Chemistry

Did you know that this is the Year of Chemistry?? No?? Well, it is. And to celebrate, the Royal Society are behind a project called Knit the Periodic Table. Yes, you read that right. A bunch of us needle wielders have knitted a square each. Mine's Uranium. I chose it. Here it is, at top right, with a bunch of other great elements ....

Aren't they great?? I'm looking forward to seeing it all put together. Typically, I have no clue when that might happen, or where it'll be ...

In other news, despite the lack of blogging over the last two months, I haven't been in a coma, or even asleep as much as I'd like. Just continuing to do just enough to keep us fed and clothed and educated and socialised and exercised.

Sweeney's settling into his new life as a schoolboy. My first parent-teacher interview went okay - no crying or punching - and it turns out that he's doing great, albeit in his usual galooty fashion.   

Pay It Forward

I promise something handmade to the first five people who leave a comment here. To be eligible, you must repost this message, offering something handmade to five other people. The rules are that it must be handmade by you, and it must be sent to your five giftees some time in 2011. Ready, Set, Go!!!

(via Frangipani & Green Valley Crafts, & Meet Me at Mike's)

Be sure to leave an email address ...

Smitten for the Mitten

I joined in with a Christmas ornament swap. I've never done one before, and I was a bit intimidated by other people's efforts to start off with. Then I had a couple of false starts, a few u-turns.

And then I tried making some teensy-tiny mittens. Not very New Zealand, I know, but what the hey. Then, when I was faced with a pile of ten of them, they just looked kind of utilitarian and I was a little disappointed with that.

So I tried out a bit of gold thread embellishing. I thought they turned out dinky, but of course forgot to take photos of them before I packed them up. So here's a photo from Miriam's blog ...

One thing that came out of the whole experience was reminding myself that I'm rather handy at french knots, and I've never before used gold thread. Really should knock some up for ourselves, I reckon. Next post will feature the ornaments I was sent. They're all splendid.

Just one thing that completely slipped my mind until today. Have to get us a tree, don't I ...

Burnin' Up

Sweeney's rattly cough never quite went away, and now I find his chest infection is back, and he's got a little ear and throat infection, too. Poor little guy. He mentioned a sore throat two days ago, and I put it down to a spot of hayfever, because I've got a sore throat and I reckoned to myself that it's hayfever.

Of course, it's not hayfever. We've both got our chest infections again, but not nearly so brain-wrenchingly bad as previously. I had a glass of wine after the funeral on Thursday, and woke up the next day with throbbing in the hangover portion of my head. It went on all day, then through the weekend, and on to today.

Of course, it wasn't a hangover.

So, we're all loaded up with medicine and it's going to be okay. Sweeney's got a bit of a temp, and I may have to hook him up and run the lights off his flaming core.

In other news, it looks like the run of perfect weather may be over. Which isn't so bad, because it makes the rattly coughs feel a bit more appropriate, seeing as it's windy and rainy and kind of wintery and all.

In other, other news, I'm knitting up a storm, getting my shizz together for the Christmas ornament swap. More on that later ...

Rainbow Connection

There was a rainbow as we walked home tonight, but Sweeney wasn't impressed. Rainbows in real life aren't nearly so awesome as in books, or even in drawings young chaps make at preschool nowadays. Sadly, Nature doesn't use felt tips.

I don't care. I love rainbows.

I also love orange and brown together. Jaffas are orange and brown. They really are the chocolate-orange mouthful. Jaffa flavouring is orange and chocolate combined. They are excellent flavours individually, and sublime when integrated. When I was 16 and in hospital having my appendix out, there was a chap in the ward next door who had a brown dressing gown with big orange spots. I loved that dressing gown.

So here's my latest work in progress. It's the same kimono pattern as I've made previously - it just doesn't fail, ever - and I'm kind of pleased at getting the hang of stripes - I'm very much a one-colour kind of gal, but trying TRYING to be more interesting in the stuff what I make.

In other news, Sweeney completely blew me away tonight. He's crazy for The Snail and the Whale at the moment, so I read it at least once every night these days. I get him to finish off some of the lines because they're such lovely rhymes, and I love how he says "whayal" and "snayal".

