Where there is a will there is a way

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

The Strong and Gentle Hammer

A few nights ago I had a dream which was strange and memorable.

I dreamed I was teaching a baby to swim, which was putting my attention and care to the test.  There seemed to be a class I was doing this with at a pool.  But sometimes my impulsiveness was revealed as a problem that I rushed to compensate for, as I allowed the baby to plummet but would have to focus on bringing him up in time.

The next part of my dream I was being flown over the landscape of my experience - the Canadian mountain hillsides.  Then I was brought higher and higher across the mountains until I was so high up it was absolutely terrifying as I was being held as if by a helicopter and flown across as though just held by my shoulders and could've dropped at any time.  I went far far to another country.

I remember being then in the past.  I was in a university library.      There was art and shelves of books.  Then I got a thrill as I saw the current publications - 1950s magazines sitting out on a small table - in a great reading room - were if the older age.  Of earlier printing methods but I was getting to see them at the time!


Around the 1950s - 60s.  Then I remember the people there bring very clever and experimenting.  They were also very wild.  Barefoot and making all kinds of art, doing what they liked.   I was looking and admiring them, but particularly this hammer.  The top was strong just like a hammer.  But the handle had been carved so ornately and beautifully.  It was now soft, bending like a fabric.  Soft and hard.

But just then some people asked them to be gathered to be recognised for their genius.  They gathered in the building in rows of seats.   But it was a trick by the people who thought they should be put in their place.  Gas started to come into the building.  It was to kill them all.

But some were clever and fought their way out of the situation by climbing up to glass windows in the ceiling and out.   Some escaped but some died.

The ones who lived continued on their ways but were more restrained and humbled by the experience.  I forgot to say that when the people came in to gas them they first shot at books on the edges of the library's book shelves.  And the cats also went to the sides of the book shelves.  Cats had had a special place there.

Then I was speaking to a person in my dream, telling them where I was from, how the weather was in Canada and how it was in NZ.  It was as though the dream person wanted to know various reasons for my choices but not to judge me but to download.   I said Calgary was fresh and cold.  But how'd special NZ was.  The person was telling me about where they were from.  I told them I realised I had such a North American centric view as I often didn't think of the rest of the works.

She told me they were from where Neanderthaals lived - by Greece.   I looked it up and Greece is by where Neanderthaals ranged - but I hadn't known that.

Monday, August 11, 2014

How to make truffula trees (using dyed carded wool)


...just like in 'The Lorax", by Dr. Seuss.

I made these with my daughter's class at school (she is 9).  It was a blast.  The next day, her friend came over to play, and I made Fimo creations with them.  We made a barbaloot bear, and a Lorax, and they had so much fun making all these foods out of Fimo for them.  Then, since I had a few trees home with me for finishing - they played with them in a truffula forest.  They even made a humming fish, and I cut out a circle out of blue cloth for a pond in the forest.  So much fun!

My tutorial is below:









Review: the poor design of BP's reusable cup


I just passed some feedback onto BP's Facebook page (as I find the marketing people who maintain the Facebook page of a company actually listen) about their horrible design of their reusable cup.  It looks cute and pretty, but fails functionally.

As in my letter to BP below:

"Hi there.  I bought one of your new reusable coffee cups - photo attached.  I just wanted to pass you some feedback about its functionality, since preserving the environment is really important to me - so having a good reusable cup is important for people to actually use it.

"First of all the lid is really really hard to get on.  The first time I used it the lid wasn't on all the way, and it spilled all over me when I drank from it on the way to work.  Once I learned that pushing it down all the way really really hard worked - I gave the cup another chance.  But it actually leaks, from the top, even when the lid is pushed firmly down.


"Sorry, but I think you guys can do better - KeepCup in Australia has a brilliant cup that people actually use.  And did you know there is a local producer in NZ that is making a barista style cup (it looks like the disposable cup but is reusable).  It is called IdealCup and sorry but it's far better than the one you're selling!  http://www.idealcup.co.nz/silverstripe/


"Also, softer reusable plastic can smell like petroleum, so it has to be made well out of the right material or it's really gross to drink from compared to a disposable cup - the design of both IdealCup and KeepCup succeed in that respect.  The lids on your reusable cup have not succeeded in that area either."

"
SAYS...ME.  Maybe they can support a local, but at least get a design of coffee cup
that works?

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Blueberry Plum Feijoa Magic Jam

The best jam I've made so far I used 1.3 kilos pieces of plums from our tree, 1 kilo blueberries I bought, and the pulp of 16 feijoas I was given by a friend. And about 2 kilos sugar (yes my friends that's how much sugar there is in jam). And some lemon juice. The feijoias give it a spike of flavour which is really neat.

Recipe: Put all ingredients together (1.3 kilo cut up plums, no stones, 1 kilo blueberries, the pulp of 16 feijoas, 1 kilo sugar, and jam setting pectin). Also I believe I put in a cup of water.

