Day 3 and a Compromise

As you may have guessed, our building work did not continue on Friday, I had a call on Thursday evening to go into work. Had I known how bad my back was going to be when I got up on Friday morning I probably would have declined, by the end of the first period I could hardly move and spent the rest of the day sloshing around the school with a hot water bottle stuffed up the back of my jacket. I just about managed to drive myself home to collapse on the lounge with my own hot water bottle and wonder how I could have such a short memory and not remember that only a short time ago I had spent weeks incapacitated with my stuffed up back. My poor attempt at regular back exercises and the walks I have been doing must have had some benefit as although it is extremely sore, I can still actually move, albeit slowly.

Steve had come to realise I was going to have my veggie garden, even if it meant doing myself some damage on the way, so rather than have to cook and look after me for weeks again, went and bought some new sleepers, cement and bolts and finished it off his way.

I stood in the garden in my very attractive pink PJ's and Ugg boots fetching small tools and offering my opinion when it obviously wasn't wanted. If I tried to lift something or do anything slightly strenuous, I got "the look" so made lots of cups of tea and tried to keep my mouth shut.

Here is the first new sleeper going on with the 2 foot long bolts, well maybe not THAT long and showing the obligatory bit of builders bum crack in the process.

One compromise I did have to make was loosing my new long pole as it was needed to attach the other end of the sleepers. Aesthetically it does look better with long poles just along the back but I had envisaged sweet peas growing up between those two poles.

So here is my finished veggie garden :) Not quiet as satisfying as if Karen and I had done it all ourselves but it does look good. The soil is shocking and needs lots of compost and things added to it, but as you can see, there is plenty of room to add more. I have bought some staples so I can have strings between the poles to grow beans and peas when spring arrives. At the moment I have a couple of variety's of cabbage, some spinach and shallots to go in. Time has become a factor to get this all done as I start a three week block at school next Monday that takes up to the school holidays and Steve had just booked 3 maybe 4 weeks holiday so we will be heading up North with the boat and loosing ourselves in the quiet contemplation of fishing for a while. By the time we come back, it will be close to spring planting time then I can get lots of new veggies into my new garden.

Here is a before and after pic, it's amazing what a bit of hard graft and bloody minded-ness can achieve.

Women's Business

Well I foolishly told Steve about my days work in the garden and we immediately got into the same argument about it being a waste of time and it wouldn't work and it would all fall down. Luckily it is dark by the time he comes home from work and he hasn't bothered to go and have a look at my feeble efforts before he goes off to work in the mornings, so today as soon as 7.30 am had come and gone and I knew I'd have no work and have the day to myself, I got Steve out the door then rang my friend Karen. After asking that loaded question "what are you up to today" and getting the hoped for response of "nothing really" put to her the idea of spending a day digging holes and pouring quick set cement and sweetened the whole thing with a promised trip to Bunnings, she was hooked :)

We spent a good hour or so wandering in circles in Bunnings as they have moved EVERYTHING and hidden the things we were looking for. Finally we had the car loaded up with poles, cement, brackets, screws, nails, a big planter, grow your own mushrooms and a few veggie plants. We surveyed our work area and formed a plan of action then had a bit of a sit in the sun with a good cup of coffee.

First came hole digging which proved to be a real task as the soil here isn't really soil at all after the first 5 - 6 inches, it's bright red thick clay, you can literally see a line where the top soil ends and the clay begins. Another hazard were tree roots as the holes were right next to an old stump. Now being girls we dug the easier of the two holes first, the one away from the wall, slightly in the wrong place but that was easily rectified. You can see the 6ft plus crow bar we are using smash our way through tree roots and clay. I must admit Karen did most of the crow bar swinging, but she seemed to be enjoying it :)

Then we started on the second hole and realised our mistake when I nearly fell down the first one, but we're smart cookies and won't make the same mistake again. This hole was almost impossible to dig out as it was more tree root than anything else, but we persevered and got a hole deep enough for the pole and a goodly amount of cement. A good belting with a sledge hammer helped drive it that bit deeper and we were confident we had done enough, so in went the cement then we left it to set while we had a late and much needed lunch.
The cement in the back hole wasn't setting real fast as there was a bit too much water in there, so we used the brackets and screws to start attaching the second lot of front logs. This was were I thought my original plan might have a flaw and wasn't sure if I could get them attached securely enough, but the brackets worked a treat and their as strong as they need to be, no stronger than necessary, capable of holding together a veggie garden without having to endure earthquakes and other natural disasters as required by your average (or not) engineer.

