Hazel

Hazelnut catkins.

I haven't planted my hazels close enough to enjoy prolific crops. They're wind pollinated and the pollen off one variety needs to connect with the tiny little red hairs at the top of the catkins on the other variety to make magic happen.

I've picked a few and waived the pollen around.

The moon looks quite good for taking cuttings.

A "grove" of hazels would be nice.

Sea views

We've built ourselves a place by the sea before

This time we've settled for the beautiful local sandspit.

Seems to be a lovely quiet neighbourhood.
We settled on a "doer upper". Skatey supervised the other kids into a workforce to make his dwelling windproof.

PJ planned future improvements, and collected a bag full of rubbish off the beach.

A beautiful relaxing warm winter day.

The Sand spit is a special place for the amazing migratory Bar- Tailed Godwits and

the Motueka Arts council have organised an event this year to celebrate the godwits return.

We recommend this as a beautiful local spot to visit. Please leave only footprints though.

Garden notes July-Hops

Spent hop flowers make beautiful light compost. When they're fresh you can use them for beer, hop pillows or just for country style decoration.
But,

mark my words:
if you plant a vine at the corner of your chook enclosure thinking that a beautiful trailing hop vine will be a wonderful addition to that area of the garden, you might just live to regret it.

The roots will soon attempt to circumnavigate the whole neighbourhood.
Some of them are as thick as my arm and they run for metres from the original site and re sprout themselves where they choose. It's not that I no longer love hop vines but they have a very strong will of their own. Mine has become seriously annoying as it lifted up the chook fence with it's growth last summer. Now that everything is dormant the chooks can see that it's quite easy to just wander out into the garden to scratch where I've spread mulch. So the hop vine is coming out. It will probably take a few years to get on top of it too. Serves me right, I'm sure someone warned me not to plant it. It's that time of the year to get everything in good shape for the next growing season. I have alot of pruning, clearing and mulching to catch up on.

5

I'm missing my beautifully cuddly boy. Happy Birthday to the angel Gabriel ..................................

Blah blah multi task

I'm spinning green merino while the Dial Up loads.
I've done a little blog house-work too.

The house fairy hasn't done the dishes yet,
but she's got the hallway tidy enough that I don't trip over.
She lost count of the loads of washing she's done. Wood chopping, school lunches, dance classes, baking, homework, tea for sore throats and vacuuming too.
I paid the bills to help her out.
We Desecrated the environment by running the big boys in the car to "Will the lost years" more times than I can count on the fairies fingers and toes. (kind community drove them home after shows. 10.30pm)
The garden fairy planted some garlic and cleared some seedy weeds. She combed the garden and made: kitchen faerie rooster/barley/noodle soup with garden vegetables, which most of them turned their noses up at. Then the eaters claimed it made them fart (not too many onions and Jerusalem artichokes, I'm sure I told you faerie).
School holidays are in sight- Thank goodness.

Sneak Preview

I just had to share my delight at the goodies I've been sent for our little event on Saturday. Silk hankies, hand dyed merino, thick spun singles and a bag of beautiful silk fibre from Spinning a Yarn. If you love wool, this is like opening a huge bag of candy.

And even more candy!

Delightful mini Blendy's NZ Yarn Sample Box packs.

Granny is a tank, I'm a nana

The boys refer to Granny as a tank.
It's a compliment because, boy is she tough!

Granny rode a Harley Davidson when she was my age. I tagged along to Canan Downs Rally and Canvas town. I was 17 and remember there was quite a bit of mischief. Thank goodness that was before Internet, digital cameras and U tube.

She wisely left me behind for the Brass Monkey.

She didn't need a man to fix her car, or a plumber to fix the pump or to clear a bloody blocked drain!

Her life storey would be worth writing and I only know the half of it.

These day she's nearly 60 and can still wield a chainsaw!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With all the Autumn rain a tree fell down at school and at the neighbours. At our house the plum tree took on a serious lean. Granny took several heavy limbs off with her chainsaw. (I freaked out like a Nana). We tried to save some of the tree because I think it pollinates the other plum. Skatey will have to build a new tree hut and hopefully silver leaf will not find it's way into those big cuts.

