House Warming Gift

The gift to my granddaughter has been posted and received, so now it’s time to show it.  Megan and her boyfriend have recently bought a home, and we are very proud of their achievement.  Of course she needed a house warming gift – luckily I had already started an embroidered tea towel for Megan and her sister, so I was half way there.  With the embroidery complete, I added fabric borders to finish them off.

Ready for the top and bottom borders

How about a matching double handed oven mitt to go with it, I thought.  I used up the remaining scraps of the cupcake fabric and added another couple of fabrics too.  I like to use sacking on the back of these, to made them hard wearing.  Here I am up to the stitching the binding down stage.

Finishing up the oven cloth

Last week the gift was packaged up and put in the post, and arrived safely a few days later.  The tea towel was embroidered using the wonderful Stitcher’s Revolution transfers, from the Cute Kitchen Sayings series.

Happy House Warming, Megan and Michael

The Weather Outside is Frightful

Isn't there a song which says that?  It’s certainly true in my part of the world, wind, rain, thunder and lightning, snow down to low altitudes and even some hail is promised!  It’s a good day to stay inside, I think.  We started off the day with a nice warming bowl of porridge, served with brown sugar and cream, the only way to eat it, we think.  I may well have Scottish blood in my veins but I enjoy my porridge a lot more titivated up than the real Scots porridge eaters do.  With a full tummy and a pair of nice warm home knitted socks on my feet, I was raring to go this morning.  My Dr Seuss socks, Robin calls this pair.

 

Cozy toes

My plan today was to do a little secret sewing, adding top and bottom bands to three hand embroidered tea towels I’m making for family gifts.  Thinking of course, that I will whip through this job in no time at all.  But as we all know, little jobs always take longer than we think.  As I was pinning and stitching I was reflecting on my love of watching the sewing series The Great British Sewing Bee.  No way would I pass the judges scrutiny, I’m too slow and not accurate enough!

My task for today

Gemma.has passed her day snoozing on various chairs and didn't venture her nose into the sewing room to keep me company.  I have recently changed the throws on the Lazyboy recliner chairs to the much thicker winter ones, which I call polar bear skins.  These are rather nice, she thinks, and almost blends into the background as she is curled up, snoozing yet again.  Interesting to note that she never sleeps on the lighter covers.  But one thing we can be sure of, she will be up later in the day, demanding her evening meal!  Such is the life of a cat.

Sleeping the day away

At Last

Finally finished, the stitching on two tea towels, one each for my grand daughters.  I decided to make them for the girls for when they finally get engaged perhaps, and settle down.  Now that Megan has become a home owner with her boyfriend, I think that qualifies, don't you?  The iron on transfer is from  the very clever Stitcher’s Revolution Cute Kitchen Sayings pattern booklet.  I need to add strips of fabric to the top and bottom of each tea towel and have some “kitchen” themed fabric purchased and ready to go.  That’s the next job.

Hand stitching done, now to finish them off

Gemma, the photo bomber

Now the tea towel stitching has been completed, I’ve just prepared another stitching project.  This time I’ve done an iron on transfer onto the bib of an apron – this one will be for me.

I’m also working away on my sock knitting for the grand daughters.  But why, I decided, knit one pair when I could be knitting two?  Socks are great projects to take away on car journeys – the straight knitting on the legs and feet.  Not those tricky heels and toes though, I need to sit quietly by myself when working on them, marking off each row in my handy little notebook.

Socks on the go

Birds, little fishies, and traveling on

We spotted some interesting bird life at our camp at Taupo.  Several Kingfishers sat and sunned themselves on the power lines.  Known as the Sacred Kingfisher for it was said to be a holy bird for Polynesians, who believed it to have control over the waves.

Sacred Kingfisher

Gemma was almost beside herself with excitement when she spotted a group of California Quail  through the caravan window.  Californian quail were introduced to Nelson in 1865. Who would have known that with the rapid population explosion, in 1890, thousands of Californian quail were canned or frozen and exported from Nelson to London.  Later, the release of stoats and weasels for rabbit control took its inevitable toll and numbers decreased dramatically, but quail are still the most common of the introduced upland game birds and are found in both islands.

