jenwren's blog

I've resisted starting a blog for a long time.  I don't know what's changed my mind - perhaps I thought I just needed to try it.  So here's my blog.  I'll give it a while and if I find I don't really like blogging I'll stop.  Just like I've just stopped one of my websites on The Bill (http://www.jenwren.net/).  I will be using that address for some other stuff, like weaving and dyeing, photos and so on, when I get around to it.

So what am I up to at the moment?  Well, on the loom (Ashford table loom 8-shaft, 80 cm wide) I've got a Tencel scarf in a nice braided twill pattern.  It's "wrong side" up on the loom, so I have to examine the cloth beam to see what the "right side" is looking like as I weave it.

As you can see from the photos, the warp is striped, while the weft is black (well, not quite black - I should have used more dye for a real jet-black).  In the first photo, of the "wrong side" the black isn't as dominating as it appears to my eye when I look at it directly.  The "right side" is looking very nice (you might be able to spot a slight reed sleying effect in the lime stripe - it should come out after washing at the end).  I'm about half way through weaving the weft and I hope  to finish it this week because the next project needs starting and it has a deadline of sorts!

My knitting is being totally neglected.  I'm not interested at the moment.  I have a toe-up sock in blue Patonyle I started at the end of October that is going nowhere - probably because I need to frog back below the ankle as I think the foot is too long.  And I have a square I'm knitting for the local guild I belong to, for an afgan that will be raffled to raise funds.  The last time I touched it was SSK while I was in Sydney last month.  I knit ONE row, the put it down and ignored it the rest of the time.  Too many good friends I hadn't seen in ages and too busy talking....  My knitting usually takes place in front of the TV, and being non-ratings season, there is stuff-all on.  Although MythBusters on SBS last night was pretty good.   I'd include Coupling, but I saw all of series 3 & 4 on region 2 DVD ages ago.

I thought I'd post some pictures of my garden today.  It's cloudy, so I could take some pictures without the shadows that are normally there.

This is the garden bed under the study/second bedroom window.  From left to right there is Lemon Balm, Gazania daisies (not flowering at the moment), Radishes (there was Coriander behind the radishes, but it had gone to flower and I already have lots of seed from last year), "baby" Beetroot, which has dwarfed the Thai Basil behind it, and Purple Sage.  The pot plant on the paving at the right end is a Lemon-scented Geranium (Pelargonium for pedantic botanists...).  The Gazanias are the only original plants from when I moved in two years ago.  The rest of the bed was drought-parched and bare.  The left end is actually quite shady because of the colourbond fence, so I'm quite pleased that the Lemon Balm likes it there because I was having trouble filling that gap.  I might put some Sweet Basil in where the Coriander was - it's getting a bit late, but I've found the Thai Basil has quite a liquorice taste to it that I don't like much.

The other side, under the kitchen window, looks a bit bare at the moment.  This is partly because of the Birch tree shading the bed and sucking up most of the available soil moisture.  At the left end beside the back door are two climbing frames which had Snow Peas on them until last week.  I planted Purple King Beans after removing the peas, and they just started emerging today.  Last year the beans were in the other bed, and were planted earlier in December.  They went nuts - reaching the roof gutters in height (with the aid of some string) and producing more than enough lovely beans until April.  I'm hoping the new position will be just as successful.  Next to the beans are Spanish Onions.  These too were in the other bed last year.  Last year I planted too many and failed to thin them out sufficiently.  This year I planted too few - poor germination, and they just haven't been as happy.  They're difficult to see because the leaves are lying on the ground.  The rest of the bed is lettuce seedlings.  Despite the shade offered by the Birch, they are wilting each day in the sunshine they do get.  The Icelandic Poppies that were in this part of the bed over Winter did very well.

I also have many pot plants of herbs - Lemon Grass, Marjoram and Lemon-scented Oregano.  The Rosemary died the first Winter I was here and I haven't been game enough to replace it yet.  I've presently got two chilli plants - I grew them from seed from Massiel and Peter's plant (as discovered the hard way how hot they were!) for when they arrive home from ten months in Chile (they theoretically got back to Australia yesterday) and the first plant (with some tiny chillies forming) will go to them.

The second plant isn't doing so well.  Both had been in the same pot (the only pot out of four in which any seed germinated...) and I'd made the decision to separate them.  Unfortunately, one kept all its roots, this second one didn't.  It has started growing again now, after finally dropping the flowers it had.

