Rhododendron

More flowers from this mornings walk.

Today's Daisies

Some Daisies growing at the edge of the road, when I was out walking this morning.

Pukeko

Pukeko that ran over the road in front of me while I was walking this morning.

Golden Wedding

In a few days time time it will be my Mum and Dad's Golden Wedding Anniversary. Above is the quilt I made for them. It has taken me so long to do it, I really thought I would miss the date and it would arrive late. Why it took so long was the amount of thought that went into it. I even wrote the little poem that goes around the edge of the quilt.

Exit Music - Ian Rankin

Just finished reading the last Rebus book by Ian Rankin or is it. It is the last Rebus book, with Rebus still in the police force. But I don't think this is the last we will hear of him. Will try not to put in any spoilers, but if you have not read it yet do not read any further, just in case.

Not one of my favourites so far. May be you have to be sitting on the 7:05am Commuter Train from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Edinburgh, heading for work, to be able to enjoy Rebus. I did enjoy reading it, but did not like the ending one little bit.

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Will be interesting to read a Christopher Brookmyer when I can get my grubby little paws on it, to see if where you read a book makes any difference.

Eruption

Next weekend we are due to go skiing on Mount Ruapehu. This week it erupted. You can see from the photo above, courtesy of the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Science website, the blackened snow at the top of the mountain. The ski fields were closed for one day! Will have to see what happens next week before we venture up there.

This Weeks Work Place

This week this is where I have been sitting working, the kids are on holiday so I have been trying to work from home. But, because of all the interuptions, I feel like I have worked about 10hrs each day instead of my usual four.

Black Swans

For about the last 6 months I have been planning a suprise for my dear Hubbies birthday. A trip to Auckland for the weekend to see Steely Dan. I had it planned down to the smallest degree. But as usual there was a black swan waiting in the wings.

My eldest son was going to look after the youngest and my middle son was to stay at a friends for the weekend. I was really worried about the oldest and the youngest but figured that the middle one would be OK with his friend.

The day before we went Peter got an email from the bank to say that the password on his credit card had been reset. We did wonder why but the bank said nothing to worry about. Then when I checked Peter's credit card there were a whole lot of payments going through. It took over 4hrs for us to persuade Visa that we were not in the UK and not using the card. Eventually they agreed to stop the card! Now you would think this is what they should have done straight away. Instead they said to check our next statement due in about 4 weeks time and then dispute anything! Moral of this story check your credit card statements closely and often. So with no credit card the trip was going to not be an extravagant trip. But we still decided to continue.

So off we went and had a brill day driving up to Auckland, it took us 9 hrs. We went through Rotarua and stopped in Tirau and Cambridge. I even got to visit Kate Fitzpatrick's shop, I wanted to buy it all.

We arrived at the hotel and settled in, had some room service snacks and a nice bottle of wine. Then lazed around watching TV and chilling. Then the bomb shells started to drop. Our middle son had decided to go Awol with his girlfriend. The poor parents of the friend he should be with were searching everywhere. He was not answering his phone or texts. So that was the end of our weekend. All we could do was sleep off the wine and head for home. No shopping, no hanging around in cafe's, no browsing book shops and most importantly no Steely Dan. What always goes wrong is the thing you least expect, a black swan. Needless to say middle son appeared the next day wondering what all the fuss was about. He knows now.

Some views of Auckland. This is about all we saw of city. Maybe next time.

Things to do with corregated iron.

On the way to Auckland we stopped in Tirau for a quick snack, in the cafe at the back end of the sheep.

Today's ever so slightly surreal Daisies

Today's daisies are not daisies they are a variety of succulent, but they look so good they deserve to be included.

Hills, Shadows and a Hawk

Green hills, shadows and a hawk, taken on my morning walk, on a beautiful Hawkes Bay Spring morning.

Blossom Festival

A couple of snaps from this weekends blossom festival. Had to include the Super Grans the mind boggles as to what the they get up to.

Some more Blossom

Cherry blossom at Keirunga Gardens. I spent Saturday and Sunday morning sitting quilting at Kierunga with a view over the cherry blossom.

