Farewell February

I'm finding hard to believe that not only has another month gone by, but with the close of February comes the official close of summer down here! Not only is Feb my Blog anniversary month, it's also my wedding anniversary - Pete and I celebrated 33yrs of marriage this year.  With things as they are, we didn't get to go away - but Pete took me out to dinner to a lovely little Italian restaurant in Yarrawonga which was very nice! No photos taken unfortunately - but we did give each other some lovely little gifties!  With all the fishing Pete has been doing, I figured it was about time he had a decent filleting knife and ended up finding a lovely tinned set for him which also had a lure as well.

  I received the most wonderful lamp with a pink base (we don't have any pink bases) with a lovely decorated glass ......... and knowing how much I love fancy wrought iron - he found a lovely key holder which I've put aside for the new house! 

 What perfect gifts for each other!  Pete even got to try out the knife a couple of days later when he caught a couple of cod - this big one was released back in, but a smaller legal size was kept and turned into fillets for me to cook up.

85cm Murray River Cod

 
OPAM 2018 is now underway and I have 4 finishes the months of January and February!  Thanks to Kris and Peg who continue to keep this going. As you can see they were all fibre related even though we were in the midst of Summer!  Cotton yarn is great to work with in hot weather and all but the blanket were made using the cotton.  The blanket is the one made for a work colleague who is expecting her first baby.  I plan to share the pattern here on the blog sometime soon - it's quite easy, but I was pleased with how effective the pattern is.  It's also nice to have a few items finished as we get into the year!

 Before February came to a close I also managed to walk/run my way virtually to Sydney!  I think I've previously mentioned that when I decided I was going to take this learning to run thing seriously back in October last year - I joined up with Run Down Under which gives you a virtual map of Australia showing just where you are.  Everyone starts in Canberra and runs/walks their way around Australia (using the free Strava running app, it automatically syncs to RDU).  I find it fun and encouraging.  Another friend was also due to "run into Sydney" the same time as

me - so we co ordinated our times and phoned each other so we could chat over the mobiles while we walked the last couple of kms into Sydney!  It was a bit of fun which really added to what could have been just another boring walk!   I've realised how important it is to ensure I keep up / increase my fitness and muscle tone as I'm in my mid 50's and it's very easy to loose bone density, fitness, and endurance for even everyday things!  At some point I hope I'll have a nice selection of active things that I can participate in and enjoy that also help keep me healthy!
Of course all good fitness routines need to have balance...... so lucky I have all that fibre and material to keep me balanced!! lol
With the beginning of March, I joined in with lots of other ladies

from around the world for Friday Night With Friends  .......  I felt like I needed something else to go with the baby blanket, so decided to knit up a little beanie.  I started on it last night and finished it off this morning.  It's one of Woolly Wormheads called Beamish.  I'll be making a slightly larger one as well as her partner has a little boy who spends part of the time with them and I don't want him to feel left out.  Emma tells me his favourite colour is yellow, yellow and yellow ...... I guess his will be yellow lol.  I do love the little top of this beanie and I very nearly did the top in a green to kind of resemble a pumpkin - but then thought better of it - not

everyone likes that sort of thing.
I'm afraid I have quite a few things sitting on my needles ...... and a number of WIP material and stitching wise that also need attention........  I just seem to be jumping from one project to another to another so far this year .......

Well, it must be time to sit with a cuppa and contemplate what's next on my agenda for today ..... yes, yes, the house has been cleaned, washing done and on the line drying, went to Corowa this morning with hubbie who was swapping a boat propeller over whilst I did the groceries ...... finished

off the above little beanie and actually got this post written up!  We have been letting Cliff (the rainbow lorikeet now 17yrs old that was originally our son's when he was 15, but left him with us when he moved out and couldn't take him to where he was living, then got married and had babies who we wanted to keep all 10 fingers and toes intact) - Anyhooooo - this very crazy bird who enjoys ripping out his feathers and loves his cage - has finally been adventurous ..... right now I found him up in the tree out the back calling out for a treat thankyou very much!!

I don't know about you, but I'm off to make that coffee I mentioned earlier ......... and some sort of stitching ...... or perhaps a book  hmmmmmm