Sad news.

I took Smidgen to the vet yesterday and he didn't come home. He has been losing weight steadily since Christmas which was originally grounds for celebration as he has been horribly overweight. I had planned to take him last week but the neighbour's shenanigans put me off my plans and so it was intended to happen yesterday instead. But on Sunday night he did not sleep on the bed, and yesterday morning he had gone into a state of collapse and was badly dehydrated.

Had to plead for a spot as they were heavily booked but they let us come down and frankly I didn't think he would make the distance. It was hoped that intravenous fluids would help and they certainly made a difference, but a blood test showed he had complicated diabetes which, together with his pre-existing kidney problems would have required several weeks hospitalisation to stabilise if it were indeed possible.

Apart from the obvious fact that would have been beyond my budget, Smidgen hates being in Kennels so the stress added to the illness would have worked against him. So I made the call and he is no longer with us. He's with his two best friends now.

Much better night's sleep last night despite the heat. And lucky for me as I had a lot of cutting to do today - the jungle is once again beaten back to the far side of the septic tank and 'herself' went out, so I was even able to do along her boundary without incident. More remains to be done, and will be addressed tomorrow when it is (hopefully) cooler as it will be the last cool day for the rest of the week by the looks of things.

It was horribly humid today, but a light breeze did wonders for getting the washing dry and that is all now put away in the relevant cupboards.

The local police were good to their word - the officer is new to the district so I gave her the low-down on the Lane and other options of surveillance in the area, and she in return assured me I can call the local coppers in instances of animal cruelty (which is news to me and would have been very useful when the neighbours were dispatching their foal.)
Apart from a minor attempt at verballing me when I took Seb out the back gate, there has been no difficulty on the home front.

Not much sleep was had here last night. between the heat and Seb's tummy upset (no idea what that is all about) I was up and down like a yoyo. Finally gave up when I was woken once again at five for another urgent trip outside. He is very good and makes sure I am awake and that I understand there is a problem and makes sure he keeps his legs crossed till we get outside, though on occasion we only just make it. Unfortunately it continued today while I was out, but he restricted himself to a neat deposit in the spare bedroom and the next one made it into the garden. If it's still a problem tomorrow I expect it will be necessary to add a trip to the vet's to the day's list.

The reason I was out today was because of the Ross Summer's Day which is an excuse for everyone with a spinning wheel to converge on Ross and spend a day talking to fellow spinners, discover just how very many styles of wheel there are, buy fleece and floof and generally get through a long day of fun and frivolity. I took the Kiwi which travels more easily than the traddie and after I had filled a bobbin with Suffolk (and a lumpen greasy mess it is too, but that's basically what I was aiming for), I started on some dyed tops which I frankly have no recollection of acquiring. But since I have two of them I presume I did. They are merino and in shades of grey through to almost black and will make a nice vest, though since I have only 200g of them, I may need to find something complementary to provide feature panels of some sort. It is spinning fairly fine though, so should go a long way.

Before departing I dropped a saccharine sweet thank you note in the neighbour's letter box:

20 January 2018

Dear------

Thank you for reminding me of the fact it past time for me to deal with the Rooster. I have to say I appreciate your patience in not raising the matter earlier. Given the apparent urgency off your concerns, you have exercised outstanding restraint in not letting me know in the period since he first arrived in April 2015. Now I am aware, I will, of course, process him for the pot at my earliest convenience.

I wonder, as we are apparently now communicating, if you can give some thought to establishing a sturdier post to act as a strainer for your internal fencing. Star pickets are not ideal for this use as the very apparent lean demonstrates.

Another favour you might consider is advising anyone carrying eggs with malicious intent that their DNA is traceable to source.

I will be discussing this with Tas Police when they pop around to visit tomorrow.

Once again my thanks

Kind Regards

I have to say I was surprised there were no repercussions when I got home, but no doubt there is still time.

