Just in Time for Christmas.

 These lovely green feast peas are ready just in time for Christmas. R just picked 1.145 kgs.

 Last evening I also dug the first new season's Agria potatoes- very yummy as only freshly dug spuddies can be.

Some on the peas, here spread out on the bench, have little white spots or dings on them caused by hail that fell on Friday evening.

  As they were almost ready anyway it won't effect their eating or keeping quality.

 What it has made a difference to is the young kiwifruit.

 These are 3 I picked showing the scars where the hail stones hit. Today we have to start assessing the % damage for an insurance claim. ( this is our 34th crop and we have never had to do this before so pretty lucky I guess.)

The leaves in the upper canopy got shredded and have protected the fruit below to some extent, but not completely. The damage is worst along the sides of blocks and where there were gaps in the canopy. The male vines had just been pruned leaving quite open gaps.

 Leaves with this damage will not photosynthesise well.

 Luckily there is a large crop so we hope not too many will have to be thrown on the ground with hail damage. We have yet to see if the young avocados are damaged. ( it takes a few days for bruises to show ) 

 A dictionary definition of hail says:-

 pellets of ice that form when updrafts in a thunder storm carry raindrops to a high altitude where water  freezes and then falls back to earth. 

 Yep that's what we got: thunder ;lightning ;then hail and then rain. Only the hail did damage.

Pohutukawa.

Many New Zealand Christmas trees or Pohutukawa are flowering now. On Friday when I was at the NW Supermarket at Brookfield ( inTauranga ) I noticed this little beauty over the fence of the car park.
 It's the best one I have seen this Season.

Jewel Box Quilt.

I have made a little time to do some cutting and sorting and stitching. I needed some work to take to the final  get together for this year, of our Patchwork & Quilting group, yesterday. 
Way back in May and June  I made a start on this Jewel Box ( or is it Jacob's Ladder ) quilt top. I had lots of squares left from my big Fabricated Flowers quilt. I had completed it to this stage, back then.

 This is quite small and I am now extending it. As long as I have most of the fabrics already used still available I can keep going. It is sewn together so I will have to add to the bottom in strips ( then maybe down one side ? )

 I did a little research and I am sure Jacob's ladder is exactly the same as Jewel Box? It's just the difference created by light and dark fabric placement. I prefer the name Jewel Box. ( some of these fabrics are like jewels )

 The Committee at P & Q have issued a Challenge for members to publicly list our 5 most "need to finish" UFOs. Some ladies apparently have large numbers of started but not finished projects.

 A few, like me, are finishers.........we are allowed to just list 2  - that's all I have got. This quilt and a wall hanging I am making from my own pattern from a photo I took.

 Some of the members generously offered to lend some of their unfinished  work!

 Donna Maree who is one of 3 members of our group who are also Bloggers showed me yesterday how she can post from her phone. I now might have a go at that cause I think my phone camera is superior to my older digital camera.  Tina also has a blog.

 Today we have drizzle in BOP. We need rain so hope it soaks in. 

 I hope you are all keeping up with your" to do lists?"

My Little Treat.

 Today everything is wet so most of the day has been taken up NOT by sewing or Quilting but by paper work. So having had enough ( my head hurts ) I went out and picked myself the first feed of home grown Strawberries. R isn't very keen on them so I don't need to share.

 We stayed out of the orchard cause when leaves are this wet we get wet  My broccoli plants told me leaves are still wet.

  Does anyone else out there do GST returns for a business? For ages now IRD  have been sending me little printed notes with my returns to please consider filing my returns on line. I checked with my accountant to make sure Banklink that we use would allow it. It  will, so I took the plunge and went to the website. What a procedure ....making recordings for voice recognition; ( by saying silly things you wouldn't normally say )  having user ids' and passwords  - yes used to those but with this many letters and that many numerals - They have to be written somewhere or I would not remember them! 

 They said it would be SO much easier. For Whom? Them?

 I will persevere I always do but  why must it all be more difficult.?

 WHAT if the computer or phone systems go down...we are up a creek without a paddle.

 Do I sound   grumpy? I guess I am.