By 3 we had the first two front logs on but decided the cement would need to be left over night before we started driving in the nails to hold the ends on so we called it a day. I've sat my veggie plants on top of the earth pile so they are in situ. Hopefully the phone won't ring tomorrow and we can spend another day and get it finished. Tonight I have got to try and get some straps out of Steve's 4WD without him knowing as I'm not going through the whole it won't work speech again until I've proved him wrong - so we can buy a few more logs for the front as a couple are a bit dodgy
So end of day two and I am confident it will all work, sorry bad pic but late afternoon shadows. Having bought two lovely new poles, I am going to keep them long and have something hanging from them, not sure what yet, but I'm sure I'll find just the right thing. During all this hard work, I even managed to knock up a batch of Chelsea buns, with the help of the bread maker of course, which we had with a cuppa after lunch. Karen always works better if fed at regular intervals:) You can bet your bottom dollar that the phone will ring tomorow as I would love to get this finished before the weekend and Steve will see it in daylight, how good will it be if it's all done and standing with my cabbages all planted out. Ok better go and get out of these muddy jeans before my days exploits are exposed to the doubting one.

Piles of Dirt

A few months ago I had a discussion with Steve about starting a veggie patch, which turned into a long debate about what I could and couldn't do and how none of my ideas would work. We took several trips to Bunnings to price up sleepers and metal plates and god knows what else to hold it all together Now I just wanted a regular, slightly built up veggie patch but Steve was determined to build something that would be around for the next 150 years and strong enough to house a powerful and extremely dangerous small animal should the need arise. What is it with engineers!! Well the final cost came out at about $300, so we thought we would do it in two halves and see how it went, so I moved my herbs out of their garden, which is where the veggie patch is going, and waited.............................................

As you can see the herbs are well established - and I'm still waiting

This I took this morning of my now abandoned and neglected herb garden. What a sorry sight, so I took matters into my own hands and decided I would just make the garden half the height and twice as long and ta-dah a veggie garden. As soon as Steve was gone I got stuck into pulling weeds and tunnelling for those wretched roots of that horrible grass stuff that goes everywhere. Australian readers can probably tell me what it is, I just know it as a pain in the rear end. I'm not an early eater so by 9.30 I stopped for a much needed coffee and some toast and had got this far.

You can see now what I am aiming to do. I had to move my compost bin out of the way first so the compost is now on a tarp with I can drag around the garden until I'm ready to add it to the bed. The little tree that has grown up by that post will have to go, just one more job to make life a bit more difficult, and I have taken down half of the end wall.

Fortified with toast and honey, I thought about digging up the tall pole at the back and moving it to the "new end" of the garden, but as you can see, that mound of earth just kept growing and the concrete holding it in seemed to go on for ever, so I gave up on the idea. I thought the two poles might come in handy for growing tall things anyway.

By just after 12 I was stuffed and my back wasn't taking too kindly to all this digging and shifting. I need to get a couple of new end poles and some quick dry cement to hold them in. Then I have to find a way of holding the front poles together, my plans always have one major flaw and I think this might be it, but it is beginning to take shape.

Unlike someone I wont mention, I put away all the tools I had used and lined up the barrow and compost neatly against the wall ready for my next effort. The compost bin has a bit of a lean to it, but I think it will survive :)

Surprise Parcel, Dragon Head and a Dyeing Retreat

I can't believe nearly two weeks have gone by since my last post, or it could be longer!!

I have now got the new DSL2 internet connection and WOW how much quicker do the pictures download to the blog. I used to walk away and make a coffee, now there there within seconds.

I seem to have had a busy couple of weeks, but very little to show for it, well I did work a full week so I suppose that could be classed as productive :)

I came home yesterday to find an unexpected parcel sitting on my door step, I love parcels and unexpected ones are better still. This one was from my Mum and just look at all the lovely things she sent me. The earrings are from a jewellers in Truro which my daughter has fallen in love with while she has been visiting over there, and apparently has spent some of her hard earned cash there. The stones in them don't show up in the photo, but are just beautiful. The lovely square topaz ring is one of Mum's that she has passed on, I remember it so well from when I was younger. There is also a glasses case for my new, never to leave the house glasses, which have had to have the frames replaced by the way!! and an assortment of fabrics, beads ribbons and wire and some belated Easter chocolate oh and a lovely polymer clay plaque. The piece of fabric at the front is silk that Mum batiked at a workshop she went to recently, the colours are so vibrant. 

