Big Ship

Above is the largest cruise ship ever to dock at Napier. We decided to have a quick trip to have a look at it. Should have taken maybe an hour, but every person in Hawkes Bay decided to do the same thing at the same time. The road to the Bluff Hill look out was shut off and we had to walk up. The views up there were worth the walk. The ship does not look that big until you look closely at the buses on the quay side

Sailing Away

Sailing ship off Napier.

This is ........ Sunday Lunch

This is my Sunday Lunch, a delicious strawberry, lime and passion fruit smoothie. I am not a big lunch eater.
I guess what you really want to see is my Sunday dinner. New Zealand lamb, potato salad, mushrooms a la grece, salad and green bean stew. Very, very enjoyable. As you can see from the empty plates.

And here is the cook, not me but my lovely hubbie, who is the best cook in our house by miles. Visit his blog here to see the recipe for the runner bean stew.

Today's Daisy #24

More daisies from Clive Sq, Napier.

Waitangi Day Bargins

Yesterday was Waitangi day here in NZ, a public holiday. I picked up these fabric bargins at a country fair at Otane. The fabric in the first pic cost me $5, good value as they were large scraps. The fabric in the second pic measures about 1 metre and only cost £3. More scraps to add to my ever growing fabric stash.

Monday Morning

Peter has done it again. Or should I say another road user did it to him this time. On Monday morning Peter was cycling to work as usual. When the driver of a parked car opened his door, just in time for Peter to hit it going at full speed. No time for braking or swerving. It was the driver's first day back at work after his summer hols, so he must have been a bit suprised to open his door and suddenly find a cyclist slumped over it. Luckly Peter only suffered bruising this time. No operations or nights in hospital. It was his bike that suffered the major damage, the front wheel is wonky and the forks are twisted and bent. The good news is that Peter has got a new job, which is further away from home than his current one. He will have to drive to work, no more cycling.

Today's Daisy #23

Today's Daisy is a rusty mark on the playground of my youngest's school. By next week fingers crossed they should all be back at school. Boys that is not Daisies.

This is ...... My Collection and Today's Daisies #22

Today's Daisies are on a honey pot. I used to collect honey pots until the prices went up and honey pots became 10's of dollars not single dollars. Fabric, is another thing a collect, I can't help myself. I love fabrics, especially cottons. As I said in a previous post my joy in patchwork and quilting is the messing about with fabrics and scraps.Books are a rather inadvertant collection. We have tons and tons of them with nowhere to put them.
But what I am really, really sucessful at collecting is washing and ironing. Everyday there is another pile there to be dealt with. If it was an olympic sport I would excell, due to sheer practice not talent.

Luxury Tea

My lovely eldest son decided to cook tea tonight. Steak, chips and rocket and parmesan salad. Followed by choclate mousse. Yum, yum, yum. He had been watching a program by Gordon Ramsey, Cookalong Live. The chocolate mousse was a bit rich for me and my eldest, but as you can see from the pic below it did not go to waste. Or at least not to our waists.

Harvest Time

Its harvest time in Hawkes Bay. Above an apple orchard on the way to the strawberry farm and below my very own crop of tomatoes. I only grow the little cherry tomatoes as they are the ones I like best. Infact I love the little juicy tomatoes so much very few actually make it into the kitchen, never mind onto other peoples plates.

More Looking Back

Mum sent me this pic of me standing behind my stall at Eyemouth Festival of the Sea, possibly 1994 or 1995. In some ways it seems a life time away and in others it is like yesterday. I always loved having a stall at the Eyemouth festival, it bustled full of people having a great time. Lots of street entertainment and bands playing, from sea shanties to rock music via kids entertainers. The cafe next to the market served the best bacon rolls for miles. I also used to sell a lot of stock, which always makes a craft worker a very happy person. My Dad used to have the stall next to me selling honey from his bees.

