My Secret Santa wool

I was gifted a box of wool and a crochet book from secret Santa (Em) and is what I made. 

There were 12 balls of wool all with a sparkle thread through them. I had a bit of a pattern, 30 chains square which meant 21cms 21 rows then change colour. I got two squares out of each with a tiny bit left over. This one will be used on the guest bed. The left overs will go into the silver box with other left overs and I will make a blanket with granny squares with them.

Currently working on a pair of fingerless gloves from a pattern in the book.

 

Possums

 This morning I went to my usual meet up with friends for coffee. When I arrived I saw one of my friends was talking to Warren on the side of the road. He had been to tennis and was on his way home. I set up my chair and joined them. A small dog came running across the road towards us, stopped in the middle of the road and looked confused, turned and went back. When it turned we saw the long bushy tail, it wasnt a dog but a possum. 

It sat in the gutter for a couple of seconds looking at us, then came back to the middle of the road, we gathered that we were in its way, stopped again then went behind Lesley's and scampered up the large tree on the footpath. The large tree that we sit under for our coffee. 

It's a big old snarky tree with lots of leaves for shade. The possum was in the stem of the tree about five feet up, then it went further up and out on a smaller branch with very little foliage cover. Out to almost the end and then he twisted around and dived into the building that was there. It's a small locked shed that belongs to a sporting club, no windows and only one way in except if you are a possum.

I think someone forgot to tell this guy that hes supposed to be nocturnal.

A tree of Soles

 Yesterday as we were walking through mud flats, we came across this tree. It has been dubbed the Tree of Soles.

No idea of the story behind it, the ground underneath did look a little muddy, maybe people lost a thong in the mud and then placed the remaining one in the tree. Rather amusing to come across.

Christmas Stockings

 Got a request on Monday to make Jordan's girlfriend a Christmas stocking. Apparently she has never had one.

I was about to go out so asked for a photo of his so I could make a similar size.

I ratted around in my stash and discovered a panel of a stocking that I had bought a couple of years ago. That saved me a trip to Spotlight. I got one done and was going to do the second one yesterday but a phone call saw me up the coast a bit tree fishing. 

I had to complete them this morning, luckily for me lunch had become dinner. 

Old scars

 Today was a cache day and Warren Lucy and myself made our way over to Sandstone point. There was a nice bush walk, the path was cleared and sometimes we were walking in sand, grass or rocks. One side of us was bush, the other was mangroves and d we could see the sea through the mangroves. Mangroves can be smelly and sticky with mud, luckily for us today, it was sweet smelling and we only needed to walk in a little, on the mud.

For Boxing day, the temps were mild and we were home by eleven. The traffic coming home was terrible, we had to cross over the main highway and that was almost at a stand still with people heading north.

Driving into the garage, I felt some pain in my scar. It happened 24 years ago, I worked out. A motor bike fell onto my leg and the brake lever went into my leg. At the time, it took six months to heal and I was left with a bruise like scar on the back of my leg about the size of a tennis ball. It's never caused me any problems except there is a small patch in the middle where I have no feeling.

Well I certainly had feeling today, it was quite painful for a few seconds and then okay and then like a painful stab again. Weird! 

Warren offered to massage it and since then it has been okay. I did notice earlier in the week that the scar has actually become smaller and lighter in colour.

My secret santa gift

 Last weekend was our family get together for Christmas. We always have it early so as not to clash with other extended family commitments.

We tried meeting at the beach for a couple of years and the weather was terrible. The last few we have had at Jason's as they have a pool. This year it was too cold for swimming or even being outside.

This year the kids decided we would have secret santa for the adults.

This was my gift, twelve balls off wool, same ply but different colours all with a silver fleck through them plus a crochet book. How neat. I am currently crocheting a blanket for the guest bedroom, six squares in a strip and joined together.

Dragon's Lair

 What a great name for a cache. It was an oldie too and near a railway tunnel. 

Apparently there used to be a school too.

Rain!

 Very wet and woolly weekend.  The rain started on Friday and we got a little wet while we were at the event. It rained at Parkrun but stopped just before and nothing during the run. Pies at Dayboro for lunch and a child hand over, no rain there.

It was being saved for overnight and Sunday.

I took Lucy for a quick walk with an umbrella as we were out for the rest of the day. I needed the umbrella.

This was one of the paths through the houses near home, we don't usually take that one but Lucy decided that she wanted a drink, it is covered with water for at least half way.

The drain is running too.

 

 

Granite falls

 Friday Sheridan collected me and with another caches Chamad we slowly made our way to Toowoomba for an event. Chamad had offered to climb trees and I think the ladder came out four times. Sheridan keeps a fold out ladder in her boot.

We went to a set of water falls with granite rocks on either side, had to view and answer some questions about them. The walk down was four steps then a platform of about two metres and then down again. It had started raining just as we got there but it was very pleasant.

Sheridan gave me the umbrella and she had a hat.

Mountain climbing

 I went out early Sunday morning with my daughter. We headed north.

We did an adventure lab which included getting some information from information boards. It was detained to be a hot day 36 degrees.

At one place, the foot of a mountain, I was amazed to see people setting off to walk up the mountain. We were there for five minutes and that was hot enough at 9.30am. 

We were back home by 12 noon in the cool thank goodness. I didn't hear about any rescues which was good.

Total of caches were Sheridan 13 and us 8, we had got some of them before that Sheri hadn't. All in all a good day.

Heidi the horse

 I finished Heidi on Saturday and yesterday I put her together. She is not the one that I started as to me, she is a bit of a cartoon type horse. 

Who ever sees a horse sitting like that?

Anyway she is finished and ready to be wrapped for Christmas. She is destined for Jordan's girlfriend who loves anything horses. She has two of her own and a foal that was born about this time last year. 

Heidi is the last of our gifts to organize, which seems early but we always have our family Christmas a couple of weeks beforehand due to other family commitments.

A Snowman

 I was having trouble with the horse I was making, it's chocolate brown and hard to see at night when I do most of my crocheting, so I went to a snowman.

It only took a couple of nights and then I had to stitch it together.

I redid the hat twice and I think it looks more like a bowler hat than the black straw that it is supposed to be. 

I will have a Secret Santa from a website that I am involved with, so when I get the person's details, Mr Snowman will be going in the post.

Nanowrimo

 Yep November is over and so is Nanowrimo. I didn't have an idea this year that I thought would be suitable for 50000 plus words, had lots of ideas but nothing that had legs. On the first day of November with a blank screen in front of me, I decided to write a series of short stories and tried different genres. 

I even attempted a mystery, not sure that it's much good but as that is mainly what I read, I should be able to write one.

Anyway, this year there was no fanfare when finished, I had got to a particular part in what I was writing and updated my word count, which was at 50,035 and the website told me I was finished and then a congratulatory email came in. 

In previous years, everything had to be downloaded to their website to be validated and often their word count was a little different to mine.

I think I wrote about 23 or 24 short stories, a couple were about 5000 words or more. I did have an extra piece to add to the last story but getting to the magic amount and they tell me I am done makes me wonder about adding it or leaving as it is. Hence I have not even looked at it since the magic 50035 came up.