Happy spring equinox

 Oh gosh oh golly I missed spring equinox by a day. So to one and all, happy spring equinox for yesterday. I am normally aware of the nox's it is just this year that I have been distracted by all the coming and goings that has been happening in my life.

It seems that each year, coming out of winter hibernation strange happenings happen. This is the time of year that we have bought all of our new cars. This is the time of year that schools are chosen for children. 

We bought a house in spring. In fact this house.When we came an looked at it, there had been a huge hail storm and the whole property was covered in white. It looked like snow. I like snow. So we purchased the property. Thinking back to that, I don't know why I was so surprised at the hail storm we had on Saturday.

The weather at the moment is the best part of the year no matter which hemisphere you call home.

Well happy spring and happy autumn equinox.

Have a good one.

Spring cleaning for nerds

It come to that time each year when the sap is rising and the urge to clean comes to the fore. In a house of nerds this translates into cleaning the peripherals and upgrading operating systems. It did not start out that way, but that is how things often happen. 

Revolting dust bunnies under the keys.

It all started when I noticed the state of my daughters key-board. It was so gross that it needed to be binned and possible cremated to manage gunge transference into any other place on the planet. My husband and she dashed to the local computer shop to pick up two new keyboards for us. It turned out that none of the keyboards in store were as nice as the ones here. Going online and still no joy.

Keyboard in it's underwear

Thus cleaning was chosen. Toffler got it correct in Future Shock. What a throw-away society we have become where replacing is the go to choice. Well we took photos of the keyboards so that we could actually put them back together and then popped off all the keys. The keyboards were then opened up so the tops could be cleaned.

The dishwasher took over and a cool wash was used with a splash of dish washing liquid instead of a tablet. as soon as the washing cycle was finished the items were removed. I was scared of the drying cycle being too hot for all of the plastic bits. All of the keys went into a wash bag so they did not get lost. It would be horrid to open the dishwasher and see hundreds of little balls of plastic, the larger bits all warped, or all of the writing washed off the keys. I have been typing for 35 years and still look at my fingers when I type.

The keys were then laid out on a towel on the dining room table to dry. The final drying was achieved by using a watercolour paint brush to get the water out of the little tube thingies under the keys.

Once all assembled, what joy, what happiness, what cleanness.  If cleanliness is next to godliness, then my keyboard is a deity. Praise be.

Virtual machine opened on my desktop

I often work from home and to achieve this I use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to connect to work. Due to this one bit of software on my machine, I have not been able to upgrade the software that I have been using for the last 9 years.

This is bad as most website have moved on and my poor machine has not. In fact my machine has moved on twice with the hard drive having to be cloned so that I could keep on signing into work.

This may sound really strange, but, to get the new software I would need to take in my machine and therein lies the problem.

 I don't have a tiny machine but rather an extremely cute gamer machine with a large tower to ensure no over-heating.This machine is not highly portable. To solve this problem , my husband created a virtual machine for me. This only has my logon software, my mainframe emulator and email facilities.  The new OS has now been loaded. It is the same as the one at work, so it is not a thing I have to learn. This is a relief as I never find the new versions of software instinctive. I do like all of the new features. There are many and need to be learnt.

I have now even checked that my blog can be written to from the new version. After this I am going to make some flowers for my quilt. Today is a public holiday. Yay.

Have an amazing day.

Ode to a car

It was time to say good-bye to my car. I had her for 13 years. I named her Fifi as she was a silly French car with silly headlights that curled up in the corners like a 1950's librarians glasses. She only had 79 000 km on her clock, but she had started the rapid decline in health which foreshadowed serious garage time.

Popping up in family pictures

It is silly to have been so attached to a car, but in it I have spend many hours transporting my children. I find the best time to chat to teenagers is when they are in the front seat of a car. I really do feel that I have been able to communicate with my children through this process.

My eldest child learnt to drive in her and this may have added to her path of going to live on the farm, or at least in someone else's garage. My eldest is a wild driver and has not yet transported children. I went from a wild to a mild driver in the space that it took me to fit a baby seat in a car 30 years ago.

