being bemused and uncertain about his colourful visitor.    I never tire of the shenanigans going on in the birdbaths around the garden 

BLUEY AT MY WINDOW

i was sitting in the loungeroom when this little wren landed on an upended log and saw his reflection.  i'm sure he thought he saw a rival,  the birds are getting pretty active with the approach of spring and the fine sunny weather :0)

LOCKDOWN CONTINUES

LOCKDOWN really hasn't made a lot of difference to me but i did have the experience of driving through the barriers and showing my cross border permit to an army guy in camouflage.

and now i'm off to spotlight today, not for wool but for fabrics to try making a mask or two.   if they work i'll send them to sunny, although i hear that pipecleaners are selling out already. they're needed to shape around the bridge of the nose.  who would've thought we'd be doing these things back in february when the year was stretching ahead, full of possibilities.  i'm so sad that sunny's first baby comes at this time which intrudes on the joy and tiredness of having a new baby in the house.  

little popsie is doing nicely, 'chubbing up' as sunny puts it.

hat knitted by great aunt jen

LOCKDOWN IN JAPAN  -  rene and family are doing alright, the kids are at kinder and school having temps taken as they enter, wearing masks out in the public spaces.   Looks like mara is into dresses, so i'm going to sew her a couple.

    the family has a new car, a VW small SUV style wagon.   cal's 

    overdue for a haircut, rene's cutting his own.

latest pics, etta is 3.2 kg, almost ready to go into a sling :0)  life will become easier for sunny

i'm busy knitting - this time for me, lovely bendigo wool with alpaca and silk so it's very nice to the touch.  making this up as i go along, knitting, pulling out,  knitting, pulling out.   trial and error.

birdie visitors,  a face-off between the kooka, happily sitting on the clothesline minding its own business and a willie, determined that he had to go

FOGGY MORNINGS, WARM SUNNY DAYS THIS WEEK

 morning walk.   this ring-neck parrot preceded me along the footpath for a block.  usually they're in pairs and are up high and quite skittish.  this one walked and flew a few meters ahead of me and played on the wire fence.  Made me think he's been in captivity for a while. 

more birds - taken at home during the week

a gorgeous new neighbour

gavin and jenny next door have an adorable new heeler, Maddie.   she's the chubbiest cuddliest little pup, i'm going to love having her
to chat to on morning walks when she's allowed out into the front yard.  right now she's safely out the back.  gavin's concerned about theft and hawks

I WENT FOR A 2 HOUR WALK yesterday, maybe long, exploring across the road out into the saltbush and up to Thegoa Lagoon, hoping to find a variegated wren or a white winged wren.  instead i found this pretty little grey fantail, hard to photograph because it just doesn't sit still and i'm a long way off.  but here it is

AFTER I GOT BACK it was a toss up between weeding the iris garden or mosaicing a little table.  i have two of these, will do both.  the recessed metal top lifts off, they'll be handy for outdoor tables.  Kmart, $15.  

using two coasters, one had cracked and i'd like them in a place where i see them more, i love the green one, gorgeous colours

I'll buy charcoal grout today, it'll pull together ok.  the other one will be more white, cream, mirror and soft green.  and one piece of china i found on my walk through the saltbush.   there used to be a settlement there in the '30's while the weir and lock were being built.