Last night .......

First off I would like to say to all the new Followers (over there on the right)

Thank you for stopping by and taking me over the 50 count for Followers!!

Love to have you stopping in

Please say hello with a comment

Now .....

With that title I should have linked to the song from The Travelling Wilburys

But I could not find anything on YouTube with a quick search

It was a wet, cold and windy night

Sounds like the start of a horror movie :-)

No really, it was very cold, very wet (been raining all day) and a bit windy

Hubby and I are sound asleep in bed

No, its not one of those stories

When what do we hear at 1 a.m.!!!!!!

But the Evacuation alarm

What a fright!!!!

From a sound sleep to this noise!!!!

BTW - we live in a multi-storey building

So after stumbling around, trying to find warm clothes to put on

We wander down the stairs

Thank goodness its only 3 flights, not the 10 flights we use to have

Out through the lobby

and out the door

........

Oh no - we forgot

Its raining!!!!!!

No cover outside

Lucky for us, it must have been a quiet night for the Firies

They turned up quickly

Checked it out

And let us quickly back inside

Now some people may call this a "False Alarm"

It is extremely rare for a properly maintained, working Fire Alarm System to give "false alarms"

Previous times this has happened

One - a young !!@@##!! idiot decided to do burn-outs in the underground carpark underneath ..

you guessed it

The Smoke Alarm!!!!

That was a warm, sunny afternoon

So not too much trouble was cause

Except for those who got the Firies bill!!!

Another time, someone was cooking something which burnt and they thoughtfully opened their door to disperse the smoke

Yep, guess whats outside the doors

Smoke alarms!!!!

Australia has high standards and laws about this

But it has saved so many lives

Some new immigrants to our country need to remember this!!!

Off my soap box for now

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend

Hats and Laps

Hi everyone
Recently I have been searching Ravelry for a beret pattern, when what should I find but the lovely The Adventures of the Gingerbread Lady had kindly posted a pattern for a very simple one that I just had to try. She named it "The Big Button Beret". It was also completely opposite to what I will be showing you below - it used 4ply/sock yarn and 3-3.5mm hook, I actually used a 4mm hook as the change was too much for my fingers to deal with

Unfortunately I ran out of yarn, the band should be 3 times wider.  While it did fit DD3's head, it really needed the wider band.  As I don't know any young children with heads the size of WtP it will have to be frogged and rethought

After seeing Never Knew's Rainsong Blanket, I thought the pattern was intruiging and put it on the must-must do list.  Then I saw Karin aan de haak's one.  Well the rest is history so while waiting for yarn for a gift blanket, I thought I would give this a go with yarn I had in my stash.

Wide enough to put over 2 laps

Long enough to cover the legs and laps

I still see elephants!!!

So I named it "Fantastia"

Details - 10ply/Aran weight

Cotton/Acrylic mix

Hook - 6mm/J

Chained 207

(I think I would do a foundation row of sc/dc next time, just for my ease)

Measurements - 145x91cm /57x36in

Pattern found here at The Art of Crochet

Used one ball of each colour - 16 colours in total

I worked 2 rows of sc/dc around the edge with leftover yarn

Definitely will be re-working this pattern

But next time, back to my comfort zone, 8ply/DK and 4-5mm hook

Probably try it with 2 or 3 colours as a baby blanket

Forbear Friday

Hi everyone
Now the title lets you know what the post will be about and as I have been thinking about this one for a while you might need a cuppa and something to nibble ☺

 

Ok now ....

 

When I first started researching my family history, about 13 years ago, I was able to start with research my maternal grandmother had done on her family.  Which was an excellent start.  She managed to find that one of her ancestors was a convict!!!  or as Jack Thompson so eloquently put it ..

"Australian Royalty"!!!!!!!

 

Not that long ago, less than 20 years, Australians would deny that their ancestors were from convict stock, and some may have elderly aunts or uncles who will still deny it vehemently.  It was a total embarrassment, much like illegitimacy.  It was hushed up and hidden under the carpet.

 

Now times were tough back in England around that time and some of the reasons covicts were transported are really only very, very minor ones - just a slap on the wrist nowdays.

 

Me, well I wanted to find lots and lots of convicts.  To make my connection with Australia from as early as possible.  So I had 3 other direct lines to research - but not one other convict did I find - very frustrating for me.

 

Back then hubby, asked me to have a look at his family, since I was doing mine.  As I was thoroughly enjoying the research into early Australia, I of course did so.

