Life in lower gear

Happiness. Holidays.

The electrician visited yesterday and indeed the extent of work to be done is extensive and promises to be expensive. The trip to Nelson or Kaikoura which I was planning will have to wait until 2011.

The sun came out this afternoon and Brighid and I went for a bike ride to feed the pony and bask in the sunshine and for me to be bossed around. Genetics.

I've been longing to make something, something which is more lasting than sandwiches. Or indeed than any food. I'm over thinking about food for a while. I'm still knitting away at my purple cross-over cardigan and given that one day I will finally be wearing it not knitting it, I idly looked for inspiration for my next project. This lovely top on ravelry appeals. It looks flattering to a larger bust whereas the patterns I find in the wool shop for summer knitted tops seem routinely designed for the skinny model with tiny boobs. But really, who am I kidding? Some people are knitting that top in 4 ply, which I swore I would never do again for a newborn baby singlet! I think I should reign in my more insane impulses and make a clapotis scarf after this cardigan.

I've made a newspaper pattern for a wrap-around skirt and begun to cut the fabric out. I am using two layers for this skirt as both layers of my chosen stash fabric are see-through. I am using some fabric gifted to me a couple of years ago. The top fabric is dark blue with white polka dots and a flower pattern interspersed amongst the dots. The bottom is deep pink. They are some kind of man made fabric which hangs beautifully and needs no ironing. The deep pink colour doesn't match the flower in the top pattern exactly, but if I were to go for such synchronicity, then I would be carting that swatch around for years in vain.

The children saw my sewing gear come out and have put in requests and so has Favourite Handyman. FH first as I've not made him anything for ages (actually I've made him one thing ever) and the children have lots of clothes anyway. I know because they leave them all over the floor. I do still have the fabric cut out for a wrap dress but as I seem to be changing shape (still losing weight), I'd prefer to make something easy and accommodating of changes in size.

Outside, the ground is saturated. After our first year at this house, I thought that we had okay drainage, just formidable amounts of rain. As almost all fruit trees failed to thrive unless they were in pots, I sighed over the effects of the rain. But now that we have gardens in various parts of the section, I notice a wide difference in the wetness (not so much now, but when we have had more moderate amounts of rain). When my Grandad visited and showed me where the rainwater drains went straight into the ground without being piped further away, that explained some of the wetness. Earlier this week when I chanced to look over the neighbour's fence and saw water pooling at the edge of their back lawn, I realised another important point. Our house is at the top of an old sand dune (thousands of years old I'd guess; it has had soil over top for a long time, by natural means) and that neighbour's house slopes downhill away from the beach. There is a concrete retaining wall at the edge of their back lawn because without it, the soil might move downhill and take the house with it. Very sensible not to have the house moving off its foundations, but not so convenient for drainage for the lower part of my garden. I would like to dig out the old chook run garden to a depth of 1-2 metres and put gravel in and then raise the soil up above the ground and also put a plastic arch over it (leave the sides with just windshelter-cloth). Time and budget may permit one day, but not this holidays. For these holidays, new fuseboxes and rewiring will provide the excitement instead.

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