Goodbye Lovely Tree

Such a blow struck our street (literally!) this week, when one of the gigantic branches of the colossal Pin Oak in our neighbours' garden, broke off and crashed to the ground - revealing a damaged and diseased core, and the owners no choice but to have the rest of it chopped down for safety's sake. No more constantly swaying, rustling and changing canopy of leaves dominating our skyline - the men with chainsaws arrived, and with a heavy heart I watched them dismantle the limbs from the body and efficiently swing them down, avoiding houses, walls and - except for one startling crash when my computer abruptly blacked out - power lines. (This must happen fairly regularly as City Power was already at hand and repaired the damage within a couple of hours.) My husband and my son, both keen woodworkers, gleefully gathered as much of the beautiful wood as they could fit into our garden - we are going to have quite a lumberyard for quite some time as it has to cure and mature before any craftwork can come forth! At least they've saved some of the old chap from being chopped up for firewood, and maybe, when I'm 105 or so, we'll have a new dining room table.

Knitting & drawing, drawing & knitting

I don't know what possessed me to draw my knitting - after those brushes I've become a sucker for punishment. This is my load-shedding jersey (or sweater to any American visitors popping in). When electricity cuts became a regular feature of our evenings, I thought it would be something I could do that I wouldn't need to see too well for... which is probably the reason I suspect I may prefer the look of the knitting-in-progress itself rather than the end product. All the lovely nubbly textures, the uneven meandering ribby lines, the interesting lacy holey bits - look so compelling bunched and draped around their needles - but extended over my (non load-shod) upper body... well, might just not come up to original expectations. And, wouldn't you know it, the powers(ha!)-that-be have announced that there will be no more load-shedding, as the poor old substations were collapsing under the strain of all that mass switching off-and-on again. So this may be as far as my jersey gets, though it is also a very good thing to do during rugby season...