55 000 words!

So, writing is still going well on Freya and the Hairy Goddess.  I went over the 55 000 word mark on Friday.  In other writing news. a box of print copies of Webriders, Land of Fire, and Freya and the Golden Bear showed up this week.  Amazing to see my work in a stack of books! I plan on donating one of each to the local library, and the rest will be here in case anyone local wants to buy a copy.  They look so pretty together!  

  
We've finally had some rain here.  It is lovely to see green coming back to our land.

I feel really lucky, and I bet the trees do too, as sometimes we have to wait until mid May for real rain.  This year the autumn weather has even beaten the deciduous trees, who are only just beginning to colour up.  Some years they grow leaves, colour, and lose leaves, and hardly get to feel a drop of rain on them! 


It hasn't done my tomato plants much good though.  I've taken the nets off so the birds can have the last of the fruit.  
    

The mutant plant is still growing, and it is definitely a pumpkin.  A Kent I'm guessing since that is one of our fave pumpkins to eat and the seeds end up in the chook scraps.  

It has one little fruit on it and a few flowers still... but I'm pretty sure the winter is going to beat it!

I love the way the autumn light shines across our place on Autumn mornings.

This is the garden along the front of mum's house, looking lovely.  Autumn for us is rather Springy as plants come to life and bloom after the long, dry, hot summers that crush them so. 

I think it is time to start wearing my new shoes, don't you?  These old favorites have done as much service as they are going to!

I hate having to give up comfy shoes for new ones, even if my new ones are volleys again and will soon be just as comfortable.

I've been playing the lyre every day.  I love how versatile it is and the organic way you can use both hands to play it.   People enjoyed seeing the video I posted last post, so here is another player who has way more skills than me, and who has electrified his lyre so he can add extra effects.  He is doing a translated version of a very old Anglo-Saxon Poem, Wanderer. A very different style to the last one, but haunting and lovely.

This weekend the plan is to spend lots of time painting the new cover for the print version of Cunning Plans. I'll take pics as I go so I can do a step by step post, but this is the under-drawing.  I've already drawn back over that to fix up areas I wasn't happy with, and today will get the paints back out and start painting in earnest.  

The Lyre is finished!

Guess what we've been playing?  Yes, the Lyre!  Woo hoo!  It rings out beautifully (when it is in tune) and is nice to play.  It will take a while to settle and stay in tune so lots of fiddling ahead, but for now we are super pleased!

Putting it together brought up some teething problems, like zither pins with holes so sharp they cut the nylagut strings and therefore needing to be sanded down.  The guitar string we used for the tail piece started slipping too so that needed a little jury rigging before we put it back together again for another try.
   

Cyrano felt that he had to be involved in all stages!

Then it was all together!  Amazing!  What a great feeling!  Time to tune it, but would it tune up ok?  It was the big test! With the help of an online chromatic tuner to guide me, it did indeed come into tune!

Then we could both have a play and begin to get a feel for it.

Andyroo, you are the best. Gorgeous as well as talented. That is some birthday present. Thank you!  

Now I just need to learn how to play it.  We built it left-handed for me, and I play guitar right-handed, so will take a little longer than it might to learn it, but I never really have got my crappy right hand picking well so this will hopefully be better in the long run.

This Lyre is based on the Morning Thorpe pattern created by Michael J King.

And to hear someone who can already actually play one, go watch this video:

I mean, skillz! And playing in a tree with the wind blowing.  How bardically dramatic can you get?  :)

Explaining the Design on the Lyre.

Firstly, we had an astounding sunset last night! The whole sky was pink and purple and it made everything glow the oddest colours.  You can never capture a sunset exactly as it is, but these pics show a bit of how it was. 

East over mum's roof, with the white bark of the Lemon-scented gum picking up the colours:

 West towards the setting sun:

Lower in the West, through the trees to the firey place of the actual sun:

Now, about the Lyre design.  Lorie asked what it meant, which made me realise that I hadn't actually said anything about it.

Here it is again for reference:

The raven is for Odin, who has become a very important deity to me, providing comfort, strength and inspiration in hard times and encouraging me to be the best I can be in good times.

I actually began by trying to get two ravens into the design, Huggin and Munnin (Thought and Memory), who are his companions, but despite the design being more symmetrical that way, I just couldn't quite make it work for me, so in the end I tried one raven and that worked better.

The Norse Rune on the left bottom is Ansuz (with a bend it to fit the circle design).  It is known as Odin's Rune, though really they are all his since he is the one who hung on the world tree, Yggdrasil, for nine days, to bring the wisdom of the Runes to Midgard. He is always seeking more wisdom and is quite wiling to suffer for the gaining of it if necessary, showing us that even the old gods can learn and grow.  Ansuz is also connected to the concepts of communication, insight and inspiration, and is therefore ideal for a Lyre, I felt.


