28 July 2017

Weekend reading

This season's first tomato harvest. I pick these when they're green to avoid the tomato grub. We can leave the cocktail tomatoes on the plants longer, but these are better ripening on the kitchen bench.

Gracie struck again. 😧  I got up at 3am a couple of nights ago and when I walked into the hallway, I walked on something odd. It was rice! Gracie found the rice bag I made for Hanno's balance exercises, tore into it and sprayed rice over three rooms. She also climbed onto the couch so she could reach my knitting basket, pulled out three circular knitting needles, chew them so the plastic broke, chewed an embroidery hoop and embroidery, narrowly missing a sharp needle, played with some knitting cotton and chewed on a number or pamphlets sitting on the coffee table. She was manic, running up and down the hall and only calmed down when I sat down at the computer and ignored her. After ten minutes of running, she sat down and went to sleep. She can't roam the house when we're in bed now. Last night she spent the first night on her bed in my craft room with the door closed. It went well. I have a few adjustments to make today, mainly moving electrical cables. From now on, she'll be confined to that one space overnight. Fingers are crossed.

Thanks for your comments this week. I do enjoy reading them and appreciate the time you take connecting with me. I hope to see you again next week. 

The Wartime Kitchen and Garden
Superannuation: Women on track to retire with half as much as men
Goats, bonfires and eggs: four city slickers head for the farm
This made me feel a bit sick and very disappointed: How tea bags are made
Tomato caterpillar
Gardening jobs for August (Australia)
Hokkaido Milk Toast
Top 10 embroidery blogs
Appalachian English
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22 comments

  1. Oh my goodness...your doggie has been so busy!!! I'm sorry you are going through this with her. I hope she settles down for you. I have 6 dogs and they all sleep in the bedroom with me. I have a dog gate up so that I can still hear what goes on in the house but it keeps them in with me.

    Thank you for these weekend reading posts. I'm learning a lot from them. I had watched a few of the wartime kitchen episodes awhile back. I just love them.

    Have a great weekend

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  2. Naughty Gracie!! Good thing we love our dogs so much. Our doggies are so naughty sometimes and get into lots of mischief. Suzy our 3 yo whippet cross is always into something and it usually involves destruction. Its a good idea to control the environment. We do that all the time and it helps a lot. Have a nice weekend, Juanita. :-)

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  3. What a naughty little dog, bet she had a great time! Thank you for the weekend reading, I so enjoyed the wartime kitchen & garden. The clip on how teabags are made was a real eyeopener! I also enjoyed the laundry line tips. Hope you have a lovely weekend.

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  4. When we got our dog years ago, she was 2, and we let her sleep in the living room. She would wake us up barking...not sure why she barked in the middle of the night. A friend, a dog trainer, said to put her in a dog crate in our locked bedroom. That is what we have done for the past seven years. We don't lock her in the crate, she sleeps at the foot of the bed for a few hours then get up and moves to her crate for the rest of the night. She is quiet and happy, as are we. ;). Smaller spaces seem to work better for them at night apparently.

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  5. You would have been exhausted the next day I'm sure. I hope she continues sleeping well for you in the craft room.
    I'm really looking forward to watching the Wartime Kitchen and Garden tonight. It will be my relaxing time.
    I enjoy your weekend reading posts and have been going back to your older ones too.
    Kylie

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  6. Oh I remember those doggy toddler days. Learning where he could go and not, finding my shoes no longer had any laces. Time and patience is needed to make man's best friend.

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  7. Oh Gracie you little Scottish Terror!!

    Aggie has learnt to jump over the little fences we have to keep her out of the bedrooms, and to keep the toys safe.....Time to invest in some second hand child proof gates! There in one in the shed we will dig out on the weekend.

    She has chewed a couple of Henry's beautiful Schlech animals, various beautiful wooden toys, (gah - she is so fast!) the phone cord, boots, the innersole of various shoes, dug up freshly planted plants. Well I could go on, but I know you know what I'm talking about!

    Thanks for the great reading list and hope you have a lovely weekend.

    xx

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  8. I live in a county of Kentucky that is on the inner-rim of what is considered Appalachia. I grew up calling the trunk of a car the "boot" even though I am many generations removed from my immigrant ancestors, as well as many other "oddities" of American English that came from being part of this rich heritage. You might enjoy reading the early works of Janice Holt Giles, as she wrote historical fiction that is spot-on for this region, including the language. She is one of my favorite authors! And you will get a glimpse of what this area (Central Kentucky) looked like just 50-75 years ago. Sadly, many of today's adults have fallen out of touch with these roots and do not understand some of their own quirks that come from being reared in such a special culture. As you can tell, I've become quite interested in it as I study counseling for my university (college) degree. I think you would love many things about Appalachia.

