Goodbye Miss Edith...

06/11/1993 - 28/05/2008

Our beloved Edith went to play in God's garden this morning. We are all heartbroken...

J's Wrap...

I worked with J in my last job... She is one of the casuals and when we started working the Friday night shift together she was about fifteen going on sixteen. I was straightaway impressed by her 'style' - she cared about others - not just locally but globally. She cared that her parents had to work so hard so that she and her sister could complete their education - she appreciated that her Mum cared for her grandmother and from what J suggested no one was ever turned away from their home if they needed help. We talked around many an issues in between customers and 'book duties'. We always had a good time together despite our large age difference... J is also studing - Year 12 - last year at secondary school - it is a very hard year in more ways than one and I have often felt sorry for the amount of pressure that is put upon these kids in that age group. The stress factor is enormous...

The week I was to leave she was a couple of weeks off turning the BIG 18 and I had planned for a little while to buy her a present but I was unsure what an 18 year old these days tastes are like... In the meantime I was 'playing around' with some yarn I had bought one Saturday morning at Lincraft - it was a combination of a fluffy wool and a yarn that had blocks of colours - it was more like a braid than a yarn. It was a most unexpected combination and had I not seen a wrap knitted from the combination I would have said it wouldn't have been a happy marriage... I took what I had done and the picture of the wrap into work to show J and she loved it and she commented about the texture and colours. I slyly asked whether someone in her age group would wear something like that she replied that she would given the opportunity. I then knew what my present to her was... I took it away to Clunes with me and finshed the knitting - last night I finished the fringing - today with any luck I shall drop it off to her... Her birthday was last Sunday so I feel that I haven't done to badly with her pressie only one week late...


The middle photo is of the wrap without the fringing and shows a truer colour of it... It was an easy knit as the pattern was to cast on three stitches, knit a row, then the next and every alternate row was to cast on a stitch at either end... So basically it was cast on three stitches, knit a row, cast on a stitch at either end of the next row, knit a row and then continue until the desired width was reached. The pattern suggested 100 stitches as the completion and that is where I chose to stop -the fringing was quite exaggerated but it did 'complete the picture' so to speak... The only part I found challenging was the needle size which was huge - I have small hands and felt like I was knitting with two street light poles instead of knitting needles...

Now onto the next thing - a scarf for P... It is a pity that I cannot read knitting patterns as I find the actual knitting process quite relaxing....

Clunes & Book Town 2008

P and I took a brief pause in our lives last weekend and headed up to Clunes for their Book Town weekend. We stayed at a delightful B&B called Rock Brook...

The road led us to...

...the front gate and winding driveway...

...which took us right to our front door...

... and from the moment we walked in...


... we felt welcomed...


and cozy...

...from warmth of the open fire prepared and stoked for our arrival...

We looked forward to a snug night in with a delicious homecooked dinner served to us...

... followed by a good night sleep in a warm and comfortable bed...

....after the sun went down....

We went for a walk just before dusk accompanied by the smallest of the farm dogs - a little Jack Russell called Tilly... She was one of four dogs who kept everything, and I suspect everyone in order... While P went off madly photographing everything that moved... I stayed close by and was saddened to see this large tree lying on its side like some majestic fallen beast ...

P and I were impressed with the service we were offered at Rock Brook and we have already thought about a return visit when we have more time to enjoy a few days rather than an overnight stay. We would like to see more of the farm itself and explore a little further the local sights... As a B&B I can't recommend Rock Brook enough....

On the Sunday 'we did' Clunes - and we seemed to walk around every major building that they had viewing books and more books and yet more books... The idea of the whole town given over to second hand books and book dealers is not a new one but one that could restore life back to this fading yet historic gold town... I felt like I was walking in the footsteps of history as we moved around the town streets and I think the locals were more than a little amused as they were decended upon by all the 'out of towners'... We were led to believe that all accomodation locally was booked out and that on the Saturday alone there was a population swell of 4000 visitors to Clunes... P took more photos of the township than I did but this one building caught my camera's lens....

We were lucky enough to stumble into the Bowling Club which was home for the weekend to the visiting writers among them John Marsden and Alexis Wright...

I was fortunate enough to buy and have signed Alexis Wright's Carpentaria... She seemed a very genuine and down to earth woman who spoke passionately about the writing of Carpentaria...

Between us P and I bought four books... Three were second hand and the new edition of Carpentaria... I think all up it cost us about $35 in total... Would we go again next year???? Not sure - I think that given that this was only its second year Book Town could be only limited by its imagination I can only guess that there will be some deep 'after the event' discussions... Personally I think it has got the potential to just get better....

All in all it was a lovely weekend and as P and I were driving home -especially when we hit the city traffic - we promised ourselves we would give ourselves more 'pauses' in the coming months...