The Answer is Still NO!

The answer is still NO we have not had our kiwifruit picked yet. It has rained and rained and rained, so everyone in the whole district is behind where they want to be. It's quite depressing really. Could the fruit spoil? - well yes I guess it could. The pukekos are certainly eating plenty. We are trying to be patient; truly we are. There isn't actually a choice.
 There have been breaks in the weather, but then more rain. Thunder several times! 
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                                     Anyway on to other things.

 From juice kept last year, we have been making Guava jelly. I will spare you the details but some of it had to be reboiled to get it to set. Now we have just 22 and a half of these jars full. This year we are not collecting any; we will let the birds particularly these fellows have it.

 This is a NZ native pigeon - a Kereru. One of my photographic challenges is to get a really close really clear photo of this fat greedy bird.

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 During one of the breaks in the weather I walked up the quarry behind us and took this shot of a distant Mt. Our property in in the middle of this photo. ( click to enlarge ) Can you see the straight hedges? The white spot in the middle is  the surround of the extra vegetable garden R planted this year. Kumara and Yams are still in the ground there.

 When I took this next photo it reminded me of something.

 These Autumn fallen leaves are off the Liquid Amber tree. When I was just 11 for one of the first sewing projects we had to do at school was make a tray cloth by hand. It had to have a design embroidered on it. I clearly remember using the shape of 3 Liquid Amber leaves on mine. In red and orange and yellow. It turned out really well. It was on cream cloth with 2 little raised threads in pairs on it. What was that called?  I'm darned if I can remember now.

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 My camellias are really nice at the moment.

 This is a favourite. Camellia japonica frimbriata.

 The one with the best fragrance and lots of pickable flowers is Cinnamon Cindy.

 This one is just a seedling that grew and was good enough to keep. The bee likes it anyway.

 Raindrops on the tiny  buds of camellia Trans no konesisi  ( a scented Taiwanese species )

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 My pattern for my Kim Mclean class arrive. It is for a huge quilt. I think I will just get the needs for one panel to start with. It said get 9 yards for the backing! As it is just a one day class I know I won't get much done by hand in that time.

 How have any of you ladies who have made her quilts gone about this? Totally committed or piece by piece?

One Less Worry.

No it's not that the kiwifruit is picked....we are next in line....to start tomorrow ....but the storm clouds are gathering and the whole country is forecast rain...so it won't now happen till next week.( some of the luck neighbours got theirs picked during all that sun! )
      The one less thing is I now have heard about Symposium. I sent an email and got no response then a friend told me who she had emailed, so I tried that  and I had a reply the same day. Strangely  Katrina said my information had been sent to me on the 4th of April
 As you know I did not receive it.
 But now I have. I got both of my 3rd choice options.( and tickets to everything else I asked for!!! )

 I got into a 2 day class with Gloria Loughman

 and a one day class with Kim Mclean.

 I am well pleased with that. I was relieved that I didn't get one of my 1st choice options cause it turns out the class wasn't making what was in the picture in the catalogue - find that rather strange.

 So now I have my class needs lists and am rapidly getting all my requirements.

 If you read my blog and are going to Symposium in Taupo ( Fabric Art Festival ) I would love to know so we could meet up. I know you are going to be there Carole B.

 There are  6 ladies from my P and Q group are doing classes, others are just visiting for  a day.

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 What did I say - it has just started raining!

Apron and Gift.

One of the projects I was working on is finished. A reversible apron for the kitchen sales table at our next exhibition. Being double layered makes it quite absorbent too. I have top stitched very close to the edge all the way round so it should make for easy ironing should any be needed. Doing patchwork has made me very particular about the finish of anything I sew now. I look in  horror when I find manufactured tea towels or sheets or clothes  etc that have bits missed or not correctly joined.

 I am also working on one of these again. A felt embroidered baby ball. My young ones have some lovely friends who are having a babe in June. So I am making them a gift. This is the 22nd one I have made. Some of the balls live overseas. I keep a notebook of what they had on them and who they belong to. I will leave one pentagon free till the baby is born and put the first letter of it's Christian name as a capital. I love making these - the hardest part being trying to think of some new motifs to use.

 I hadn't done a snowman before but am not completely happy with it - I will give it some tweeking and more detail.( the arms are meant to look like sticks but look a bit silly )

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 I forgot to put in the photo of the red and yellow hot pokers in the previous post. The Tuis are enjoying the nectar and hang upside down when they need to, to get at it.