Thought things were going too well. Took the dog for his walk this morning and as I passed the ute I found this:

 Having safely parked the dog, tracked down the scrubbing brush and a microfibre cloth (it was already well dried) I removed it, and moving round the vehicle to turn off the tap, I found this:

It being school holidays I shrugged it off as teenage angst, but on the dog's second walk I was treated to an abusive tirade from Psycho-neighbour. Since it is several years since this has happened I was marginally surprised (though not very), and since her abuse was directed toward the allegedly vile conditions in which I keep the rooster it was not hard to work out who the egger was.

Unsurprisingly the RSPCA turned up this afternoon and agreed her complaints were groundless. She had already blotted her copy book with them by ringing back and abusing them because they had not dropped everything to come out after her first call. But to avoid further unpleasantness he will be going to Bonorong tomorrow to feed their birds of prey. I will leave a courteous note in her letter box explaining his fate and reminding her that egg shells preserve fingerprints. I have arranged for the police to pop round on Sunday (I am going out tomorrow) and make their presence known by going on a tour of my premises. Haha.

Hard to know what has set her off - it is usually symptomatic of something else I have done to upset her (eg suggesting sharing the cost of building a fence). No doubt all will become clear over time.

I did try to scan the manual today, but with little success. The printer has been playing up of late and since I had to print off a letter for the Railway group I spent several hours running cleaning processes, doing prints to check the success of said processes and eventually getting something vaguely suitable for sending to Tas Rail. So by the time I wrestled with the scanning software and produced scans of small pages that overlapped the sides of A4 I was not feeling inclined to persist. I will have another go tomorrow.

Well I am certainly getting my money's worth out of my extras cover - so far I have paid them 30 dollars and claimed 190. My new dentist is a joy - if such a term can be applied to dentists. He takes a picture of the site to be attacked to discuss it with you (instead of sticking his fingers in your mouth, prodding around and asking questions when you are unable to respond). He discusses the options with you as if you are an intelligent adult and explains the constraints and possible repercussions (how many times have you gone to the dentist and come out with another problem? He explains why. He discusses the xray with you - explaining what is going on with the teeth around the site of activity and how the work may affect them. I was thrilled. He even has a little horseshoe-shaped thing that he bungs between the teeth on the other side, so you can relax your jaw without restricting his access to your mouth. Very pleased! And better still, I can chew again. I have at least one more trip to go - checkup and clean as well as the second drilling, but that is not till next week so I can hide from the heat tomorrow (fortunately today was not as hot as they suggested it would be - at least while I was on the road).

The apricots are just that little bit brighter and oranger, but still not actually ripe - still hard and green on closer inspection.

I have also signed up to drive for the hospital - taking locals for medical appointments in Hobart and Launceston. They gave me a tour of the cars which reminded me just how ancient the ute is. Did you know there are now cars which do not require you to insert the key - you just push a button to turn them on?! Both vehicles are equipped with various emergency kit, have four wheel drive capability and all sorts of bells and whistles it will take me time to work out. But being airconditioned and comfortable it should not be too onerous at all. The challenge I am warned, is evading the various efforts by passengers to find out my opinion on various other persons and what gossip I may be hiding from them. But that sounds like a normal walk down the high street of Oatlands so should be OK.

Having finally eaten a real meal for the first time in two weeks, and dessert of self-saucing chocolate pudding with raspberries, I am now doomed to sit and wait for it to be cool enough to go to bed.

Well nothing happened today apart from the apricots moving one day closer to being ripe. Some vague progress on the scarf to match the tam (I am repeatedly unpicking the motif - I think I got it right this time!), and a few walks with the dog. I must have worn myself out with that post!

Well my excuse is I have been busy - what can I say? Sorry.

I promised photos and photos you shall have - at least it will show you how busy I have been!

Here is the very big crane they were using on the railway - and still hard at work (well, not really, they have made a huge mess, wandered off and left us to deal with the large potholes on the crossing. I expect they will finish some time soon).