 

And of boy, did I get very, very, very frustrated - one very particular line of hubby's was already well researched by others - and as for convicts - so many!!!!!  It defied the odds with the direct connections!!!!!!

 

Well todays post is about a couple of these convicts, who along the way I was lucky enough to get a copy of a photo of - Whoopppeee!!!! - Please remember the time frame, photos were very, very, very rare

 

Lawrence GILL (1801-1891)

Emma Amelia TRUEMAN aka Mary Ann THORNTON (1810-1887)

 

 

 

 

 

Laurence was convicted of stealing a griddle iron and was trasported for 7 years in 1820

Emma was convicted of stealing 14 yds of cotton and was transported for 7 years in 1826

Isn't Emma tiny - her records show she was 5 ft

Lawrence was not much taller at 5' 2-3/4"

 

Some footnotes - I eventually did get me some a very nice convict list for my family.

 

But once again, hubby, has had to top me

And it is a biggy too!!!

He is descended from at least 3 First Fleeters!!!!

So the original lot who came out from England

Now for the quirky bit  ☺

Of these three -

• one was from Ireland,
• one was West Indies,
• and the other was an African-American!!!!!

He also has convicts from the Second Fleet and Third Fleet

 

Boy, he really does it well when he wants to one-up me ☺

And I did all the research work ☺

Sucker

What flower are you?

Funny enough, it seems that I am a daffodil

Who would have known

Oh yeah

Everyone that reads this blog ☺

Please click on the link on the right and lets know what you are

Elephants & Lettuce

My bowl of lettuce

I see Elephants!!!

Anyone else???

Must see for crocheteers!!!

Pop over here and have a look what Sarah has!!!

TGB thought of you straight away ☺

Aussie Maria's Australian Islands

Around Heron Island, originally uploaded by Aussie Maria.

Hi everyone
If you have been on Flickr you will have seen my recent uploads of a holiday I had in July 2003.

Really wish I could go back now, I really need some of that warmth and relaxation

To get to this beautiful place, for me, it was a flight from Sydney to Brisbane, Brisbane to Gladstone and then we opted for the helicopter ride there, which is about 15-20 minutes, instead of the 2 hour ferry ride.
BTW - Helicopter rider was on my Bucket List

Heron Island is a coral cay in the Great Barrier Reef.
So you are totally surrounded by coral and marine animals which like coral - including reef sharks!!!

The time we were there is the humpback whale migratory season, a few were spotted in the distance, well there spouts were ☺

Heron Island is renown for the turtle's that hatch there, but that was another time of the year.

I will let the photos do the talking ☺

Starfish spotted while reef walking at low tide - no sharks, just booties to protect the feet from the sharp coral

Clams

And just to prove it was me walking out there, not being worried about sharks ☺

Always with a hat & sunnies on ☺

This is our view for the afternoon - cocktails in hand

Watching the sharks and other marine life wander in on the high tide

And after the cocktails ☺

Sunset off the gantry

Boat access blasted through the coral

It wasn't all relaxing, serious work was done on the chess board - and the kids won!!

Bye

Just to show

that I am still crocheting and knitting

I first made these mittens for charity, D3 snaffled a pair.

These ones are the third or fourth pair I have made for her.

A very simple and quick project which is effecive

And a new project

Have a great weekend

Gosh the lengths I go to .....

Ok fill in the blank for me ☺

No, not really, alright you can, please do in your comments

I was going to say

Gosh the lengths I go to to write a post ☺

Way back here when I made Pumpkin Fruit Cake, Josiekitten made a comment about another type of cake that intriuged me.

So I went looking for a recipe here

Found one for this, which I made yesterday

So I had to try it in the name of research

I only cut a small piece

Just to taste you understand

Can you guess what it is??

Ok smarties, yes it is chocolate cake

But there is a surprise ingredient - well at least one I would never have thought to put in!!!

This cake is .....

Chocolate Beetroot Cake!!!!

So yummy, so moist, so delicious and is disappearing rapidly

Ingredients

2 eggs

3/4 cup oil - make sure its good quality, because it will affect the taste

1 cup sugar

1-1/4 cups plain flour

1/4 cup cocoa

1 tsp bicarb of soda

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup tinned beetroot puree, drained, reserve liquid

Method

Beat together oil, sugar & egg

Sift together dry ingredients

Mix all ingredients together with beetroot puree until smooth

Add some beetroot liquid if too dry - I did not add any

Line a round tin with baking paper

Bake at 170C/338F for 50-60 minutes

The icing I just made, cause this family insists on cakes with icing

Just as a little fount of knowledge for those overseas.