 This is for Leanne...... drying walnuts in front of the fire to hasten the process. These I picked up yesterday and will be the final ones for this year I think  (510.)

That makes the total I picked up =  7,621 walnuts.

 ( so still a lot to dry and shell.)

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 We had a phone call from the pack house rep. It is looking like our turn to pick the kiwifruit might happen Saturday. ( but I think rain has been forecast for Friday...so we shall see ) 

3 Seasons.

Right now in the Southern Hemisphere it is supposed to be Autumn. Some plants know that but some it seems do not. ( I do hope that by doing some Autumn Cleaning last week ( when it supposed to be Spring Cleaning ) I did not add to the confusion.

 White chrysanthemum. That's correct but it has around it a bed of fallen Camellia petals.

 Rose hips, that correct but....

 Sally Holmes rose is still getting buds.

 The Luculia is already in flower and the bees are delighted about that.

 And yes, that is the first paper white jonquil.( so it's nearly Spring )

 My zygocactus ( known as the Christmas cactus in the North is out. 

The equivalent date should be 25th June ) 

 And my kangaroos are getting new paws....now that one I am unsure about? When do they flower most in Australia ladies?

 I do know that the walnuts fell at the correct time; the gauvas are ripe at the right time and the kiwifruit - dear I mention them are very ready....... The neighbours are getting picked today....I do hope we are soon to follow as our are very ready. ( note everyone  has to wait till their pack house tells them it is their turn to pick. They have to have a steady flow of fruit into the pack houses. As all picked fruit has to be packed or coolstored within 4 days of being picked. )We are trying to be patient........

 Right lets talk about something else.....

 On Friday Nan gave me this little quilt she made to be sent to Ruel. We agreed a little boy might like these colours. I will wait till I know someone is going up to the Philippines and get them to take it.( I coordinate the Charity quilts from our group )

 Mary had this lovely New Zealand themed quilt in Show and Tell. Someone asked her was that supposed to be a Tui? I hope it was one of our members who used to live in the UK. Otherwise there is no excuse. (She looked really gob-smacked and said "No it's woodpigeon." I called out to her aid, " It's a Kereru, and looks just right!")

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 Although there are more walnuts on the ground R says don't pick up any more he wants the space in his shed to work at something and there are sacks and sacks in there already.....I might have to be sneaky about this.

 Shelled walnuts =8.669 kilograms.

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 All you ladies who willed Mother Nature for fine weather or said your prayers please keep it up...we would like more fine days with a gentle breeze now till everyone in the district has their Kiwifruit safely picked. PLEASE!

Weekend Photos.

On Sunday we went out for a while to look at Autumn colours and have a walk. When we got back 2 hours later we discovered there had been a thunderstorm with hail and we no longer had internet access. I know it's not long without but I hate it being cut off. We are no longer getting the daily newspaper so had to resort to TV News. But things are back to normal and I can now show you where we went.

 The trees weren't as far advanced as I imagined they would be, but patches of bright Autumn colours stood out. This is at Mclaren's Falls Park ( at the foot of the Kaimai Ranges BOP )

 These are the falls with some water flow now - not dried up like they were a month ago.

 We walked down the canal but only about half way as the wind was chill and the sky threatening.

 From there we went and looked at the Exhibition of the winners of a Photographic Competition  It was on display in the Tauranga Airport. Well worth the visit.

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 Finally here is a first for this blog, I think. I don't recall ever posting a baby photo here before. This dear wee chap came with his wider family to visit us for lunch on Saturday  He is five and a half months old and so well behaved.

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 I have cut out ready to sew a double sided apron. We all have been asked to make at least one item to donate  for a special Kitchen sales table, our P and Q Group will be having with this year's exhibition. (From now on I think we are having exhibitions only every second year.)We will also have the usual sales table where members can sell anything they like and they get the money.

* Molly I will email you the recipe as it is not really "mine " to publish.

Not a Monarchy.

Near our front gate we have a Cunonia bush ( tree ) also known as a butter knife plant.( because of the red buds shaped like one ) It is an attractive tree that flowers in Autumn with small bottlebrush type flowers which smell quite pleasant and as the photo shows attracts Monarch butterflies.

 The most I managed to get in one shot was 9.