The design the Raven sits upon is the Awen. It is a symbol very commonly used  by modern Druids.  Awen is a Welsh word that loosely means, "Moving Spirit".  The Awen symbol stands for inspiration and for much more; for the three drops from the cauldron of wisdom, for the three levels of Druid studies (Bard, Ovate and Druid), for Land, Sea and sky, and still more.

For me, Awen symbolises connection to whatever it is that makes us part of the divine, to what flows through us when we get so involved in our creative pursuits that we lose ourselves in time and space.

Druidry and the Norse Gods, or even the Norse Runes, aren't in general thought of together, but for me, for my path, it was just right.  That is the beauty of doing your own designs, of making your own art. You can make things that are just perfect for your own needs and no need to compromise.    

So you can see, it wasn't a design that sprang out of nowhere.  I hope it can help this lyre and I to make beautiful, meaningful music together!              
         

    

Lyre and Labradors

Work on the Anglo-Saxon Lyre is moving along slowly.  First I did half permanent ink pen and half acrylic paint on the two tester bits of wood, one varnished and one unvarnished, so we could varnish over both and see what would happen.  Now you can see why doing testers is a good idea!

The varnish smudged the acrylic paint, which is on the left of the design on both. It was worse on the varnished than unvarnished tester, but on both permanent ink was the better choice.  I began to use to the ink on the Lyre unvarnished, but one stroke of the pen and I could see it was going to bleed much worse than on the tester.  No idea why, more sanding been done perhaps, so I stopped and Andyroo did one layer of varnish before I inked the design.

What do you think? I think it has come out really well!

It's had two more coats of varnish with a light sand between each layer. Here it is hanging up in Andyroo's woodwork shed to dry.  That used to be my horse-feed shed but it soon got re-purposed and filled up when the horses went.  :)

Actually I had a dream last night that I went out and bought a lovely dapple grey Quarter Horse mare (probably because I'm coveting the beauteous Delia  over at Ride a Good Horse) but the minute I did I was like, oh no why did I do that?  Even in my dream I knew I was still not well enough to care for and enjoy a horse again, dammit. I used to dream about horses all the time when I first gave them up.  I rarely ever got to ride in the dreams, only had hassles that went on and on and didn't lead to actually getting on the horse!  The same thing happened to my sister in the years when she didn't have horses.  Weird!

Anyway, the Lyre is very close now to being put together.  We have all the parts.  Next time I post about it, it might be at the playing stage. Fingers crossed!

I got a little bit of video of my two Labbie girls doing two of their favorite tricks this week.  They do others but I think it would be best if someone else videos those.  :)  These two work quite well in the 'first person' style.

This is Tuppy doing her stand up thing:

She's such a lively little sprite, especially for a Lab!

Here's Rosie doing "Kangaroo." I have no idea why the video link looks grey today, it didn't when I uploaded them yesterday, and it may not tomorrow, but it works fine if you click the link. 

 
That Kangaroo trick evolved somehow from me starting out to free shape her with the clicker to walk backwards in front of me.  Such is the fun and games of clicker training!  I could have stuck to her walking backwards if my intent had been serious, but I like to see what happens when they start to put their own spin onto things, and what happened this time was Kangaroo!  

A Little Bit of everything

Cyrano de Purrgerac feels there should be more kitty smooching and less crocheting!

It's autumn here, thank goodness!  Time for winter seedlings to go in.

These are a bit leggy but hopefully they'll take off ok. Fordhook Giant Silverbeet, and Oak Leaf lettuce, with a stray spring onion and a couple of surviving garlic plants along the side. The other tank bed has rainbow chard and Black Russian Kale in it.  The tomato plants are still struggling along in the big bed but we did have some very wet steamy days that made them look pretty ugly with powdery mildew.  I could pick the last tomatoes and make green tomato chutney... if I get my act into gear.  Ah well, we have plenty of frozen homemade tomato sauce to tide us over.

It was Rosie's seventh birthday this week. Hard to believe my sweet, happy girl is seven already!

     

  Her latest trick is sitting on a ricky-rocky bit of tree that we have in the paddock.  First I reinforced her for two feet up, something she knows well.  Then I got her to stretch a bit and put her back foot up, while I steadied it with my foot under it, and treated her a lot for that.

After that it took a lot of practice (and a lot of treats rewarding baby steps) but she finally worked out how to bring that last foot up and balance herself.  Clever girl!

Now it's her favorite trick because it has been reinforced so much with lots of yummy treats!

The chookies are now one happy family again, thank goodness!  Nanny Ogg the Black Australorp says please to pardon her plumage as she is moulting.  Mrs Guppy is still being an individual; she lays her eggs outside the nesting spot the others all use!     

