spindle

Some of you have shown an interest in what we did to make and use spindles.  I don't appear to have photos of the apple spindle session which I taught but I do have a photo of one of my friends teaching this using potatoes and twigs. 

This was out on St Martins Island in the harbour on a beautiful day.  I was teaching felt made mini pictures at this event. I got a little sunburned so appear even redder in the face than usual!

It is a fun thing to do when you have few resources and just want to have a go :)

viv

Permablitz

We had an interesting weekend here as a group of people got into our backyard and gave some of it a makeover. I provided morning tea and lunch for 12 and watched from the sidelines.  Matt was fully in there and William was very helpful in setting up the lunch, clearing away and generally being useful inside and out.

This is the link to the time lapse photos that were taken.  Note the hens coming in for a sneeky look whilst we were having morning tea :)

Timelapse Video

Permablitz Otago website Where you can see photos and more timelapse videos of past blitzes.

Apart from that I've been doing lots of quilting and a few pairs of socks as it's coming up winter.

Wet and wild at present but warm in here...

enjoy

viv in nz

puff ball

Matt found this in the paper road next door. It is a massive puff ball :)

Neat huh!

This went up and down the street with photography happening so I took one of it with our house. (really should paint that veranda roof to match the new roof we put up several years back now).

viv

Elderberries and Walter Peak

We picked elderberries this morning as the wind was gusting hard and I figured there would be none left if we didn't get out there pronto.  These are for friends who were to come later in the week as we already have ours half way to made into cordial. It's definitely getting into blustery autumn weather now.

Matt sorted all the hedge/tree branches into a better pile and has decided to try a hugel permaculture thing with them on the rough bank that has been a trial for forever. Hopefully this will give us a few veges next year.

And back to the holiday things.....

We decided to do a trip to Walter Peak on the Earnslaw for the day.  James didn't want to come (the boys had been last holiday with grandma) but William did so we packed a lunch (being too poor to buy one after paying for the tickets) and set off on the boat. It was a lovely day and not too hot for once.  There was a wind on the lake and Matt is now minus one hat.  An errant gust sent it flying over the side.

There was a guided tour of the farm stuff with sheep and all but we mostly ignored that (we come from this area so it was nothing new) and took photos of this and that instead.  There was a morning tea included in the ticket price and we made good use of that - very nice too with creamed fresh pikelets, cake and scones with tea or coffee.

Then we decided to explore a bit.  We visited the shop but didn't buy anything and then walked around the shore line until we got to a gate.  We then retraced ourselves a bit and ate our lunch on the beach.  I got out my sketch book and made several sketches, one of which I think is rather good.  Then we walked back and investigated the gardens and bought iceblocks as it was rather hot.

The Earnslaw

Setting off

You could go visit the engine

as you can see - stuffy and hot!

Looking towards Walter peak

The wharf at Walter Peak

Looking up the valley

the mountain ridge behind

rather impressive!

the farmhouse (massive as these always are)

stone skipping, lunch bay

more stone skipping

view from the wharf

coming to get us!

towards Queenstown

almost back

We watched the boat come in again for the last trip and caught it back to Queenstown in time for tea (we stayed through the second sailing in order to explore).  It was a very nice trip and well worth the cost.

enjoy

viv

bee

Its been an interesting week round here and I seem to have reached perpetual motion territory.  The weekend was full of patchwork mostly with a dash of Farmers Market (of which there will be more coming up) and a lot of heat.

It has now cooled off a lot and I have resorted to a woolly jersey.  We were supposed to be taking a boat trip this afternoon but the sea was too rough so it has been slated for next week instead.  I cleared up the kitchen and fancied up the potatoes for dinner instead. Not much of a replacement activity really but it needed doing.

I am down to the last 11 rows on my quilt which is good.  Only about 460 pieces to go.  It looks good - well I think so.  I promise to post a photo when its a bit more complete.

Sprocket chased a bee and the result was...

He is fine now

 As you can see...

 This is the beach at Wakaouaiti.

We had tea on the beach (hot chips) on the way back from holiday.  I have a special other holiday post for later too.

viv

holiday/new stuff

I am still keeping my art school options open but it doesn't look financially possible at present.  I have picked up a bit of work though and been made redundant from my old job unfortunately (on my birthday no less!) so I've kinda lost what I gained.  Oh well...

Anyhow, here are a few more pictures from holiday,

 The Arrow river is only a very short distance from where we were staying with Grandma.  There is a very beautiful walk/bike track on both sides of the river here with a footbridge at each end of the part we use.

This makes it a great place to walk grandma's dog Poppy.

Who likes water...

and running...

And looking at other dogs.

We did this walk almost every evening and sometimes in the morning too - although the boys mostly took Poppy at this hour.  William also did a lot of bike riding on these paths.  Swimming is not an option really as the water is absolutely freezing cold.

viv

holiday

 Finally got some holiday snaps up so you get to see some of the really great trip we took.

I'll do this in stages as they occurred :)

This is the view from the top of the back road we took from Oturehua to Alexandra.  It is all gravel but well used and I got William to use some map skills to get us to the right place.  (I have been here before but I let him get it wrong a bit too :)  There is lots of wild thyme and a rather good waterfall where an irrigation channel takes a walk on the wild side.

Some of the rocky tors were pretty spectacular too...

Then there was the obligatory family photo shot outside Cromwell before getting to Arrowtown for tea with Grandma.

And that's stage one :)

Enjoy

viv