Stir it up, and let it boil until it is really broken down and thick. Pour into sterilized jars (the dishwasher works, and I do keep pouring boiling water into them, and soak lids in boiling water).

Reusing jam jars from the shops is ok for jam! I save all good jars to use for jam.




Saturday, March 15, 2014

Knitted flower - gift of love for Troy


After knitting a few flower things for nieces, I didn't want to leave Troy out, prioritizing others first, again, so I knitted her a special flower just for her after. She lucked out as I had had sufficient practice to knit it far better than the others - I also did my best for her out of my love for her.

 This one was knitted to look like a flower in a picture she chose and gave to me.

 Now that I have done a few, I do them in my own, slightly less perfect but simpler way than the way I learned from:

 1) I cast on four stitches for all of these petals, which are knit separately. (After they are all knit, you steam the backs with an iron to keep them from curling up, then sew them together with the remaining wools ends.) Then you increase at will to get the shape you want, two stitches every other row is the most extreme - purl with no increases in between every row where you increase. Then when you narrow again, just sew 2 stitches together at the start and end of each row, mirroring what you did before (purling on back with no decreases). Just make sure you remember to repeat exactly what you do for each petal!

 My only simplification was that I just sew two stitches together regardless of where the decrease is - I can't figure out the various methods of decreasing so it looks better - and to be honest, I don't really care. I use later shaping to sort it out if needed - sewing - and to be honest it looks fine. Not worth the trouble! Knit 2 stitches as 1, easy, done.

 2) I did do something interesting for the white petals to give them more structure. I took my wool needle, and drew one of the wool strings attached to the petal all through the edge of the petal - like a cord through the edge of a bag, then tied a knot when it felt right after getting back to the start. It also got rid of some of the remnant wool. I do also always pull and play with things to arrange them nicely, then sewing fastens them to stay that way.

 Because Troy likes to play with toys and hold them, not just have a hair decoration or something, all the leftover remnant wool I left hanging underneath, and some of them I laced through my wool needle and sewed round up and down with a blanket stitch to make a firmer stem. Then I added two pipecleaners, and wound green wool round the whole thing, securing it at the start of the process then the end. Another thing one could do was use thin thread to secure and hold it together while ornamenting overtop!

 The pollen stamens were of course just drawn up with a needle through the centre after the petals were sewn together.

 Sewing flower is really fun, as it's really fast and easy - when you are following your own patterns. Now I'd like to keep making them, for friends, for hair ornaments, or as part of knitted garments or hats. They are not works of art like paintings - but as gifts of love which effect real life, they are the highest form of art.

The precious shell dream

I had a dream recently where I was travelling.  In the dream the place I arrived at was called “Rome”.

I was amazed at the clear pure streams which ran by, which were filled with beautiful shells.  There was so much beauty and richness of detail in the shells in the clear running streams. 

Also, it was as though to these people we were “American tourists”, compared to them – they would see us as wasteful people. 

We found a beautiful rock pool by the sea, in a bank of stone.  One shell was so beautiful.  I marvelled at it.  It looked like it had been formed with a soft ice-cream cone maker, its colours were so white and pink as the shape spiralled up.  In the dream I started to cry as  I knew what the beauty and the richness of this shell meant.   It was of the beauty that was possible, if nature wasn’t being made as poor as it was at home. 

There was also some beautiful pieces of driftwood in the pool, which we wanted to collect to burn – but that made the people there outraged as it was illegal.

The rock pool actually adjoined a childcare centre – we skipped over a wall.  It was strange, I could see their chairs and toys inside – not one part of anything in this place was made out of wood.  They had “wood blocks” but they were all of a plastic material – the chairs, everything, which looked really odd to me.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Idea of replacing lost knives, forks and spoons with interesting used cutlery from a second-hand shop


Really really really glad I decided to let go of my perfectionism about having matching cutlery, and took advantage of the good quality cutlery you can find in op shops (second-hand charity shops). Unless you are willing to spend alot of money, things are made much more cheaply nowadays. Instead of waiting to buy a really expensive set of really good cutlery, I got as many as I wanted for under $5 - and honestly, the kids love the unique knives. They were already fighting for a unique spoon and fork we had gotten from somewhere - now they have alot more interesting knives and forks and spoons to choose from.


Another awesome thing to find at an op shops for children (or me) is books. I used to have a Holly Hobby paper doll when I was little. And this monsters book is really creative, full of drawings and ideas for kids to read. My little girl found a soft toy pig (Wilbur), and my boy found some cool toys too. Far better to find things that don't require more plastic and junk to be made.


Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Element Magazine article on Kay Baxter: Feeding the nation: Are all fruits and veges created equal?

Quoth element magazine at this link on 5 February 2013:

Feeding the nation: Are all fruits and veges created equal? 