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    1. Hello Teresa, here in Australia, we still call it a boot. I think it might be a boot in England too although I'm not sure about Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Maybe someone will let us know.
      I love clogging and blue grass music too and when I want to relax, I search YouTube for some fine music and flatfooting folk. Appalachia is my favourite part the the US. Tell me, how do YOU pronounce Appalachia? I used to call it Apple Ay Cha but I've recently discovered, through videos of authentic Appalachian people speaking their vernacular English, that it's Apple at Cha. Is that correct?

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    2. How funny that I've never noticed before, and had to say it over and over to listen to myself! But, yes, I say it the second way when not speaking in a professional manner. The "at" goes naturally with "cha" in the dialect as in "gotcha" or "right back atcha." That's another oddity... that I have learned to switch between relaxed, home-dialect and professional speech. In grade school (primary) we were "corrected" constantly by our teachers to speak "proper English." Only in my adulthood have I learned to appreciate and cherish the dialect and have reverted to it in my daily life. Yet, I can give a professional performance if I am mindful to speak to the audience's ear.

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  9. Oh, to add a sidenote to my comment, the first guy you see on the Appalachian English video is Popcorn Sutton. He is famous for having made moonshine and going to prison for doing so on several occasions. Moonshine is now legal for businesses to make, but still not for private citizens to sell due to not paying taxes on it. This practice is still done is secret on a small scale.

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  10. Appalachian English is what most speak here. We are only about an hour south of where that was filmed. That video just sounded like home folks to me. :) People here would give you the shirt right off their back if you needed it. Please pray for a 68 yr old man named Tommy who is missing in those mountains since Wednesday morning.

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    1. Hi Lana, if I ever visited the US, it would be to tour through the Appalachian Mountains to meet the people there. Then I would go home. I hope Tommy is found safe and sound. xx

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    2. And our door and guest room is still open for you anytime!

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    3. Sorry for all these comments but I am reminiscing now. Our youngest daughter in laws' grandpa was friends with Lester Flatts and Earl Scruggs long before they were famous. Her Dad grew up with every Saturday night being a big pickin' party in their kitchen and Flatt and Scruggs were often there. Even after they were famous and on the road if they were in the area on a Saturday night they would park their bus across the street in the textile mill parking lot and slip in the kitchen door to play along. The old time music goes back generations in her family. The music was passed on from generation to generation and she was started on the dobro when she was only five sitting beside grandpa on the couch with him guiding her. I really hope that you can come some day.

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    4. That's very kind of you, Lana, thank you. I didn't publish the link comment because I'm not publishing any links in the comments now. I've had a good look at The Rex site though. :- ) What a great musical heritage. Fancy being in that kitchen on a Saturday night. That would have been something.

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  11. Gracie's antics always make me laugh.

    The video about making tea bags is shocking. I wonder if it's really good to steep these bags in hot water, because of the plastic in them.

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  12. Thanks for the link on teabags. As soon as I finish up my box of teabags I'll be switching to loose tea. It will probably taste better too!

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  13. Oh dear Gracie! We are now at the other end of that cycle. Our 14 year old kelpie,Axel, has always been an inside dog. Being his breed, he is super intelligent, super generous with his affection to all of us and we love him to bits. Unfortunately he is becoming increasingly restless at nights as he just walks around a little. He is quite deaf and full of eye cataracts. The only way we have been getting more sleep is to make him comfortable on his bedding in our room. Whatever works 😎. I do hope your ideas work with Gracie and for you. She sounds like a really funny and gorgeous dog. Take care.

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  14. The article on women's superannuation is so important. Whoever is the major earner needs to ensure equal amounts are in both parties accounts.

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  15. Hi Rhonda,
    At home we use loose tea however at work we use tea bags, I think its time for loose tea and a tea filter ball at work too. When you think about using a tea filter ball it is just two little extra steps in the tea making process (putting the tea in the ball and rinsing the ball when finished).

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  16. Thanks for the weekend reading, Rhonda. I had never heard of The Wartime Kitchen but I have now watched Season 1, I learnt a lot I didn't know before. I hope Gracie behaves in your craft room!

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