Back to the Seventies

Not a lot happening as winter closes in. Shorter days, colder nights and not much motivation to do anything during the cold evenings after work.
Work itself has a more frantic air as the end of the financial year approaches, but at last that is over except for the piles of books everywhere waiting to be placed on the library system.
Knitting holds more attraction than quilting as I race to knit myself another warm cardigan before the onset of summer makes it irrelevant. But there are still fine days on the Coast and Misty takes maximum advantage.

However, next weekend should bring inspiration again as I head off to Reefton for the West Coast Quiilters' Retreat. Now if only I can find time and energy to prepare some of my still-to-be-finished projects ready for a working bee. There's my mother-in-law's quilt for her 86th birthday in August, the ongoing mariner's compass wall quilt still waiting for finishing inspiration, a bag pattern I have had since Timaru Symposium last year, and some scrap quilts I could get ready to actually quilt. Perhaps after the weekend there might be some photo show and tell of things that finally got done. I did finish a bag for a friend's birthday with bright Laurel Burch fabric and pinned a quilt ready to finish so something is getting done.

Meantime, we have been reliving history with a social night featuring a 70's music quiz. Our team was all pretty useless, but it was worth going to see some of the costumes. From hotpants, and caftans to culottes, to four inch high platform shoes, jeans with coloured flare inserts, beads, berets and headbands, and long boots. Did we really wear all those things?

Denniston, Karamea and Nelson travels

Had a wonderful trip up the coast to Denniston to do the new mine tour a few weekends ago. Seeing the Denniston incline and realising that for a time the only way up or down for people, their belongings, and the coal was over the edge and down that long drop was an amazing experience in itself. I am now re-reading Jenny Patrick's Denniston Rose and have a new appreciation for the setting and atmosphere of the book.
The mine tour is not for the claustrophobic or those afraid of the dark. An electric train takes you to the portal where you are winched inside up the shaft with the smell of coal all around and sound effects of rats and creaking timbers. Once inside some are given the chance to trial each of the jobs miners had to do - shovelling coal, firing shots, putting in posts, hitching wagons up to the wire and so on. All this in tunnels with low ceilings and lit by lamps, often working bent over all day. What a life it must have been.

Imagine dropping off this edge!

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No closer Jean - it's a long way down!

Onward from Denniston to Karamea to visit the start of the Heaphy track and the Oparara limestone arches

We struck a beautiful sunny day which made the bush walks spectacular. Wekas seemed to be everywhere, but there were also bush robins and wood pigeons.

Standing inside and under these arches gives a much better feel for their size, but my photography is not good enough to capture that.
One trip down from our West Coast wish list. For now that will probably be it as the weather turns to winter, temperatures drop and the rain sets in in earnest.

Having said that I also just had a trip to Nelson where I defied them to mention the wet West Coast. It was
hosing with rain there too and they had to admit that it has felt like the wettest summer for years up there.
As we were quilting and eating and gossiping weather was fortunately irrelevant. Made some placemats and a tote bag for gifts, a quilt top for a mother-in-law and progress on some more scrappy string blocks. I'm working on Virginia Bound from the Quiltville website. The hope is to use up my leftover scraps, but they seem to keep multiplying in the basket. I wonder if I will ever reach the bottom of it.

Lots of light reading going on, mainly chick lit. Also lots of experimenting downloading books onto the iPad.
One wonders why I can download a book from Kobo in Canada for very few dollars while our local Whitcoulls presents the same book for a hefty fee?
Speaking of Kobo we have purchased one for the staff to become familiar with at work and as a demo for customers. My learning curve is to get it set up ready to use with the new Overdrive system due shortly so that we can show customers how to use their own e-readers. It was amazing to see that about 7 of my quilt group of 40 already owned and used e-readers or iPads and most of them would be over 60. So much for the younger generation being the computer generation. We oldies aren't so bad ourselves!