Consider that this is a large two storey barn, about 100 metres this side of the crossing, the crossing itself is several metres lower than the base of the barn, and I am at the bottom of a slope! It was HUGE!

 This is the rose I have been raiding at Vera's garden - it is a rambler, no idea of the variety, and is now finished for the year as far as I can tell. I am keeping an eye out for some lattice at the tip so I can fasten it back to the wall of the shed.

 I made up various mixtures involving rhubarb leaves, copper and iron mordants, vinegar, ammonia and water and so forth and popped them in jars to sit in the sun. The sun promptly disappeared for several days an I became impatient so they were then subjected to microwaving.

 And this is the range of colours you can derive from one rose colour! Amazing isn't it. The grey is probably more iron than rose, but the rest are quite lovely. And the grey works well as a complementary colour with these tones.

 That being done, I had to knit them up and so created this tam adapting an 8 ply pattern to the 5 ply of the Bluebell and adding the patterns from a completely different book.

This is the underside of the tam.
















I also finished the vest I was knitting which has turned our rather well I think. There is a lot of yarn left over (apart from the main colour of course) so I have just spun up some additional main colour and have started a tam to match the vest. The vest actually fits too - which was a nice surprise!




































Speaking of the things you find at the tip, I picked up this rather nice regency striped fabric in the shape of a discarded curtain. There is a certain subtle pressure once you start spinning, and live in a town prone to the odd heritage festival, to wear period costume. I have stubbornly resisted this as I hate making a spectacle of myself, and also because fabric is so damned expensive. But this was too good to pass up.

Washing it provided a timely reminder that there is a reason they say curtains are dry-clean only, but it was simply a pinkish wash over the cream, so no harm done.














A trip to the Bargain Centre provided this to form the basis of the pattern which, together with the dress making form and swathes of calico allowed me to produce this:

 I was pleased to find that, despite having to match stripes, I was able to obtain all relevant pieces for the gown - including sleeves which are not yet inserted. They will be modified to a more period-appropriate shape. But it's all a bit too immodest at present, so I am making a high-collared (but loosish for comfort) false underblouse .

 As you can see, the collar is in place, the piece of broderie is to be pintucked and adorned with the broderie strip that is loosely laid over it. This has been dyed a pale green and threaded with a deep pink ribbon and will also adorn the false sleeves that will poke out of the gown sleeves.

And there I have ground to a halt because I have nowhere to set up the machine that also gives me access to the form and the iron. I took the pattern and fabric down to the recreation shed to cut it out, but rather draw the line at carting the whole workshop down there!

 So I paused for a bit to admire the garden which is both thriving and providing a fine habitat for the local frog population - amazing what having water on tap can do for your gardening efforts.

The apricot is just ripening now so I expect I will have yet another interruption to jam/bottle/chutney and stew fruit for a while. And the neighbour's flowering gum is looking quite splendid despite their efforts to kill it by plowing too close to the trunk.

But while I was musing on the garden an item popped up on a buy sell FB page which has solved the sewing challenge (albeit with deferred gratification as I have just broken the drive band).



This thing of beauty came complete with even more attachments than my old 1954 Singer had - zigzag, pleating, roll hem, button hole, you name it, and it even has its manual still. The drive band was held together with  a paper glider, and broke the instant I tried pedalling too fast, but there is a local saddler who I am sure can provide a substitute. So I will amuse myself cleaning it and de-greasing/repacking the various moving parts while I wait to sort out a solution.

Hope you all had a good Christmas and Happy New Year - I broke a tooth on the New Year break (another one!!) so am now the proud if poor possessor of Extra's cover as the 'free' dental service requires you to turn up on the offchance they might fit you in. Which since it involves a trip to Hobart to sit and wait did not seem a terribly sound solution. Choosi found me one that waived the waiting period so I will use it to deal with both teeth, and a new pair of glasses and see how I am coping with the payments.