Well, it turns out that he can recite the whole story - well, he needed a bit of prompting towards the end - but he can totally do most of it without any nudging. And he's been dancing. Dancing. DANCING. He never dances. Or sings. Banging out Incy Wincy Spider is actual singing, right?? This week he's been doing it all.

It's Thursday, so check out hot creatives at Kootoyoo. People whose cameras don't everything fuzzy, by the way ...

Fine Time

Okay, what have I been doing?? Oh, you know, the usual. Going to work, raising the young'un, doing some chores, watching Cranford some more, reading my book - also called Cranford, knitting my beret, taking my beret apart and knitting it up again ... stuff.

Sweeney's suddenly too tall for his jeeps pyjamas, which is going to kill him because they're his faves. His nana bought them for him last year and they're on high rotate all the time. Even over summer - lucky it was such a naff summer. I found a bag of size 4 clothes that were handed on to me for him last year. They're all colours I just don't think of when I'm thinking of him - sky blue, green - but I shall simply go for it and send him to preschool looking slightly differently gorgeous in sky blue and green. Turns out he really loves wearing green.
Other recent highlights include going to see this exhibition at the City Gallery on Monday. Sweeney's keen for his birthday party to be based around cardboard boxes (!?) so I thought he'd get a kick out of seeing an entire room-sized installation constructed from cardboard boxes. He loved it. He also enjoyed some actual paintings - John Pule - mostly because there were loads of little motorbikes and sharks within them, and big blotches of lovely colour.

And then we chased pigeons in Civic Square, working off two days of rainy day cabin fever. Ace chasing.

For more creative, interesting craft-type things to look at, check this out. Because I really meant for this to be a post all about what craft I've been up to, but it turns out I haven't been up to much. And I really mean more creative, not just more of them ...

I Made This ...

Here's a little kimono I finished sewing up the other night. There are a couple of candidates for this, but I haven't decided who it's going to just yet.

There's a swag of other nifty stuff people have made over here, if you like.

When Sweeney was teensy, I made him a lovely little garter stitch jacket in this wool. I loved that jacket, and the matching hat. Strangely, the hat was enormous and still fits him, but the jacket was handed off to Harper ages ago. It looks glorious on Harper, too.

I'm knitting up a storm, still. Had lunch with a friend today who asked me if I was still into making food, and I realise I've kind of ... neglected the food side of things around here. Really want to put that right ... I bought a copy of the new revision of Aunt Daisy more than a month ago, and I've not made a single thing from it yet.

In other news, it's stopped raining so heavily, I guess to make room for the big kickass southerly that's due in about ten minutes. Sweeney's gumboots are getting a little snug on him, but they're getting a tremendous workout these days.

And Mum, don't be shy about cranking that electric blanket up ...

I Would Rather Go Blind

Here's what I've been doing with most of my evenings. My friend Girlie had her baby Gian Matthew - Gio to his new fans - last Saturday, and this is a bunch of stuff for the little guy. Will deliver these later in the week.It doesn't seem to matter how many of these things I push out into the world, there's still a ton of wool in this house. Anyhoo, Gio's going to look splendid. And be warm, which is pretty important, what with plummeting winter temperatures and all.

In other news, we had a Harper-tastic weekend, what with Harper being here for a sizeable chunk of it, then Sweeney hanging out at Monty Ave for another chunk of it. Loving Harper's chatting right now. Feel kind of sad that I can't remember what Sweeney sounded like at that age anymore.

While Sweeney was gadding about with KimberleyJoeHarper, Dad and I mulched garden stuff like no-one's ever mulched before. Hired a mulcher for it, and everything. Nothing was safe. Except for the bit of wood that the mulcher chipped for just long enough to make it all pointy and sharp, then fired back out of the input bit, missing my good eye by about 1mm. Thank all the gods I was wearing Harper's goggles.

Speaking of which, those goggles are a terrible hazard. They fog up almost the instant you put them on, so you find yourself holding them off your face as you peer into the bowels of the mulcher to see what's making that infernal noise.

