Updates on this lovely First of May

First up, the winner of the free copy of Chicken Soup for Satan was Miranda, who liked and commented on my author Facebook page and whose name was drawn out of the hat (beanie) by Andyroo with much ceremony this morning!  Congratulations Miranda!

I've been a little quiet on the crochet front lately because a lot of what I was making was gifts for people. I made a third minicorn for my sister PJ in Queensland.  Here he or she is with my own one. The new one has lovely sparkly turquoise eyes.  Andyroo suggested that I need to make a second one for me and then they could pull a little crocheted chariot.  How cute would that be?   

 
I also made a pair of owls for my Da and stepmum, Jill, from this adorable pattern.   

I am nearly done making a granny square afghan in Fremantle Docker's (Aussie Rules footy team's) colours, and since I couldn't make squares in front of the telly at night while I was busy joining that up by day, because it was too dark and fiddly to do at night, I made extra squares from the same colours and made a scarf for a football mad friend.  I'm so pleased that she loves it!

   

I also made this guy, name of Jellybunny, from this free pattern.

  

He's going to go to work with Andyroo to be snuggled by stressed office workers, but for now he's hanging with my keeper crew. He seems very fond of Haloumi the scary penguin (the first amigurumi I ever made from this free ebook on how to do it).  Maybe his sweet nature will divert Haloumi onto the paths of good.  :)

      

Here's the sight and sound of a flock of White-tailed Cockatoos flying and perching all around us up at Moy-mel.   There are two sorts but I'm not sure if these were Baudin's or Carnaby's.  They're noisy buggers!  You can hear one cranky raven telling them to sod off in the middle.    

It's definitely autumn here now. My favorite bit of autumn colour comes from my very own cottage wall, a Virginia Creeper.  This is how it looked a week or so ago.

This is how it looks now:

A close-up a week ago:

The same spot now:

And this is mum's favorite tree of all, a Liquidamber that grows by her house:

I meditated it with it once.  It is as fond of mum as she is of it, believe it or not!  Trees will talk, but you do need to sit very peacefully with them, be patient and quiet your mind.  Some are chatty, some are trees of few words, a very few have been crabby, but most are very nice.  This tree is particularly sweet.

I've been playing my lyre every day.  It is lovely to play! I promise when I get a handle on it I will make a video (Argh! Embarrassment!) and play it for you.  Apparently I like a challenge because I told Odin I would write him a song and that would be the first full tune I would play on it.  The song is written, the tune worked out.  I just have to play it right through without mistakes now.  The left-handed picking skills are coming along really fast.  Such a relief after playing right-handed on the guitar all these years. Never let anyone tell you to learn to play an instrument with your non-dominant hand!              
 
I posted the other day that I'd seen a raven pinching eggs in the chook dome. I got a couple of pics of these two collaborating on more thefts.

Not the best photos but they are very wary, and no surprises why if they do this sort of thing at other places!

Being as how they are Odin's birds and all, I would like to help them if they'd be willing to share, but it isn't good to feed the native birds anyway as they don't get correct nutrition and get too reliant on you.  It is enough that I keep water here for them. So, it was time to see if I could outsmart one of the smartest of birds.

This is what I came up with. A plastic bag cut up to make streamers and flap whitely in the breeze.  Unfortunately it also outsmarted most of my chooks, so I had to tie it up and leave only a streamer or two floating till they got the hang of ducking under it to get in and out.  Madame Blavatsky is as fearless as her namesake and didn't give a damn right from the start.

"Call that scary?  Huh!  Where did you put those sunflower seeds?  I claim my prize for most courageous chicken!" 

 Mrs Guppy, who is still the weird one, decided it meant she had to try to sleep on the roof of the chook dome again, and she's STILL laying her eggs outside the nesting box. Mrs Guppy is a one-off for sure!

"Woooo! Ectoplasm! Spooky"