In the final part of a three-part report on nutrition and poverty in New Zealand, experts weigh in on keeping pesticides to a minimum. 

Permaculture expert Kay Baxter advises growing your own vegetables. Photo / Supplied


Keen to eat the best possible greens?  Permaculture guru Kay Baxter advocates growing nutrient-dense food - high in minerals, vitamins and essential fatty acids.  Nutrient density is enhanced by the environment in which the product was grown, including the health and mineral content of the soils.

 The seeds also plays a vital role in nutrient density (Baxter says heritage apples have eight times more nutrients than their supermarket counterparts).

Her advice? "Grow your own and if you can't grow your own then go to a farmers market and ask questions."

For more information head to koanga.org.nz 


Avoid pesticides 

Many pesticides lack long-term studies documenting their effects on the environment and human development.

 The European Food Safety Authority recently banned neonicitinoid-based pesticides that not only affect bees, but also affect brain development in humans. New Zealand has yet to ban them.

British NGO Pesticides Action Network UK released a report last year indicating that 46 per cent of food contained residues from at least one pesticide, a figure that has almost doubled since 2003.

To be safe:

• Wash food with water
• Peel non-organic produce, especially fungicide-heavy citrus
• Buy local and seasonal
• Buy free-range and organic where possible


The dirty dozen 

The dirty dozen are the 12 worst fruit and vegetable culprits for being covered in pesticide sprays, and are a compelling reason to buy organic. They are:

• Grapes
• Celery
• Bok/pak choi
• Nectarines
• Oranges
• Strawberries
• Spring onions
• Lemons
• Wheat
• Cucumber
• Pears
• Broccoli

The also-rans (which nearly made the list) are apples, spinach, olive oil and tomatoes.


Healthy meat 

While organic fruit and vegetable growers work on how to create healthy plants without the use of sprays, progress is also being made with animal proteins.

Lincoln University senior lecturer Craig Bunt is working on probiotics as an alternative to antibiotic treatments. He says that antibiotics are controlled by keeping animals out of the food production system for 100 days following the use of antibiotics but his work on developing probiotics for animals will see our reliance reduced.

"We hear more and more these days about how the microbes in our human gut influence our wellness and the same applies to animals. If an animal has a healthy gut in terms of microbes, the animal is going to be better off."

By Sophie Barclay

Monday, January 27, 2014

Green box


This is a great idea.  A green reusable BOX you can buy for $5, to transport groceries in, at Superstore, Canada.

The Iron Man by Ted Hughes - first 3 Chapters



We discovered this tale in "The Puffin book of Modern Fairy Tales", where the first three chapters were included.  I read this to my two children, 6 and 8, and we all loved it.

The wonderful animated movie, The Iron Giant by Brad Bird, 1999 (he went on to direct the Incredibles), was based on this story.

Here are the first three chapters - which I totally agree with the editors of the collection I mentioned above - is a great place to stop.  Please read it to children at bedtime, in a peaceful setting.