And when you put them on top of your head to see your way into the house to get a drink, you catch sight of yourself looking like Professor von Drake. Actually, you catch sight of yourself after you've come back in from talking to people on the street in front of the house, who now give you a really wide berth, what with the business of you being the crazy dame covered in sawdust, with the goggles on top of your head.

Top Fab Fave Five

Top five for this week:

1. Top escape attempt. I can't even see where his tiny little fingers could go to haul himself up this wall, but he found a way. Then shimmied down on his bottom. And repeat. Honestly, the photo makes the wall look shorter and less freaky than it really is ...
2. Top hosiery. I rather fancy myself in these, don't you know ... You can't see the purple houndstooth action properly. I think you can see that my shoes need polishing, though. Just look away ...

3. Top meaty goodness. This week's stewy fiesta from Hugh F-W involves a lot of rubbishy chops, fried off for a little, then simmered in stock, lemon juice and thyme. I used commercial stock and I think that's really what informs the resulting flavour more than anything. Next time I'll use much more juice and thyme, and fry off some onions with the chops at the start. But it's still flipping delish!!

4. Top outing with Sweeney. Girded my loins - is that the term?? - and took Sweeney for a jaunt on his scooter to the Sunday market at Waitangi Park. He was so great about traffic, other people on the foothpath, stopping when he was supposed to. So chuffed. And then he was mostly co-operative about following instructions when we got there. Okay, we wouldn't have fruit this week if Kimberley hadn't arrived and taken over wrangling him for a bit, but details, shmetails ...

5. Top 3.5 hours I had all to myself to do whatever I wanted to, while Sweeney was at Harper's and I wasn't at work. Sunday afternoon. I did some washing, cooked a few meals for the week, tidied the deck, knitted a little and watched a bit of afternoon telly with no-one campaigning for the 10 millionth playing of Cars instead. Blissful. Thanks, KimberleyJoe Harper!!

More people's five top things over here ...

My Creative Space

I'm calling it creative, but don't be fooled - I didn't think the patterns up myself, and it's mostly mechanical. But I'm a little light on interesting blog post ideas at the minute, so why not show you what I've been doing at night lately??
The entire universe knows I'm trying to get rid of stuff out of the house. This is how I'm getting rid of the stockpile of wool I've accrued over the years. One tiny garment at a time. It's kind of painstaking.

These are for Zac, who lives across the road and is just the right size for these things. He's six weeks old. His mum says he has very big feet, so I've made the boots a little bigger than normal newish-baby size.

In other news, Harper stayed over with us last night while his parents gallivanted elsewhere. He snuggled down into the inflatable Spongebob bed like he was born to it, and wasn't heard from again until an appropriate get-up time this morning. The bedroom was so toasty when I checked on them on my way to bed, what with two little bodies radiating all the heat that they do. And the cat was in there, too, to suck it all up, I guess.

Then he made my heart swell by eating about a kilo of yoghurt and banana in minutes flat, as opposed to Sweeney, who makes it his life's mission to drive me mad by dawdling over his tiny amount of breakfast every morning of my life.

Anyhoo, more creative Creative Spaces over here ...

Top Five

Top Five things around here at the minute:

1. Top War Movie - isn't Where Eagles Dare just the most awesome war movie ever?? Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood together on screen, totally handsome, finest mahogany acting this side of the Black Forest. Richard Burton somehow passing himself off as a Nazi, even with his RADA-Pontrhydhyfen accent. And the fact that he's so obviously Richard Burton.

"One weekend Mayor Smith, Lieutenant Schaffer and a beautiful blonde named Mary decided to win World War II." Don't know about you, but my weekends rarely get that animated.

2. Top Cat - our cat Pippi's under enormous pressure from three neighbourhood cats. One used to live here, with us, up until more than five years ago, when we left for a few years, and he's been parking up on my bed in the afternoon the past few days. The other two just give her gyp by taking it in shifts to hang out on our deck all day long.

3. Top Roast - the chicken Kimberley turned out last night. It really was delish. Thanks, Kimp.

4. Top Sandwich - my dad's staying with us at the moment, and he made us bacon and egg sandwiches on Saturday night. Ooooh-errrrrr.
5. Top Outing - Sweeney and I spent a lovely few hours with our friends Lee and Louis and Alfie on Saturday. Louis showed Sweeney the best time at the Botanic Gardens park, Lee and I caught up on each other from a delightful perch in the shade, and Alfie lounged with us intermittently.

