Thursday thingies

/ wolfberryknits

This week began with an encounter with a 6ft long king brown snake as thick as my wrist. It was attempting to get into the ceiling of our outside pantry, a building that is half sculpted into the surrounding rock. I didn’t get a photo unfortunately as I was too busy running in the other direction, but maybe next time. It was up there, at the top of the hidden staircase.  
A further encounter was much more pleasant. I have a ‘fairy path’ that M cut for me through the undergrowth from the train to the front gate, and this guy was ambling up it. He picked a rather small tree to climb up, and wasn’t too bothered when M stroked his back, although he looks a little indignant. I am informed it was ‘reeeeally soft!’ 🙂

  

   
We discovered a nest in a hanging basket by the back door and M used remote shooting with his fancy schmancy camera to get these shots. It’s a shrike thrush. Trying saying that ten times.

   
   
We’ve been working in the garden despite the heat, and still uncovering surprises. 

Surprise pineapple.

  
Surprise rock wall. The wall itself was fairly obvious, but only when it was cleared did we discover the three seats built into it. I am calling it the ‘three bears’ wall.

  
M’s orchids are flowering. There are several vanilla orchids going crazy too, very excited to think we may end up with our own vanilla pods. Because this is a scruffy ‘wild’ garden, we are keeping it low maintenance.

  
    
  
I have now had five patterns accepted by a magazine here in Australia, so much of my time lately has been spent writing patterns and ‘secret knitting’ – wrist cuffs, tea cosy, journal cover, hat and bag. But there are also WIPs galore.

Finland sweater creeping downward
  
My fourth Metallicus

  
One sock completed in Lana Grossa Meilenweit ‘India’. I frickin love this. 🙂 

  
And a scarf that I’ll post a free pattern of shortly.

  
I’m expecting a big yarn order any day now, and soooo excited!!

But in the meantime I received the most perfect gift…
  
Something for the knitter who has everything…..a surprise present from M.

They are sterling silver, beautifully made by a Canadian jeweller called wearthou on etsy. You can imagine my excitement. 🙂 I never want to take them off. 🙂

  

B 🙂

48 thoughts on “Thursday thingies”

  2. What a lovely wild garden you have! I would dearly love to grow my own vanilla!!!! I use quite a few of those pesky beans a year in jams and in gin (making baking vanilla). Nice ear rings, too! I hope the snake keeps out of your way!

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    • Thank you Lisa! 🙂 we were told how difficult vanilla was to grow but M has a knack with orchids and the vines are literally to the tops of some of the trees now! Keeping an eye out for flowers to pollinate, I will certainly post about it if we do manage to get some beans 🙂

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    • Yes I’ll admit I wasn’t thrilled about the king brown, but they were here first so I can’t complain. It’s funny I’ve noticed that Australians tend to forget that the rest of the world is not like this (not sure the koala is a genuine threat….maybe he could suffocate you or something…) 🙂

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  5. You have no idea how glad I am that you were running and not snapping! I have a wee phobia about those legless… err… things.
    All else, I’m down with! Love the earings – so pretty 🙂

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    • Thanks so much Karin! 🙂 Yep I totally understand, despite not having much of a conscious fear of them in general, with this one I did apparently have an instinctive fear of dying! Don’t our bodies betray us sometimes! (My phobia is big hairy moths, not dangerous at all and yet I run away like they are carrying knives…)

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  6. What a gorgeous yard! And koalas and pineapples! Plenty of snakes here (rattlesnakes), but you generally see their holes in the ground, not the actual snakes; I’m careful about where I walk in the morning to avoid meeting them. 😉 Sounds like all kinds of productivity happening at your house these days!

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  7. Oh I am so in love with where you live – except for big brown snakes, it sounds perfect……… and maybe the heat ……. and the big bad spiders ………….. Maybe I’ll just admire from a distance 🙂 The earrings are lovely, perfect for you! Congrats on all the patterns being published, that is indeed a compliment to your work. I love the three bears stone wall and their seats! I’m off to the post office 🙂

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    • Thank you so much Pauline, we can admire each other’s places across the water 🙂 I love looking at your peaceful courtyard and beautiful art and decor and think *sigh* wouldn’t that be just lovely 🙂

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  8. For some reason I’m not getting the pictures 😦 but it all sounds like a magical world. Note to self, must seek out something more exotic than a golden retriever in our back yard.

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  12. Wow what a wonderful Post with such lovely pics.. I really adore the koalas.. Must have been such a joy to find them around your home right.. The garden with the flowers and orchids looks beautiful.. Not to forget the knitwear.. Love the mauve colour and finally such pretty earrings..looking fab.. 👌😊👌👌

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  13. I so love reading you and looking at your beautiful photographs! it’s such a different world from here! you grow pineapples and vanilla pods when the rest of us are excited about harvesting potatoes and leeks right now!
    This picture of a koala is absolutely amazing! he/she looks so cute!!!! congrats for your patterns! you are such a creative and talented knitwear designer, I would love you to get all the recognition you deserve (and more!) 🙂 your 4th metallicus ! wow you are a real knitting machine 😀

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  14. Your whole house and garden look like something out of a beautiful fairy tale! If only for that snake…since it got you running, it must be dangerous?
    I once had a brown snake in our house in Canada. A search on the www taught me it was a common milksnake, completely harmless and described as ( I kid you not) the dumbest amongst snakes…poor thing!
    The koala indeed looks very Regal and bestowed the honor on you of climbing your tree and looking down on you;0)
    Knitting is marvelous as always and oh those earrings!!! M’s a keeper ;0) xo Johanna

