Choice Time!

Click to enlarge

It is still early days - I have to putty in the glass, clean it up and blacken the lead but it is transportable so I can put it in place to get an idea of what I might do.

Click to enlarge

Two choices:

1. Continue with the original design and put this panel in the top window.

2. Put the panel in the bottom window and do something 'lighter' for the top.

I'll think about it.
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Coming together...

Next comes the soldering...

I'm starting to warm to the idea of making this the bottom panel and making the top panel much simpler. As both panels are the same size I can put in in both spots and then decide.
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What? No buggy whips anymore?

These are horseshoe nails.

Funny headed, flat sided things of no particular beauty.

Not a big mover at the hardware stores of Melbourne but there are people who ride horses. Or have young daughter who do, so there is a native market for them.

Now I am not a 'horsy' person.

I consider that a horse is dangerous at both ends and uncomfortable in the middle.

So why do I have a jar of horseshoe nails in the shed?

For stained glass, of course.

The flat sides of the nails are good for hold glass pieces in place while you assemble the pieces. Normal round nails are not as easy to pull out of the base board and are prone to chip the edges of the glass.

The state of play with the window is that all the pieces (143 of them) for the top panel have been cut and are now waiting their appointment with the horseshoe nails. There were a few minor deviations from the original drawing (eg one flower disappeared and I ad-libbed on colours a fair bit) but, by and large, it is taking shape. Below is the jigsaw of all the pieces.


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Hidden treasure

Hidden away in the back yard, where the blackbirds haven't seen them*, the raspberries are giving about 10-20 berries a day. Not a big crop but consistent. They got knocked around last year by the drought. This year I have my watering sorted out a bit better.

I probably should try to accumulate enough for a pie or jam or something but they are so yummy fresh...

*Probably too full of mulberries to fly.

Progress so far...

The pantry window progressed to the next stage today with the drawing up of a full sized pattern for the top panel.

Next come the task of cutting the 140+ pieces of glass.

Thank you for all the comments regarding the design.

The Cornucopia idea is a good one for a pantry but really needs a wider window to give the spread of produce. Anyway, the way I am doing it is to create two panels that will fit into the window frame behind the clear glass. It has the advantage of being a sort of double glazing. It also means if I don't like it there I can take it out and put it somewhere else.
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Promises kept, promises broken.

Mmmm....the last day of November.

I rashly, even if informally, made a promise to try to post every day in November. The so called Nablopomo challenge. Well, prior to this post I have done 25 posts but in fits and starts. Some days a couple of posts, some days none. But I have also posted 14 posts on the other, sex, religion & politics, blogs so I don't feel too bad. I have posted more than 30 times in November. But no bunny stamp, I fear. Too many minor things hopped in to disrupt the month...

There was Richard, who has had no signs of recurring problems.

The local election had me glued to the news services far more than normal.

And, of course, Margaret has headed off to Scotland.

I am not one to advertise unduly but I must put in a good word for Skype, the internet phone service. There is something surreal about hearing my computer 'ring' in the morning and to come through and talk to Margaret, in Scotland, on the computer.

And for free, to boot.

Mind you, we have the video option and I am in two minds on its merits. First thing in the morning, unshaven and dishevelled, I invariably look like someone who has been dragged backwards through a prickly bush.

But it is still something to marvel at.
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The Pantry Window

Our pantry, a sloping roofed room that used to be the laundry in the original house, has a tall, thin sash window in it. Margaret found it at a wreckers warehouse. There were originally two of them and they would have originated from either side of a chimney.

The urge has been lurking there to put stained glass in it. But what to do?

Below are the embryonic layouts of the two panels.

The next step is to fill in the gaps and create a life sized drawing.

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Pantry window - top panel

Pantry window - bottom panel

Potpourri

I have been very lax, blog-wise, of late. Sorry. But busy in other fields.

Friday was the official farewell dinner for Margaret - baked ricotta with red grapes, home-made grapefruit & honey sorbet, steak with broccoli, and followed by a creamed rice with dates.

Friday was the election. Details are already elsewhere.

Sunday was the real farewell to Margaret - baked salmon and steamed green vegetables, served with hollandaise sauce containing chopped chives, parsley & tarragon, followed by a yummy red berry fruit salad with yoghurt.

Tonight Richard and I lived the high life on some pretty classy left-overs.

In between all this eating, the garden was getting watered with the shower and laundry waters, some more seedlings planted in the vegetable garden, upgraded the operating system on Margaret's computer (safest to do when she is away), got stuff for repairing the grout in some tiling, researched some designs for a stained glass window I want to do, started the daunting task of tidying the study, watched the news to make sure Saturday night wasn't a very pleasant dream, fed the birds, sat in the gazebo, drew up a list of things to do and had the first bottle of my home brew.

Now, I need to visit a lot of long neglected blogs.
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Gone where the goblins go.

The 2007 Federal Election

Election night dinners, not always celebratory, are becoming something of a tradition.

Above are the two wine labels for tonight's dinner.

John Howard, Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party (centre right) is widely considered to have made a mistake in not retiring last year and leaving on a high. He stayed on to fight another election. He has shown himself to be very adept at pulling a rabbit out of the hat. His two main pet rabbits are fear and greed.

Kevin Rudd came to the leadership of the Labor Party (centre left) last November and has been favoured in the polls ever since. Got called a show-off by the Government when he spoke to the visiting Chinese president in Mandarin. (Mind you, he would have been called a phoney if he hadn't.) Some astute person kept a video of him, taken many years before he became leader, sitting in parliament picking the wax out of his ear and appearing to eat it.

The dinner itself will start with an assortment of dips and crackers, symbolic of the types of people who run for public office in this country.

Main course will, naturally enough, be roast pork, symbolic of the pork barrelling that has been evident from both sides of politics. It will be served with carrots and wedges, both also highly evident over the course of the campaign.

Greens will be on the side.

Dessert will be coconut mousse with fresh mango. The reasons being that Kevin Rudd, the 'fresh face' of Australian politics, is from Queensland, home of the mango in Australia, and John Howard was famously described as a dessicated old coconut by Paul Keating, a former prime minister.

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A quiet ponder.

A little thinking time has been in order of late. The weather has been warm so I have retreated to the gazebo in the front garden, armed with a beer and a small bowl of beer nuts.

Somehow it helps put the world in perspective.

Richard update: There is a thought that his seizure may be some form of late on-set epilepsy but they are not sure as he has only had one seizure. Next step is to take him to (pause for dramatic chord)... The Seizure Clinic. If I understand it right, they try to induce a seizure in order to better understand what is going on. Not sure if I like that idea or not.

The observant among you will have noticed that there are some odd black stains on the bench.

Here is the culprit:


Well, OK, you have to squint, but amongst the leaves you will see a blackbird.

And this is what the incontinent little free-loader is eating:

Mulberries.

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Richard update:

Richard, in about 1986.

Thank you all for your thoughts.

Richard has had no reoccurence of the seizure. The results of an EEG come back tomorrow so that may tell us something.

In the mean time, life goes on.
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The joy of stereotypes.

I went to a wedding on Saturday. It was for one of Margaret's class mates and so I was largely amongst strangers. It was illuminating to see the questions that I got from some of the women.

1. Do I have a list of all the local take-aways for use when Margaret is in Scotland? (She leaves on Sunday for three weeks).

2. Do I know how to use the washing machine? (At least they didn't ask if I knew how to use the kettle.)

3. And, as it was a Asian themed wedding dinner, do I know how to use chop-sticks?

It is intriguing to see how readily (some!) people pigeon-hole and stereotype others.

What would they think if they knew I had just put the Christmas Cake in the oven to cook?
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