THE IRON MAN

Ted Hughes



1
The Coming of the Iron Man

The Iron Man came to the top of the cliff.
How far had  he walked? Nobody knows. Where did he come from? Nobody knows. How was he made? Nobody knows.
Taller than a house, the Iron Man stood at the top of the cliff, on the very brink, in the darkness.
The wind sang through his iron fingers. His great iron head, shaped like a dustbin but as big as a bedroom, slowly turned to the right, slowly turned to the left. His iron ears turned, this way, that way. He was hearing the sea. His eyes, like headlamps, glowed white, then red, then infrared, searching the sea. Never before had the Iron Man seen the sea.
He swayed in the strong wind that pressed against his back. He swayed forward, on the brink of the high cliff.
And his right foot, his enormous iron right foot, lifted - up, out into space, and the Iron Man stepped forward, off the cliff, into nothingness.
CRRRAAAASSSSSSH!
Down the cliff the Iron Man came toppling, head over heels.
CRASH!
CRASH!
CRASH!
From rock to rock, snag to snag, tumbling slowly. And as he crashed and crashed and crashed.
His iron legs fell off.
His iron arms broke off, and the hands broke off the arms.
His great iron ears fell off and his eyes fell out.
His great iron head fell off.
All the separate pieces tumbled, scattered, crashing, bumping, clanging, down on to the rocky beach far below.
A few rocks tumbled with him.
Then
Silence.
Only the sound of the sea, chewing away at the edge of the rocky beach, where the bits and pieces of the Iron Man lay scattered far and wide, silent and unmoving.
Only one of the iron hands, lying beside an old, sand-logged washed-up seaman’s boot, waved its fingers for a minute, like a crab on its back. Then it lay still.
While the stars went on wheeling through the sky and the wind went on tugging at the grass on the cliff top and the sea went on boiling and booming.
Nobody knew the Iron Man had fallen.
Night passed.
Just before dawn, as the darkness grew blue and the shapes of the rocks separated from each other, two seagulls flew crying  over the rocks. They landed on a patch of sand. They had two chicks in a nest on the cliff. Now they were searching for food.
One of the seagulls flew up - Aaaaaark! He had seen something. He glided low over the sharp rocks. He landed and picked something up. Something shiny, round and hard. It was one of the Iron Man’s eyes. He brought it back to his mate. They both looked at this strange thing. And the eye looked at them. It rolled from side to side looking first at one gull, then at the other. The gulls, peering at it, thought it was a strange kind of clam, peeping at them from its shell.
Then the other gull flew up, wheeled around and landed and picked something up. Some awkward, heavy thing. The gull flew low and slowly, dragging the heavy thing. Finally, the gull dropped it beside the eye. This new thing had five legs. It moved. The gull thought it was a strange kind of crab. They thought they had found a strange crab and a strange clam. They did not know they had found the Iron Man’s eye and the Iron Man’s right hand.
But as soon as the eye and the hand got together, the eye looked at the hand. Its light glowed blue. The hand stood up on three fingers and its thumb, and craned its forefinger like a long nose. It felt around. It touched the eye. Gleefully it picked up the eye, and tucked it under its middle finger. The eye peered out, between the forefinger and thumb. Now the hand could see.
It looked around. Then it darted and jabbed one of the gulls with its stiffly held finger,  then darted at the other and jabbed him. The two gulls flew up into the wind with a frightened cry.
Slowly then the hand crept over the stones, searching. It ran forward suddenly, grabbed something and tugged. But the thing was stuck between two rocks. The thing was one of the Iron Man’s arms. At last the hand left the arm and went scuttling hither and thither among the rocks, till it stopped, and touched something gently. This thing was the other hand. This new hand stood up and hooked its finger round the little finger of the hand with the eye, and let itself be led. Now the two hands, the seeing one leading the blind one, walking on their fingertips, went back together to the arm, and together they tugged it free. The hand with the eye fastened itself on to the wrist of the arm. The arm stood up and walked on its hand. The other hand clung on behind as before, and this strange trio went on searching.
An eye! There it was, blinking at them speechlessly beside a black and white pebble. The seeing hand fitted the eye to the blind hand and now both hands could see. They went running among the rocks. Soon they found a leg. They jumped on top of the leg and the leg went hopping over the rocks with the arm swinging from the hand that clung to the top of the leg.  The other hand clung on top of that hand. The two hands, with their eyes, guided their leg, twisting it this way and that, as a rider guides a horse.
 Soon they found another leg and another arm. Now each hand, with an eye under its palm and an arm dangling from its wrist, rode on a leg separately about the beach. Hop, hop, hop , hop they went, peering among the rocks. One found an ear and at the same moment the other found the giant torso. Then the busy hands fitted the legs to the torso, then they fitted the arms, each fitting the other, and the torso stood up with legs and arms but no head. It walked about the beach, holding its eyes up in its hands, searching for its lost head. At last, there was the head - eyeless, earless, nested in a heap of read seaweed. Now in no time the Iron Man had fitted his head back, and his eyes were in place, and everything in place except for one ear. He strode about the beach searching for his lost ear, as the sun rose over the sea and the day came.
The two gulls sat on their ledge, high on the cliff. They watched the immense man striding  to and fro over the rocks below. Between them, on the nesting ledge, lay a great iron ear. The gulls could not eat it. The baby gulls could not eat it. There it lay on the high ledge.
Far below, the Iron Man searched.
At last he stopped, and looked at the sea. Was he thinking the sea had stolen his ear? Perhaps he was thinking the sea had come up, while he lay scattered, and had gone down again with his ear.
He walked towards the sea. He walked into the breakers, and there he stood for a while, the breakers bursting around his knees. Then he walked in deeper, deeper, deeper.
The gulls took off and glided down low over the great iron head that was now moving slowly out through the swell. The eyes blazed red, level with the wavetops, till a big wave covered them and foam spouted over the top of the head. The head still moved out under water. The eyes and the top of the head appeared for a moment in a hollow of the swell. Now the eyes were green. Then the sea covered them and the head.
The gulls circled low over the line of bubbles that went on moving slowly out of the deep sea.