Winter is here

Community Knitting

Do you want to join in with a good old fashioned Community event?
Saturday 19 June 1.30pm.
$5 entry includes spot prizes, raffle and afternoon tea. All proceeds going to St Johns ambulance.
Baptist Church, Greenwood st Motueka.
Come along and join in for the afternoon. If you're already a knitter bring along some no. 8 needles and have a go at the speed knitting competition. If you're still learning or perfecting your technique come and get some ideas or purchase some lovely new yarn or fibre. I will have a selection of fibre and yarn from Jessicah's shop and sample boxes from Blendy's New Zealand Yarn Sampler Box. As well as some organic, natural dyed yarns from a local crafter and a bit of hand spun from my Mum.
It's getting quite exciting, let me tell you how it started:

I've got to know some of the older ladies who volunteer in the Red Cross, quite well. We talk sewing, knitting and sometimes about the kids, after all they have seen myself and the children quite regularly since the children were born. Some days when I'm not in a rush they have related to me hilarious stories ranging from childbirth to parenting, being a 1950's housewife to local history. I really admire the community spirit of some of the ladies in particular, and follow with interest their contributions towards Operation cover up each year and other charities. For operation cover up they knit dozens of squares for warm blankets as well as jerseys and slippers to send to children in orphanages over seas.
During one of my thrift shop visits I heard that one of the ladies was organising a knitting competition and display to be held in conjunction with the annual winter Festival of lights. She was keen to attract some younger knitters to enter the competition and I suppose, to involve us in the community spirit. I value strongly how much can be learned from our elders so I volunteered to help put some posters up, put a link on Motueka Online and will do a display of some edgy knitting books and patterns, hopefully including a couple of pictures of Urban knitting to really push the boundries. I had great plans to do some "out there" knitting but not alot has come to fruition. I need a team of knitters to get all my ideas completed in time. I tried to teach the kids to knit to pattern but they're not particularly dedicated workers! I will however get a Mohawk hat finished. Watch this space and....
See you there, or stop at the above mentioned shops.

Kefir Soda

Left water kefir, right milk kefir.
A friend of mine loaned me "A change of heart" by Kay Baxter. Having always been a meat eater and raised on a farm to harvest from the land and waste nothing, I really enjoyed the book and it's recipes. I've experimented a wee bit with milk Kefir for digestive health and was encouraged by the easy instructions in the book to convert some of my milk Kefir Grains to make kefir soda. This is essentially the process I used. The results were yummy and really encouraging. The kids even added their approval but don't like it as much as ginger beer. It tastes a tad alcoholic but so does my ginger beer at times. My online research found this good article leaving me feeling reassured that it's Ok for kids at least once in awhile and surely better than bought, sweet, fizzy drinks (which incidentally I refuse to buy, making me a freaky hippy according to some of my children). The success of the experiment led me to wonder if I could get real water Kefir Granules in New Zealand. It didn't take long for me to find this site and I received my grains with excellent instructions. I very soon had the water kefir going alongside my milk kefir. I had to move all my brews to the warming cupboard when the winter cold snap hit and now the cultures are all expanding so well that I can share some with friends and experiment with extra fruits and honey for sweetness.
The lemon tree is having trouble keeping up with lemons for the jar, but the new crop are close to being ripe. Elsewhere in the garden, young citrus are being covered to protect from frost. The ground is far to wet to cultivate for the garlic but weeds and grass of course are thriving.

Desperately seeking Patons Smoothie DK White 1020

A friend of mine is tantalisingly close to finishing a shawl for her first Grandchild. The local yarn shops have run out of the yarn she needs to finish the last peak around the edge of the shawl. If anyone had half a ball or even 20 metres of the white Patons Smoothie DK 1020 that she needs she'd happily cover costs and postage. Please if you can help send me an email or leave a comment.