Kangaroos, emus, and cute little baby pigs

Easter.  

Chocolate. Waffles with blueberries, icecream and maple syrup.













Sculpture in the water and on the hills.

Kangaroos, emus, and cute little baby pigs.

Markets, hippies, music, sunshine.  Laughing, looking, forgetting to sleep. Ridiculously early mornings and late nights.

Scavenging, swapping, finding, planning. 

Maps, suitcases, thermal underwear. 

And a whole 'nother day to go.

Thelma, Louise, and little boy Blue

On Friday afternoon, we scheduled a roadtrip.  Sort of like Thelma and Louise, but in a 4 wheel drive with a trailer.  We had an earlybird look at a friend's garage sale, the Denmark tipshop, and a visit to the fabulous South Coast Woodworking Gallery to complete, plus a visit to a friend's farm, to pick up some old fenceposts.

A fellow salvage fiend was home from his swing on the rigs and was coming with us, he had been trying to get to the tipshop for ages but never quite had the time.  Let's call him "Blue". 

Our babies are well grown up, but we decided that it was like taking our little boy out for a drive in the country.  He curled up in the back and went to sleep like a good little boy, virtually as soon as we got on the road.  At the tip shop, his eyes were like a kid in a toyshop. 

That tipshop is only open Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so it was a positively seething mass of people dropping off and scanning the goods which had come in through the week. We picked up a solid pine single bed (for the timber - $5 instead of $100's at Bunnings), a slab of timber for cutting boards,  a metal frame, a galvanised thingy for making cement slabs (NOT for making cement slabs), and a bunch of other bits and pieces. 

My friend came out $2 up because a guy had bought a door, but didn't have a roof rack on his sedan. He got some pillows from the tipshop and my friend sold him some old rope (we travel prepared)and he tied it on the roof. Tying the doors closed caused some delay.


We filled the trailer with fenceposts on the way home, although we were disappointed that the lichen encrustation wasn't quite as hoped.  I suspect our friend the farmer took a dim view of my suggestion that he give the posts a quarter of a turn a day (each) to even them up.

On Saturday, we went to the local Albany tip shop,as always behind the play.  The game has been lifted somewhat of late, and more stuff is getting recycled, I suspect after a lot of ratepayer complaint.  The thinking, however, remains steadfastly inside the box, and a small box at that.

While we were there, someone came in with one of those pine folding cots with the canvas base.  He was told that they couldn't take it due to 'toddler issues'.  Unfortunately, no-one bothered to think that it could be turned upside down without the base and used as a puppy pen; or that the dowel and wood in it could be re-used.  Rather than sending it to landfill, my friend had a quiet word, it was transferred from car to car, and it will be repurposed for non-toddler applications. It was, for the record, absolutely mint.

While we were there, someone brought in a sail from a sailboard.  The functionary told someone that he was supposed to check e-bay and Gumtree to check current prices, but then straightaway sold it for $10 without checking.  It turned out that the person didn't even have $10 so he 'put it aside' till the man came back - in spite of the sign saying it isn't to happen.

The main problem at the Albany tipshop is that there is no real commitment to recycling. They just don't get it.  By 'they' I mean primarily Cleanaway, who run the shop and make the policies, but some of the staff they hire really just aren't interested. (Some are great.) The terms 'repurpose' and 'upcycle' do not seem to be in the vocabulary.  

The tipshop is under-resourced and some of the rules are silly.  If they can't accept upholstered furniture, what about the shoes?  What if I get a blister?  Why does vintage wooden furniture get sent to landfill, but damaged chipboard get put aside for sale?  We got some jarrah beams from the firewood pile.  They turned out to be the posts from the jarrah beds we got a couple of weeks ago.  About $150 worth of old, dressed, (nail free) jarrah.  For firewood. I hope I don't get a splinter.

Timber, dressed or otherwise, is considered not saleable and sent straight to landfill.  A tiny percentage is set aside for firewood.

The Denmark tip, for all the disorganisation, at least has the right idea and the support of the community. We rarely walk away empty handed at Denmark, whereas at Albany we frequently do.

Perhaps Greenskills should tender for the contract for the Albany tip.  There are art projects. Community education. They walk the talk on tipshop recycling. 

And I would hazard a guess that the stock, as well as the cash turnover at Denmark well outstrips that at Albany.

Dear Lucy,

I know you're just a little dog but it's an old and hackneyed device to address a letter to someone when you aren't feeling very creative. I've had a big day and I'm pooped.

It's Mothers' Day and all is quiet.  Been a big two weeks and the pace doesn't seem to be slowing at all.  Only 12 working days to holidays, that's got to be a good thing.  Today was really nice and sunny, right up till it wasn't.  Then it was lightningy and thundery and haily, but by then the washing was dry so it was all good.

The white stuff on the grass is called hail.

There was reduced opshopping this week, but I managed to turn up a few bargains, including a new dress, some nice warm jumpers, and a very nice winter tee.  Did I mention the Spencer and Rutherford handbag?  How remiss of me.

 

It was a pretty uninspiring list of garage sales this week, possibly due to coinciding with Mothers' Day.  I did pick up a dear old silver teapot, a kero pump, and an old rolling pin.  I have cunning plans for all.  There was also a shop mannequin for just $5, and I just can't leave them behind. And one of those shelfy things you put across the bath, which fitted my bath perfectly.  I hope my use of technical terms isn't too off-putting for you.