See more Top Fives here.

Cleaning Out My Closet

I've been sorting through all the piles of Sweeney's paintings and drawings around the house. I'm frankly loving what's coming home from preschool these days, and I can even handle the felt tips strewn over his bedroom floor, because seeing him lying there, absorbed in some colouring or drawing, just makes me jiggy. Or whatever the appropriate term is.

Sweeney was given an easel for Christmas. By his uncles. Great gift. It's set up in the sunroom and he mucks about at it heaps.

And then there are the times when he uses his chalks as cargo in his truck games, like he's doing here with Harper the other day. Ace synergy, you boys!!

In other news, I've been getting stuff together for Girlie's baby. He's due in early May, which really is any day now. She's tired and kind of over it, hopes it really is any day now. I'm pretty confident that there isn't a box or a bag in the house that I haven't scoured for baby clothing or equipment, and was chuffed to take up a ton of stuff to her and Ryan on Sunday. And look what I made for the baby. It's a little ribbed top, so wee. Little Matthew's going to look awesome in it.

I'm making the same pattern in other stashed wool for all the babies I know right now. Right now I'm making it in a variegated pink with flecks of lemon and blue, for one of Amanda's twin girls. She and her family have already found use for some small, pink blankets that turned up mysteriously in the house a while ago. Brilliant to find people who can make use of the stuff we don't need anymore. And decluttering, to boot.

Still so much to get rid of, though ...

Just Say Yes

Today's Philip's birthday. He's one of Sweeney's Dunedin cousins. An ace fellow. Sweeney really likes his Dunedin cousins. I think I mentioned the birthday once to him this morning, and tonight he renamed both of his Poohs - they're now both called Philip - and had a little party with them before he settled in for sleep.

Happy birthday, Philip!! From Sweeney and the Philips!!!

In other news, my regime of eating right that I've kept to for the last two weeks with no slips has left me with the biggest tummy I've had since I was pregnant. And I feel shorter. Whatever it is, I'm having a fat day.

I'm making a rib jersey for Girlie's baby. Neglecting a few chores around the house to make the rib jersey for Girlie's baby, actually. Really enjoying hanging out with her all day at work. Lots of nice reminders about the excitement of being 30 weeks pregnant.

And I think we're looking at a Grow Situation with Sweeney. Tonight he ate steak, two enormous chopped carrots and half an orange pepper. Then three bowls of yoghurt, a banana, and a pear. THEN half a can of beetroot, a marmite sandwich and a glass of soy milk. He calls it sorry milk. It's his new favourite thing. I'm kind of keen on how good the special on it is at New World right now.

Then a complete meltdown on the deck, including giving me the bash a couple of times, followed by absolute refusal to sit in timeout. Somehow, wrestling him into his pyjamas calmed him down and we had the Philip party, a few Richard Scarry stories, and he crashed in record time.

Oh good. Time to finish off the back of Girlie's baby's jersey.

Baby, It's You ...

and you and you and you ... so many babies being born over the last few weeks, so many birthday parties lately. I say Hurrah!! More cake, please ...

I've been off the air, blog-wise, for a few weeks now. We've been doing stuff around here, believe me. Nothing Big and Important, but stuff nonetheless. Here's a smattering to catch up with ...