California Quail

To celebrate my birthday we went out to the Cossie Club restaurant, they always do great meals there.  For starters, we shared a huge whitebait fritter, a real delicacy here in New Zealand.  For those of you who may never heard of whitebait before, whitebait are the juveniles of six species of small New Zealand native fish and are highly prized by fisherfolk, and sells for about $130 per kg.

Giant whitebait fritter to share

This was followed by Pork Belly for two, always a favourite of ours.  We toasted my birthday with bubbly, sat and relaxed with our tasty meal, and had a lovely evening out.

Main course, pork belly each

The next morning we packed up early and left on our trip southwards.  The weather was atrocious, wild blustery winds which made towing the van a challenge for Robin.  During part of our trip the temperature kept dropping lower and lower, getting down to 3 degrees and we drove past the almost invisible Mt Ruapehe, covered in swirling mist and rain.  When it was time for a lunch break, we decided to stop at a café and order something warm, rather than just have a cold lunch in the caravan.  Hearty soup for her, and a hot roast sandwich for him.  Look what I spotted in the café gardens as we left to get on our way.  This is what you do with old teapots!

New use for old teapots

Arriving at our destination, Kai Iwi Beach, in the mid afternoon.  The wind was blowing a gale here to, think we will wait a while to do a beach walk.  There’s nothing worse than sand blowing in your eyes.

The camp office where we had to book in is a pretty little old cottage, goodness knows how old it is.  Certainly looks vintage to me.

Camp office

There has been a stream of the early bird caravan club members calling in to check out our new van.  And look, I have a lovely new tea towel too to hang in the new van, courtesy of Janice who writes as http://jannimary.blogspot.com/.

Thank you Janice

We arrived a day early, and now the other club members are rolling in to the camp, so the weekend rally will soon be underway.  Wonder what the rally captains have arranged for us to do this weekend?  We will just have to wait and see.

No rest for the Holiday Makers

It’s just as well that we planned a rest day or two between our sightseeing trips or we would have trouble keeping up – especially in these tropical temperatures.  We had a great day out at Kuranda, a lovely little village situated high in the rain forest.  To get there, we joined the huge crowds at the terminal and boarded the Skyrail, which whisked us away over the tops of the trees.  Gliding ever so quietly, although we did get a bit of a fright when the Skyrail stopped dead a couple of times.  Luckily it soon started up again to take us on our way and took advantage of a couple of stops to get out and admire the scenery.  Then  we boarded the Skyrail the final time, and glided the short distance into the pretty little town of Kuranda

We took advantage of the free shuttle bus taking passengers up the steep hill, and went to see what Birdworld had to offer.  Birdworld is in a large open air aviary and has both exotic species, and native birds.  Birds were everywhere and the parrots in particular were getting up close and personal with the visitors, and it wasn’t too long before they decided to jump on our shoulders too.  Nibble, nibble, they went, and we had been warned that they love anything shiny, such as earrings, necklaces, and they even had a go at the shiny cord around my neck holding my sunglasses.  Their specialty, we were told, was chewing the buttons off men’s caps - Robin quickly removed his cap and put it out of their reach.

Many different parrots at Birdworld

I was thrilled to finally see one of the large native birds, a cassowary up close.  These magnificent birds are covered in a thick “mane” of silky black hair, which doesn’t really look like feathers at all.  With their striking “horn” on top, swinging wattles, strong beak and those dangerous clawed feet, they are certainly an imposing bird.

A magnificent cassowary

Lunch was next, and we enjoyed a BLAT (bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato in a bread roll), plus a nice cool milkshake and iced coffee at the Frog Café.  Then I heard the man at the next table order crocodile curry – why didn’t I think to give that a try?  A little shopping in the large market, and then we walked down to the railway station for a ride back to Cairns on the Kuranda Scenic railway.

Snapped from the carriage while going around a curve

A fleet of refurbished original red-wooden heritage carriages were coupled behind a 1720 class diesel locomotive, painted in blue and yellow.  This design portrays the legend of the Buda-dgi carpet snake, said to have carved out the Barron Gorge.  Our two hour journey commenced, and we travelled slowly through the rain forest, with points of interest being pointed out. The historic railway line was opened in 1891 after 1500 men armed only with hand picks, shovels, and dynamite laboured long and hard to carve a track through the mountains.   They slowly created 15 tunnels, 93 curves, dozens of bridges and 75 km of track.

