Clivia's

Yesterday I went to Te Puna to a Clivia Show and Sale with my friend Prue.
This is the first time I have come across this flowering plant, as it does not grown in the Northern Hemisphere outside.
This show was set in some ones garden and it was a woodland area those growing were under the trees and wonderful specimens were in the glass house.

Now I have fallen in love, and if there is ever a plant I could start to cultivate this would be it.
I did buy one it is 3 years old and will nor flower for may be another year or so
There is no guarantee about the colour only that it will be between yellow and peach.
It actually takes 5 years from seed for the plant to flower and approx. about the same from baby shoots from the adult plant

Besides the show we had some retail therapy and thrown in was a quilt shop...would you believe that !!

New Furniture

You may remember a few months ago I talked about the wood burning stove coming out

and buying new furniture taking it's place.

Well!! finally after 3 months it has been made and delivered,

I love it and am really happy with how it has blended with the " Lockwood " of the walls.

Photo of the soccer team

Ellis is one holding the trophy

My son Iain is short one at the back he is one of the trainers with his friend Rhys

Just a catch up

This last week has been in a bit of a whirl.
I have been so busy and not a moment to stop and think.
Between watch Ellis playing soccer to going for a scan on my arm, quilting and trainings and baby sitting, blogging has not been on the menu.

May be you remember my sewing machine went into the menders, well it returned and I have not needed to use it until Quilting day, first thing I tried was to fill a bobbin with a different coloured thread...not such luck, for some reason the computer did not want it to do it.
So, I can not change stitch or position of needle...computers are okay some times but at others they can be a curse. but I managed to finish This :

There is no prize for the answer to this question, but if there is someone out there who can tell me why I made this? it is to big to sit besides your machine or even anywhere else, as you can see from the photo that I have taken with a tea cup. But it is pretty may be that was the attraction in the first place.

I watched Ellis (8) play football Saturday morning...he is good ! they won their first match but got knocked out on penalties on the second round ...it was a knockout comp...... it was so sad they all cried, he was heart broken, they were no doubt the better team , they scored in first half then on final half minute the others got a very lucky roll into the goal...... it almost made me cry for them there were tears in the eyes of other Mums and Dads and the trainers.... on top of that it was cold and raining quite hard so they were all like drowned rats but they played there hearts out.

Then on Sunday he went to the end of soccer season prize giving , he won 2 medals and a certificate but the big one was he got the "Golden Boot" trophy for scoring the most goals for the season, he was walking 10ft tall, well done Ellis. I am one proud Grandma. Will post a photo of him and his awards when I get one or should I say when I manage to take one.

This week was Kathryn's 1st wedding anniversary, on her blog she posted this photograph one I have not seen before it is so lovely I am going to show you all.

Now for my Scan, about 4 months ago I was hit on the top of my left arm by a lift door when it closed, I had bruises and it hurt but nothing that I felt a need to worry about...but now it is painful and getting quite weak. So a trip to the Dr's was called for... I have now been for a scan and xrays and I need to visit an Orthopedic chap this next Monday, as I have a damaged Tendon which has now calcified... hopefully he can cure this by injections and we don't have to go down the operation road ... fingers crossed.

Last week was my last training for the museum, I am now qualified as a guide and this Wednesday is my Graduation Day.. I have to give a talk to an assortment of people from other guides to the curate of the museum, yep! my knees are shaking already.

Mowing the Lawn

I bet where you live is just like where we live on the weekend some one is always out in the yard banging and hammering, weed wacking or mowing the lawn, always a racket going on.... never silence and peaceful, most of the time I don't mind these sounds of life going on and I would guess you all have these days as well

Well !! I can beat your stories hand down..

Yesterday evening after a glorious day around about 7pm it was dark and from across the street came the sound of mowing, I could not believe my ears and went out to investigate and low and behold on the new subdivision a home owner with a fairly large plot was mowing in the dark.

He had head lights on his ride on mower and was gaily mowing oblivious to every thing, I wanted to take a picture, but it would have been very obvious when the flash went off,

so I decided I better not and crept away home again.

This post is long so please sit and have a cup of tea

I just have to post this, I recieved this on an email and it is just so good, if you are a grandparent like me you should crease up and fall about laughing.

no. 11 is so close to home that I hope my grandchildren did not think this, with all our travelling.


Grandparents

1. She was in the bathroom, putting on her makeup, under the watchful eyes of her young granddaughter, as she'd done many times before.After she applied her lipstick and started to leave, the little one said, 'But Gramma, you forgot to kiss the toilet paper good-bye!'I will probably never put lipstick on again without thinking about kissing the toilet paper good-bye....

2. My young grandson called the other day to wish me Happy Birthday. He asked me how old I was, and I told him, '62.' My grandson was quiet for a moment, and then he asked, 'Did you start at 1?'

3. After putting her grandchildren to bed, a grandmother changed into old slacks and a droopy blouse and proceeded to wash her hair. As she heard the children getting more and more rambunctious, her patience grew thin. Finally, she threw a towel around her head and stormed into their room, putting them back to bed with stern warnings.
As she left the room, she heard the three-year-old say with a trembling voice, 'Who was THAT?'
4. A grandmother was telling her little granddaughter what her own childhood was like: 'We used to skate outside on a pond. I had a swing we made from a tyre; it hung from a tree in our front garden. We rode our pony. We picked wild raspberries in the woods'The little girl was wide-eyed, taking this all in.. At last she said, 'I sure wish I'd known you sooner!'

