Saturday, August 3, 2013

UuUu

@ Magazine

I have had a love of magazines since I was 8. My mother used to buy me 'Princess' every week and then added in 'June'. This lasted until I was about 13 and then I swapped to 'Seventeen'. Magazine Junkie. In my 20-30s I was paying off a house so there was little money to spare for mags but I did buy some recipe monthlies. In mid life, I restarted the passion when I started quilting. This week, I have had my final clear out and ripped out only hat might be possible in this life time. Only a few remain complete and in a book case.....U? Well, they are part of the Universal Magazine  stable. 

The remainder is on its way to Vinnies every time the car leaves the garage! 




@ Dangerous
Uuuuu? 

Untold numbers of google searches have been unfruitful. the most interesting I thought would be Untested elephant: An elephant is considered “untested” if it has not had three trunk washes 
Summary: Management of the infected animal may require isolation of the exposed herd, potential removal of the animal from exhibit or shows, and if elected, treatment of the animals and exposed herd ... In some cases, with potentially dangerous or unpredictable
 However, wading through the information was becoming very tedious and I was not going to race over to the zoo any time soon so I have settled for the very pedestrian 'under-the -sink'  type dangerous solution. Even though we try to sanitise everything with white vinegar, we still have chemical undesirables under the sink. Luckily, no one shorter than my mother and her dog visit us so the dangerous cupboard is safe for the moment.


@ Colour 

Umber brown was an interesting-sounding colour in my paint and pencil boxes along with Siena Yellow. It was a long time before I realised that the names referred to actual places. Umber (Umbria) is a region to the right of Tuscany, where Siena lies. In printer colours, Umber is composed of 52 parts Cyan, 49 parts Magenta, 64 parts of Yellow and 35 Parts of Black. Therefore Umber Brown is predominantly YELLOW!

Umber brown

Orvieto in Umbria sits on pans of umbrian brown coloured clays

@UFOs

Ubiquitous, Unhappy UFOs ......I have just tidied my stash and have been reminded how many UFOs I have. They still outnumber my completed quilts! So...it was easier and less confronting to pull out my UFKnits.


L to R: unfinished socks, unfinished toddler's shrug; unfinished afghan



U should know ur way to Cinzia's blog by now but the shortcut  to all Scatterers is http://lgfns.blogspot.com.au . I am looking forward to a letter with a little more charm.






































 
The hexadecimal color code #f7d917 is a shade of yellow. In the RGB color model #f7d917 is comprised of 96.86% red, 85.1% green and 9.02% blue. In the HSL color space #f7d917 has a hue of 51.96 degrees, 93.33% saturation and 52.94% lightness. This color has an approximate wavelength of 587 nm. Pantone / PMS Yellow 012 is a matching paint color.



Saturday, July 20, 2013

ZEDZZZ




Notorious  ZEDs


No chance of sending up ZZZZZs when driving on the notorious zigzag roads of mountainous Italy. Roads which seemingly were made by some civilisation other than  the Romans who liked straight, straight and straight. The passenger may be able to shut their eyes but the driver just has to 'cazzy' on. 


In 2004, I was determined to reach my first location called Gummer (means the person who sharpens the teeth in the blade of a saw, ie serious tree felling saws. Gummer is also my maiden name), which is the highest village in the Rosengarten area of the western Dolomites in the Alto Adige region of northern Italy. This area had once been Austrian but post WWI, it was handed over to Italy. These days the locals still feel their Austrian origins: German is the first language, English the second and Italian is the third. Signs are bilingual in German and Italian. In fact the location in Italian is San Valentino, more romantic than a saw-tooth dentist!




I do all the driving when we are overseas so when we headed from Pescia towards Bozen/Bolzano at speed maximus for the autostrada, I was keen to have some time up my sleeve to visit Gummer.  Bozen is beautiful and deserves a longer look than I could manage as I had my sights set on Gummer. David would not go there as he hates heights and had 'suffered' enough on the old road from Pescia to Modena .....'You're too close to the edge!' and other unhelpful comments to which I finally replied that he should put a paper bag over his head and be quiet. So 'Going to Gummer' was me going solo. I left him to wander around the charms of Bolzano and he gave me an hour and half! Well, as the map and link show, the roads became hair curling BUT when I reached the Gummer plateau it was AMAZZZZingly beautiful...and a toddler in a stroller could have been my brother fifty years earlier. I didn't take photos of the hairpin bends but include a map and a few photos of the Gummer area, which is a ski resort in winter and is also known for its 80cm telescope.


Way to go!





The start of zigging and zagging


Heidi Country! 
The local school


Kilometres of views





http://www.astrooptik.com/Projekte/MaxValier_e.htm 



Edible Z






Za'Atar is a blend of Middle Eastern herbs and seeds. I first had it on toast with yoghurt. Subsequently, David uses it a lot when grilling or frying chicken. Zensational!  














Family Z

Zorro? Zachary? Zeek? Nuh!

