Matariki Day Out

 Matariki is celebrated as the Maori New Year, a time of remembrance, celebrating the present and looking to the future.  I joined in the "Matariki Kaumatua (respected elder) Day Out"  bus trip yesterday with several friends.  This was organised by our local library for older people in the community, and two buses took us out to Foxton Beach Estuary to celebrate the spirit of the season.

I was having morning tea in the library cafe with this group of friends from the Cancer Society some weeks ago when staff member Henry stopped at our table to tell us about this (free) trip to see if we were interested.  Of course we were, it sounded very interesting indeed, so we booked our places.  And yesterday was the big day.  Quite a crowd were gathered in the library, we boarded our respective buses and off we went.  The weather didn't look too promising as we started on the journey, I could hardly see out the window as we drove along.

It looks rather damp and misty out there

The weather cleared and we arrived at the Manawatu Marine Boating Club in fine but overcast weather.  Those that could climbed the stairs to the restaurant, and the less able and those with walkers were assisted in and out of the lift.  

Boating Club

There were lovely views from upstairs looking out over the estuary.

There were about 100 people attending, and our morning started with a warm Maori welcome.  Then we   had two different speakers telling us about the Manawatu Estuary, a very special ecological place indeed.  This is a Ramsar site, a wetland designated as being of international importance under the Ramsar Convention of Wetlands.  This area is a well known birding place, with 93 species being identified.  The most well known are the godwits, which fly to and from Alaska and Siberia each year.  This takes an incredible 7-9 days of non stop flying, parent birds together with the youngsters born in the Alaskan summer.

Godwit

A light lunch followed, sandwiches, hot savouries and a selection of sweet slices (I tried a very tasty lemon slice).  If I jump up quickly, I thought, I could take a photo of one of the tables before the hungry hordes descended.

Lunch is served

Of course, there was plenty of food to go around, so no one went hungry.  A cup of coffee was next, and was so welcome and warming.  After lunch we settled down to be entertained by the Maori musical group in attendance.   After the music was finished I asked one of the staff to take a photo for us.

Enjoying our day out, Betty, Elaine, Margaret, Jenny and Ruth

As it was a rather chilly day, I decided to wear my thick cream jumper with an embroidered Scotch Thistle that I had purchased in Scotland.  A couple of ladies came up to me and asked if I was from Scotland.  No, I told them, but my grandfather came from Glasgow, so I do have Scottish blood in my veins.  And I had traveled throughout Scotland.  

Then it was time to reboard the bus for our trip home.  We all had a lovely time, it was a great day out indeed.  Henry was chatting away on the bus about making plans for next years Mataraki trip, so we will be sure  to keep an eye out for that one too.

Time to head home

RSC - Teal for July

 The Rainbow Scrap Challenge nominated colour for July is teal so I went looking to see what I had tucked away in my bag  making bits of pieces.  Of course there were several pieces of fabric, waiting to be stitched up into bags for foster kids.  I do wonder of I will ever empty this  bag, especially with a few fabric donations coming my way recently.

So I got to work cutting and stitching and made four little draw string bags.  Featuring dolphins, and crickets, and there was enough of the circus animal fabric for two small bags.  With no suitable cord I had to take a shopping trip up town so I could finish the bags off.  

Four little bags done

I've been on the receiving end of some extra goodies this week, thanks to kind friends.  I was given a bag of grapefruit, which I was pleased to get.  Those people taking cholesterol pills cannot eat grapefruit, luckily I am not one of them.  Grapefruit are seldom seen for sale so I was happy to take these ones fresh off the tree from Betty.

I always enjoy grapefruit for breakfast

Bill and Val called in for afternoon tea a few days ago, they were former members of the caravan club and we had many trips and adventures away with them over the years.  Val brought me some candles she had, and would never use, knowing that I light a candle each evening for Robin.  It was lovely to see them again and so nice of Val to pass the candles on to me.

Two candles from Val, still in their boxes

So that's been my week,  mixed weather with some sunny days, a bit of rain, and cool enough to have the heat pump going in the evenings.   It is winter, after all.  

Shower Saga

I had been having problems with the shower leaking recently, and had it resealed around the bottom of the  shower twice over a period of time.  But that didn't seem to fix it, and when I noticed the damp going up the wall, I knew I had a serious problem.  Oh dear, with Robin not here, it was something I would have to tackle on my own.  One of the neighbour's recommended a plumber who had done some work for her, so I called him to have a look, and give me a quote.  Seems the only way to fix the problem was to replace the shower to see exactly what the problem was. 