2
The Return of the Iron Man

One evening a farmer’s son, a boy called Hogarth, was fishing in a stream that ran down to the sea. It was growing too dark to fish, his hook kept getting caught in weeds and bushes. So he stopped fishing and came up from the stream and stood listening to the owls in the wood further up the valley, and to the sea behind him. Hush, said the seam. And again, Hush. Hush. Hush.
Suddenly he felt a strange feeling. He felt he was being watched. He felt afraid. He turned and looked up the steep field to the top of the high cliff. Behind that skyline was the sheer rocky cliff and the sea. And on that skyline, just above the edge of it, in the dusk, were two green lights. What were two green lights doing at the top of the cliff?
Then, as Hogarth watched, a huge dark figure climbed up over the cliff-top. The two lights rose into the sky. They were the giant figure’s eyes. A giant black figure, taller than a house, black and towering in the twilight, with green headlamp eyes. The Iron Man! There he stood on the cliff-top, looking inland. Hogarth began to run. He ran and ran. Home. Home. The Iron Man had come back.
So he got home at last and gasping for breath he told his dad. An Iron Man! An Iron Man! A giant!
His father frowned. His mother grew pale. His little sister began to cry.
His father took down his double-barrelled gun. He believed his son. He went out. He locked the door. He got in his car. He drove to the next farm.
But the farmer laughed. He was a fat, red man, with a fat, red-mouthed laugh. When he stopped laughing, his eyes were red too. An Iron Man? Nonsense, he said.
So Hogarth’s father got back in his car. Now it was dark and it began to rain. He drove to the next farm.
That farmer frowned. He believed. Tomorrow, he said, we must see what he is, this iron man. His feet will have left tracks in the earth.
So Hogarth’s father again got back into his car. But as he turned the car in the yard, he saw a strange thing in the headlamps. Half a tractor lay there, just half, chopped clean off, the other half missing. He got out of his car and the other farmer came to look too. The tractor had been bitten off – there were big teeth-marks in the steel.
No explanation! The two men looked at each other. They were puzzled and afraid. What could have bitten the tractor in two? There, in the yard, in the rain, in the night, while they had been talking inside the house.
The farmer ran in and bolted the door.
Hogarth’s father jumped into his car and drove off into the night and the rain as fast as he could, homeward.
The rain poured down. Hogarth’s father drove hard. The headlights lit up the road and bushes.
Suddenly – two headlamps in a tall treetop at the roadside ahead. Headlamps in a treetop? How?
Hogarth’s father slowed, peering up to see what the lights might be, up there in the treetop.
As he slowed, a giant iron foot came down in the middle of the road, a foot as big as a single bed. And the headlamps came down closer. And a giant hand reached down towards the windshield.
The Iron Man!
Hogarth’s father put on speed, he aimed his car at the foot.
Crash! He knocked the foot out of the way.
He drove on, faster and faster. And behind him, on the road, a clanging clattering boom went up, as if an iron skyscraper had collapsed. The iron giant, with his foot knocked from under him, had toppled over.
And so Hogarth’s father got home safely.
BUT
Next morning all the farmers were shouting with anger. Where were their tractors? Their earth-diggers? Their ploughs? Their harrows? From every farm in the region, all the steel and iron farm machinery had gone. Where to? Who had stolen it all?
There was a clue. Here and there lay half a wheel, or half an axle, or half a mudguard, carved with giant toothmarks where it had been bitten off. How had it been bitten off? Steel bitten off?
What had happened?
There was another clue.
From farm to farm, over the soft soil of the fields, went giant footprints, each one the size of a single bed.
The farmers, in a frightened, silent, amazed crowd, followed the footprints. And at every farm the footprints visited, all the metal machinery had disappeared.
Finally, the footprints led back up to the top of the cliff, where the little boy had seen the Iron Man appear the night before, when he was fishing. The footprints led right to the cliff-top.
And all the way down the cliff were torn marks on the rocks, where a huge iron body had slid down. Below, the tide was in. The grey, empty, moving tide. The Iron Man had gone back into the sea.
SO
The furious farmers began to shout. The Iron Man had stolen all their machinery. Had he eaten it? Anyway, he had taken it. It had gone. So what if he came again? What would he take next time? Cows? Houses? People?
They would have to do something.
They couldn’t call in the police or the Army, because nobody would believe them about this Iron Monster. They would do something for themselves.
So, what did they do?
At the bottom of the hill, below where the Iron Man had come over the high cliff, they dug a deep, enormous hole. A hole wider than a house, and as deep as three trees one on top of the other. It was a colossal hole. A stupendous hole! And the sides of it were sheer as walls.
They pushed all the earth off to one side.
They covered the hole with branches and the branches they covered with straw and the straw with soil, so when they finished the hole looked like a freshly-ploughed field.
Now, on the side of the hole opposite the slope up to the top of the cliff, they put an old rusty lorry. That was the bait. Now they reckoned the Iron Man would come over the top of the cliff out of the sea, and he’d see the old lorry which was painted red, and he’d come down to get it to chew it up and eat it. But on his way to the lorry he’d be crossing the hole, and the moment he stepped with his great weight on to that soil held up only with straw and branches, he would crash through into the hole and would never get out. They’d find him there in the hole. Then they’d bring the few bull-dozers and earth-movers that he hadn’t already eaten, and they’d push the pile of earth in on top of him, and bury him for ever in the hole. They were certain now that they’d get him.
