Stuff

I have been very busy making things for the last few weeks. A winter cardigan for me, a few hats for various peeps and a few small items for the babies of the valley (gifts for new arrivals from the Project which runs the community centre). I also did a class in fabric marbling (very fun) and a trip to Balclutha for a craft crawl - seven houses full of all sorts of crafts from the various local groups. The cost was good and included a devonshire tea at the clubrooms. The money raised is to keep those clubrooms in funds for community use. Rates, repairs and all that. Both of these events can be found on the other website artfibredunedin.blogspot.co.nz.

Other than that, there has been a raft of illnesses mostly introduced from various schools and the weather has been mostly miserable and wet. So here's something to cheer us up a little...

Ophir

Queenstown

Arrowtown

Arrowtown

Cromwell

Quail

St Bathans
So there you go. Some of our holiday snaps from St Bathans, Ophir, Queenstown, Arrowtown and a quail, and a picture at our almost Cromwell stop. (I have pictures from this spot right back to when we first met :) Not necessarily in that order !

viv

Jam

I finally did the apples on our tree. They are really only good for apple jelly so that is what I made. I have saved a few of the larger ones to make into preserves when I get a proper supply of farmers market apples a little later though. I'm thinking that with some tlc it might become a reasonable tree for cooking apples.

I am also finally working my way up the yoke of my winter cardigan. I have to say that so far I really don't like working on the circular needles - much prefer to use double pointers.

I took my spinning wheel to knitting group last Wednesday and the girls were impressed with the windmill affair made by my Dad to wind wool after plying. My Mum no longer spins so I grabbed it to use for my own work. It works a bit like an umbrella so you can pull the skeins off once they are wound. These are two photos taken by a friend.

I believe the handle came off an old mincing machine :) It is really easy to use too if a little Heath Robinson over engineered.

viv

Three earwigs and a caterpillar

I have spent the last couple of weeks preserving fruit and tomatoes for the year. We got cheap seconds in peaches and nectarines last week and I set to and did the lot - about 18 jars worth. Along the way I found a few 'friends' inhabiting my fruit. They went into the scrap bucket for the hens so I hope they get eaten! The resulting bottles of fruit will undoubtedly get eaten but should last a fair while. I still have pears and apples to go - probably with a few more 'friends' as well. Mostly codlin moths I imagine.

This is the latest item to go up the street (although not with Matt).

I'm also adding some old stone bridge photos from a place called Ophir.

And James with a little friend :)

This hedgehog is now somewhere in the vicinity and probably a lot larger as it was only half grown here. James does seem to have an affinity for small, non human friends. Now if we can teach them not to roll themselves into a ball on Baldwin Street......

viv

socks

This is what I've been doing over the last week. two pairs even.

Apart from these which were made from all the odds and ends hanging round here (and there are plenty more too), I have had a clean out of my general wool and sent half a box of oddments to the kindy. There are also two boxes of cloth scraps for the patchwork group for community stuff and a box to be sorted for small pieces for me. So I have been rather busy.

Then there was the day trip we made to the Catlins which was really good. There were only three of us as James decided not to come so it was a peaceful trip for once. I might add that James by himself is also fine - its when you put them together!!!

We stopped at the bridge at Balclutha for lunch on the way there as we were a bit late leaving. Then we went on to the Matai Falls which I haven't visited since I was 12 and that wasn't yesterday! There is now a proper path and a bridge over the gully we slid down on our backsides. The falls were pretty much as I remember but we went about 2 minutes up the track to the horse shoe falls this time. We didn't know they existed last time. They are pretty but not spectacular - I think the water level was fairly low which kills things a bit.

William got up close and personal with this waterfall :)

Then we decided to carry on to the Purakaunui Falls where we used the public toilet and got a fancy hot chocolate from a stand run by a couple of local ladies - very nice - before wandering down to the falls themselves.

This was on the way from the waterfall.

Then we made our way back to Balclutha where we decided to take a short detour to Kaitangata which I'd not visited before. We took photos of two bridges just because they were interesting.

Matt made a panorama of this one but I can't find it on here...only the pieces.

We just had to go over this bridge...

After that we stopped at Waihola for the best fish and chip dinner and got home after 9. A lovely day for all.

viv

ps Had to add this -

Taken at the Purakaunui Falls viewing platform.

The blue lake

Part of the trip we did at christmas was to an old haunt of mine and a very favourite place (although it has become sadly touristy recently. The blue lake is actually the remains of an old gold mine which got so deep that the pumping system broke and the whole thing filled with water. The reef they were following went under the township of St Bathans so there was no further work done. The white clay base made the lake look very blue indeed when I was young but there was a creek overflow with agricultural run off which mostly destroyed the base and now the colour is rather green instead but it is still a very beautiful place despite being man made. So here are some pictures taken by me, Matt and the boys.

And a gratuitous cat pic because I don't know how to delete it :) Yet!

Steampunk

We did a trip to Oamaru last year and I have a heap of interesting photos so I thought I would post a few here. The exhibition was very good.

We had a really great day :)

viv

whew

And now back to normal transmissions :) I killed the comments section by trying a new widget. Very bad! Took a while to get the comments back again but they are now working properly (I hope).

We did a short trip to Milton the other day to visit the wool factory shop. I got quite a bit of wool and a new pullover for Matt. Amongst the wool, I got some noodles (half spun wool) which I am going to make hats out of as it knits quite well. When I had finished untangling and winding the wool into balls there was a bit left over so I decided to try a needle felt object. I've done a lot of felting but I've never tried needle felting before. I only had black and white so I ended up with this.....

He is under 2 inches high and cost me a lot of finger pricks because I am new to this but I thought he came out quite sweet :) He is now sitting on my keyboard. I won't be pricking my fingers so much next time :) If there is a next time......