Getting seed to germinate seems to be my biggest problem - the Beetroot above were actually the third attempt (though one attempt failed because I was away for Kath's wedding and the soil got too dry and killed the seedlings), and my lone tomato plant was also one out of many seed planted (and nurtured until the end of the frost season).  It is supposed to be a Yellow Pear variety, but the fruit now forming don't look pear-shaped.  So perhaps I got the pots mixed up and it's actually the Mini Orange variety instead.

So that's my garden.  It's not very big, but it's enough to play around with and produces some yummy herbs and vegetables.

The braided twill scarf is off the loom - I finished the hemstitching last night.  I'm glad removing things from the loom is easier than putting them on because I blistered both my middle fingers while tying the warp onto the front beam last week - ouch!  I haven't done that before (and don't intend repeating the experience).

The next step is to twist the fringes at each end.  With 292 ends (warp threads) at each end, this will take me a few nights in front of the television to complete.  If you look at the bottom right of the photo you'll see my braiding tool.  It's meant to be for braiding hair but it does a fantastic job at twisting the fringes for me.  I was introduced to these by Lynne in my spinning and weaving guild and it's the best $7 ever spent!  I'm still using the first set of batteries, but I suspect they may be replaced before this scarf is done.

I went to Kmart today because of a 15% sale and picked up Yes Prime Minister Series 1 on DVD.  I really wanted Yes Minister Series 3 as well to complete my set, but no luck.  I'll probably have to order it direct from ABC shop sometime, though being a 2 DVD set it is $20 more expensive than the others.  Yes Prime Minister is a double-sided disc as well as being dual-layer (DVD-10) - the first disc like that I've come across and it looks funny because there's no label side.

It was amazing to find anything I wanted at Kmart.  Most of the DVDs are arranged "alphabetically" - the alphabet for the average Kmart employee must be different to the one I know.  The Mask of Zorro was under "XYZ" near Yes Prime Minister (which was the sole "Y" title I saw).  But I later saw it again under "M" and I suppose if I looked hard enough they may have had another copy under "T" as well.  I've learnt to be creative about where to look for the title I want and I was only more persistent today because of the discount.  They also had Pride and Prejudice which was tempting at only $42 less 15% (ABC price is $60), but as I taped it when it aired again last year, and as I've seen it countless times already, I passed.

I've finished the braided twill scarf and I'm really happy with it.  For this scarf I left more warp for braiding the fringes than I had in previous projects, and I think the longer fringes are much better.  The pattern has also come up nicely.  The choice of colours was mainly dictated by my trial and error Tencel dying - I picked out some colours I thought worked together from the many I've dyed in the last six months.

I'm considering winding a Tencel warp for painting, but I really must get on with the next project - a baby blanket for an expecting friend of my brother's.  The painted warp ideas I have in my head may just have to stay there for a few more weeks - perhaps I'll paint the warp before the end of the school holidays then weave it somewhere down the track.

I have a head cold.  Everything sounds like it's underwater because my ears are blocked, and I'm too tired to do anything, made worse by today's heat.  So there's not much to blog about.

I still have my head cold but it is much better than it was.  It would help if the weather was a bit cooler.  Friday was particularly miserable with 35°C.  Still, I've managed to very slowly get my next project on the loom and I'm mid-way through tying onto the front beam.  Nothing worth a photo yet.  So what's with that photo?  It's my eldest brother Tim, photographed by my nephew, Harrison (son of my other brother Chris) with my digital camera on Boxing Day 2004.  And Tim and Jenny B are arriving today to stay with me for a few days.  Yay!

When Tim and Jenny B arrived yesterday, they said they wanted to visit some of the waterfalls in the area.  I said they'd perhaps be a bit disappointing, because we haven't had much rain lately.  I should not have said that.  I definitely should not have said that.  Soon afterwards, the heavens opened, complete with plenty of thunder and lightening.  It was so spectacular that the TV transmitter for ABC and SBS went offline for a while.  And it brought an end to the hot weather.  Yippee!

Problem is, the rain didn't stop.  So after another good thunderstorm this morning, we set off for Dorrigo anyway.  We had to give Point Lookout in New England National Park a miss because of the rain and unsealed road it would have involved.  So we went straight to having lunch in Dorrigo.  Then we headed to the Rainforest Centre in Dorrigo National Park, where we donned rain ponchos and umbrellas and braved the Skywalk above the rainforest canopy.  Tim and Jen laughed as I battled the wind, juggling my camera and umbrella to photograph them (left).