I've been keen to get the sewing machine out - winter = sewing and knitting = love. (I read that in a magazine so it must be true.) I had to wait till I'd done with the jewellery and fishes and the girls for the market, but the machine is out and operational.  I have a pile (literally) of mending, alterations, and new projects to work through.

I don't as a general rule  read junk mail but a coupon on the Spotlight catalogue caught my eye.  It offered $40 off if you spend $100, and on the next page, 1000 threadcount sheets for $80. (They SAY $79.99 but we all know it's $80.)  Long story short, they had the sheets but none of the other fabric I wanted, but I did find some union jack panels which have made some amusing cushions.  And I got everything for $61, which is cheering.  We had a great fabric shop in town before Spotlight loomed over the horizon.  Now, we have seconds, faulty and end of run summer fabric when I'm shopping for winter.  

Hopefully the handmade revival will see a resurgence in the sale of good fabric, because its one of those things you really need to see and touch before you buy.

 I've taken a heap of pics of my jewellery and drawings, but at the moment this is loading photos at the speed of the common or garden snail dragging a pebble in long wet grass, so I'll put those up during the week.

So Lucy, it's probably your bedtime, and by next week I'll be ready to write something original and creative. You, of course, will still be a cute but small dog.

How to knit a shotgun from a crucifix and other useful skills.

                                A big week, a big weekend and an even bigger weekend next weekend.  I really don't know how I keep up.  The annual mouse cull is proceeding apace - it's them or me, they're really pushy. Luckily, I'm an experienced hunter.

Anzac Day on Wednesday, a day off on Thursday (puppy-sitting) and a day of op shop trawling on Friday.  After 3 op shops I had only a DVD to show - Constantine with Keanu Reeves. I'm not a huge fan of young Keanu,but any comic-based demon hunter who carries a shotgun made from a crucifix is worth a couple of hours of my time, and coming up to winter I can watch it while knitting.  Slightly ironic - knitting and demon hunting.  Who thought those two terms would be used in the same sentence? But I digress...

Things were looking pretty darn grim till, virtually empty handed, we got to the last oppie - where lots of goodies leapt into my $5-a-basket.  A lion's head (I already have a paw, it seemed appropriate), the cutest 50's/60's 'made in Japan' doll, a stack of good books, a Mela Purdie top - gotta love a good sale.

 

Saturday morning dawned cool and misty.  Well, actually it dawned quite clear but by garage sale time the drizzle had commenced.  That's not a bad thing, as it keeps the crowds down.  

At the first sale of the day I found something I've been looking everywhere for - a metal locker for the back veranda.  And this one is not only in really good condition, someone had already put nice shelves into it.  Those who have visited regularly may know that I am something of a packrat and I need to be able to stash some collections.  To celebrate the incoming, this morning I removed a very tatty old set of shelves, broke them up with the axe, and put them on the firewood pile (see above reference to oncoming winter.)

This a) made space for the locker and

     b) was kind of fun, in a violent recycling sort of way.

We proceeded to a fete at the Lions' Daycare Centre - where instead of designated parking for motor bikes, they have parking for mobility scooters, with the cutest little spray painted icons.

There were some brilliant recycled frames, lots of great books, all sorts of good stuff and the prices were great.  Note to fete goers:  it's NOT good manners to scrabble between other shoppers' feet as they are shopping.  You risk serious injury to your fingers and possible social embarrassment.  Note to fete givers: PLEASE don't put books on the floor, under tables.  People get crazy. 

In between, I've been busy preparing for the Mother's Day market at the Vancouver Arts Centre in Albany next weekend.  I've put jewellery on display boards, priced, packed, and even given some thought to stall setup.  Not many sleeps now.

Dr Who, Mummies and how Lucy took over.

The arrival of little Lucy in our midst has caused all about her to go 'ooooh'.  She's my daughter's first puppy, she has attitude and is very, very cute.  Even Obie seems quite taken with her and is teaching her how to play puppy-style.  Lots of growling and chasing and batting.  Lucy's busy re-arranging everyone around her and will be running things with an iron paw before very long.  We made her new bed from a re-used wrought iron something - it's been here for ages without it's origin being clear.  Now it's a puppy bed.

 

This weekend I found one of the things I have been looking for forever, just hanging there on a hook at a garage sale.  As someone at the sale said, "Are you my Mummy?"  For non-Dr Who tragics, a vintage gas mask.  I turned it over expecting to see an outrageously high price, and was so excited to find it not only within my price range but an absolute steal.

Some other little treasures, all in a lovely old pine crate.

 

Some Saturdays it's worth turning up in the cold and the drizzle.

With Mothers' Day coming up I've been finishing off some little projects, and getting ready for the Market at the Vancouver Arts Centre.    As always, more than is needed, I've packed up some more brooches and pins, and I'll do the pendants and necklaces this week.  This Toybox is finally complete.

  And I almost forgot - new power tools, new table.  Once a tatty bit of wood on the verge, now a coffee table with vintage iron legs.

It's been a while since I've had a chance to make it to the local tip shop, and a quick visit this weekend was less than productive.  But a short and unexpected outbreak of sunshine and a spare minute to record the graveyard of gas bottles let me record something I've meant to for ages.  I'll come back to them sometime, I'm sure.