Keep On The Sunny Side

Thank you all for the blog birthday wishes and kind words on Tina. Just so you know, I've finished Tina. Here she is, just off the needles and getting read for her bath.

Naturally, there will be a long and extensive photoshoot. Emily was right, I did miss working on her when I finished her. It was a long slog, but really worth it.

Birthdays in Blogland

August 20th is probably the most popular birthday for knitting bloggers. I hadn't realised that so many of us share this day. So, here's me raising my glass to Cari, Greta, Jackie, Jessamyn and Lisa... so now, we are all a bit older and probably not one bit wiser.

I did get some super lovely presents, but I haven't gotten around to photographing them yet. I've decided that I can only blog about them, after I have written the thank you letters and mailed them . Raise your hand if you occasionally find letters ready to go sitting in your handbag for so long that the envelopes start fraying at the edges. (sigh, that would be me)

...and

because I was tagged by Joy for 'Five things I miss from childhood'.

1. Big family get-togethers at my great-aunt's house in Toronto. My mother is from a large family and when they left China, many settled in NYC, Bay City and Toronto. As a child, we didn't know about the family squabbles and just enjoyed spending time with cousins and our very glamourous great-auntie and her daughters. Goo-pau passed away in October last year and her funeral was attended by over 400 people. She was one of those women that made everyone feel special. Introducing me and my cousins to cosmetics (including bright red nail polish, blue eye shadow and mascara ) I got the most outrageous hand-me-downs from cousins. I was a tall and stringy kid and my much older cousins were all dainty and petite,so these hand-downs meant that I was wearing ankle-length bell-bottoms in the 1980's. Looking back, I didn't enjoy the part about being a fashion disaster... but I did enjoy being treated as as a young lady.

2. My Grandma's cooking. It was very important for my Pau-pau to make all the *proper* foods, esp for the new year. We all tried to help and in fact were probably such a hindrance that without us helping it would had been done faster and taster better. My grandma made all sorts of goodies like soy bean milk. She would soak, puree and strain the beans and then boil and add the sugar. There was sesame paste.. a perfect treat in the summer. I don't know how she learned to make all these things. I've seen the stove that she used to cook on when she was in China and there was no way she could had done this there. The refridgerator didn't even work for a large part of the day.

3. Apple picking in upstate NY. We would drive up annually en masse, pick bags of the stuff, buy crushed apple cider from the windfalls and picnic too. One of my uncles would always take his clunker of a car, which would over-heat and we would end up on the side of the road waiting to see if it would restart while my auntie would lay into him. This part wasn't so fun, but picking the apples and drinking the cider was.

4. All the goodies that we very occasionally get to eat on hot summer days like : grass jelly and tofu fa with honey syrup or lychee or red bean ices... bought home by dad via a quick stop in chinatown. Dad usually bought it home when he finished work early, so not only did we get to see him, but we got the sweets too.

5. Trips to the library. We borrowed tons of books, read them and returned them every few days. oh to have the time to just read and read and read ...!

Thos, Dani, Mary, Valentina and Jacqueline, I would love to read your answers on this, so please have a go, if you're so inclined.

...and finally

The winner of the blog birthday yarn draw is .... Jill Schaefer. I'll be getting in touch with you for your details.

How did Daisy twig that I was following an old chinese custom? The elders often gave red envelopes out on their birthdays to everyone. I thought that yarn would be far more appropriate in this case ;-)

Thanks to everyone for leaving comments. I'm trying to work my way around to visit some of the 'new to me' blogs... and this year, I didn't have to worry about emails that came in after the deadline, wondering if the delay was caused by mailserver or sender.

Posted by atu at August 21, 2005 07:25 PM | TrackBack