While I was at school last week I managed to put some nice under-glazes and shiny clear glaze on my little dragon head. I still haven't started the sculpture that I intend to use him in, still collecting fabrics and bits and pieces, but getting closer to actually doing something.

In my last post I mentioned I was off to Main Creek with the Patch Happy Quilters to do a Dye and Quilt workshop. Here are a few pictures from the weekend. The weather was perfect for dyeing and the results were stunning. All the ladies done a wonderful job as this was the first time they had done any hand dyeing. 

Preparing the Dyes

Dyed pieces in the afternoon sun

Trimming ready to quilt

Some of the finished quilts.

To see more pictures and quilts visit the new Main Creek blog.

Lots of Dyeing and Tyvek Beads

In my last post I mentioned those two big rolls of cotton fabric. Well I washed and measured and ripped and packed ready for the workshop this weekend, then couldn't resist dyeing some up. Below are my two colour way dyes in oranges, greens and purples, well these particular two primaries don't really produce true purples but a lovely array of brick reds, chestnut and wine colours. I used the photo stitch program on the first pic as I have a rotary clothes line.

Here are all those 1/2 meters washed and ironed, I even remembered to dye up numbered sample pieces so I have reference charts for future dyeing. 

I have recently been following a lovely blog Love Stitching Red in St Ives Cornwall, my former home land, Cornwall that is not St Ives, but only up the road from there. Carolyn posted a really good tutorial on making tyvek beads. I have meters of the not so nice tyvek that has small dots all over it and lots of acrylic paints and metallic threads so spent Sunday afternoon playing. Be warned if you haven't tried this before, you wont want to stop once you start!! Here are the beads I have made - so far, I still have lots of painted up tyvek just waiting to be made into these little delights.

This weekend I will be up at Main Creek with a wonderful group of Ladies, dyeing up a storm. I will post some pics next week, fingers crossed for good weather, dyeing is so much more fun when the sun shines.

Shall I - Shan't I

I have just received a delivery of two big rolls of crisp white cotton fabric to get ready for some up coming workshops. It is just screaming out to be dyed LOL. I haven't made a quilt in a long time and have been toying with the idea, so went through some quilt designs I have tucked away. This one I like being bold and quite geometrical. I pulled out my fabrics and put these together as I know I can reproduce these colours successfully, well as close to as is possible with hand dyes. Can't make up my mind, shall I , shan't I - what do you think?

I am frantically washing all this fabric to get the kits ready, but there are big black clouds looming, they did say showers developing, I hope they meant like 3 this afternoon, not 9 this morning :( think I'm going to have a lot of wet fabric hanging around as the rains going to last for days!! My leaky roof will curtail all dyeing activities until the sun decides to shine again. 

Names and Beach Bits

You may, or may not, have noticed that the name of my blog has changed. Recently Paula from The Beauty of Life referred to my blog in a list of blogs she had been visiting recently. All the blogs she listed sounded fascinating, with lovely imaginative names until I came to Tracy's Blog, how uninspiring LOL. I remember back to when I started this blog and it asked what I would call it, nothing came to mind, hadn't really given it any thought, so to fill the space put in Tracy's Blog. I'm not sure Transient Tracy will stay long either, but it's how I'm feeling at the moment, changes are in the wind, for good or bad I don't know, but I feel a change is coming. Also all the pieces I am working on at the moment are very different, I have several on the go and am constantly changing from painting to machining to sculpting. These pieces are gifts for people that read this blog, so I can't show you, or I'll ruin the surprise:)

In my last post I talked about my drying rack that has become a very sophisticated work place, well a name has popped into my head and like one of those bad songs that just won't go away, it's stuck there. I've waited all week hoping it will go, but it wont, so, and I'll hear your groan it's "Able Mable the Painting Table" and yes I talk to it when I pass by.

With Steve getting back into the surf, I have been going with him for some lovely long walks on the beach. This weekend, the surf was pretty big and heavy so we went to a sheltered corner where the surf wasn't too bad. He took off in one direction, board under arm and I strode off in the other, looking for treasure. I was absolutely appalled at the amount of plastic on the beach! There has been big swells and strong onshore winds for a few days, so the expected weed and wood and coconuts were there, but the other rubbish just blew me away. Having been a stranger to the beach for more years than I'd like to remember, it was a real shock to realise the beaches have got in such a state. If I could ignore the rubbish, the walk reminded me of the wild weather and long beaches back in Cornwall, minus the biting cold wind.

