I'm Bad...

Yep more blogging absence.  I've been so busy doing cool stuff, is my excuse, and I figure it's a good one. Only thing is, that means you don't get to see my cool stuff happening!

Ok, so this is my very cool kolrosing experiment...

Rubbing raw cacao into the carved lines of the design. 

After that, I burnished the lines back into timber with fine wet and dry.  It's amazing how it goes back to smooth wood and you can't feel the cuts any more, but the lines are still there as colour.

Not to impressive to look at yet, though...

Then, the moment of truth... Olive oil!

The first trepidatious pass.  Will it work?  Will it look good?

Yes is the answer!  Weeee!  I love it!

I'll get you a better photo for next time. this one was taken outside while it was still wet with oil.

The design for this lyre was taken from it's name: Fréowine, meaning 'noble friend' or 'wine friend' (someone you would go drinking with.)  I made a border of bees to represent the mead that the Anglo-Saxons loved to drink, and made a design of Odin's ravens, Huginn and Muninn knocking drinking horns for the central image.

The kolrosing looks quite delicate and decorative.  Every bee was drawn freehand, so they all have their own character, and the two ravens look like they are having a lot of fun. I love it!

I am still working on the tailpieces and bridges for both new lyres, plus a new tailpiece for Mondream, my original lyre. I am hand-sanding them so it takes a bit longer but I love the meditative state of hand-working wood.  There's no hurry. 

Other cool stuff? I have finished my non-fiction book on how to write first drafts of novels, the same way I do.  It is called "Wild Noveling: The First Draft."  I wrote it to be amusing and light and yet useful.  My very earliest report back from a first reader is that they loved it!  Yay!  More on that soon.

This morning we heard our very first rusty crow from our three baby roosters.  It was King Pellinore who first crowed, of course. He is half again the size of the other two.  He's a nice guy though... So far!  I hope he stays that way because he would be handful if he turns agro. He is huge!

I'll try to get you a pic for next time. In the meantime, here is Morgana the more adventurous little hen.  She's shaping up very nicely.
 

       
 The virginia creeper has been putting on its marvellous autumn show for us again.

I think this one below is my all time fave pic of it, and it also sums up how warm and cosy the cottage feels, when you approach it form the paddock on a winter's evening.

There have been some warm days, though, warm enough for picnics.

With amazing skies.

And there is still time to enjoy the extra air and space provided by our new screen door!  Yay!  The building of the verandah was aimed for this moment, and now it is here!

 
Next comes raising, levelling and paving the entry area. It never ends, does it!

 Mr Kitty would prefer that I did more sitting and crocheting. 

Sis Jen and I posted each other matching pics of cats on laps last night.  Funny!  You can tell the cooler weather is here!

Enjoy your changing season, and I'll talk to you again soon. 

 

Just a...

...man and his giant kitty kickin' back.

Just a floating Andrew in a lake...

And a niece enjoying herself with friends.

And a nice new tall chook pen fence!

A snuggly bug Tuppy in a half-made afghan...

An adorable Basset that I met today, name of Huey...

A moonlit bushwalk...

And a damn chicken scratching apart my raked piles of leaves as fast as I can rake them!
 

What can I do?  She thinks we're looking for bugs together.  It's charming and annoying at the same time!    

Satan Smith: Crap Demon Hunter is here, and other news.

Well that was quick in the end. All it took was half a weekend of strangled screaming, a little blood on my forehead, and the book is up and running!  Word for Mac, you are no longer my friend!

The cover art, on the other hand, was fairly trouble free.   I'd love to be able to tell you that I remembered to do progress shots, but I so didn't!  I have the drawings, then the finished pieces.  Sorry about that!

Here is the final result, all put together.

The first book of the sequel is this one; Chicken soup for Satan.  Just in case you haven't read it yet.

It's a fun read and just a little bit scary.  Satan is a bit of an awkward guy who tries to come across as tough to keep him out of trouble.  He has a lovely rescue dog, Ghost.  The two of them move into a share house in the hills above Perth, Western Australia, and that's where the spooky fun starts and Satan starts to come out of his shell a bit too.

The second book begins with Satan still living at Avalon, but Satan Smith and his beautiful German shepherd, Ghost, are both reeling under the changes that have happened at their beloved home, Avalon. 

Just when they’ve started to think they’ll be happy forever, the woman he loves has gone and fallen for another man, a bloke that both Satan and Ghost think is the pits.

There’s also Satan’s new house-mate, who owns a spoiled Siamese cat… and a haunted painting.  Not entirely unusual in your average share-house, but still, it’s unsettling.    

Then there’s the spook who’s haunting his good friends next door and has a penchant for a little more mischief than some gentle chain-clinking and moaning.

Once more, Satan and his loyal sidekick, Ghost, have to rise to the occasion. Can what he has learned from his addled demon fighter Da help him succeed against these new paranormal threats? Will he ever come out of the closet as a folk music player?  Will he be able to keep his fists off the new boyfriend?  Only time will tell!

The second book is still fast and fun, narrated with the wry humour that is all Satan's own.   I'm told by my first readers that it is even better than the first and they had a lot of trouble putting it down.  Escapism at its best, with a cat, dogs and horses to make it even better!

In other news, the chookie babies are still growing. It charms me that they choose to come and settle for naps right at our feet out in the garden.

Pretty, sweet Guinevere

Adventuress Morgana and Bad Sir Grummore

Google offered me this arty version of one of my pics of Guinevere.  I like how the pattern of lacing shows up in black and white. Not sure about the black eyes though.  A possessed chicken?  An idea, perhaps, for my next Satan book?  Eek!

We've been working very hard the last few days with the amazing Thor the Inexhaustible to clear up the chook pen area so I can get the fence back up before the foxes notice.   That Bushy Yate tree made a heck of a lot of firewood.

