Just look who came over to lunch…

Looks pretty dubious, eh?

 

But it actually belongs with this….

I echidna you not ! A sweet face, a gleam in the eye, and a mind set on a good lunch. Can you see the little ant standing up near the tip of the Echidna’s nose? Well he won’t be around for too much longer !

 

I can’t see you, so you can’t possibly see me! And anyway, the juiciest ants are always the ones that take a little digging to get at.

 

But it’s also pretty neat when you can just hoover up your dinner straight off the plate…..

 

And when you’ve had your fill of lunch, you can carry your fat belly off back home to bed…..

…….dodging the odd truck or ute as you waddle across the road back into the bush.

Getting back to the topic of knitting

I tackled a bit of knitting on the drive across to Gippsland; I’d been hoping that the Colinette Banyan would arrive before I left home, as I’d been wanting to start this sample out of the accompanying book:

Well, the Banyan didn’t arrive (and tracking the shipment on the internet, it seems that it’s all been sitting at Heathrow airport for more than 5 days, going nowhere!), so I decided I might knit this same design, but in Cadenza. Cadenza is a gorgeously soft pure merino, which is also easy-care (machine washable & dryable), whereas the Banyan’s a cotton mix yarn. Both knit to a fairly standard 8 ply/ DK tension, so can be interchanged. Obviously the Lahaina pattern above is designed as a summer top, but by switching to a pure wool I’m intending to use it as a waistcoat – to be worn over a tee shirt or similar.

The pattern is worked in one piece to the armholes, with the first 20 rows being the chevron lace style border – and this next picture shows I’m just nearing the end of that border, over 337sts.

The colour is Dusk, which I first knitted with (in Wigwam and Skye) well over 10 years ago, and I’m still wearing that knit today.

The choice of which cast-on to use is always something I tend to deliberate over at great length, and I’ll often short-list two or three suitable options and test knit them all with the given stitch pattern before deciding on the most appropriate. Yes, it takes time to do all these things, but time well spent in my book. For this design I needed a cast-on that was flexible enough to stretch around the corners of the chevron, but I also wanted a nice sharp, smooth line, so that I’d get crisp points. In this instance I ended up choosing a crochet cast on – that’s the one that’s done by crocheting a chain (for the same number of stitches as required for the cast-on) on a hook larger than your needle size, then picking up the thread lying on the back of each chain and placing them on your needle, ready to work the first row .

It’s a little difficult to see on the picture, since you’re viewing the chain from the side.

I’ve only a couple more rows to complete the border, then the remainder of the body is worked in a sort of ‘dot’ pattern – a  single purl stitch at regular intervals on the stocking stitch fabric.

The Perils of a Porta-Potti at high altitude

We returned yesterday afternoon from a brief holiday, spending a couple of nights at Holland’s Landing on the Gippsland coast near Bairnsdale, then travelling back the ‘long way’ up through Omeo into the Victorian Alps, across Mount Hotham and down into Myrtleford (where we spent another night) before finishing off with a shortish leg home on Easter Monday.

Holland’s Landing was an odd little spot – a piece of the Gippsland coast which has escaped development (though clearly the local real estate agent had once hoped otherwise). The area had been divided up into allotments, street names enough to fill a small town had been installed, and roughly cleared tracks hewn through the dense scrub had been made, but they lead nowhere in particular, and there are few indications of permanent residents. There is no power or services to this little outcrop, so those few people that choose to live down here must supply their own. Solar panels seemed to be a favourite, and there were also a couple of wind turbines to be seen.  There was also no drinking water there, so you had to bring in all you needed. These minor inconveniences were enough to ward off the less than hardy tourists, so it served our purposes just fine – a quiet spot on the coast for a couple of days. It seemed primarily the place of choice for the recreational fisherman. I’d say that we were one of just 2 parties that weren’t actually there for the fishing. We’d just wanted something away from the hordes at Easter, but close enough to access Bairnsdale as we were there with the express intent of visiting the Antique Clock business on the outskirts of town.

  The campsite was powered by generator during the day, which would be shut down at 1030pm and, apart from a few fishermen’s tales around the camp fire, most visitors took themselves off to bed at that hour.  In the mornings, before daylight, many would load up their packs and walk the short distance from the campsite to the shores of Lake Wellington, or they’d tow their boats to the launching ramp and set off for a day’s fishing in the local waters.

After our 2 nights there at Holland’s Landing, we decided to head back through the high country. The names of the townships we passed through were eerily familiar - Bruthen, Tambo Crossing, Ensay, Swifts Creek…..these were the little communities so savagely affected by bushfires in the lead up to Christmas. In some areas the destruction was readily apparent, and quite depressing to view. Yet a little further on you’d come across areas that were regenerating after the previous fires (2003?). These blackened trees, stripped of all their limbs, were sprouting new growth all along the length of their trunks, uncannily resembling a moss covered bough with this delicate halo of green along their length.

After passing through Mount Hotham village a toilet stop was called for. We carry a small Porta Potti in the campervan as it allows us a little more independance  – plus I’ve found that when Nature calls, she doesn’t usually do so within the proximity of a public convenience. And, for me in particular, it seems that when Nature calls these days, she must be answered almost immediately!

So we pulled over for a break & I went into the back of the van to use the Porta Potti.

At this point, might I suggest that those of a squeamish or delicate disposition may prefer to stop reading?

For anyone not intimate with the workings of a porta potti, they’re essentially divided into two chambers. The upper chamber, which also houses the toilet bowl, holds a tank of water for flushing. After each use, the waste is then dropped into the lower tank by opening the valve/blade dividing the two chambers, aided by a flush of water. By then returning that blade into the closed position, all the waste is firmly sealed in the bottom chamber, with no leakage of liquid or odours etc. All nice and easy, and hygienic etc.

So…….having ‘done the deed’ I pressed the flusher valve a few times, then leant down and reached for the handle to open the valve & send the waste on its way. At this point, my face is less than 50cms from the toilet bowl. At the same instant that I pull the valve open, there is an almighty explosion, and an enormous backwash sends the contents of the toilet bowl flying backwards out of the Porta-Potti bowl, over my face, over my shirt, over the seats of the campervan, over the carpet tiles……..

Not a pretty sight.

You know how it’s said that drowning people often see their whole life flashing before them ? Well, in this instance, while I was drowning in fast flying s*#@ and piddle, all I saw in my mind was the paragraph in the Porta Potti instruction leaflet that I’d failed to abide by. The one which talks of pressure build up at high altitudes, and how you should leave the blade slightly open when transporting the potti under such conditions. Or how you should just simply open & close the blade before actually using the toilet after having travelled in varying altitudes. None of which I did.

There are many ways to learn a lesson – I can boldly state that this has to be one of the most effective ones I’ve yet come across. I guarantee, I’ll never make this same mistake twice!