We met back at the car, and I was met with the remark "I've never known anyone go down the beach and come back with so much crap!", yes he was referring to my treasures LOL. I'm not really a shell person, but found the piece below which reminds me of a type of fungi. Later that day we went for a second walk on a different beach which had far less plastic but some nice bits of wood. Now I do try and restrict myself to one piece of crap per walk, but seeing as this was the second walk of the day, did bring home two pieces of wood, the second was so small it shouldn't count really :)

Finally, my roof monster has not made another appearance, I get a very sceptical look from Steve whenever I mention it. It's still a mystery as it was definitely too big for possums and there are no drop bears around here as suggested by Paula. I'm rather hoping it does come back so I can see what it is.

Table Mods. Eyes and Things that go Bump in the Night

Back in January I told you about the cloths stand that I had adapted as a work / paint table while I was doing Carol Mcfee and Lynda Monk"s online workshop. The table seems to have a permanent position in the garage and I use it all the time, so today it has had some modifications/improvements in the form of another trusty herb rack, a yogurt pot and an old dolls head, all attached with cable ties. I now have a pot for my brushes etc, a rack for scissors and other bits and pieces that I happen to be using at the time and a pin cushion so I don't keep losing my anchoring pins. It's starting to develop a bit of a personality, I might find myself giving it a name soon, you know how people name their cars, or those shopping trolley's with wheels, I can see myself going down this not so sane path.

Eyes have been on my mind the past few days, for two reasons, one being my own have been scanned and inspected and photographed until I thought I would have permanent dots swimming in front of my eyes, and the other because I have been trying to make some decent, realistic looking eyes for my sculptures seeing as my own don't see as well as they used to and I'm finding it really frustrating trying to paint them on a finished face. I think I have found a technique that will work for me, just got to refine it a bit and try some smaller eyes.

Last night I spent another evening alone, while Steve had to work late yet again, was totally bored, telly usual rubbish, couldn't work on anything as my pupils were still as big as saucers so couldn't focus. I wandered out into the garden on dusk and saw just how huge the random pumpkin plant had got and how wild the lawn had become with all the rain we have been getting. The evenings have still been so mild and the garden was a cacophony of noise, so many different cricket and things all competing with each other. I wish I could have recorded it for those of you that have not heard an Australian garden at dusk

Later that night there was an almighty row of a different kind, the screen door slamming lots of banging and clattering, I thought Steve had come home and I hadn't heard the car, but looking out the window, there was nothing there, another few minutes went by and it sounded like an elephant charging around on my roof, which is tin by the way. It was so loud it bought my neighbour out to investigate, being home alone this was a bit unnerving to say the least and the neighbour and I ended up out in the street inspecting the roof line, looking for some unearthly creature up there. Hopefully Steve will be home tonight, so if it comes back I might be brave enough  to go looking with a torch.

I'm not convinced having a tin roof is a good thing, it's very australian, and with the hail storms we get, very sensible, but oh so noisy. We also have the big old telly aerial still up, from the days when you had to get your signal from way over the hill somewhere. This is a constant source of amusement for the cockies who sit up there and slowly dismantle it, dropping the bits down to bounce on the roof.

Well that's enough rambling for today :)  It's wet and windy and nothing is drying very fast so time on my hands, if you hadn't guessed, better have another coffee.

Journalising / Diaries

I had to do it at Uni and we make the students at school do it, so why did I stop?

I'm talking about keeping a record of the things that emerge from my work room. Time might be an excuse, but it is so frustrating to go back to a piece and wonder "how did I do that". so I am going to try and start keeping a visual/process diary of some sort again. Inspired by Ro Bruhn's wonderful journal pages, I dug out an old lino cut I made years ago of blackberries, very convenient as my latest piece was inspired by this delicious berry, then stamped and water colour washed some pages.

Now these are no comparison to the beautiful and colourful pages created by Ro, but they gave me a base on which to record my materials and some of the new techniques I tried, Oh I wish I had lovely handwriting! but at least I have something I can look back on when the grey matter refuses to remember.

Today is wet and windy, autumn has finally arrived so I am spending the afternoon making Cornish pasties, and my favourite and nearly healthy carrot and date cake.

12 Month Project Finally Finished

Remember way back when, I told you about a Wendy Froud inspired doll I was making as a group challenge, ........no.......... well here's a reminder

Well she is finally finished. Steve had to work all weekend so I had two whole uninterrupted days to work on her. She will be dancing when I get her stand made, the one she is on is only temporary and doesn't support her too well, hopefully it won't take me another 12 months to get it done. It is so good to be able to finally spend some time back out in my work room, the weather has been glorious so everything dried nice and quick so I could get her finished ........ ummmmmmm what to make next :)