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    • LOL thank you Johanna, a dumb snake hey?? That is hilarious! 🙂 I am trying to imagine it!! koalas are kind of known for being a bit slow too, as they eat only very low nutrient leaves, there’s not a whole lot going on behind those lovely eyes!! 🙂 Yes king browns are moderately dangerous, you certainly wouldn’t want to get bitten, we have had three of the top ten venomous snakes within metres of the house this year (Eastern brown, coastal Taipan and tiger snake) we are quite a way from a hospital so we are very very careful. I think you develop a ‘snake sense’ after a while. Mainly we get pythons though which are just lovely, so gentle and calm. Thank you, yes I feel very blessed to be with M, he’s pretty special. 🙂 xo

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      • I was used to snakes in Canada, but none of them were venomous and just like our phytons, I really loved them. But since the hospital is so far away, do you have anti-dotes at home?
        Learn a lot about koalas here: I thought they were sort similar to our raccoons, but those are swift, clever rascals;0)
        I guess M is pretty lucky with you too ;0) xo Johanna

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      • 🙂 Thank you! i have never seen a raccoon but would love to…definitely nothing like our dopey koalas from what I have seen in the movies lol! 🙂 (no antivenenes available for at home, but we both have first aid certificates) 🙂 xo

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  15. SO much loveliness in one post. We saw a snake on our morning dog walks. It was curled up asleep in a paddock but Earls nose was pretty close to it when Stevie-boy realised that it was, indeed, a snake! We were UBER careful for the rest of our walk in where we let the dogs stick their noses (much to their disgust). So that’s what a grey shrike thrushes eggs look like? We have a regular succession of them coming to the kitchen window for cheese every day now. My dad used to feed them mince but we couldn’t afford to keep that habit up and they have been coming for well over 10 years now. I can only begin to imagine how many generations of shrike thrush we are sharing our cheese with these days. I can hear one on the window ledge right now :). Cheers for the egg share. Ours don’t get that daring as Earl had a bit of a “thing” for chasing them up the deck (he hates freeloaders) but now he ignores them. He has bigger fish (birds) to fry as the Currawongs have moved in for the free cheese fest and he is VERY indignant about them! ;).

    I sometimes think I will sell up and move to Queensland. As a horticulturalist, my life revolves around plants (when my head isn’t being stuffed with media and design rubbish that is) and to be able to grow things like pineapples makes me get stars in my eyes. I remind myself that with great horticultural adventures comes great heat and humidity and suddenly I don’t seem to want to grow pineapples as much as I did 😉

    I LOVE your house! Gorgeousness to the max and I have some cymbidium and rock orchids here. People think that they are very fussy but ours don’t get watered, live in pots scattered all over the place and get forgotten unless I notice them when I am wandering around the garden. I found 3 pots of orchids that I picked up for $2 a pot at a table sale at the last elections and am going to move them all up to Sanctuary where my dads big yellow orchid lives and I can remember them and treat them with the respect that they so rightly deserve.

    Your knitting is delicious and alluring. I have been seeding my comments on other people’s crafty blogs with references to your gorgeous blog. Hopefully they all drop by and get to see how delightful and scrumptious your little space on the interweb is :). LOVE those socks, that jumper and that T. You have almost pushed me over the edge into knitting again…

    “M” sure knows how to pick the perfect gift. Keep him, that’s a rare commodity :). Went to wearthou (very clever name… wonder if she is actually a “Juliet”?) and she has some seriously amazing items there. Loving the ethos and feel of this blog and how easily it slotted into my RSS Feed Read and my early morning routine 🙂

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    • Thank you for all the lovely comments! 🙂 for some reason I didn’t think you got snakes down there…I think my brain makes tassie a kind of English style, rose and lavender-filled nirvana, with unicorns running around…:) your place looks magical!! yes it’s a catch 22, everything grows like crazy here and it rains in the hot season which is convenient, but you have to deal with the heat, which I also dislike :/ M loves it and can garden without a hat in the middle of a forty degree day…crazy! 🙂 aren’t those shrike thrushes lovely, having generations of them must be so cool, I read they have a territory of ten hectares! These ones sing at me every morning when I get up and put the coffee machine on, it must wake them up 🙂 we are patiently staying off the back deck until the babies hatch. I think their choice of locale was very smart, two huge storms lately and they are completely protected….We have a whip bird family too, they are my favourite, the little bubs are soo cute, grey and fluffy with a tiny topknot. Thank you for the plugs, I appreciate it! :)) very kind of you and I will certainly repay the complement! Yes when I looked at wearthou I wanted everything, she’s very talented! There’s a matching necklace and ring too 🙂 I’m not surprised your orchids do well given your talent with the rest of the garden, but I agree they are hardier than you’d think..sometimes just letting things be is the best way! Have a great day! B

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  16. You’ve outdone yourself with this exceptional post! I love all the surprises but the bird’s nest best of all. The sock is amazing; something I can only admire from afar and never to attempt. I actually thought the earrings was some sort of stitch saver for knitters 🙂 Shows how much I know about knitting. I should have known better because I make wire earring myself! Duh

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