The Wrong Colour

I really should know better. At the front of the house in between the Magnolia and the Camellia, I have made my first attempt at a colour themed garden. My idea was to plant lavenders, purple alliums and dark dark tulips. Wouldn't you just know that one of the tulips would turn out to be a lovely red, orangey yellow. A beautiful plant, just not in the right place. I must remember to mark it before the flowers go, so I can move it to another part of the garden.

Today's Daisies

A sea of daisies in Clive Square gardens, Napier.

My New Desk

It has taken me months to get round to renovate the desk I bought on TradeMe. I am not sure I like my idea of using the Heart Shape for a door handle, I might get used to it. Pictures of Sewing room #3 will be available soon.

Not sure why Peter wanted to pose on the desk, but thought you might like to giggle at him too.

Today's Daisies

Gazzinias on Marine Parade Domain, Napier. I drive past here everyday and had to stop to take a quick pic today.

More Magnolias

Magnolia in my neighbours garden against the beautiful blue Hawkes Bay sky, so good to see it again.

Frosty Morning

Ballon over Hawkes Bay, really there is, it is that multi coloured dot in the top right hand corner. Wish I had the courage to give it a go. It looks so serene and the view must be amazing, but I am such a big coward when it comes to heights.

Smoooooooooth

Made myself a pineapple and mango smoothie for lunch today. Really yummy. There are some really nice mango's in the supermarkets at the moment, I think they come from Brazil. But there was one thing missing, I have finished all my strawberry puree ice cubes, and still have about 4 - 6 weeks before the strawberry farms open up again. I can not wait. I will have to freeze more strawberry ice cubes this summer to make sure I have enough to last right through next winter. Daffodils are there just because they look pretty, far to poisonous to put in a smoothie.

My Lucky Day

Seems like it was my lucky day today (darn I should have nipped out for a lottery ticket). First the kids were actually talking and joking in the car this morning, usually all the conversation I get out of them is a couple of grunts, must have been the spring air. Then I was contacted by the owners of that lovely house we stayed in at Tokaanu, to say that we could have a free weekend if we liked. The reason for this was to make up for the water leak that dripped on Peter while he was sleeping. Not that he noticed, it was me that the dripping noise kept awake.

When I got home after work today I found my new worm farm on the door step, complete with a bucket full of worms. My brilliant mum had, quite out of the blue, sent me the above Japanese Oragami Quilt book, which was waiting in my mail box. I am such a lucky girl, thanks Mum.

Compost here I come

My worm farm arrived today. The worms have been installed and fed with a whole lot of hearty scraps and I am ready and waiting for my first load of compost. It will take between 3 and 6 months for the first batch to be ready, if I can manage to keep my worms alive and do not kill them of. Peter thought I should give them all names! Is he perhaps trying to keep me occupied so I stop encourageing him to do jobs around the house! Its not going to work.

Sorry about the blurry picture of the wriggly worms.

Today's Daisies

Today's daisies are flowering in a boat. The boat is in the car park of a village hall back in the UK, where we used to live. The daisies were originally planted by my parents for our wedding two years ago, and have self seeded ever since. Isn't that a lovely thought. Thanks Mum for sending me the pics.

In case you are wondering why there is a boat full of flowers in a village hall car park. The reason is that the village used to be a salmon fishing village. When I was a girl (gosh don't I sound old) nearly all families living in the village had at least one fisherman in the family. Now that has all gone and the boats are no longer needed. Only rich people get to catch salmon from the Tweed now.

Snow

Some snow on the distance mountains. Photo taken on my walk on a very frosty morning last week.

Another Magnolia

Havelock is full of Magnolias in full bloom at the moment.

Blossom

Some more blossom.

Some Chickens

Some chickens I met yesterday when we were picking up our latest Trademe bargin. There was nobody in when we arrived, so we went to speak to the chooks.

A magnolia or what

I think this is an Asiatic Magnolia flowering happily outside my kitchen window. If you know differently please leave a comment.

Orchard in Bloom

An orchard, in bloom, on the edge of Havelock North.