5. My grandson was visiting one day when he asked, 'Grandma, do you know how you and God are alike?'
I mentally polished my halo and I said, 'No, how are we alike?''
'You're both old,' he replied.

6. A little girl was diligently pounding away on her grandfather's computer. She told him she was writing a story. 'What's it about?' he asked.'I don't know,' she replied. 'I can't read.'

7. I didn't know if my granddaughter had learned her colours yet, so I decided to test her. I would point out something and ask what colour it was.. She would tell me and was always correct. It was fun for me, so I continued.At last, she headed for the door, saying, 'Grandma, I think you should try to figure out some of these, yourself!'

8. When my grandson Billy and I entered our holiday cabin, we kept the lights off until we were inside to keep from attracting pesky insects. Still, a few fireflies followed us in.Noticing them before I did, Billy whispered, 'It's no use Grandpa. Now the mosquitoes are coming after us with flashlights.'

9. A second grader came home from school and said to her grandmother, 'Grandma, guess what? We learned how to make babies today.'The grandmother, more than a little surprised, tried to keep her cool. 'That's interesting,' she said, 'how do you make babies?'It's simple,' replied the girl. 'You just change the 'y' to 'i' and add 'es'."

10. A grandfather was delivering his grandchildren to their home one day when a fire engine zoomed past. Sitting in the front seat of the fire engine was a Dalmatian dog. The children started discussing the dog's duties.'They use him to keep crowds back,' said one child.'No,' said another. 'He's just for good luck.'A third child brought the argument to a close. 'They use the dogs,' she said firmly, 'to find the fire hydrants.'

11. A 6-year-old was asked where his grandma lived.''Oh,'' he said, ''she lives at the airport, and when we want her, we just go and get her. then when her visit has finished, we take her back to the airport. '

12. Grandpa is the smartest man on earth! he teaches me good things, but I don't get to see him enough to get as smart as him!

I don't know why?

I really don't know why?

but I do not seem to be getting any temporary Internet files lately. In the past I had to clean up using my " Disc Cleanup " regularly. The only differences I have made is I have stopped using Norton Antivirus

I think this is showing just "how not so good Norton was " people had been telling me Norton causes all sorts of problems for ages especially when I was having problems ....

I really think it used to but just learnt to live with it....but no longer.

So I would recommend AVAST it is free for home computers.

My computer is definitely faster and I don't get all the problems

I had before with opening internet sites.

One of those!!

Lately, I seem to be sewing no more use than ornament objects, at the craft fair last week we saw some felt pin cushions, like the ones we made a few weeks ago, sweet and flowery.

We noticed a pattern for another on the same theme, as we already had the pattern for the others I knew I could adapt it.

And behold here it is.

Who is teaching our grand children what ?

Today I had an email from Kathryn saying

"Check out this website"

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The artical on Alex at Kindergarten

We had spent the afternoon catching cockroaches that were living in the outside sunshade. Alex was particularly interested in this activity and encouraged his friends to get involved! I was talking to Alex after all the cockroaches had been caught (or escaped!) and asked him:
“How come you let your big cockroach go?”
Alex: “I just wanted this baby one, cause I like baby ones and you know why?...Cause I like babies.” “Cause I like things that come out of mummies and daddies tummies and they like me!”
(later that day...Alex: “put the picture of the baby cockroach in my portfolio.”)

Alex talks with Jessica about baby cockroaches

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This artical was on a website

I must admit I know nothing about what this was all about,

but I believe it is a study of kids and their journey

" what is being taught to little's these days at Day Care"

But then he may have got these details from home ?

NZ from Space

New Zealand, South Island with just a view of North island,

with cook Straight in between

as seen from the Space Station

Unexpected company

This weekend I have unexpected company in the shape of these two sleeping angels.

Mum and Dad had some urgent things to do and asked if I could look after them over night
Alex the youngest has never stayed away from home since getting older before, so a first for him and he has a few reservations about the whole thing, so after great deliberation it was decided we would all sleep in Grandma's very large King size bed.

The best thing they liked best " The electric blanket" or the magic blanket as Alex called it, seems they would like Santa Claus to bring them one each so they can be toasty warm in their beds....a thought must add that to the may be list of this Santa's helper.
Could not decide on which picture to post so though Okay both !!

Can't they read

I was really amazed at the number of ladies I saw touching the quilts some where behind them and smoothing them feeling the fabric etc.

Now this notice which was every where was not small or is it that some quilters or their friends can't read.

Hamilton more photo's

I saw a lot of these around the show most were in the

same position or stood with a blank look on their face

Saw hundreds of these ...... ladies enjoying them.

More Quilts for your enjoyment

Hamilton Craft and Quilt Fair

From left to right

Sheryl, Mhairi, Laurie, Beth, Sugi, Hetty

in the back ground the trusty camper van.

Today was Hamilton Craft and Quilt Fair

The quilts were fantastic

This quilt has not photographed well it was all applique

and then each item was stuffed thus all was in relief.

This is Jenny Bowker' s Hashim she stitched this in Egypt

while I was in Dubai I heard all about it

and it has won all sorts of prizes.

It was great to see it in the flesh as they say.

This quilt was made with fabric depicting NZ at first you do not

see what the fabric pattern is...but looking closer you see the back ground is sheep

Another that was just amazing with such suttle colours

I also loved this one

This wall hanging won best in show, idea came from back of an elevator door

in a hotel while the owner was on holiday in Canada or the USA.

Lots more pictures
Will post some more tomorrow