Lots of time spent playing with my own iPad installing and sorting out apps for a Budget, a To-do list, and various note-taking programmes including those where you can write with your finger or a stylus, or maybe have a recording taken while you write. My husband reckons it is the best money he's ever spent and keeps me occupied for hours. He could be right, after all it is far more fun than housework.

Rain, rain, go away

Winter is definitely here. I'm listening to the sound of rain hosing down outside, which it has been doing all weekend. Tonight we have the addition of thunder and lightning just for a bit of variety.
Last weekend we headed for Christchurch for Mothers' Day. We usually meet some interesting drivers along the way, but this time was the best ever. For some time we followed a mid-size camper van which couldn't decide which side of the road we drove on over here. He solved the problem by straddling the centre line most of the time. Where is Mr Plod when you need him? Being out of cellphone range we were unable to report his dangerous driving, but I would hate to have been coming the other way, and was very pleased to finally get past him.
Driving round Christchurch and showing mother-in-law the area she used to live in was an interesting experience. Most of her old street looked fine, but a few blocks away is Eastgate Mall with one whole wall scaffolded up, and a Shell garage where tanks have popped out of the ground. Around town the Hotel Grand Chancellor on a drunken lean certainly dominates the skyline.
Speaking of skylines - we didn't leave until later coming back on this trip and were treated to a glorious range of colours as the sun went down. Here's one example as the colours changed from red, to orange to yellow.

Cold, wet weather is at least good for settling in and getting lots of craft and reading done.

A second pair of socks is on the way, the last sleeve of a jersey I began last winter is half done, and several scrappy quilt tops have grown somewhat.
Working with the iPad is also my new obsession. Having been given vouchers for Mothers Day I have been researching new apps to add to my toy. I'm looking at one which will enable me to transfer and read many types of files from my computer, another which will let me make notes by typing or handwriting, and one which will let me add notes and clips from just about anywhere and synch them easily between my computer and the iPad. That's not to forget the games like Angry Birds and Bejewelled Blitz. Lots of time-wasting fun. Mind you this weekend I have hardly been able to get the iPad off my husband to do anything so perhaps an iPad2 might need to be in my future?
Figuring out how it all works is also useful for work purposes as the discussion over audio and e-books continues. I think people are only just realising how fast the e-book world is progressing. It will be some time before paper books disappear, if ever, but electronic formats are certainly becoming an option for many. Now if only the book suppliers would come to realistic pricing for e-books instead of charging almost the same as a paper book which requires far more processing.

Anyway, this weekend ordinary library books were my entertainment and I had plenty of time to catch up on my reading  as heading outside was not really an option.

Harlen Coben's Live Wire brought back a familiar character in Myron Bolitar. I prefer these to his stand alone stories, but this one had less humour and more of a dark family story in it. Still a good read, although it feels like the end for this character.

Jodi Picoult's latest Sing You Home certainly manages to mix in a set of controversial topics. She moves from describing the obsession that can come from IVF treatment for infertility, to the difficulties of living as a lesbian without the civil rights of other couples, to the treatment of homosexuals by religious fanatics, and legal questions of what makes good parents and whether IVF embryos are people or property. Told in three different voices, the characters felt a bit over the top and the ending somewhat contrived and predicatable. Not a bad read, but not one of her best works for me.  

After the intensity of that I have moved on to a rather large tome - Bill Bryson's At Home. I wasn't sure if this was going to be too 'dry', but with Bill Bryson I should have known better. Only a few chapters in and already I am intrigued by his format and the snippets of history he is revealing. Should be a good read.

 

 

Let's hear it for long weekends....

If only they weren't usually so wet! One of life's eternal questions. Why is it always so wet on weekends and the sun shines when you have to go back to the salt mines?

Jean returned from Brisbane where the weather sounded little better, bearing gifts of t-shirts, opal ear-rings and duty free Baileys.

Then he was off again to prune trees at our Nelson house in the pouring rain as their weather was equally bad. Fortunately it fined up enough for his visit to the Blenheim airshow on a boys day out with a friend.