• the world's greatest nephew, Harper G-Ray, turned two and there was a party to celebrate. I made a cake. Not wanting to toot my own horn, but it was terrific;
• the neighbours came over for dinner. Sweeney nearly lost his mind with glee at having Frank and Arthur in his house;
• Sweeney slipped on a banana peel - yes, really - while goofing off on the stairs and tipped over the edge, falling five feet to the concrete floor below. All turned out well, but there was an ambulance and a trip to ED and a scan and parental gastric reflux and a day of watching him closely for wonkiness before I was sure that it had all turned out well;
• I made some wee socks for my friend Girlie's baby, who's due in May;
• I cooked macaroni cheese approximately twelve hundred times. Or maybe it just felt like that;
• an enormous truck with a digger on it went down our street yesterday morning. I've never seen so many little boys out on the street at 7am before;
• I found a shop near my work that makes the most splendid apple slice, so to celebrate, I ate one every work day for three weeks. I think that may have been partly responsible for the devastating experience I had on Saturday with my favourite jeans;
• we went to watch the skateboarding champs last Friday;
• I had the least enjoyable dinner of my life at Wagamama. The food, staff, service were fantastic. The crowds walking past us in their Sevens costumes were hilarious. The weather was perfect for sitting outside with the nice people we were eating with. Sweeney, Bela and Harper running away and looking like they were about to jump in the harbour every twenty seconds was irritating and terrifying in equal amounts;
• Sweeney and Bela danced all through the outdoors area at One Red Dog on the waterfront. Definitely redeemed them after the Wagamama fiasco. The dj was clearly mortified that the preschoolers were the only people he was getting moving, though;
• We went to the Sevens for a few hours. Sweeney dressed as Spiderman and rolled with the bunches of Mickey Mouses, sexy french maids, buzzy bees, blood-spattered surgeons and even a few real policemen. He lost his cool when the Big Bad Wolf had to remove his bonnet so it could be checked for beer smuggling. Too weird, I guess. Oh, and there was some rugby ...;
• I was beyond chuffed to hear that our neighbours across the road, Kate and JB, are having a baby;
• We went to Dom & Emma's barbecue, and caught up with their fine selves, as well as more O'Neills. Sweeney played cricket with JJ and Dom, although he has his own view of the rules;
• I watched 30 Rock lots, and some Molly Ringwald movies. And grew kind of fond of Imagination Movers from the next room;
• I made my lunch every day to take to work until today, when I met up with my friend Lance and we bought lunch;
• Sweeney went on a road trip with his uncle Ben. Long story short, they ended up in Waikanae, met up with their cousin Vanessa for lunch, and everyone had a really good time.

In other news, I can't keep away from other news at the moment. I don't know why I do it, but it's compulsive right now. All those dead kids, all that animal cruelty, our terrible government slashing funding for education and health, privatising prisons, toughening an already dehumanised ACC and social welfare system, and now ... Radio New Zealand. Political broadcast coming up right about now ...

The government want to leave funding right where it is for the rest of time, and there's an idea that the All Night program could be cancelled - what the?? That program kept us going when Sweeney was teensy tiny and up at night, every night. And more importantly, the months before he was born, when he'd rumpus in my belly and I'd lie awake worrying about how to stay awake at work the next day. Phil O'Brien reading the long-range marine forecast was ambrosia for my ears.

When Sweeney's Grandad wondered what to buy for Sweeney's last Christmas, he tuned into a review of kids' books on the National Programme and was turned onto Wonky Donkey. Kim Hill's interview with Jarvis Cocker. All of the amazing programming that my clever-clogs friend Liisa is responsible for. Humphrey Hewitt.

So, booo hisss!!! National Party and all your cohorts ...

Sunday Morning

Ahhhh, bliss. To get up in the morning and churn out some breakfast for the young'un, hand over parenting to Playhouse Disney, and pile back to bed with a great book and a pile of jammy toast for an hour. Mmmmm.

Then off to see my friend Pauline, who's in town from Woy Woy for a stretch. Fabulous to see her and her parents. Then off for a swim at the pool.

Loving going to the pool at the moment. We spend time in the teensiest pool, where Sweeney can do a bomb off the side with no danger of even his shoulders getting wet. I think we both find the sprinkler wonderland pool just a pain in the rump, what with the sprinklers and their infernal sprinkling. So today I forged further into pool-land than ever, and we found a pool that goes quite deep and lets us bob around together, do some dunks, horse around a bit more.

I've never learnt to swim, but I'm verrrry keen that Sweeney does. I congratulate myself every time I put my head under water to encourage Sweeney to do it, because it freaks me out and I'm verrrry keen that it doesn't freak him out.

What else is happening? Well ...

