Creative Space

My creative space has been in the car this week, we've done a bit of driving. But no one wants a photo of Mr T's old station wagon. So here's the product. It's normal to crochet in the car, right? It's about the only thing that doesn't make me car sick.

For a whole bunch of spaces, have a peek here.

9985 Steps

I kind of gave up logging my steps on here, given I was also entering the data on the 10000 steps website. For the month of October I averaged 9985 steps per day. Which means I didn't quite make my target of 10,000 steps every day. The epic hangover, plus a week chained to my desk trying to meet a deadline didn't help. But it's not a bad exercise to have done. It certainly made me re-evaluate the need to take the car to the local shops and encouraged me to get out in the fresh air at lunchtime.

No challenge this month, with the weather on the improve I should be on my bike a whole lot more. Double happiness indeed.

The weekend continues

Long weekends allow for cooked breakfasts, time at the sewing machine and walks.

The Derby

Yesterday the heat was turned on. I spent a good part of the morning pottering in the garden, weeding, killing aphids, watering and mulching. Mr T and I then strolled through Footscray before landing on the banks of the Maribyrnong for afternoon tea. I'd picked up a red bean bun at the bakery and ate it while waiting for the race of the day. From our vantage point we could see the horses run clearly and almost hear the race call!

Sketch Saturday

Phew, it's been a busy week. Dinner with the Girls, Tuesday, involving a horrifying incident of meat in a supposed vegetarian dish. Many find this rather amusing!
Wednesday night was all about the Microbrewery showcase at Fed Square. New beers were tasted, we rather enjoyed the Hawthorn Pale Ale. Helped by the fact that the boys behind the stand looked after us.
And Thursday night saw my little theatre group attend When the Rain Stops Falling at the MTC which wasn't a particularly uplifting way to end the week.

All this left no time to attend botanical illustration class. I did however have plenty of time last weekend to work on something. It feels more finished than my tomato, I'm happy with the colour, but I still feel it lacks depth or the correct shading to really define its form. Baby steps. Oh, it's a pear, but hopefully you can tell.

Double the weekend

It is a super long weekend for some. Tuesday is Cup Day which is a public holiday for those in Melbourne. Mr T and I have both taken Monday off too. The plan is to do some house stuff (maybe a revamp of our nature strip if weather permits) and some shopping over the weekend, then we'll head down to the beach for Cup Eve festivities. The margaritas are ready to go!

This week in the garden

I'm spraying my plants with a homemade aphid spray mix.

I wanted to make a natural recipe and used this:
Add 1/2 tblsp pure soap flakes or grated sunlight soap to 1/2 cup boiling water and dissolve.
Stir in 1/2 tblsp of white oil. Dilute in 1L water and spray as required.

You'll need two spray bottles for this quantity.

White oil
1 tbs vegetable oil mixed with 1/4 teaspoon washing detergent. Only use half.

So far so good. It does require frequent spraying in the late evening so as not to burn the plants foliage.

Purple at sunset

Thoroughly enjoying more light in the evening. These were captured last Friday night as we took the pappies for their pre-dinner stroll. Daylight savings has them well and truly tricked. They now cry for dinner at 6:00pm instead of 5:00pm.

Wildlife

While driving along a quiet beach backstreet, we spotted this guy with his snout in the ground eating ants. He's an Echidna. I can't say I've seen many in the wild, so it was a bit of a treat.

Change of scenery

Don't get me wrong, I love Melbourne, but sometimes it's just so nice to escape for a little bit. I'll be sharing a few photos from out of town over the week.