One thing about wet weekends is that there is a perfect excuse to sit and read NZ Gardner and dream rather than actually getting out in the garden. To me gardening is just housework transferred outdoors.

So it was a weekend for crafts. One pair of socks finished, a second pair started,  one scrappy quilt top ready to border and a blue scrappy almost done. Not a good photo, but the idea is there.

Not much else to do but read, so how about this for a list:

Someone else's son - Sam Hayes. A bit of a twist on the usual crime story.  A reality TV host who interviews families she considers losers, or criminals, has her only son stabbed and goes on to try and find out the truth of his death. The truth turns out to hold yet another twist. A gritty depiction of bullying of two teens who don't fit in, the lack of communication in families, even those who appear to have everything,  and the violence surrounding even young children in some areas of the society depicted.

Treachery in Death - J.D. Robb. Another enjoyable read in this series. This time the focus is on corruption within the police department itself. Eve's sidekick, Peabody, is given a greater role in the case.

Daughters-in-law - Joanna Trollope.  A story of evolving family relationships as the mother of three sons finds her control slipping away as they each get married and form new relationships of their own.

29 - Adena Halpern. A lightweight story about a 75 year old who, on her birthday, wishes to be 29 again for a day.  When her wish comes true she finds her life is not as carefree as she thought it would be. Some fun arises as she interacts with her daughter and grand-daughter and they all learn more about each other.

To the Moon and Back - Jill Mansell. Totally indulgent, fluffy romance with well written if a bit stereotypical characters. The sort of book you can pick up and lose yourself in for a while, not a lot of action, but a pleasant read all the same.

So that was my pick-and-mix of reads for the weekend. They have been piling up on my bookshelf calling out to be read. That is the trouble with working in a library. So many interesting books cross the desk and demand your attention.

It's been so wet I've even been reduced to doing housework and baking. Now it's time to ice the chocolate slice and put a roast chicken on for dinner. A long work week doesn't usually leave me in the mood for such indulgence. For a change the smells in my kitchen are wonderful.

Cold, wet and miserable

Jean has just set out for Christchurch to catch a flight to Brisbane for four days for a work course. Recent temperatures in Brisbane have been around 26, so I'm sure they'll find time to go walking round the city in the sun. Meanwhile here this weekend has felt like the start of winter - cold, hosing rain and no sense walking round outside anywhere. I did suggest I could go too, especially as our wedding anniversary is on a day he is away, but instead I get to stay home and mind the store, so to speak. I seem to have lost the shopping gene lately, but my travel bug is getting stronger instead. Time for a trip away somewhere interesting. It was going to be Tokyo, but perhaps not!

Earthquakes rumble on where all our sons are living. Christchurch had another 5.3 last night which cut power to one son for an hour or so. Japan had another over 6 last week which our middle son said was time to go under a desk and then decide work was over for the day.

Here it is just revoltingly wet so I have the choice of housework or reading and craft. Hmm, decisions, decisions....

I have been working on my bag of fabric scraps which are slowly turning into this

I also have one sock knitted, so I can have one warm foot. Just starting another one with this lovely wool which makes its own stripes like so

Naturally I also have reading lined up and I am currently in crime mode. Just finished Linda Fairstein's latest, Silent Mercy. I usually enjoy this author, but found the religious history in this one a bit too much for me.
Next is Stuart McBride's gritty Shatter the Bones which so far has all the hallmarks of his usual dark crime tales. I think after that Vicki Myron's story of Dewey : the small town library cat who touched the world should be a light read. Who needs television these days?

