Knitting therapy

This lovely group has written a beautiful little comic about knitting as a lifeline.

They're currently trying to raise the amount needed to publish a small anthology on depression (it’s not all about knitting!). If you're looking to 're-home' a spare dollar at any stage, why not send it their way?

Welcome to the club!

~ a very odd patent application found on Vintagraph:

"Designed for use by secret organizations as part of initiation ceremonies, a new applicant would be blind folded and placed atop this device. The new member would then be required to initiate the device by pulling on the handles, where upon they would be simultaneously given an electrical shock and spanked with a paddle. Welcome to the club and don't forget to pay your dues. The patent was issued in 1900 to Edmund De Moulin and Ulysses S. De Moulin."

More zoos for you!

I don't like zoos but I love the graphics in these old posters, available via Vintagraph.

A fast track, high stakes, 49 starters in 7 heats ...

.. and victory for Pepperoni!

It was the Port Fairy Dachshund Dash!

We formed the cheer squad for Pepper, Wilbur and Ted, although there were so many adorable little dachsies it was impossible to pick a favourite.

Wilbur was too scared to race so he watched his sister win from the safety of Petra's shoulder-bag. After the race he crashed as though he had run the hard yards!

So many silly sausages!

Let's have a cuppa

... oh! ... excuse me!!

 ~ a whimsical tea set from Dutch illustrator Esther Hörchner.

Check out the rest of the set and more pretty illustrative work at her site.

I'm a tumbleweed

Today, after meeting with my surgeon and booking in operations on both knees and my right hip, I twisted my ankle and fell heavily on my hand, spraining my wrist. And yes, folks, I performed this trick not once, but twice in the space of an hour.

So I'm wondering if there are many more major joints that I might be able to injure, just to complete the set?

When men weren't afraid of jazz ballet ... Yeah!

.

My old friend Rajiv recently helped me rediscover this gem:



I love it, especially the skipping ...

Nobody skips like that any more!

Solitude

I've been hibernating by myself for the past week and it's been a time of quiet contemplation. It's a real change for me: I'm usually very talkative and I surround myself with people and bustle ... but down here I've only had the company of my dogs and the birds in the trees and on the beaches nearby. The house is quiet, with no TV or radio, just me.
Life has shifted down a gear or two.

A bird in the hand

Yesterday on the beach I found a little injured penguin. I called him Fonzie because he looked like a cool guy in a little leather jacket and white t-shirt, and I took him to a wildlife rescue place in the next town - hope he recovers! He had beautiful petrol-blue feathers on his sides which inspired me to think about dark and glamorous colours in fabrics and interior design ...
(odd, perhaps, but that's how my brain ticks!).

Unfortunately this is the only picture I managed to take as I had my hands full and was hurrying back home with the dogs before it got dark.

This afternoon I took some photos with my phone, and although I wasn't really able to see the screen display in the low afternoon sun at the time, I'm glad they caught the light on this beautiful first day of winter.

Bracken seems to be growing some Victorian-style sideburns at the moment .... very Chap!

❆ winter blues already? ❆

It's the first day of winter today and I'm nestled in our little cottage in Port Fairy, where the weather is beautifully clear and sunny but I have to stay inside and do lots of work. Walks on the beach with the dogs later should help me get some fresh air ....

I'm really missing my dad. I know he would have loved staying down here - he would have had a little boat out on the river in no time, and I'm sure he'd have worked enthusiastically with G, fixing up the house, building boats in our back yard and puttering about in the bay. Even though he lived on a tropical island with a picture-perfect lagoon virtually on his doorstep, he just loved meeting new people, working with timber and boating in all sorts of climates, and this would have been a great little getaway for him.

Whenever I walk across the little old wooden bridge that spans the river and looks over the port, I can't help wishing my dad could share some time in this pretty little village with me.

I love this place but these thoughts are bittersweet.


(Image sources: 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5)