Today's Daisy #21

Today's lonely little Daizy was left over from my Daizy quilt. As this is my 700th post I thought I would give the daisy away if anyone would like it. I will include a pack of scraps left over from the Daizy quilt also. So if anyone is interested please leave a comment and I will draw a winner next week. Fingers crossed that somebody does leave a comment or I will have to pretent and add some fake ones from myself.

Back to the Past

I had a brilliant evening gossiping with a couple of good friends last night. The topic of conversation got round to when I used to be a craft worker, and my friends requested that I put some of the photos of the work I did up on my blog. So here they are. The pic above is of my next door neighbour's daughter modeling one of my reversible dresses and matching hat. One side of the dress was a red check and the other the lovely red daisy fabric. The dress could be flipped inside out depending on what mood you were in or if one side got a bit grubby. I also did lovely bright and colourful reversible dungarees, little padded jackets, sun hats, waistcoats, fleecy hats and scarves and cot quilts. The above snap is of my stall at a special market day in Berwick. I usually did indoor craft events or craft tents at Agricultural shows. The lovely quilted pics were done by my best friend Sheena, and they sold like hot cakes.

I stencilled the chickens on to the fabric of the above dress.

Today's Daisies #20

Today's daisies are on a glass pendant Peter bought for me a couple of years ago. Quite soon after he gave it to me the loop that held the pendant on to its chain broke, so it has been languishing in a drawer ever since. A couple of weeks ago Peter spotted it in my jewellery box and asked why I did not wear it. When I explained it had broken he said "Don't worry I can fix that easily." and he did. There are some benefits to having a husband who is a Dentist. I now have my pendant back in working condition, after being drilled, cemented and given a new loop made out of a bit of dental wire (I think, I did't question him to much as to what he usually used the wire for).

Today's Daisies #19

Today's daisies are on some cushions I made yesterday. Since finishing the horrible daizies, I have been able to get back to what I really enjoy doing. Messing about with scraps and colour. Below is the type of quilt I really enjoy doing. Very scrappy, very straightforward and a lot of fun. The Daizy quilt has been a really good learning experience for me. I know now I am not a pattern following person. Patterns do not give me the pleasure that messing about with scraps does.

Today's Daisies #18

Today's Daisy, some Shasta Daisies from my garden and some friends.

This is ...... what scares me

What scares me is horror in any form, though I did manage to listen to the original "I am Legend" when it was serialized on BB7. I have even had to leave the room while watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek and Dr Who (pathetic). My family find it very funny. I am basically a very rational person who is rather stupidly and easily scared by anything that goes bump in the night. Even possums making that weird laughing possum noise outside our bedroom window at night, can convert me into a shivering wreck.

Things I am afraid of is a very different and much longer list. Ranging from Global Warming, GM Crops, Nuclear power, the power that large corporations have over us to the rather personal fears like heights, flying and getting my kids through to adulthood in one piece. These are fears that cause me stress, but do not reduce me to a quivering, incoherent wreck like the things that go bump in the night.

Breakfast on the Veranda

For the past couple of weeks I have craved the above breakfast. Drop scones (picklets) with strawberries, yogurt and butterscotch and macadamia nut parfait. Each time I attempted to cook the this lovely breakfast feast, there would be something missing. Either no eggs, or no milk, or no strawberries. This morning at last everything including the weather was perfect. Yum yum. My plateful is the one with yougurt, Peter had the very healthy squirty cream with his. A big thank you to my brother Bryan for the bottle of butterscotch and macadamia nut parfait that arrived in a lovely basket full of goodies at christmas.

The long wait is over

After months of waiting for my lillies to bloom, the flowers opened today. I thought they were Christmas Lillies, these ones are just a few weeks late.

Evening Walk

This evening we had to leave the house and go for a walk after tea. The house was so full of annoying little flies, which needed to be zapped with a lethal dose of fly spray. So while our home turned into a fly death zone, we had a lovely walk up the hill. Here are some of the snaps I took. And some more Agapanthus filling up the verges.

Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks

While away on holiday last week I read the above book. I had given it to Peter to hide before the holiday so I would not be tempted to read it. I love Christopher Brookmyre's books. I like his style of writing, kind of a cross between Carl Hiassen and Ian Rankin. I particularly enjoy the way he has a good rant, I also like to have a good rant about things that worry me, so far his rants have been a spot on match to my own (just done with a lot more eloquence). This particular book did not make me laugh out loud as much as some of his others did, but this did not make it any less enjoyable. I thought I knew where the plot was going, but did not get the last twist at all. Beware if you are new to this author, his books are not for the feint hearted.

My 2007 Book List

The books that I have read list is getting a bit long. So I thought that I would transfer the books I read last year to this post. Then I will still have a record off what I have read and the list will only contain books from 2008, how sensible is that, way to organised for me really.

The Magic Apple Tree by Susan Hill
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J K Rawling
The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper
The Wolves of Savernake by A.E. Marston
A Killer in Winter by Susanna Gregory
The Night Watch, The Day Watch and Twillight Watch by Sergi Lukyanenko
Country Quilts by Linda Stewart
The Right Attitude to Rain and The Careful Use of Compliments by Alexander McCall Smith
Exit Music - Ian Rankin
Monseiur Pammplemousse Takes the Train by Michael Bond
Making Money by Terry Pratchett
One Good Turn, Case Studies, Not the End of the World and Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson
First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde

Not to long a list as I only started recording them in June. I was going to name the best and the worst. The worst ones did not even make the list. And I can't make my mind up what is the best book. It could have been Exit Music or the last Harry Potter. Then again it could have been the latest Terry Pratchett. All of the books I have read have some reason for naming them as the best book. So I will give up on that idea.

This is ....... My Favourite Cup/Today's Daisy #18

While surfing around some crafty blogs the other day I found a really cool site called Three Buttons. Lots of wonderful ideas and pics. One of the ideas is a meme "This is .....", follow the link for a fuller explanation. But basically each week a theme is suggested, then on the Sunday you post pictures on your blog relating to the theme. This week it is "This is my Favourite Cup". I thought it would be a good idea to join in, so here I go.

Above is my favourite cup, a very large tea cup. It should be used every morning for my breakfast cup of tea, English Breakfast Tea obviously. Problem is, I never have time during the week for breakfast, at the weekends it is usually lunch time by the time I get round to breakfast and to cap it all I can't drink tea regularly anymore (shhhh don't tell anyone but ....causes me bladder problems, no idea why, but not pleasant). The cup though is beautiful, covered in Dasies, even on the bottom of the saucer. I bought it from Abbey Ceramics at the Hersil near Coldstream on the Scottish Borders.

Being the greedy girl I am I could not just have one favourite cup, below is one of my recent bargins. A red spotty mug (really into spots at the moment). It was reduced to half price in a Christmas stock clearance sale, $5 or about £1.50 GBP. It came in a lovely red spotty box, which was worth the $5 by itself. I am looking forward to drinking hot chocolate out of it when Winter comes round again.

Moonlight

Moonlight through the clouds two nights ago. I need to read my camera's instruction book and learn how to take night time shoots. As I am just not getting the sharpness and quality I would like. Yes, the colours were as seen above I have not messed about with them.
More moon pics from last night. I also need to get myself some decent image software. In the pic above you can just make out the leaves on the tree, but it would look so much better if the image could be lightened a bit and I have no idea how to do this. Maybe I should take a night school in Digital Photography this year.

Today's Daizies - Finished

At last the top of the Daizie quilt is finished. It still needs to be backed, but that can wait. I want to put the quilt away for a while until I like it a bit more. But I am feeling so much happier knowing that I will never have to do another small Daizie again. Back to some old projects that need backing also.

Butterfly Mix

My youngest's garden is in full bloom and looking great. We planted it with a packet of seeds called Butterfly Mix.