Treats

Missing my morning chai and evening hot chocolate, I had to take a quick trip to the supermarket for suppllies.

I'm sure neither will be as good as homemade, but hopefully they will be acceptable.

On the way I saw several rosellas apparently enjoying silver birch catkins:

At morning tea the "15 x 15" works were for sale. These were 15cm square art pieces which were sold to raise money for scholarships to future events:

I bought a piece by Maria Cook (of the blog A Pieceful Life).

Strange Room

Not my normal surroundings!

Added later: I'm in Ballarat for a week, to attend the Fibre Arts Australia "Quilt @ the Winter School" event. I'm doing a workshop with Jenny Bowker.

Scatterday - N

It's Scatterday again, and this week we have the letter

and our categories are:
* medical
* celebration
* ocean
* notion from the sewing room


Medical:

Neem toothpaste from India. The neem tree is native to the sub-continent, and traditionally people there chewed on neem twigs to clean their teeth. Many medical claims are made for neem, particularly on the internet, but I don't know if there is any scientific basis for any of them.

Celebration:

This is me on my ninth Christmas (or ninth Noël, to keep the Ns happening). My parents used to take a picture of us with our presents each year. That year all I wanted was a watch, and there it is! I still have it, too, although the mobile phone's time display has meant I haven't worn my watch for a few years. What is quite strange to me now is the resemblance between this picture and my son at a similar age.

Ocean:

This is not my photo; hover over it for attribution. Years ago I found one of these on a beach on the Bass Coast. From a distance I thought it was a sheep's horn. In fact it is the egg case of an argonaut octopus, and is commonly called a "paper nautilus".

Notion:

A few years back I had the notion that I would make something using the faux chenille technique. I purchased this (rather expensive) gadget which has remained in its packaging, and the faux chenille project has remained merely a notion.

As usual, you can check out everyone else's scatterday posts via Cinzia's blog here.

Not So Smart

I've been a little busy this week, so haven't looked at the seedlings since Monday. That wasn't smart, because this week there has been a couple of sunny days, a very windy day, and no rain.

Most of the seedlings are fine, but the poor messmates (Eucalyptus obliqua) haven't coped. They've since had a thorough soaking, and I hope they will all survive this mid-winter drought.

Smart

My smart meter was installed while I was at work today:

Declare Your Love

These two ads faced me on the tram this morning:

Are they part of some larger "Declare your love" campaign I am unaware of? Or are they, like "the cure for the common [fill in the blank]" on Mad Men, evidence of a copywriter who has run out of ideas?

Teatree Forest

Forest of Woolly Teatree Leptospermum lanigerum seedlings. They've come a long way since they were 2mm long seeds (here).