I'm not sure what this is, but it is thriving beside the chook's dome where I tip out the water to wash their water bowls out.  Pumpkin, I think.  Hopefully it will get a chance to fruit before the winter gets to it.     

I was outside the other night while Andrew was inside upstairs having a sauna.  The high windows looked like this:

And the inside looks like this:

I love what the big infrared lights do to the cottage!

And what does Mr Andyroo look like having a sauna?  This!  Eeeek!  Cheeky devil man!  
 

Writing is still flowing along really well for Freya and the Hairy Goddess.  I went over the 45 000 word mark yesterday and still having a lot of fun with my characters and all the adventures they get into. I've had a week off from other author-y type jobs this week but next week will start on getting Death by Dog Trial ready for the print version, and I've got an idea for new artwork for my Cunning Plans print cover.

This guy will be an owl, but this in-between stage is so funny, I had to take a picture!  

Weekend mornings generally mean a cuppa on the back verandah next door with mum and our extended Labrador family.  The mild weather we are currently having is perfect for it.  That's Tuppys bro, Angus, and behind him is Rosie's mama, Tess, who is 11 and a half now.     

  
May you have perfect weather too, and some lovely outside time,  preferably without a dog on the table!  (Or with, whatever makes you happiest!) 

Commenting will now be much easier!

I hadn't fiddled with the comments set-up section of my blog yet and realised yesterday that the default rules for who could comment were totally restrictive, so if you have tried to comment and found it was too hard or impossible, do please try again!

I would love to hear from you!

And here's a gratuitous pic of Tuppence that I came across again the other day, that really sums up her driven personality.  I've had pups before that would stare at you to get you to come and play, but never one who got up on tables to do it so that she'd be closer to your face!

A walk in Mundaring Sculpture Park

This is our dogs' favorite walk, one of them anyway.  Even though they have to stay on lead, it has so many great smells because it is a busy little park, so it is full of fascination for them.  We often go and stagger around it early on Sunday mornings after a visit to our local fresh food shop.

This park is a stop on a series of bridle/walk paths that were old railway lines many years ago and that are now reserves. It's a fantastic resource for our Shire.  Heaps of walkers and cyclists use it.  Less horse-riders use it than previously, sadly.  I rode many miles of it in my horsey days myself.
    

This part of the trail was planted up many years ago by the Men of the Trees, though I think some trees may predate that planting. In those days they planted anything they had on hand, so we have a lot of introduced and Eastern States trees here, which is fine by me! I love all trees, no matter where they came from! On a hot day, this is a lovely park for a picnic or walk because it stays so cool and shady. 

 
The park also has a number of sculptures that have been here a long as we have.  They make for an interesting walk.  Some are themed for our shire's connection to the hugely long Kalgoorlie Pipeline, which was built to take water out to the goldfields in the early days. 

This one is rather interesting. I have no idea what it means, but if the battery is working, you can press panels in the post where Andyroo and Tuppy are standing and each panel makes a different recorded noise come out of the frozen swing bit.   As I say, I have NO idea what it all means!

The Grevilleas are flowering. 

As are the Marri trees.

This sculpture stands tall over the bridle trail where the old railway line passed through. You can go up on a platform and pull handles and make things up on the tower whirl and twirl.  I love interactive art!

Not all our Eucalypts want to grow straight and tall!

This seat is also a bulldozer coming up out of the ground.  

There are some lovely old pine trees.  They are introduced and not popular here any more because they steal so much nutrient and water from our poor soil, but I have good associations with them from riding among the pine plantations as a youngster.  I love the smell and the whisper of the needles.    

This is another seat.  I have never seen the other arm, if other arm there ever was.  Sometimes I wonder if one got broken when they were placing the sculpture here and never replaced!  Ah well, that's why I'm a writer; I'm always coming up with stories about stuff!

 

This is the tiny little Country Women's Assocation building, covered in a lovely mural.  I'm not sure how they even find room to swing a Lamington (which the CWA are famous for making) in there!  If you've never had a lamington, well, you should, they are delicious!  My mouth is watering at the very thought of one, even a gluten free one as it would have to be for me.   

This is another history-themed sculpture.  I'm kind of sad that they fenced it off because it was great fun to climb on, which is probably why they did fence it!  It has heaps of old tools welded on its top.  The wheelbarrow is a bit iconic because so many people traveled to the goldfields pushing all their belongings in wheelbarrows.  At a whisker under 600 kms, that was some walk.  

The BBQ/picnic area and playground, under more lovely trees.

And my favorite sculpture, entitled, "Tourists in Mundaring."  Hang on, isn't there an extra one at the end there?

It's a fun one to bring puppies to because it always amazes them to see these short, still people and you have to all go and sniff and pat them and show the pup they aren't people after all!

Finally, back to our faithful old Mr Whippy the car and home for morning tea!  What a shame the lovely Mundaring pub there isn't open yet.  :)