Winter is in the air

This blogger has been missing in action as the time has flown by. Two weekends ago I dragged my growing pile of fabric scraps to the local high school for a quilting day. The weather outside wasn't wonderful but inside we were fortified by yummy, warm,  just-baked biscuits filled with chunks of chocolate.. There went the benefits of walking all week, but they were just too good to resist.
Last weekend we paid a visit to Nelson for the first time in a while, taking a drive past our house there, checking out some shops, keeping my library card alive in our local library, and having a good honest lunch in the local Stoke Bakery. None of the fancy overpriced food here and we enjoyed it.
As the reason for our visit was to catch up with friends visiting from Australia we had booked a motel out of town. The Tapawera Settle was about the only place available in the area we wanted, although locals later recommended the local hotel. Being a country area we were not expecting high standards, and the price was comparatively cheap, which was just as well. The campground itself was fine, and would probably be a nice place to stay if you had your own campervan.

This composite picture skews the size a bit and makes the room appear bigger. The double bed had my husband's feet hanging over the edge all night, the wardrobe was the 'handyman's dream' in the far corner, and cooking with the microwave or toaster oven would have been an interesting exercise in logistics considering the available bench space. Add on some noisy guests who had a yakfest close by until after midnight, and a helicopter parked nearby which started up and took off around 7 a.m. and it was a really restful night. I guess our tastes have gone upmarket these days and you get what you pay for. We thought we had met the best when we stayed at the Paraparaumu Motel (avoid unit 13 if you have to stay there at all) on our recent trip, but I think this is a tie! Oh well, add it to the rich tapestry of life's experiences!

My latest craft craze, aside from quilting, is knitting socks. Blame an American friend who sent me some sock wool which knits itself into patterns without any effort on your part. I should have nice toasty warm toes for the winter by the time I have finished.

The temperatures here have definitely dropped and, despite the sunny days, we can tell that winter is on its way. A great time for catching up on reading which I have done in the past few weeks. Georgia's Kitchen by Jenny Nelson is a chick lit / foodie cross, a light read for those who enjoy the details of cooking and restaurants; The Kills by Linda Fairstein' and Jonathan Kellerman's new book Mystery both provided a crime fix, although I felt the Kellerman was not the best he's written; a Stargate book, downloaded to my iPad, is my equivalent of Mills & Boon, enjoyable to me as I enjoy sci-fi, but not taking much effort to read.

My current book is Promises, Promises by Erica James which looks like more chick lit and I have just downloaded the latest Stephen Booth The Devil's Edge.  Waiting by my bed are Silent Mercy (Linda Fairstein), Shatter the Bones (Stuart Macbride), The Shelly Beach Writers' Group (June Loves) and Dewey : The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World (Vicki Myron).

My husband is off to Australia on a course shortly so, with these books, my quilt scraps, and a freezer full of leftovers I am all prepared to fly solo for a few days.



Tokyo, Christchurch and all

Just had a day trip to Christchurch, escaping the rain for a hot sunny day. Despite staying out of any major affected areas there are still signs of the earthquake in the number of missing chimneys, the partly fixed roads, roadblocks manned by soldiers, and parks filled with silt 'volcanoes' from liquefaction. With The Palms, Merivale and Eastgate Malls damaged, South City and Spotlight blocked off, and the city centre (as the mayor put it) munted, Westfield Mall was even busier than normal. Even for someone who usually enjoys shopping it was 'let me out of here' time. Catching up with two sons and mother-in-law filled up the day and it was nice to head home even if it was still raining.
Middle son is back in Tokyo and keeping an eye on news on the radioactivity front. To him and his friends the government warning that tap water is unsafe for young babies translates into 'no one is drinking the tap water'. Luckily he has supplies of bottled water to use instead. Here's hoping that is as bad as the situation gets.
Using one weekend day for travel does not leave much time for anything else. Quilting has been taking a back seat lately so today I was determined to do something. Yay, the mystery quilt borders are finally finished. Two more to add to my stash of tops that will be quilted one day. After that it was back to using up scraps in a pioneer braid which is one of about three scrap projects on the go to try and demolish the pile of leftover strips and squares that always collects in the basket under my sewing table.

Hours of sewing and only two braid lengths done. No wonder I need more days in my weekend!