Still here?

Hi thee to Casa Esmerelda, forthwith!

Pssssst…

…over here!

Surfacing

It’s been a while.  And it will be a while yet before I can come back here again.  The move has been harder on me than I ever imagined.  While Tim seems to be thriving in our new home, I feel as though I am lying at the bottom of a pool of water, staring up at the sunlight that he enjoys so freely and with so little effort.  Occasionally I surface to join in this new life, but for the most part I feel a huge sense of disconnect with my life.  Even Ravelry and blogland feel alien and uncharted at the moment.

I hope I can one day rejoin the online craft community – renewed, refreshed and full of joy – but for the moment I must take my leave of you all.  Thank you for your support over the past two years, and I wish you all much peace, light and laughter for the holiday season.  Adieu, my friends, for now adieu.

10 of 30: Singular

I’m out tonight, so won’t get a chance to post any photos.  I found this meme on Alicia Paulson’s blog today, so I’m cheating a little.  If you want to play along, please do – maybe leave a comment to let me know where to find your answers. 

In one word, answer the following questions:

Where is your mobile phone? Handbag

Where is your significant other? Work

Your hair colour? Bleh
Your mother? Complex

Your father? Gregarious

Your favourite thing? Wool

Your dream last night? Uninteresting

Your dream goal? Creative

The room you’re in? Airless

Your hobby? Knitting

Your fear? Falling

Where do you want to be in 6 years? Settled

Where were you last night? Sofa

What you’re not? Patient

One of your wish-list items? Golding

Where you grew up? School

The last thing you did? Mailout

What are you wearing? Black

Your TV? Swanky

Your pets? Imaginary

Your computer? Timesuck

Your mood? Sunny

Missing someone? Mummy
Your car? Hee-yooj
Something you’re not wearing? Socks
Favourite shop? Wholesaler

Your summer? Endless

Love someone? Completely

Your favourite colour? Teal

When is the last time you laughed? Sunday

When is the last time you cried? Saturday

9 of 30: The Beast

Say hello to Tim’s company car. Although the number of SUVs here is somewhat ridiculous, you can kind of see why people need them.  The lifestyle here is, as you would expect of Australians, very outdoorsy – plenty of huntin’ and fishin’.  This weekend we stocked up on all the essentials for our own outdoor adventures, and with the help of the Beast here, I reckon we’ll soon be seeing plenty of WA.

8 of 30: Flora…

7 of 30: Obamarama

Yeah, yeah, I know, more Obama, and two days after the result, no less.  However, I did want to direct you all to this fantastic post that Sooz wrote explaining why many of us outside of the US are so excited about this new administration.  She put much more eloquently than I ever could the reasons why I pulled for the junior senator from Illinois.

We’re off to Bilby Yarns tomorrow, to get Ethelred pimped up, tricked out, and gussied up.  I’ll see if I can get some pictures of the store – it’s so cool!

6 of 30: Rethinking Food

Just down the road from the office, I find myself gravitating to the local wholesaler’s on my way to the station at the end of the day. Wholesaling was never a large part of our life in the UK, but the smells and sights of these stores capture my imagination. I have been so happy to see my excitement about and interest in preparing fresh food at the end of the day increase over the past few weeks, and I think a lot of that has to do with the availability of local produce and exciting new foodstuffs. The other cool thing about this particular wholesaler is that they stock European and Asian fancies, and while this type of food doesn’t suit on a daily basis, rather defeating the object of trying to buy locally, I can’t wait to stock up on Pfeffernusse, Ameretti biscuits and Polish fudge for Christmas.

5 of 30: Ironwork

I love ironwork. And I love to photograph ironwork. During our many sojourns to the river in London, I would keep Tim waiting while I zoomed in on and shot hundreds of stills of the ironwork on and around the bridges and railings.  The juxtaposition of decorative art and solid, practical metal makes me giddy.  It’s good to see that the architects of Perth felt, in some way, that same giddiness.

4 of 30: Ethelred

Alright, so technically not about Perth, but kind of related in that I doubt that we would have found such a gorgeous looking beast in the UK for the price we paid for dearest Ethelred here.  An Ashford Traveller in the old school model, he’s a single drive, single treadle yarn-making machine.  Or he would be, if he weren’t broken.  Hence the name – Ethelred the Unready.  The repairs are pretty minor – a new conrod joint, a replacement brake band – and we plan to head down to Bilby Yarns on Saturday to pick up the spares and get Ethelred back to doing what he does best.