Most Australians insist on having sliced beetroot on hamburgers and salad sandwiches!!!

There was a big up-roar when a major health, fast-food chain were going to take beetroot off their ingredients!!!

Until now it was the only way I would eat it

What the ...

Hi everyone

Woke up this morning - ok nothing new there

Went to the ensuite - again nothing new there

Turned on the light - something new there - no light

Ok maybe bulb has gone

Hubby tried bedroom - nothing there

That's right a BLACKOUT!!!!!

Unusual here, but oh well

Looked out the window - no lights in the other buildings

Turns out a major Trans-Grid has gone under taking out a LARGE number of suburbs

Ok now is the bad stuff

No hot water for a shower - UGH

My hair is a bit long and needs a cut - so at the moment it is sticking up like a cocky's comb

Can't go to the shops to get anything looking like this

Can't use the lift to get downstairs - oh that's what the stair-well is for ☺

Hubby said the front security door let him out

oh dear, he was hoping to have a day off work

But he did say that the Police did a better job with traffic than the traffic lights do  ☺

So he ends up a work very, very, very early

Don't want to open the fridge, just in case it takes a while for the power to get back

What can I have

There is an apple!!!

So I can crochet, or knit, or read

Well actually not reading

As you can guess with no power

It turns out to be the darkest morning and its getting darker

Where is the rain

I can't see the page clearly to read

So I can crochet or knit - Yeah!!!!!

You know what I'm really missing

TV - not at all

Computer - well it would be nice, but you will all be there tomorrow for me ☺

Nope

I WANT A HOT CUPPA!!!!!

And a HOT SHOWER!!!!

Aussie Maria's SIBOL card

Aussie Maria's SIBOL card, originally uploaded by Aussie Maria.

Now lookee what I received

A SIBOL (Sunshine International Blankets Of Love) card

Aren't the blankets beautiful

Pop over here to discover lots more info

This is just a teaser ☺

Old and new again

First off I need to apologise to those who may have been reading my blog for a while.

I know that what you are about to see, your first response will be - "But I've seen that before...."

And correctly so.

Ok, that's the long story, now for the short.

I'm sure you would remember this wildness, photo here

And I really can't wear scarves, so it became this

Now I did love the back of this, but as for the front, with my body shape, it just did not work.  The problem is not with the pattern, but with my body shape - applause for me as that is a BIG admission from me ☺

Now as a knitter, I have never yet re-worked yarn to make another item. Whatever I knitted was exactly what I was after. So not sure if its age, crochet or something else

The wool was very expensive, but more importantly

I loved the colours!!!!

I wanted to wear this

Hubby knew this and made a suggestion.

Now of course, I poo-pooed the idea.  After all what would he really know???

But I started to do some research

Had a good look around the internet

And then decided to modify a charity crochet project

Using the squares and triangles I had made

And I came up with this

V

V

V

V

V

Yes, a Poncho

So 70's

And you know what???

I'm in love

Yep, hubby got it right

(don't let him know though ☺)

Now the neckline did take me 4 attempts to get it so I was happy with it, so it was not exactly a breeze, but close enough

Finally got an item

I WANT to wear

I am COMFORTABLE in

I feel GOOD in

I just LOVE it

And it is so WARM

Finally!!!!

So you may now be able to spot me in the crowd - ha, ha, ha

Family joke - I'm so short

4ft 11-3/4in, can't even get the 1/4 in needed to say 5ft, they keep measuring me ☺

In crowds no-one can find me ☺ ☺ ☺

Now a couple of things I learnt along the way

• My sewing up of an item is VERY secure, a few mishaps were had in undoing, but were fixed
• I prefer to crochet items together rather than sew - just a personal preference, a bit of the look and the convenience
• And this wool, both Colinette and Bendigo Luxury, held up well to the re-working, mostly 3 times re-worked

Bye for now

61 years

No, now rude

That is not my age!!!!!

Might be feeling it

But the birth certificate

Denies it!!!

well there is plenty of sunshine today

but .......

I feel like this

and yes I am dancing around

to keep my footsies and fingers

WARM!!!!

Coldest recorded morning in 61 years

6 Celsius / 43 F

Now all you Northerners

Don't laugh

Cause that's seriously cold for Sydney

Brrrr......

Will be doing lots of this

with yummy warm blanket

Gift for D1

Bye for now