Rough Week.

This week has been a rough one for New Zealand - weather wise.

Strong winds and heavy relentless rain has caused mayhem in almost all areas of the country. Slips on roads and under folks houses; falling trees; power outages; floods, high tides and even snow, depending where you live. Shirley has photos of excess water in her garden and I think there was more heavy rain there last night, so hope she isn't afloat.
Compared with many our clean up is of a more normal nature as it happens quite often. The huge gum trees behind the house have spread leaves and limbs for hundreds of metres. One drain blocked and flooded a Kiwifruit block till we cleared the drain. The creek flowing into the dam took an extra path and created a new island but of course dumped lots more silt in the dam. Plants in the garden got trashed but most will be just fine. I rushed out and picked 6 Iceland poppies but they were already partly shredded. There are more buds coming so maybe those will brighten the garden next week. Some shrubs like the Magnolia Stalata , burst into flower with the rain and the first real daffodil popped open.There are still patches of colour out there but the overcast day makes things look a little dreary. The broccoli didn't get trashed and I picked 2 heads this morning.
DH has had a nasty throat and cold this week so on Tuesday I had to drive by myself to Rotorua to the funeral of my 93 year old Aunt. She has had cancer for a few years now and decided not to have radical treatment for it( sensible at her age ) and so has gradually declined till she passed away last Friday with her 3 daughters there with her. I have now just one Uncle -my Dad's younger brother and one Auntie - my Mum's younger sister left in that generation. I drove by the direct road from Pyes Pa to Ngongotaha, ( a back road but the shortest from here )and normally it has a beautiful view of patches of bush set against green paddocks. On Tuesday I was floating in the clouds much of the time and got a face full of slanting rain when I pulled over to try and take some photos. So there is just one there I took on the way home of the bush close to the roadside; so I will have to leave lush bush photos till another trip.
I stopped at Cottage Flair in Ngongotaha to buy a gift for a quilter friend. I spent a pleasant 45 minutes or more checking out everything in the shop out before collecting a jelly roll, a book, a pressing sheet, and some of the new misty fuse and a pattern for her. Please note I did not buy any fabric for myself......I can be quite strong willed sometimes LOL! The shop was surprisingly busy for a wet, cold, miserable day so I guess there were lots of quilters inside houses in the area busy sewing who needed extra supplies - good for them!
Finally I wanted to tell Gudrun that I have been reading an article of the progress some New Zealanders ( Gareth and Jo Morgan and co ) are making on their motorbike trip. They circled Iceland before venturing even further north. You can check it out on www.worldbybike.com
I love Iceland Poppies and want to know do they come from Iceland Gudrun and do you grow any?

I have not started any new quilting projects, rather I am doing a stock take and finding small projects to complete or reading some mags and in the evenings I have UNPICKED an entire quilt top I made while learning that I didn't like, to retrieve some nice fabric from in amongst some yuck fabric.( how's that or perseverance ???)