Close rellies of HRH Queenie & the BEAST arrive on our shores

Swoon all of ye. Swoon all of ye and WEEP. (with JOY of course)

While Queenie will always be my first and only love, those amongst us who are not silly/obsessed/crazy enough to order their beautiful forever bikes unseen and un-tried directly from Workcycles in Amsterdam may wish to visit Emmi at Dutch Cargo Bikes (electronically or otherwise) to git yourselves something special. And Azor Oma.drool. drool drool.

Emmi is importing these NOW. For YOU. To LOVE FOREVER. 

I do feel quite strongly that if one is going to ride a  bike every day rain hail or shine, frost or sleet, one really really shouldn't be judged for going for FORM AND FUNCTION AND STURDY ELEGANT BEAUTY.


bthring bthring !!!!!

Coming along nicely

Today was so sunny and warm. Well, it was after a -5 morning. Anyhoo, it seemed sensible to ignore the phone and head on out to the farm back yard.

Things are progressing nicely with the raised garden bed project.

The chooks are making sure not a single worm is left in my beautiful soil by the time I am ready to put it into the beds.


And I just noticed how dirty those windows are on the greenhouse.......

A Different Kind of Luxury

Yesterday I pulled out one of my favorite books to lend to a friend. I am very grateful to the weekend farmer for introducing me to this book: "A Different Kind of Luxury - Japanese Lessons in Simple Living and Inner Abundance"

Anyway. It is a beautiful book. Flicking through it again I found lots of little underlines and scrawls in the margins from my last reading. (Yes, I am one of THOSE people that likes to have a written dialogue with my books)

For example:

"If you have time, a lot of things are enjoyable. Making this kind of wood block, or collecting the wood for the fire, or even cleaning things - it's all enjoyable and satisfying if you give yourself time." Osamu Nakamura, (p70)

"Sometimes just to touch the ground is enough for me, even if not a single thing grows from what I plant. Often I'll go outside and just place my hands on the soil, even if there's no work to do on it. When I am filled with worries, I do that and I can feel the energy of the mountain and of the trees"Wakako Oe, p201

"It is important to me to be someone who has time...There's a term we have in Japanese, furyu: the characters are "wind" and "flow". Someone with furyu has time to write haiku, or can appreciate flowers, and they have space in their emotions to look at the moon or the stars. They're not too busy working or making money. Those people who don't have furyu are not full people." Gufu Watanabe, p245

"...the large external universe and the universe inside each person are not separate: they are the same. Thus dreams that jumans see are actually also the dreams of the universe. I don't feel that an individual human's origins and destiny are different from that of the universe as a whole." Masanori Oe, p285.

Its good instantly calming and centering and connecting-you-back-into-the-good-stuff stuff. May your lives be full of furyu.

Beanie #12

Lucky one can not DIE of cuteness. It is ratty weather lately. But a new beanie always makes things better. One MUST have means to keep ones ears warm if one is to eck out any kind of existence in the ONC. I am testing out the patterns we will be using on the CRAZY ABOUT CROCHET course which starts this Saturday.  There is still room if any other ONCians would like to come along. I really like the little trim on this beanie. And that gorgeous blossom brooch - pattern courtesy of the lovely, divine Crochetroo.

Well, I am off to make a pot of tea because, as the very wise Bernard - Paul Heroux (whoever he may be) once said:

"There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea"

And i believe he is quite right.

Dirt Girl World

 Heehee. I was just visiting Aussiemumbec - a new blog I found whilst meandering about the internets and HOW DIDN'T I KNOW ABOUT DIRT GIRL?  (well, being firmly Gen X, I only knew about tank girl....)

upcycling a down dog yoga mat

So like the other night on the way back from cyd - ann - ee I just happened to be at my dear friend Rose's house around the time I was due to have a VIPC*. Anyhoo, I got to sit up at the flight deck Rose's office space with my phone, (not the scary phone), some pens, my note book and a BFGoS** and my giddy aunt - above me was the most clever home made pin board a duck has ever seen.

So of course I had to make one just like it....but red. Rose you see is outrageously artistic and stylish and her place is full of up cycled and re purposed amazingness.

So, if you have a dead yoga mat lying around....you just need a cheap white canvas and a $2 bottle of kiddies red acrylic paint. Paint the canvas. Try not to let the chickens walk on it while it is drying. (trust me). Paint it again once you have wiped off the the dirty chicken foot prints. Cut up the yoga mat to fit and glue it on the back and voila! Ok, perhaps in retrospect you might glue the mat onto the canvas first.

Anyhoo, I LOVE the colour. FORM and FUNCTION and COLOUR. My favorite.





* Very Important Phone Call
** Big Fat Glass of Shiraz

Dealing with new technology

Some of you know that I outsource all grown up IT related thingies to Mr Duck. So how does one cope on one's own with a seemingly complex, impenetrable scary new and spangly dangly pet phone that seems to be able to do far too many things for its own good?

There. Much better.

 

Hard to be scared of THAT.