In the garden

I'm not quite sure what these beauties are, but they're completely self-sown and popping up everywhere! So peaceful to take a moment out, and watch them blow in the breeze.

100 Blogs Today!

( photo from http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/ )

My 100th blog today! Hip, Hip, Hooray!

And what a lot of fun it's been.

In keeping with the celebratory mood, here's one of my favourite songs, "My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose", from one of my favourite singers, Eddi Reader. Hope you enjoy it.

Thank you so much for stopping by at the Wood :)

Rainy days

We have had a very wet weekend. But I for one am not complaining. As I think I have mentioned to you before, we live in a very dry part of the world and once summer comes, raindrops will be something of a fond and distant memory. So I am quite happy to hear the continual pitter-patter of rain on the roof and windows and to be basically limited to indoor pursuits for a couple of days.

To pass the time as I watched the rain fall, I stitched together Billy the Dog who's a little wonky and probably wouldn't pass the inspection of a halfway decent stitcher but I think he has rather a sweet disposition (for the pattern, see Miyako Kanamori's Sock and Glove); I baked a very nice chocolate cake which disappeared not long after this photo was taken (http://recipefinder.ninemsn.com.au/readersrecipes/77220/easy-chocolate-cake); I pottered about the house practicing with the settings on my digital camera (orchids courtesy of my Fellow Traveller) and I watched some very busy earthworms make their way through the rain...

Down in the Sleep-out

When I was a child, I loved to go down to my Grandma's Sleep-out. I'm not sure what they're called in other countries but here this word refers to a little shed in the backyard. Not like a garage but rather a little, free-standing, additional room. My grandmother did all of her sewing and knitting in there and all sorts of creations subsequently emerged from that tiny room, so I always saw it as a pretty magical place. Also, it was full of things. Balls of wool, reels of cotton, bundles of cloth, jars of pins, lengths of ribbon, tins of bobbins, boxes of buckles, brightly coloured yarn samples, an assortment of tape measures, old socks to be darned, shirts to be patched, jumpers-in-progress, nearly-finished doilies. Now, I would love to make it into my craft room, but for the time being it's become more of a storage room. But its day will come again! Especially while there are so many remnants of Grandma's creative endeavours still in there...

Scenes from a Japanese pond

It's Coffee O'Clock

Working mostly from home, I think it's good to have a bit of structure. It works for me, anyway. I don't draw up timetables and go overboard about it, but I like to have some goals each day at least. One of the less serious but no less key parts of each workday for me is my mid-morning milk coffee. Oh yes. And it has to be in my Pooh-and-Piglet mug or it's just not the same... What's the one thing that keeps your day rolling along?

Fancy Nancy

My good blogging friend Meg over at Land of Meg (http://landofmeg.blogspot.com/) has sent me a present! How very, very kind :) And it's a knitting nancy. Have you used one? Apparently it's also referred to as a bizzy lizzy, French knitting or, in German, a Nahliesle. My favourite moniker is Meg's, however - a fancy nancy. Apparently they have been used as far back as the Middle Ages and can make all sorts of things. What I am really hanging out to make, though, is socks. I have wanted to make socks forever but the thought of knitting them the regular way with four needles on the go at once has made me break out in a cold sweat every time I've considered it. But Nancy, you may be my ticket to sock heaven...