As you can see (left), the view was just great, but I couldn't quite make out anything that the informative sign believed I should be seeing...  Tim took some suitably embarrassing photos of me on his digital camera, to redress my posting the photograph of him here yesterday.  But as he left behind his computer cable and it's not compatible with mine, we can't download the photos.

We retired to the coffee shop as it was far too wet to do the rainforest walk (shame, because it's very nice).   Then we visited the gift shop, where I fell in love with, and bought, a lovely pewter bug brooch made by a local craftsperson.  If I recall correctly, the blue stone is polished Tasmanian glass, and the purple stones on the wings are faceted antique glass.   Very cute.  The drive back to town was just as wet and misty as before, but we stopped at Ebor Falls for a fix of waterfall watching.

Yesterday, Tim, Jenny B and I did some more sightseeing, despite the weather still being miserable, wet, and very foggy.  First, we went to Guyra and visited Black Sheep Wool  'n' Wares which passes as my "local" yarn shop since it opened last year and  the Armidale wool shop closed in late 2003.  Jenny B bought a pattern, and I ordered some slubby "purple mist" hand dyed wool that I liked the look of, but not the colours they presently had in stock.  Then we drove back to Armidale and visited the New England Regional Art Museum, for a good look around and some lovely lunch.  We did a little shopping and took a scenic drive around parts of Armidale as the sun finally showed itself, ending at the University of New England, with the intention of having afternoon tea at Booloominbah.   Unfortunately, I'd forgotten the place closes at 2.30pm.  So Jenny B and I posed for photos (left) instead.

Tim and Jenny B left this morning for a winery in Pokolbin, and late in the morning I went into town to pick up a newspaper and my mail.  The Jenny Jeep wasn't sounding particularly happy when I started it, and I wasn't surprised.  Since I returned home after Christmas the car has only been doing short journeys around town, and with Tim and Jenny B here, I'd shifted it between my carport, a neighbour's carport and visitor parking a few times, but no further.  I had intended to drive to Tamworth last week, but due to my head cold I had to defer those plans until next week, once the Country Music Festival ends.  I decided I'd better go for a drive after collecting the mail, to charge up the battery.

I got to town all right, but the Jenny Jeep did not wish to go anywhere at all after that.  All I got was clicking noises when I tried to start the car.  I called NRMA road service, and spent some time attempting to communicate my location to the young man in the call centre.  We had already established what "suburb" I was in (so I thought) but he seemed to have a lot of trouble with the street name, even after I spelt it for him, eventually asking "could I perhaps be in Old Toongabbie?" (which is a suburb of Sydney).   No.  Armidale, Northern Tablelands of NSW, postcode 2350, opposite the Post Office!  Geez.  Then he wanted to know the street number.  I told him I was in front of Westpac, and I'm sure the road service guy would know where that was.

After a 20 minute wait, road service arrived and I explained I probably had a flat battery (after all, the battery dates from August 1998 - that's three calls to the RACV in one day I'm not likely to forget).  I told him about the call centre and their difficulty with my location and he said all he needed was "outside Westpac" - he knew exactly where I was, but the best he'd had was when the call centre told him that a woman was broken down at McDonalds, but was refusing to tell them which McDonalds - he'd had to explain that there is only one!  He jump started the car and checked the battery - it was running on four cells instead of six.  Perhaps not fully dead yet, but it owes me nothing after more than six years.  I have been expecting it to die both Winters since I moved here, so I'll probably replace it this weekend while my parents are here and my Father can help.

So I went for a drive.  I decided to do a loop from Armidale to Uralla, and back via Gostwyk and Dangarsleigh (about 85 km).  I've been to Gostwyck before, so I knew it was a pretty drive.  The main (only?) attraction there is the Chapel.  Unfortunately, I don't know when it was built, but the sign gives a little bit of history - it was dedicated in memory of Major Clive Collingwood Dangar, who died in WWI and was grandson of one of the Dangar brothers who purchased Gostwyck in 1834.  The chapel is covered by a deciduous climber, that I think is probably Boston Ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata from the grape family, Vitaceae) or something similar (I didn't actually go and examine it closely).  It apparently looks quite spectacular in Autumn.  I also passed a horse riding place I hadn't known about, a couple of farmstay/bed & breakfast places and Peterson's Winery on the circuit.  Nice.