 The bees like it too.

 The property behind us is a park and they have a butterfly garden where they feed on swan plants as caterpillars.  They have recently been tagging the butterflies ( on their wing a little sticker with a number ) and releasing them.There is a tree there which hundreds are clinging too just like they do in America.

 If you enlarge the photo the butterfly at the top right has a visible sticker.

 I have noticed in the garden the monarch are also attracted to my zinnias. We also find quite a lot of dead ones having only travelled about 500 metres from their release site.We have given up reporting our finds and the butterflies numbers cause there are so many and they really want to know if they travel a long distance.
 It's quite pleasant having them around.

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 This is the easiest way for me to collect the walnuts off the ground. each green bin holds 500 nuts. The drop has slowed right down now.

 I am keeping 2 tallies . One for nuts I pick up, the other for kilograms of nuts shelled.

 Walnut tally this year so far, = 7,111.

 Shelled so far =3.960 kg.

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I have also been doing this.

 We have a huge crop of capsicums. Some are getting spoilt / chewed and rotting and I don't want to waste any really. I roast them till the skins blister and leave them to cool. I then skin them  make roasted cashew nut and capsicum dip - which is pretty yummy. I freeze some in little tubs for later use. I also eat a lot!

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Thank you for your kind comments on my last post. My friend Sue's funeral was very well attended. Luckily I got there early and was able to sit. ( there was a whole pew full of her quilting buddies. )

 The bright side to a sad day was I meet there an old friend . We went to high school together and then to Teachers College too. She and her husband, also a teacher, had  lived in the same small town as Sue's family for many years. What A shame I hadn't worked that out when Sue was still alive - she would have loved that we had a mutual friend. So quite a lot of talking catching up on all our other school friends took place.The talk had to be curtailed as my friend and her husband had to travel 5 hours back home that evening.

Making Labels.

 I know the importance of labelling quilts but sometimes the wording  can be a bit awkward if you are not exactly sure where the quilt will end up.

 This is the label I printed for the zigzag quilt I finished.The printable fabric is very hard to hand stitch on so I now machine it to easy to sew fabric, turn that under then hand sew on. In this case I used the left over already ironed piece of the binding.

 It turned out well in the end but no thanks to the printer. I have made these labels several times before with no problem, BUT this time the printer cobbled 2 sheets of the fabric @ $ 6 each. I was pretty upset with it. I put 2 separate labels on each page but that still makes these labels worth $9 each instead of the $3 they would have been with no wastage.

 I have 2 packets of the Printable fabric sheets. The older one is from USA (Blumenthal Craft ) and is not quits A4 size long. It is what I ended up using successfully on this occasion.

 The other Australian sort Premium Printable Fabric Sheets from accraft is the sort that got gobbled. Strangely I am almost positive I have used it successfully once before. There  are  10 sheets per packet. I have 7 left. 2 gobbled and one used last time I made labels. What went wrong? - I have no idea. Unfortunately the only way to find out is by doing it again....what if it goggles more?  Yes, I will need to be brave. Anyway the quilt is all complete and looks bright and happy. ( Yes finished! )

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 Today I am a bit down. At least I know why. One of our lovely quilting ladies who has been fighting her cancer for 6 years has died. Sue was a happy lovely lady in our P and Q Group and we will miss her. Her funeral is on Tuesday. She was only 65.

 These last flowers from my  Charles Austin rose are for you Sue. They smell so good.

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 I have been gardening this afternoon  First I had to weed out the remains of the Summer crops and then I planted 6 cauliflowers; 6 broccoli; 6 cabbages and 6 silverbeet.

 So they don't all come ready at once I put a selection of each in the 2 big blue plastic tubs up by the garden shed and the rest down in my little extra triangular garden. I have covered them as I don't trust either the pukekos or the peacocks to leave them alone.

Usually the things in the blue tubs grow and mature much more quickly. I think the sun warms the sides of the tubs and keeps that soil at a warmer temperature, than in the garden.

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 Here are some quilts from show and tell yesterday.

 This bento box patterned quilt is for a raffle.

 The colours Denise used in this batik quilt were just right - quite yummy!

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 I am still waiting to hear from Taupo, about my Symposium classes. I'm getting very nervous about it all. Other ladies have now heard - some emailed and asked. Do I have to do that, in order to get anywhere? They did say they would let us know.