Next morning, in great excitement, all the farmers gathered together to go along to examine their trap. They came carefully closer, expecting to see his hands tearing at the edge of the pit. They came carefully closer.
The red lorry stood just as they had left it. The soil lay just as they had left it, undisturbed. Everything was just as they had left it. The Iron Man had not come.
Nor did he come that day.
Next morning, all the farmers came again. Still, everything lay just as they had left it.
And so it went on, day after day. Still the Iron Man never came.
Now the farmers began to wonder if he would ever come again. They began to wonder if he had ever come at all. They began to make up explanations of what had happened to their machinery. Nobody likes to believe in an Iron Monster that eats tractors and cars.
Soon, the farmer who owned the red lorry they were using as bait decided that he needed it, and he took it away. So there lay the beautiful deep trap, without any bait. Grass began to grow on the loose soil.
The farmers talked of filling the hole in. After all, you can’t leave a giant pit like that, somebody might fall in. Some stranger coming along might just walk over it and fall in.
But they didn’t want to fill it in. It had been such hard work digging it. Besides they all had a sneaking fear that the Iron Man might come again, and that the hole was their only weapon against him.
At last they put up a little notice: “DANGER: KEEP OFF”, to warn people away, and they left it at that.
Now the little boy Hogarth had an idea. He thought he could use that hole, to trap a fox. He found a dead hen one day, and threw it out on to the loose soil over the trap. Then towards evening, he climbed a tree nearby, and waited. A long time he waited. A star came out. He could hear the sea.
Then – there, standing at the edge of the hole, was a fox. A big, red fox, looking towards the dead hen. Hogarth stopped breathing. And the fox stood without moving – sniff, sniff, sniff, out towards the hen. But he did not step out on to the trap. Was he too smart to walk out there where it was not safe?
But at that moment he stopped sniffing. He turned his head and looked towards the top of the cliff. Hogarth, wondering what the fox had seen, looked towards the top of the cliff.
There, enormous in the blue evening sky, stood the Iron Man, on the brink of the cliff, gazing inland.
In a moment, the fox had vanished.
Now what?
Hogarth carefully quietly hardly breathing climbed slowly down the tree. He must get home and tell his father. But at the bottom of the tree he stopped. He could no longer see the Iron Man against the twilight sky. Had he gone back over the cliff into the sea? Or was he coming down the hill, in the darkness under that high skyline, towards Hogarth and the farms?
Then Hogarth understood what was happening. He could hear a strange tearing and creaking sound. The Iron Man was pulling up the barbed-wire fence that led down the hill. And soon Hogarth could see him, as he came nearer, tearing the wire from the fence posts, rolling it up like spaghetti and eating it. The Iron Man was eating the barbed fencing wire.
But if he went along the fence, eating as he moved, he wouldn’t come anywhere near the trap, which was out in the middle of the field. He could spend the whole night wandering about the countryside along the fences, rolling up the wire and eating it, and never would any fence bring him near the trap.
But Hogarth had an idea. In his pocket, among other things, he had a long nail and a knife. He took these out. Did he dare? His idea frightened him. In the silent dusk, he tapped the nail and the knife blade together.
Clink, Clink, Clink!
At the sound of the metal, the Iron Man’s hands became still. After a few seconds, he slowly turned his head and the headlamp eyes shone towards Hogarth.
Again, Clink, Clink, Clink! Went the nail on the knife.
Slowly, the Iron Man took three strides towards Hogarth, and again stopped. It was now quite dark. The headlamps shone red. Hogarth pressed close to the tree-trunk. Between  him and the Iron Man lay the wide lid of the trap.
Clink, Clink, Clink! again he tapped the nail on the knife.
And now the Iron Man was coming. Hogarth could feel the earth shaking under the weight of his footsteps. Was it too late to run? Hogarth stared at the Iron Man, looming, searching towards him for the taste of the metal that had made that inviting sound.
Clink, Clink, Clink! went the nail on the knife. And
CRASSSHHH!
The Iron Man vanished.
He was in the pit. The Iron Man had fallen into the pit. Hogarth went close. The earth was shaking as the Iron Man struggled underground. Hogarth peered over the torn edge of the great pit. Far below, two deep red headlamps glared up at him from the pitch blackness. He could hear the Iron Man’s insides grinding down there and it sounded like a big lorry grinding its gears on a steep hill. Hogarth set off. He ran, he ran, home – home with the great news. And as he passed the cottages on the way, and as he turned down the lane towards his father’s farm, he was shouting “The Iron Man’s in the trap!” and “We’ve caught the Iron Giant.”
When the farmers saw the Iron Man wallowing in their deep pit, they sent up a great cheer.
He glared up towards them, his eyes burned from red to purple, from purple to white, from white to fiery whirling black and red, and the cogs inside him ground and screeched, but he could not climb out of the steep-sided pit.
Then under the lights of car headlamps, the farmers brought bulldozers and earth-pushers, and they began to push in on top of the struggling Iron Man all the earth they had dug when they first made the pit and that had been piled off to one side.
The Iron Man roared again as the earth began to fall on him.  But soon he roared no more. Soon the pit was full of earth. Soon the Iron Man was buried silent, packed down under all the soil, while the farmers piled the earth over him in a mound and in a hill. They went to and fro over the mound on their new tractors, which they’d bought since the Iron Man ate their old ones, and they packed the earth down hard. Then they all went home talking cheerfully. They were sure they had seen the last of the Iron Man.
Only Hogarth felt suddenly sorry. He felt guilty. It was he, after all, who had lured the Iron man into the pit.