Aboard the Kuranda Scenic Railway

Another first for us was to see a group of pelicans in the wild - these were down at the foreshore on a little spit of land.  As the tide kept getting higher, and their little piece of land was slowly getting covered over, they just keep moving closer and closer to the sea wall.  The pelicans were having a great time, bathing in the water, vigorously flapping their wings, and laying their large beaks sideways in the water to wash them.  Others were busy preening their feathers, turning their large beaks this way and that to reach the areas that needed attention. 

We sat and watched the pelicans for ages

My “ever so handy raggy denim bag” with a long shoulder strap has been invaluable.  It can carry all sorts of things, from shopping, to a couple of water bottles which we really need to carry in these rather warm temperatures.  It is so much warmer here in Cairns that at home, where we have much colder winters.  I made this sturdy bag some years ago when we had a trip to UK,  adding some tags with rings attached so that I can clip my wallet and camera case inside with “dog clips” to keep them safe.  This bag has been on several overseas holidays with me, and means I don’t need to bother with a handbag as my wallet is safely attached inside the shopping bag.

Stuffed full of purchases from the markets

Some of my purchases from Kuranda in the bag. Souvenir tea towel, Aussie dried pineapple and mango – just the thing to nibble on, and a packet of coffee, grown and roasted in Australia.  No doubt the dried fruit will soon get gobbled up, but we will leave the coffee sealed to take back home.  Must admit I didn’t realise Australia had a coffee growing industry.  Robin bought much more than me, a new tee shirt and two new caps!

A little shopping at the markets

A wonderful day out, and another thing crossed off our bucket list.  Remember – you are very welcome to log on to our travel blog at www.romanyrambler.com for a fuller version of our holiday travels.

Quilts on View, and a Tale of Woe

A “Town Like Alice” half day tour sounded like a good idea.  Our first stop on the tour was the School of the Air, which runs the largest classroom in the world.  First established in 1951, the service provides education to primary aged school children in remote locations originally using radio equipment.  These days the equipment is much more high-tech and utilises satellite internet services.  A team of  10 teachers prepare and send out the lessons from this building.

There were quilts displayed, with the blocks made and decorated by the school children in these far flung places.  The first large quilt I saw was made way back in 1988, and shows life on the stations and farms where the children lived.

A lot of work has gone into making these individual blocks

And tucked away around a corner I spotted a second quilt, made of hand prints to celebrate the 60 year celebration of School of the Air.  Both teachers and pupils contributed their hand prints to this quilt.

 

Celebrating 60 years of distance learning

While there I purchased a tea towel from their gift shop, very bright and showing scenes from the remote places where the School of the Air is broadcast. 

Sadly, while exiting the bus at our next stop, I twisted my knee and could hardly walk.  After hobbling around for a while, things were not easing and we decided to forgo the remainder of the tour.  Our driver took the others to the next stop, the Reptile Centre, and kindly drove us to the Alice Springs Hospital.

Hobbling up the hospital steps, we were processed quite quickly, forms were filled in, and I was given a card with my hospital number.  Also in the Emergency waiting room were two armed policemen, a necessary presence at the hospital it seems.  One of the staff found me a wheelchair, and before too long I was wheeled in to see a doctor.  So what had I done to my knee?  Not a torn ligament or tendon as I had thought.  I had ruptured a Baker’s Cyst behind my knee when I was twisting my legs to get out of my seat on the bus.  No, we had never heard of that either.

Waiting to see the doctor

Treatment is rest, elevation, painkillers, an elastic bandage, and gentle exercise, and my knee should slowly improve.  And luckily for us, Kiwis get reciprocal hospital care with Australia so no charge was made.  We are boarding the Ghan to continue our journey up to Darwin this afternoon,  so I will be able to hobble up for meals on the train, and relax the rest of the time.  Let’s hope it heals up quickly so we can continue with our exploring.

If readers would like to keep up with our travels in more detail, do pop over to our other blog, which gives a much fuller account of our Aussie Adventures.
You can find it on www.romanyrambler.blogspot.com