It has been a very interesting and rather noisy time. In fact the weeks dragged on with different tradesmen doing their own part in the repairs.   Gemma was locked in the bedroom to keep her safe and out of the way, and she wasn't at all happy about that.  I had to remove my car from the garage to give the workmen room to put their tools and workbench.  When the old shower and the wall boards had been removed the water damage was clear, the leak had been dripping from the mixer behind the shower wall.  So no amount of resealing around the base of the shower cabinet was going to fix it.

Gib board removed

After the plumber came to replace the shower mixer and what ever else he needed to do, the builder replaced two sheets of aqua gib board.  Then the man installing the new shower cubicle had his day, followed by the painter.  I was up bright and early each morning, locking Gemma in the bedroom before the tradesmen and their noisy tools arrived.  Then the plumber was back with the new shower dome, which had to be cut to fit.  It was a busy old time, and the weeks rolled around with tradesmen coming and going.  Poor Gemma was getting quite stressed really, what had happened to our quiet peaceful home?

Cutting the shower dome

The final job was replacing the lino flooring, that was several weeks after the other work was done.  Getting the lino scraped off seemed to take ages, and the workman told me how the adhesives used had changed so much over the years, since he started as an apprentice.

Scrape, scrape, scraping away

Then at last the job was all finished.  A new shower, this one has curved doors different from  our previous square shower.   New lino, I managed to find something very similar to the previous one, just a different colourway.  New paint on the walls, everything looks nice and fresh.

All finished

Of course, being a quilter's home, I had to rehang my bathroom decorations.  This is my beautiful hand made seahorse, sent to me quite some time ago from Janet in Cromer, England.  I didn't realise how dusty he was till he was taken down, but he is dust free now and ready for bathroom duty again. 

Beautiful seahorse from Janet

And my little tropical fish wall hanging was given a clean and rehung after all those noisy men had finally departed.  I purchased the fish fabric during our trip to Hawaii in 1993, and finally made the little wall hanging in 1996 to commemorate our trip.  

Memories of Hawaii

There really is a sea theme going on in my tiny bathroom.  These lovely shells were brought home by Robin's Mum after her trip to New Caledonia.  We gave them a new home after she passed away some years ago.

Beautiful shells

So that is the end of the recent bathroom saga.  I'm pleased that it is finally at an end, and that I managed to deal with it myself.

Sew Wot Tuesday

We all met at Jude's home today, and the dog, a beautiful merle blue border collie, was extra pleased to see us.  Perhaps these ladies will play with me, he thought.  Sadly, no, he was left to make his own fun outside, while we went and chatted in the house.  And as always, there was plenty to chat about.  I had taken along a bundle of old Christmas Craft magazines, these were flicked through and taken home.  Once read, they will end up in the op shop to be recycled once more.

There was a little show and tell, all wool this time, and strangely not a quilt in sight.  Mary had made this pretty crochet blanket using those tiny little balls of wool available in the shops these days.  So pretty, looks nice and warm too.

Mary's crochet blanket

Then she added a pair of socks.  These really looked like tiger colours to me.

Mary's new socks

Helen had socks to show as well, a child's pair with pretty turquoise accents.

Made by Helen

Carol had been busy knitting again for Neo Natal babies, with three sets ready  to be delivered.

Baby knitting from Carol

And I took along my recently finished little boy's cardigan.  This was knitted using hand spun wool given to me by my late friend  Merilyn.  I had been using the cream wool for my socks, with added 4ply sock wool, and wasn't to sure what to make with the brown wool.  Then I had a bright idea, looked through my patterns, and made this cozy little cardigan.

Made by me

Everyone was busy chatting away, and knitting.  My knitting was soon put away as I couldn't concentrate on the shaping rows and talk as well.  Then the morning tea trolly was wheeled into the room, mmm, how tasty it all looked.  There is no fear of anyone going hungry at our morning teas.

Plenty for everyone

Many thanks indeed to Jude for being the hostess for the morning, we do all enjoy our get togethers.  And the weather was glorious too, fine and sunny with coolish temperatures, so much brighter than those cloudy cold still days we have been experiencing lately.

Slow Stitching Teddy Panel, and Lunch with Friends

 I've been sitting doing some slow stitching this afternoon, on a rather dreary day.  It's grey outside, and showery.  Not that it matters, I'm nice and cozy inside, happily big quilt stitching one of my two teddy bear cushion panels.  And I've finished.  Gemma gave Teddy the once over.  I wonder if she noticed the little brown bird in the tree?  These will be made into cushions for foster kids when they are completed.