3
What’s to be Done With the Iron Man?

So the Spring came round the following year, leaves unfurled from the buds, daffodils spread up from the soil, and everywhere the grass shook new green points. The round hill over the Iron Man was covered with new grass. Before the end of the summer, sheep were grazing on the fine grass on the lovely hillock. People who had never heard of the Iron Man saw the green hill as they drove past on their way to the sea, and they said: “What a lovely hill! What a perfect place for a picnic!”
So people began to picnic on top of the hill. Soon, quite a path was worn up there, by people climbing to eat their sandwiches and take snaps of each other.
One day, a father, a mother, a little boy and a little girl stopped their car and climbed the hill for a picnic. They had never heard of the Iron Man and they thought the hill had been there for ever.
They spread a tablecloth on the grass. They set down the plate of sandwiches, a big pie, a roasted chicken, a bottle of milk, a bowl of tomatoes, a bagful of boiled eggs, a dish of butter and a loaf of bread, with cheese and salt and cups. The father got his stove going to boil some water for tea, and they all lay back on rugs munching food and waiting for the kettle to boil, under the blue sky.
Suddenly the father said: “That’s funny!”
“What is?” asked the mother.
“I felt the ground shake,” the father said. “Here, right beneath us.”
“Probably an earthquake in Japan,” said the mother.
“An earthquake in Japan?” cried the little boy. “How could that be?”
So the father began to explain how an earthquake in a far distant country, that shakes down buildings and empties lakes, sends a jolt right around the earth. People far away in other countries feel it as nothing more than a slight trembling of the ground. An earthquake that knocks a city flat in South America, might do no more than shake a picture off a wall in Poland. But as the father was talking, the mother gave a little gasp, then a yelp.
“The chicken!” she cried. “The cheese! The tomatoes!”
Everybody sat up. The tablecloth was sagging in the middle. As they watched the sag got deeper and all the food fell into it, dragging the tablecloth right down into the ground. The ground underneath was splitting and the tablecloth, as they watched, slowly folded and disappeared into the crack, and they were left staring at a jagged back crack in the ground. The crack grew, it widened, it lengthened, it ran between them. The mother and the girl were on one side and the father and the boy were on the other side. The little stove toppled into the growing crack with a clatter and the kettle disappeared.
They could  not believe their eyes. They stared at the widening crack. Then, as they watched, an enormous iron hand came up through the crack, groping around in the air, feeling over the grass on either side of the crack. It nearly touched the little boy, and he rolled over backwards. The mother screamed. “Run to the car,” – shouted the father. They all ran. They jumped into the car. They drove. They did not look back.
So they did not see the great iron head, square like a bedroom, with red glaring headlamp eyes, and with the tablecloth, still with the chicken and the cheese, draped across the top of it, rising out of the top of the hillock, as the Iron Man freed himself from the pit.
When the farmers realized that the Iron Man had freed himself they groaned. What could they do now? They decided to call the Army, who could pound him to bits with anti-tank guns. But Hogarth had another idea. At first, the farmers would not hear of it, least of all his own father. But at last they agreed. Yes, they would give Hogarth’s idea a trial. And if it failed, they would call in the Army.
After spending a night and a day eating all the barbed wire for miles around, as well as hinges he tore off gates and the tin cans he found in ditches, and three new tractors and two cars and a lorry, the Iron Man was resting in a clump of elm trees. There he stood, leaning among the huge branches, almost hidden by the dense leaves, his eyes glowing a soft blue.
The farmers came near, along a lane, in cars so that they could make a quick getaway in things went wrong. They stopped fifty yards from the clump of elm trees. He really was a monster. This was the first time most of them had had a good look at him. His chest was as big as a cattle truck. His arms were like cranes, and he was getting rusty, probably from eating all the old barbed wire.
Now Hogarth walked up towards the Iron Man.
“Hello,” he shouted, and stopped. “Hello, Mr Iron Man.”
The Iron Man made no move. His eyes did not change.
Then Hogarth picked up a rusty old horseshoe, and knocked it against a stone: Clonk, Clonk, Clonk!
At once, the Iron Man’s eyes turned darker blue. Then purple. Then red. And finally, white, like a car headlamps. It was the only sign he gave of having heard.
“Mr Iron Man,” shouted Hogarth. “We’ve got all the iron you want, all the food you want, and you can have it for nothing, if only you’ll stop eating up the farms.”
The Iron Man stood up strait. Slowly he turned, till he was looking directly at Hogarth.
“We’re sorry we trapped you and buried you,” shouted the little boy. “We promise we’ll not deceive you again. Follow us and you can have all the metal you want. Brass too. Aluminium too. And lots of old chrome. Follow us.”
The Iron Man pushed aside the boughs and came into the lane. Hogarth joined the farmers. Slowly they drove back down the lane, and slowly, with all his cogs humming, the Iron Man stepped after them.
They led through the villages. Half the people came out to stare, half ran to shut themselves inside bedrooms and kitchens. Nobody could believe their eyes when they saw the Iron Man marching behind the farmers.
At last they came to the town, and there was a great scrap-metal yard. Everything was there, old cars by the hundred, old trucks, old railway engines, old stoves, old refrigirators, old springs, bedsteads, bicycles, girders, gates, pans – all the scrap iron of the region was piled up there, rusting away.
“There,” cried Hogarth. “Eat all you can.”
The Iron Man gazed, and his eyes turned red. He kneeled down in the yard, he stretched out on one elbow. He picked up a greasy black stove and chewed it like a toffee. There were delicious crumbs of chrome on it. He followed that with a double-decker bedstead and the brass knobs made his eyes crackle with joy. Never before had the Iron Man eaten such delicacies. As he lay there, a big truck turned into the yard and unloaded a pile of rusty chain. The Iron Man lifted a handful and let it dangle into his mouth – better than any spaghetti.
So there they left him. It was an Iron Man’s heaven. The farmers went back to their farms. Hogarth visited the Iron Man every few days. Now the Iron Man’s eyes were constantly a happy blue. He was no longer rusty. His body gleamed blue, like e new gun barrel. And he ate, ate, ate, ate – endlessly.