• I'm knitting some bees for the Greytown Arts Festival. All Amy's idea ...;
• Sweeney spent yesterday at Bela's house. They put on a series of shows for adoring audiences consisting of combos of Rex, Liisa and myself. And they did a whole lot of other stuff;
• I had my first week of the Proper Job and I don't think it went too badly;
• Home life is extremely busy, what with trying to be organised and keeping us from eating pizza five nights a week;
• Made a cake with nectarines on it tonight, based on Donna Hay's Peach and Raspberry cake. Awesome; and
• Sweeney invited me to a party being held by an alligator. In his room. Tonight. At bedtime. All the toys in his bedroom were there, too. We had a great time. I think I'll be calling Guest Pooh later in the week, see if he's hooked up, maybe ...

So, as you can see, it's all go around here ...

Sitting Round at Home

Got a call this morning from my mum, telling me that my Auntie Vonnie was on the telly. She's a lovely woman, eighty years old and just got her driver's licence. Awesome. She embroiders and knits and gardens, and probably a multitude of other great things, like a crafty demon. I know she makes a mean oaty biscuit.

Anyway, she came off sooo nice. Awesome.

Sweeney's had a runny tummy all week. The doctor and the internet assure me that there's no reason to need reassurance, and it really looked like it was sorted yesterday, and he went back to preschool and had a great time. When we got home and were negotiating about what to have for dinner, I realised it wasn't sorted. It's still not sorted. He's pretty chirpy, though, inbetween episodes of foulness.

Have you been watching Glee?? I've been looking forward to it for ages, then last week was the first episode and Sweeney talked all through it. This week, he's talking all through it, but with a really quiet, piercing voice. And someone from a research company called in the middle of it. At least I got to see their version of Gold Digger, and Sweeney's really enjoying the singing and dancing, if not the narrative.

Dad's been here this week and did some great jobs around the house. Replaced the light bulb that blew who-knows-how-many-months ago. Sorted out replacement doorkeys to replace the three that I lost in the space of 24 hours. Made bacon sandwiches for our dinner. Stayed home with Sweeney when he was really off his game.

Anyway, back to how Sweeney's sick. Weeks ago, Liisa got me a ticket to see The Buzzcocks at Bodega tonight. I've been getting pretty excited. I try to get in a night of drinks and adult company and non-family-friendly behaviour in once a month now, but with the plague in our house, I've decided to flag it. So I'm feeling a little sorry for myself right now, missing out on seeing them when I've been nuts about them since I was 16, so I can clean up Sweeney after his runny tummy hits, and then he drives me mental with his quiet-but-piercing chatter.

And it's the first Friday night in ages that I haven't been completely knackered. Celebrating by teaching myself to crochet.

Party on.

All About Myself

Watching :: Anything I can find with Sam Rockwell in it. Or whatever Sweeney's watching on Playhouse Disney. Or literally, right now I'm watching the cat eating a wee teeny mouse she brought in.

Reading :: Jane Eyre, even though I've read it before and I know how it ends, but I still want to see how it ends ...

Making :: Finished Harper's hat, now using the last ball of some wool that made the best cardi ever for Sweeney, and now Harper, to make a cardi for my old doll, Amanda. Really. I realised the other day that she hasn't had pants on for at least twenty years, and I feel I must address it, so some trousers are next.

Eating :: Pumpkin baked in olive oil, with oregano, corn, garlic and peas, and a glass of Coke Zero.

Feeling :: Chilly! But also grateful that no tsunamis flattened Sweeney's preschool today.

Thinking :: I really should check that my insurance is up to the job for when something flattens our house. Or me. Also that I should revisit our emergency preparedness preparations.

Hoping :: The sunshine from last week comes back.

Wondering :: If I'm getting Sweeney's cold. And Harper's cold.

Hearing :: Birds in the garden, and graders in the building site at the end of the street. And the cat eating the mouse ...

Liking :: Lots of things. I don't know, just finding smiling easy at the moment. Sweeney and Harper make me laugh out loud a whole lot these days.

Wanting :: A lottery win and someone to cook dinner tonight.

Playing :: cars games with Sweeney, reading blogs and spending more time on Facebook than is required.

Wishing :: That I had the $$ and the skills to reline my bedroom. Maybe I'll redirect my thoughts and crochet this instead, to chirp up the room.

