Filling the well

I don't get to do a lot of non-writing related travel due to time and budget constraints. But this weekend I zoomed off to Adelaide (the capital of South Australia for the non-Aussies) to visit my brother and sister in law and the furry niece dog.

It was a nicely laid back weekend of pottering around and doing a few touristy things. Adelaide is a pretty little city and quite laid back (though home to some excellent doughnuts and, of course, Haighs chocolate - I love the dark peppermint frogs best).

Big brother was somewhat under the weather with a nasty cold so Melissa and I (yes, two Mel Scotts, it's confusing...and that's before you add in Mum being Merilyn lol) left him at home and did the girly browse and shop thing. We did the city on Friday and Saturday headed out to Woodside and Lobethal.

I know a lot of writers like to do various crafty things. I've traditionally preferred sewing and embroidery to knitting (and never really learned how to crochet) but Melissa is a knitting savant and these days also makes beeeeyootiful hand painted yarns (specialising in eco friendly fibres), so there were a few fabric and fibre related shops visited. I may have come home with some more quilting fabrics.

I did come home with this little dude:



He's an amigurumi (amigurumi apparently being a japanese crochet craze) from this book, and he and his creepy cute friends were so cute I think I need to learn to crochet properly and make some.

On Sunday Melissa has a stall at the Fisherman's Wharf market in Port Adelaide (so SA knitters are in luck), so I hung out with her there. And the wools and silks and everything looked so pretty all piled up (really, I think the thing that I really love about fabric and yarn is the colour aspect of it) that I decided to dust off my very rusty knitting needle skills and make some fingerless gloves (Melissa made up the pattern on the spot!). I even managed to finish them in a few hours. Which is about right when it comes to my patience for knitting and project. Apart from quilting I like things that I can complete reasonably fast. I think it's because novels take so damned long to write that the girls like things they can finish when it comes to other creative outlets). I even got some extra wool to make a scarf over the next few weeks.

Anyway, here are some pics of Melissa's gorgeous yarns to whet the appetite of any fibre addicts out there. Her website is www.strandedinoz.com.

Banana silk and recycled sari silk



Hemp and wool



All sorts of wool (sheep and alpaca, sadly I didn't get a pic of the perfectly camel brown baby camel wool!)





(my scarf wool is from the blues on the top of the pile above)



So pretty! You just want to stroke them and possibly eat them. I'd have baskets full piled up just as decoration.

This is what I did with some lovely soft merino she'd dyed in gorgeous deep ocean shades (she's under instruction to do more in this colourway).



I'm hoping all this gorgeousness and play will result in some brilliant words tonight after four days off. Of course, feeding the well may be offset by being slightly wrecked after day job but we'll see. I guess I'll report back later!

It's a small world

Also known as you never know who knows who on the internet...or six degrees of techno-geekery perhaps.

Today I was reading blogs on Google Reader (I am a convert to the blog aggregator concept) and saw that Elizabeth Bear had an interview on Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing, which is a podcast I check out semi-regularly and is quite cool. So I trundled over to iTunes to download the ep and started listening on my iPod while I did some housework the old-fashioned physical way. At the end the interviewer asked Elizabeth one question he'd picked from his Twitter followers.

So, he says, here's the question from BlueTyson. At which point I started laughing. Because here in the real world, BlueTyson is known as my big brother (who does a good line in speedy reviews of mainly Sci-Fi and Superhero type books and stories if you're into that). So there you go. You never know who might be listening or popping up somewhere. Which is probably a good reason to play nice online : ) It also led to me discovering big bro is on Twitter because I hadn't gotten around to telling him I was on yet. The geek is strong in our family. Though he wins, given he is generally employed in computing type roles and uses Linux lol.

In other six degrees moments, I'm off tomorrow to attend a MS fundraising luncheon down at the folks. Mum asked me a while back and I said sure, given I figure you have to support charities that share your initials and do read-a-thons with kids as fundraising (make them catch the book bug young, I say) and are trying to find a cure for a nasty disease. Then she added "there's some writer speaking...her name's Nicola Marsh". Oh yeah, that's my friend, Nic.

Reason's my mum is ace (yet slightly nutty)

1. The concept of a nailpolish called "I'm not really a waitress" makes her have hysterics for five minutes.
2. She can commentate the bird wars occurring in her vegie patch due to the bread she put out there.
3. She sends me text messages asking if I can eat such and such weird food she's found in her health food store while I'm on this crazy diet.
4. She once beat up a boy who was picking on her Sunday School class at a Sunday School picnic (have I mentioned she's tiny?)
5. She talks back to the cryptic crossword (and hey, she can DO cryptic crosswords).
6. The only books she ever objected to me reading were Interview with a Vampire and Lord Foul's Bane, both because she thought I was too young at the time. So she's probably got herself to blame for me writing urban fantasy lol (plus, I read them anyway). Otherwise she kept my book habit pretty well supplied while I was growing up.

Plus she looks pretty good for a sixty-cough cough cough year old : )



Happy Mother's Day, Mum (and all the other Mum's out there)!

Yay!

I made the final five of Karin Tabke's first line comp, so I get to send ten pages to Hilary Teeman at St Martin's Press. After some revising.

It was a very interesting comp, you post one line each week if you're not eliminated. I managed to tighten my opening a lot in the process, so it was a great learning experience to sit back and take time to think in detail about each line and the effect it created. Interesting to watch others do the same as well!

Not much else to report, I've been down at the folks due to my dad having one of his little medical dramas but he is on the mend now. For once, it has been hotter down here than in Melbourne!

More when I return....

Ten random things about my mum

1. She likes birdwatching, cheese and having approximately four gazillion tops in each colour.
2. She makes a great roast lamb.
3. She's got a retail therapy habit.
4. She taught me (and lots of other kids) how to read.
5. Her hair won't perm.
6. She lets her huge black dog sit on her lap (the dog is practically bigger than her).
7. She likes expensive single malt whiskey.
8. She's cute when she gets grumpy.
9. She has an unhealthy obsession with ironing.
10. She's ace.

Happy Mother's Day little blonde Mum!!!