Is that a birdie?

First panel done

I enjoyed a lunch with three old friends during the week.  Robyn and I drove down from Levin, and Trish and Shirley drove up from Waikanae, we met at a cafe in Otaki.  I met these friends at a social group way back in the 70s.    We used to meet up as couples, but sadly,  one by one, the husbands passed away - in later years it was a standing joke that my Robin was "the last man standing".  So we go back a long way, and try to get together every three months or so.  

Shirley, Robyn, Jenny and Trish

Our lunches were very nice, I enjoyed some delicious chicken liver pate.  I used to make pate years ago, I told them all, cooking up the chicken livers, putting them through the blender, and smoothing the mixture out into a small ramekin with a topping.  I thought I was so clever, and keeping up with the trends back then, but I don't think I could deal with chicken livers these days.

Lunch at Reds Cafe

What's in this Bag?

It's time to move on with whatever is in this bag.  You may remember that when my great wardrobe malfunction happened some time ago, I discovered all sorts of long forgotten projects, including this bag.  And I promised myself that once my serious secret sewing was completed (5 quilts in total) I would work on this bag.  It contains two projects, string pieced blocks, and some chickens.  I'll tackle those string blocks first, I decided.

Two projects tucked away.

I wonder when I stitched these string blocks, can't remember so it was quite some time ago I guess.  I used up some tracing vilene for the base, I don't like to use paper.  Some of the blocks already had dark red and blue sashing strips attached, these strips were left over pieces from a long ago finished quilt.   Use what you have, we are told.

Blocks already made, time to add the rest of the sashings

So that's what I've been working on this week.  Sewing the strips into rows, then pressing.  Up and down, but that's good for my back between stitching sessions, so I'm not complaining.

Stitching rows together

Still stitching

Almost done, the top just needs a border - will I get it finished today?  Yes I can, in between some household chores.  There, a finished top, hanging sideways because the ground is wet.

All sorts of memories in here

It's Winter here, so time to take down my seasonal Autumn wall-hanging.  And replace it with Welcome to Winter.  I think this design, featuring a church in the snow, is for a Northern Hemisphere snowy Christmas, but I use it as my mid year Winter wall-hanging.

Welcome to Winter

Although we don't have snow on the ground in my part of the country, we have experienced quite bad weather over the last few days.  Freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall over parts of the South Island.  Winds fierce enough to cancel flights, and more winds and heavy swells causing the Inter Island Ferry to be cancelled.  There's been flooding in my old home town in the Hutt Valley, and more flooding in the Wairarapa with a bridge washed away. Winter has arrived with a vengeance.  

Wet and miserable day

But tucked up at home nice and warm, knowing I don't have to go anywhere the next couple of days, and with sewing and knitting to do, I'm quite comfy, thanks.

Teddies, and a Giant Moa

 At our last Sew Wot get-together, Heather had a table of free stuff she wanted gone.  I swooped on two teddy bear cushion panels that took my fancy.  Just the thing for a couple of cushions for kids in care, I thought. These are now layered with batting, and pinned up, ready for me to do big stitch quilting around the motifs.  

Two cushion panels from Heather, ready for quilting

I've made a start of Father Teddy sitting on the window seat, reading his book.

Father Ted

I've also hand stitched a label on two secret quilts I've recently finished.  These are secret because the recipients don't know I've been making them, and they are due to be passing by, and meeting up with me shortly.  I'll be pleased to gift them at last, then all will be revealed.

Stitching on simple labels 

I met my daughter for lunch the other day at Sanson, a distance of 50km from home.  We were trying The Wool Shed Cafe, neither of had been there for quite some time.

In the grounds was a statue of a large moa.  These huge flightless birds  used to roam New Zealand and there were other smaller varieties as well.  The moas became extinct between the 14th and 15th centuries, after the Maori people arrived and settled in New Zealand.  Evolving in isolation without predators, the birds were ill adapted to human hunting, habitat burning, and introduced predators like the Polynesian dog.

Giant Moa

Our lunches were nice, the coffee was great, and as usual there was plenty of news to catch up on.  Nicky had brought me down a bag of the last of her feijoas, and a pumpkin/sweet potato pie from GD Emma, and I had some things to pass on to SIL Robert and granddaughter Megan from Robin's shed.  The day was beautiful indeed, sunny with a clear blue sky and reasonably warm for the time of year.  

Today is the shortest day of the year here in New Zealand, which of course means we have the longest night.  On the other hand, from tomorrow it will slowly but surely be counting down till Summer, so that's got to be good!