Enjoying :: Not feeling knackered all the time, not having the budgies from Sweeney's preschool in the house anymore, hanging out a bit longer than usual when I pick Sweeney up, getting to know his friends and their parents.

Coveting :: Other people's beautifully lined bedrooms.

I got the list from Meet Me at Mike's, which also has an expose of Jacqui's lovely, useful blog, Hazelnuts. She's devised a pattern for a toilet training mattress protector that I'm hoping will be required for Sweeney's bed at some point in the next ten years.

Enjoy Yourself

You know how I was complaining about my rubbish weekend last weekend? And how so many weekends were turning out rubbish and what a stink trend that was?
Well, we cracked it this weekend. We, and I really mean 'we', have had an ace weekend.
We went visiting, we had visitors. We ate terrible saturated fats and we ate delicious, wholesome victuals. We played cars, read stories, watched Bo On the Go, rode bikes, ran up and down the street, drew pictures, talked and talked and talked. We partook of outdoor knitting and did chores around the house.
And all without any of the histrionics from last weekend - a few well-placed timeouts when things went a bit wobbly - that was it.
Perfect. Now, if every weekend can be like that until I die, I'll be rather chuffed ...

Rice Pudding

We're into Day Two of living with no hot water or oven. I've been studying the Edmonds Microwave Cookbook this afternoon, and there's a lot of weird-sounding, terrible-looking stuff in there, or I don't have the right sort of container to cook it in. Until I came to page 155 - Rice Pudding. Turned out outrageously good, especially when Sweeney wasn't looking and I doused mine in golden syrup. I know rice pudding can be controversial - to stir or not, to encourage skin or not, to add jam or not - and this certainly wasn't what I remember my mum and Nana turning out for us, but it was still mighty good.

It's set me off to scarf some golden syrup on splushy bread after dinner. Out of interest, I looked at the list of ingredients on the golden syrup bottle - cane sugar and water, it says. I wonder why I went to the trouble of cutting sugar out of my coffee - I probably just ate a year's worth tonight.

Sweeney's discovered Richard Scarry's Great Big Air Book. It's been on his shelf since he was born, and he pulled it down with all his other books the other day when he was ripping his room apart in protest at being given the opportunity to nap in the afternoon.

It's a neat concept - air, how air works, what it is, the physics of flight, that sort of thing. It's made Sweeney notice the breeze in the trees, and he gave me a little lecture about the difference between planes and helicopters today. Lovely seeing how interested in books he is. The last thing we read in it tonight was about the difference between jet aircraft and non-jet aircraft. It's all delivered in a not-too-wordy style, lots of pictures, and a few of those great Scarry cross-section illustrations that keep kids absorbed for ages, nutting out the details. Right now, this book is tucked up under Sweeney's arm while he's asleep.

Before the excitement of rice pudding and the latest instalment from the Great Air Book, he set this photo up for me. He's dead keen on the camera, and can tell the difference between my camera and the piece of cardboard I drew a shutter and some knobs onto for him. He's pretty funny, working out the relationship between the viewfinder and the picture that eventuates. Anyway, this is the kimono for the poppet over the road. The one I finished a while ago, well, that went to Ethan, whose brother's at Sweeney's pre-school. I've got the pink version of this sewn up for Esme, but goodness knows when I'll ever get over to Brooklyn to give it to her.

I don't feel like my wool stash is getting terribly much smaller, yet I feel that my fingers are becoming one with my knitting needles. Sigh ...

Straight to Hell

Who gets grumpy at tai chi class?? I do. Goodness knows why. I had to leave.

In other news, I made pita bread and sewed up a variegated-sort-of-pink kimono. While I did it, I sat on the deck in the sun and listened to the chattiest tui ever. He just went on and on and on. Pippi lounged under a bench seat and a ginger cat two doors over scaled Geoff's olive tree and tiptoed around its branches. Good to see native bird life is under no threat from the local cats.

You can't get better than that. So what's with me?

I blame the pineapple that was in the mystery casserole graciously donated to us by Grandad O'Neill. Make no mistake, I cannot tolerate pineapple in a savoury setting.

Grumpy and ungrateful and fussy and just plain horrible ...