Unfortunately we do not have exotica for names in our family. My father and I have searched a great deal of family history and for centuries on his side the most exotic names have been Benjamin, Oliver and Kevin! There was Jeremiah Gummer a Tasmanian convict who wore a uniform with an unattractive arrow pattern but no ZZZZZs. I have found a few in England but perhaps the surname is all we share:
 


GUMMERZiphorahLangportSomerset1854Jul-Aug-Sep
GUMMERZandra MichelleHerefordHerefordshire1989January
GUMMERZachary ChristopherTauntonSomerset1999August



Zoroastrians? None yet found but possible on my maternal great grandmother's side as she was Anglo Indian.




Sarah Wicks not a Zoroastrian



ZZZZZZZZZ


When I travel, I like to take a photo of the view from the zimmers where I stay. Breaking the trip at Clausen/Chiusa, which is on the main autostrada to Austria. I slept well at Spitalerhof. 



View of the mountains from the snug room 

Zip to the other scatterers  by clicking this link:  Cinzia's site








Saturday, July 6, 2013

NA NE NI NO NU

N-Scatterday

Na!Nuh! Needlework ni bed is a No! NO! But I like the photo! Is it Maureen O'Hara?


*medical
Needle 

My right elbow has been v sore since I knocked it on a door jam getting off the train last year in Berlin. Yesterday, I bit the bullet and had a needle (injection under ultra sound). Hopefully, I'll be back to sewing knitting and crochet soon. I'll keep today short as I don't need to stir up the left side! The radiologist was Iranian but he spoke with an Irish lilt.

The needle went in at the faint ' \' .

* celebration   
Nonagenarian
 
Aileen and John O'Reilly
c 1927

My mother Aileen turned 90 on 20 June this year. Photographically, I'm still trying to dowload the lunch party photos. I managed to get her phone and my laptop together at the rehab hospital but no download lead to be found. So I'll buy one over the weekend and post them in due course.




*ocean   


New 'Ocean's Eleven'  2001

Google illustration

 Old Ocean's Eleven  1960
Google photo
Not having many photos of an N-ocean, I defaulted to the next thing that came to mind...'Ocean's Eleven' 2001. In checking it out, I found that the film I knew and loved was a remake of the 1960 blockbuster by the Ratpack. I was 8yo in 1960, so there was no way I managed to see it. Must watch it and compare.


* notion from the sewing room 


Needlecase
Along with a number of other lovely notions, my Yahoo group, 'Crazy About Pincushions' swap partner, Chris in Lansing Ohio sent me a matching needle case. I love it too as it's small, has wool inside, is functional and matches the large pincushion which I showed you in an earlier post.

               



Catch up with the Scatterdays clan via Cinzia's blog 
http://lgfns.blogspot.com.au

Monday, June 24, 2013

Saturday, June 22, 2013

The Quilters Guild of NSW Quilt Show 2013

So the Show is over for another year and what a show it was. A record breaking 400+ entries. I went three times and enjoyed it all. The quilts were fantastic and I caught up with many friends and some people from my years of teaching- past.

When we were in Sweden last year, I bought a felt pincushion. At the show, I found a very interesting stall and bought some wool rovings to have a 'felting session'. The stall owner, Annie Huntley was very helpful.




Some shots from the quilt exhibition



















B blog




B B B B

Library: BOOKCASE 
One bookcase a library does not make! However, there are 
other bookcases around the house. This was the first piece 
of furniture I bought after I started teaching. Now it houses 
mainly my books, our photos and part of David's extensive 
Jazz collection. On the second shelf from the top, midway, 
there is also an old Bible which a woman from Perth sent me. 
I had noticed her post on a family thread asking if any Gummer
would like the Bible which she had found at a market stall. 
The post was three years old so I didn't hold great hopes of it 
still being available as I have a number of Gummer cousins in 
Perth. However, it became mine. It was given to two girls who 
were assisted immigrants in Launceston by the C of E Sunday 
School c1845 before they departed for Melbourne. 

I have yet to make contact with the Victorian 
Gummers but hope I might be able to return the Bible 
to the descendants of its former owners. 
I also hope to find out if we are related.

The Bible is well travelled!




Smell: 

BORONIA perhaps Boronia Ledifolia... 
aka Sydney Boronia. This beautiful shrub is gracing our back 
fence. To be honest, I can't describe the smell/perfume as 
I can't climb up there to find out  (...I would have to trespass 
from the next street). Hopefully, it isn't the stinking boronia, 
Boronia Anemonifolia! Perhaps Vireya can enlighten us! 
I am hoping some techie is able to come up with an iPad 
which has 'scratch and sniff' Apps! Hold that thought! 
I'm claiming it as my intellectual property!




Equipment: BINDING TOOL! I have never used it!





Blog:  BloomandBlossom
I came across the link below and like some of 
the free patterns for habby holders. 

http://bloomandblossom.blogspot.com.au/p/bloom-moda-bakeshop.html
http://bloomandblossom.bigcartel.com/product/beyond-measure-part-one

My other blog is about what is of interest to me on the day: family, social justice, blah!
http://mitchez2dpnewz.blogspot.com.au
It was my mother's 90th birthday on Thursday. 
We had a small party of 6 at an Italian restaurant, 
'Gatto Matto' in Five Dock. We had a wonderful time 
and Mum loved it. I will post a photo when I have 
downloaded them from her phone.

Catch up with with the rest of the Scatterdays team 
on Cinzia's blog: http://lgfns.blogspot.com.au
ps pls excuse the botched background in the Boronia para. Will fix it when I'm less tired.!