I'm trying not to feel too bad about cutting it down. It was probably 25, planted by my mum, and about to drop its multiple trunks in all directions, as it had already proved.

With the last branch we managed to get the gate, which had been unscathed up to that point. Yay for us!  Luckily we only broke the lintel. 

  

It took a lot of work just to clear all the debris and 'bommyknocker' seed heads from the chook pen and surrounds when we were finished, but we're nearly there now. 

It was harder because the mower's trailer succumbed to its earlier unplanned modification by the Bushy Yate, so we had to wheelbarrow it all down to the bonfire pile, which is now ginormous!      

Today Thor and I got one row of heavy chook wire back up so at least the old girls will be kept in in the mornings, though the babies will probably fly out.  We'll be going higher as soon as we've got the materials.  After that I'm going to start on a chook shed to replace the damaged chook-dome.  It never ends!

Ah well, rest when you're dead, right?  Have a fun week!  Don't forget to buy my books and read them.   Here's the new one:  Satan Smith: Crap Demon Hunter.   As my sister, Jen, said, "Wow he really is a crap demon hunter!"  Luckily, though, he knows it!   

   

  



 

My arse is fine, thank you for asking.

The knife went in about 4cms deep, if the blood on it was anything to go by.  It is healing up remarkably quickly. I think we underestimate our own body's ability to heal itself.  I am a modern person and am lucky enough to have access to modern antibiotics if needed, but I  don't think we should use them willy nilly, so i waited to see what would happen.

What happened is that a few days after I accidentally stabbed myself in the bum, I was able so spend a large part of the day removing tree branches, after my over-enthusiastic young Firey mate, Thor, there, got carried away with the chainsaw when we were taking down the rest of the dodgy tree.  Yes, we now need to rebuild our chook pen from scratch!  Go Thor!   :D

"Arrrr!!!  Thor is unrepentant!!!" 

The mower escaped with some minor remodelling.  The trailer, still under that lot at this point, was a bit less lucky, but some rope made it useable.

As for me, well, I took to my heels and my bum worked super well as I high-tailed it out of there when the tree came down!  (And no the irony of a Druid being killed by a tree did not escape me!)

Apartment living has never looked so good!

Ah well, at least I have a lot of space and freedom now to redesign the whole chook pen from scratch, which will be good.  In the meantime we can shut them up in the dome to keep them safe.  They're slowly coming together as a flock, though not often as close as they were when I tipped over the baby chook cage to let them get at the hay in it.

 

In other news, Mr Fitty Kitty is as cuddly as usual.  By the way we often use a pillow like this for him because he is too big for your lap and his bum hangs off the side.  A bit like me when sitting on hard chairs this week!

And, this is what happens when you let a 24 year old get to your inspiring fridge message!

(I have no idea what a titpotato is, but it's one of those up there!

And this is what happens when two old ladies dance at parties...

Annie and Tina rockin' out amongst the boring people!

Ah hell, we don't care!  We had fun!  If you can't give up caring what people think when you're old, when can you?  (Not that I think you should wait that long!  Start today!)

Not sure what the weekend will hold, but hopefully it will be less dangerous than this week has been for me!   Keep safe folks! 

   

What Do the Bored People Do?

I have no idea. i never have enough time for all the fun stuff I want to do.

My latest book has gone out to first readers. Yay!  It's an exciting time waiting to hear what they think!  Now it is time to play with cover ideas.  How do you like my silly attempt in Gimp just to try out my idea?

LOL, I wonder why I bother to do real artwork?  Not!   :D

The two lyres are slowly progressing. Using the router is a tad terrifying, but so far so good, no holes in places there shouldn't be.

 
This is the deeper experimental lyre.  It already has a name. It is called Torc, which is Irish and Old Irish for Boar.  The name came about due to something I experienced in a meditation.  Boar has long been one of my guides.  I even bear his mark after a farm accident!

Mowing has been happening.  How scruffy can I look?  I'm told I should stop wearing the clothes that are now too big for me, but I say waste not want not!  (Plus I love some of these t-shirts too much to let them go!)

We've created another home sausage-making addict in Thor, our Firey friend.  He came for a guitar lesson and went away a sausage fanatic, already researching new recipes to try!

Yes it looks rude.  It always looks rude. We've made a lot of sausages by now and we aren't over it yet.  Amusement abounds.  :D

Yep ok, I can see that t-shirt may be a little bit too big now.

We took the dogs to the river on Monday morning early.  They loved it.

Aren't these silhouettes and the blue lovely together?

The chickies are still growing and having fun.  I'll get some new pics of them for you soon.

New Verandah!

I know, I've having a blogging break and i never warned you that I would.  Sorry about that!  It just seems like I've been so busy and every time I sit down at the computer I want to edit my latest book instead of blogging.  I guess that's a good thing!

One reason we've been so busy is the new verandah.

How it was:

 With the canopy off and a weatherboard removed ready for rafters.

 Framing up.

Getting there!

Corro going on!

 Done!

It was all enlivened by having the baby chickens underfoot.  They are getting bigger all the time and are very friendly.  Here is little Morgana trying out the big girls' sleeping perch.

 They aren't trying to sleep up there yet.  They still put themselves to bed in the nest down below, the little cuties, despite the fact that mama Spotty is back with the other hens and being just as mean to them as the other girls.  I thought having them grow up a part of the flock would make the join easier but apparently not.  Red chooks just gotta hate!

And here is the Virginia Creeper growing out of the old chimney for the braemar that used to be down below.  It goes down under the eave rather than into the cottage so we've never bothered to cover or remove it.

And here is one of the grand old Marris up at the block.  What a canopy!

Who needs cathedrals?