. . . 



(This is the first 3 chapters only.  To read the last two, you can find the original book yourself - or try this link which had the entire book at the time I wrote this post: http://tea42.narod.ru/IronMan.doc )



Viney happiness





I just loved the spiritual wonderful decoration in my ol best friend Lena's house. As the winters are cold, and you are often in your home - and it can be stimulus depriving - it totally makes sense that she has pinned every last branch of this LIVING vine onto her ceiling.  Beautiful.

Also cool use of debarked real tree branches from the forest which surrounds them. I want to use branches as well in my house! Like for the drapes? 


Why not?

Blue Alpaca Webbed Pattern Toque


I didn't post a photo of this toque (said toook rhymes with fluke) as I finished it shortly before we left to visit Canada.

 It was a cabling-fail - but I just went with the pattern it made. When I knitted two stitches out of order, instead of cabling - the stretch created a sort of run in the knitting. After about an inch I just moved the run, and so went on.

 You can see what the stretched webbing pattern looks like the most in the leafy photo below.


Friday, January 17, 2014

Unipegasus for Phoebe



Unipegasus - inspired by a girl who really wanted me to make her a unicorn. 

I used a pattern from a craft book - which I looked at and scaled up by eye as I drew it on a larger piece of paper.  Then of course, I had to make a few adjustments when I was sewing it together on the sewing machine.  I added the hair in advance - laying it along the seams before sewing up those seams, as I knew that would turn out well.  I used hand dyed and spun wool that I had bought at a craft market.

I stuffed the unicorn with soft unspun soft real wool that I had around to use for felting.  Then I added a mouth and red felt tongue. 

The horn was made by sewing a case around a shell shaped like a unicorn horn - then sewing that to the forehead.  I used fancy metallic fabric for that ( mine was stretchy, but then sometimes a bit sags above the horn - non-stretchy would actually be better.)

I had sewed the top of the nose on the wrong way up (part 1), but after tailoring to fix it, and adding the mouth and tongue to suit the 'corn, the end product was a bit goofy and cute - but so is the recipient. So all good.

 This is the pattern I used - from a New Zealand women's weekly pattern from 1971 (but republished recently in a craft book), contributed by Helen Crompton, Waiheke Island, New Zealand (Waiheke is close to Auckland. a ferry ride away).
 

Elizabeth Fox



Over the holidays in Canada I was busy making all sorts of things for my nieces and nephews.  Not the greatest photo, but this was a fuzzy "fox" hat for my niece, Elizabeth.  The insides of the ears are also knitted in brown yarn.

There is a kind of wool which is like fake fur. When you knit it, it's like a plush toy after - all stretchy and soft. It's called "eyelash yarn" as the string has little tassels of yarn all along it. I also used some plain brown yarn beside the fur string as I knitted, which you can't see at all - but made the final product warmer and stronger.

The ears look more like bear ears, but still - I think it really suits her style!