I have been totally negligent about my blog. On the one hand there is very little new stuff to post about. I am knitting grey socks for the Bear, J's cardigan, spinning Dragon hair, not inkle weaving. As well, I have been driven nuts by the black dog for a week. For those of you who had not heard this euphemism before (and I hadn't before I came to Oz), I have been depressed. But enough about me! This blog is supposed to be about.... me? I have no reason to be depressed bar the usual. Pain, mess, barking dogs, noisy neighbours (why do the girls next door have to converse at such a volume after I've told them already I can hear every word they say since their living room window is 3 meters from my bedroom window?). The nice couple across the street had a screaming fight (not the first) Friday evening with much yelling of the F word at the tops of their voices in the front yard, each telling the other to leave the house, ending with him throwing stuff in the ute and driving off followed by her playing some dreadful hip--hop type music so loud it set up a sonic vibration making their windows rattle. And all of this with 2 (3?) small children at home. I made nominal progress in our house, with the hedgetrimmer having left the building finally. I have been unable to find a plasterer yet as they either don't return messages, say they will call but don't, or say it's too far for them to drive. Canberra is not that big, folks. Why do people advertise if they don't want the work? Can I ask the newspaper to pull the ad because they don't really mean "no job too small"? And blaming it on Christmas when it's the first of the month is absurd.

Anything new? I have lima beans sprouted! I laid a new drip hose last night as the old one had spuing a leak and discovered limas. Wrestling a hose which has spent its formative months coiled in a circle to lie flat is not fun for me or the hose. We are due to go on more stringent water restrictions in a week or so because it hasn't rained, but drip systems are allowed. The possums have been eating my strawberries. They do not eat the other berries and I made the first batch of mixed berry jam on Sunday. I planted a miniature watermelon pair (yellow and orange) in the spot of the garden that has killed 4 different melon plants despite careful watering. I won't be sad if nothing becomes a melon but it's a waste of a great spot. I'll plant some silverbeet (swiss chard) there later in the season.

I plied the grey wool from the spotted fleece and got a bit short of a full (big) bobbin's worth. I want to spin more and knit less but J's cardigan is first priority followed by the grey socks. I am continuing to card the grey fluff and when I asked about how to get a more homogeneous batt was given the advice to flick card first before drum carding. Well, the result are much more satisfying but its's adding another whole laayer of work to the process and showing me how much short fibre is in this wool ( A LOT ) and I am again cursing myself for having invested so much effort already in this fleece when it should probably been composted. But the good fibre is silky and shiney and very soft. It's just the finding of the good wool....

I have bid on a book on ebay of Latvian sashes. In Latvian. I've seen some of the cotents of this book and I figure it will translate to the inkle loom. The last time this book was up nobody bid on it so maybe I'll end up with a totally useless bit of weaving junk. See how cheery I am?