Today feels like a day off, which it is, being Australia Day, but it also feels like a day off because I've actually stayed home today, listening to Triple J's hottest 100 for 2004.  The last couple of days have been very busy, and the last few remaining days of my holidays will also be busy.

My parents came to stay from Friday to Monday, but were unwell with colds (and I was still getting over mine) so we didn't do very much, unless you count naps and coughing as "activities".  They complained about the heat (around 30°C) which sadly wasn't relieved by the dry thunderstorms we had.  Finally on Sunday the rain started falling, and every day since has been rainy and cool.  But of course they left on Monday morning...

On Monday I headed down to Bendemeer to pick up Peter from the property on which he has been staying, and we drove to Currabubula to see a goat farm as part of Peter's research for buying his own property.  The rain was very welcome because neither of us like the heat very much.  The goats were very funny because they followed us around and kept coming up behind me.  At least they aren't big enough to push you over, but I'd prefer to stay clear of the horns!

Yesterday I met up with Peter in Uralla to go and view some properties with a real estate agent.  Unfortunately the agent had been over booked so we had a few hours to kill.  So we went up to Guyra to visit the wool shop.  The slubby wool I ordered last week hadn't yet come in (I hadn't really expected it would have) but there was plenty to look at.  Then we grabbed some lunch in Armidale as well as getting some credit on Peter's phone, and went back to Uralla.

We were shown several properties to the west of Uralla before the agent ran out of time, but it was very interesting and informative.  After afternoon tea in Uralla (and the best apple and cinnamon cake I've ever had!!!) we headed south again, this time to Moonbi, home of the Big Chook.  Okay, so it's not that big.  Or impressive.  But if you think that's weird, I'll have to dig out my photos of the Big Carrot in Okahune, New Zealand.  Being a carrot botanist, I actually had my family make a detour to see that in 1996.

The purpose of visiting Moonbi was to make the Jenny Jeep climb lots of hills find the location of a newly described, rare Cassinia in the daisy family Asteraceae, and collect a specimen and seed for the NSW Herbarium (where I used to work) and Seedbank.  The Cassinia was very abundant in a small area, mainly behind where I took the photo on the left.  I took lots of photos on both my camera and the Herbarium's - mainly because I was having problems with both camera's focus mechanisms.  Half the ones on my camera are out of focus, but the ones I got right are excellent.  Hopefully I was just as successful on the other camera.

Finally it was time to head home again, via Bendemeer to drop Peter off.  There was time for a quick tour of the garden, and the granite rocks behind the house are home to one of the native carrots that have been part of my research, Trachymene incisa or "Native Parsnip".  Large numbers of this beastie were covering a large part of the bare rocks by emerging from the cracks and spreading flower branches in all directions.  The umbels (groups of flowers) were only about the size of ten cent pieces on these plants, but further north the same species can put out bigger umbels.  And so a couple of really fun days came to an end.  Thanks Peter - I had a ball!

If you look at the sidebar on the left you should now see some progress meters for my current knitting and weaving projects.  The afghan squares I was working on for my spinning and weaving group have been finished and handed in.  They were quite late, since I missed the AGM in December and the meeting before yesterday's thanks to my cold.  The kid mohair lace scarf in the list is pictured (left).  I bought the kid mohair from Kaalund Yarns (warning - site loads very slowly) at last year's Wool Expo with the intention of knitting a scarf from it.  But somewhere along the way I changed my mind and I was going to weave something with it, then I started knitting a triangular shawl with it but decided there wasn't enough yarn to finish it.  So this is actually its third incarnation.  And it is knitting up really nicely in "Old Shale" lace.  It will stay a lace scarf.  The Patonyle sock is still waiting for me to frog back below the heel and the Bob & Weave shawl is waiting for the slubby wool I've ordered.  I have already got the ribbon though.  The baby blanket should be finished some time in the next week. 

I went to the markets in town this morning and bought fresh zucchinis, yellow squash and snow peas.  It might have been nice to dawdle around, but it was just too hot!  I'm glad I got the week right - the local council distributed calanders (I got two - one at home and one to my PO Box) which has the markets down on the fourth Sunday of each month instead of the last Sunday.  Doh!

I'd like to remain in denial of the following fact, but I return to work tomorrow. *wimper*