A week of it!

It has been a very interesting week so far. Saturday was pretty normal and I got some knitting done. Sunday things began to go pear shaped. There was the community picnic postponed from last week when it rained 'cats and dogs' all day. It wasn't that much better this week but they held it regardless and a handful of peeps did turn up mostly to see the cycle repair man (that was why we went too). One of our three bikes was fixed and the other two need to go to the serious mend it place. (why do boys always manage to break things that are expensive to mend/replace). We did get to meet a couple of friends and I scored a large bag of tomatoes which I have turned into pasta sauce and preserved. I offered to give some tomato sauce (home made) for the next sausage sizzle in return and did that today.

Monday was supposed to be a free day but somehow wasn't. Mostly spent preserving and catching up with washing as it was dry for once. Tuesday got a bad start when William reminded me he needed a cake for the class party (I'd totally forgotten) about an hour before he left for school! Matt made a frantic dash to the supermarket for some essentials while I started on the making and we got it done just in time (I microwaved it. That recipe is one of the best cakes I know for that as it doesn't come out dry.) I got Matt and the boys out the door with just enough time to beat the bell.

The next thing is I get a phone call. There was an accident and the car was damaged! Somebody rear ended them as they were stopped on a red light. They were ok so were going to walk the rest of the distance to school and would I ring the school to explain why they were late. So I did that thinking that if the car was too damaged, how would we get to work (public transport is unhelpful here). At this point the car arrives home, mostly intact but with a bungy cord holding the boot shut. Nice mess but not too bad so we get to our work places as usual although the car kept sucking the exhaust fumes in through the open boot and even all the windows being wide open wasn't a great help.

After dropping William and his friend at ballet, we went to the panel beater and they took a look, a few photos and then got out a huge mallet (really huge!) and beat the boot back into some sort of shape so that the latch would work. Fascinating :) And we got to go home. The culprit will be paying for the repairs via his insurance. Matt said his car was much worse off than ours.

Today was relatively quiet. I went to the knitting group and finished the baby jersey I made for the community box and then made dinner - very calm after all that!

I forgot to say that we went to a talk by Nicole Foss of 'The Automatic Earth' on Sunday evening and it was a really interesting talk. Its very nice to get to meet somebody whose work you have been reading since 2008. Matt found it a little out of his league but James (at 15) had no trouble with it and was absolutely rapt. William was merely bored. Oh well, you can't win them all.

Tomorrow is parent teacher interviews. Not expecting any surprises there - William brought home an almost perfect report. The boys are going to the makers place where the computer and robot buffs hang out so I get to do that by myself.

NOTHING is planned for Friday!!!! But there is a walk around Lake Waihola on Sunday(I think its Sunday rather than Saturday. Must check that.) The boys are starters but I'm not sure I can do 10 kilometers and if the weather isn't good, I'm not going to try!

Have a nice week!

viv

ps as you can see, I found the rest of the Ophir bridge photos :)

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