Hopefully my cars have been re-cycled

I have owned 8 cars in my life and I felt bad each time I got a new one. I just listed them in my head as beige, yellow, fat white, blue, burgundy, red, blue and now the Fifi one. Two of my cars were French, 6 of them German and one of them American.  

The new lady getting settled into her new home

I bought a red German car. I hope that we have a long and happy ride together. My husbands car is a large German vehicle which I have named Hans as the safety belts in it are forever squeezing the female passengers. I think my new smaller car needs to be named Gretel to keep fairy-tales alive.

Today is my husband's and my 18th wedding anniversary. hopefully after another 18 we will know whether or not we are meant for each other. This is our little shared joke, which, normally freaks out most people. Hopefully we will keep on being in tune with each other in the future.

Last night we had a dreadful hail storm. The hail were the size of golf balls. It was very frightening hearing the storm approach. It was a wall of noise that that almost had a physical presence. 

The poor garden has lost so many of it's spring leaves. It is now 12 hours later and there are still pockets of ice in the flower beds. I see that most of the flowers have been smashed.

We live at a high elevation and as such we do not normally experience extreme weather.

The verandah awning, made of clear plastic, now needs to be replaced as it is sporting holes in almost every panel. It is horrid when things get broken by nature.

Hopefully today I will be able to do some stitching.

Have an amazing day.

Half way to Granny's garden

Oh the joy. I am half way to a Granny's garden. I have now made 111 flowers. I scattered them on the bed and realised that I really need to check to see if I really need 221 flowers. I have a bad habit of making more of repeat objects than I need to.

I have a whole tub of parts of a future quilt. Possible I will have enough to make a quilt to cover my car.

My car is all better. The coils or something had blown and that is why my card had lost it's putter and instead was doing the splutter.

I scan each of the flowers as I make them so that I can add them to the Granny's garden tab. Maybe silly, but I think it is fun. 

I had 6 flowers that I had not as yet thrown into the flower bucket. These six flowers were in a pile on the desk. The cat found them and this is her attempt at testing the new quilt. I actually think cats prefer quilts being made to boxes. We all know how much any feline loves a box to sit in.

Hope that the weather is amazing where you are. I love spring and Autumn. The temperature is at a perfect level and either you see lovely new growth or the trees are putting on a magnificent show.

Hope you have a stunning day.

September blossoms

Spring is here. Oh the joy. Blossoms have appeared on the trees. The grass is slowly but surely turning green and high levels of antihistamines are being taken.


On the way to pick up my child from school, my poor little French car started coughing and wheezing. The dial did a bit of a feint and only started working again when I turned the engine off and on again. My little car is now 13 years old and even though she has only done 78 000 km, she is is a teenager and is prone to having tantrums. I dashed to the dealership and booked her in for a probe. Hopefully she survives.

It really felt as if all the cylinders were not firing. There was a harsh smell when I got out of the car. Perhaps the head gasket has blown. Lets hope she can come home again. *SIGH* silly car. She has become such a fixture in my life. The car has been used to drive my eldest to varsity and back for the full four years that she was being educated. My youngest has been transported to and from school almost every day that she has gone to school. In fact almost all of the 78 000 km has been used for the transportation of my children. Oh well what will be will be.

I have now made 108 flowers for my Granny's garden and this is almost half way. I made 37 flowers in August which puts me just ahead of the curve.

I am now doing purple flowers. I still do not have a clear picture of how the final quilt will look like, but the flowers are pretty.




Yesterday my family and I went and had lunch with a school friend that I have not seen for 20 years. It was lovely to see her again and catch up. 20 years is too long between visits. I will try and organise regular get together. It is shocking how quickly life can go by. I do think that this current age is lovely. I have made friend around the world and I can visit with you through your blogs. We are truly lucky to be alive in this time.

I am being very sentimental today so let me just wish you well and hope you have an amazing day.