Mummy, I want a horse.

If there are any plus sides to funerals, it is that family gather together.  On the weekend, we lunched at Uncle M's farmlet.  He's a bit of a horse whisperer - he is a barefoot trimmer and rides bridleless.  The kids love him, and not just because they get to ride the horses!

First order of the day is grooming.  My daughter has no fear and weaves her way through the patient horses legs without a care.

Second order of the day, help saddle the horse.  This one is Jellybean, a quarter horse and matriarch of the herd.

The other horse is Misty, tall and graceful. 

I love this shot of the other horses looking on.  None of them are really suitable for kids, so it's always Misty and Jellybean who do the honours.

Good fun was had by all, tinged with a little sadness because we all knew the reason we were together.

Hopefully we will all gather together again here at Christmas time for our annual camping trip.  No doubt Jellybean and Misty will get another workout.

Keeping the mess outside

Well, if it's a hot, sunny autumn day, then you may as well paint outside half nekkid.  I mean, it's not like your Mum is going to embarrass you by taking a picture or anything.  And she surely wouldn't post that picture on the world wide web for all to see.  Would she?

Today is grey and windy, so it makes me happy to look at sunny day pictures. 

Soon it will be chaos in our house as my Sister in Law and her three little girls descend on us.   Wish me patience and calm thoughts!

These flowers are dedicated to a little angel baby, L.T.  We never met you, but you have a special place in our hearts.

Also for my husband's cousin, who passed away last night, too young.  We will miss you.

I'm glad we've evolved past eating lizards.....

I have a headcold and I'm going to use it as an excuse to not write anything new and inspired, but to dredge up some old photos I don't think I showed you.

Snails anyone?  We went to a friends for a mini Wildfood Festival.  Rules were simple,  dishes must be made with as many 'wild' ingredients as possible.



Just for proof when he's 21 - those are snails my boy is eating.  He enjoyed them.  Mind you, he has also enjoyed eating huhu grubs raw and wriggling too. (Images of huhu grubs here.)

Apparently the fried possum with kumara mash was delicious.  Something put me off trying it.....

We also got to sample Kentucky Fried Duck, Pavlova with Manuka Honey and Stewed Loquats, Wild Pork, Venison Pizza, Taro Fritters, and lots of yummy seafood.

It was such a success that our hosts are planning to make it an annual affair.  I'm hoping I'm not picked as a judge - judges have to taste everything!

Gone the way of the moa...

I bought a fat quarter pack of Moda Lumiere de Noel fabrics today, 50% off.  Normally I would be jumping with joy at finding such a deal, but the fact that our local quilt shop is closing down, hence the discount, has tempered my mood today.

As soon as the kids and hubby were out the door today I knocked off the housework and animal feeding as fast as I could, just so I could spend a good chunk of time with quilting.  And it made a difference - I really felt like I got 'into the groove'.  (Sorry, this post is full of cliches!)

The photo above has my plan for the 21st quilt.  This is how I work out my layouts - on grid paper that I print out (thanks google). 

For the quilt I cut lots of 4 1/2" blocks and got people to sign them.  However, everyone was getting tipsy so most people ignored my requests about leaving a space for a seam allowance, plus there are plenty of lewd comments that H might not want on the front of his quilt.  So I'm making a pieced top, with blues, browns and creams and the back will have all the signed squares appliqued to it in a grid format.

I also managed to bust out these two 8" blocks.  They are part of my first row for a row-by-row round robin that I'm organising for our Guild.  There's something about star blocks that I really like. 

Now it's evening, the kids are in bed, I don't have any books to read, so I'm making myself a peppermint tea and getting back to some piecing. 

Flying Geese

I'm having trouble getting motivated to blog lately.  There are a few contributing reasons.  Life seems pretty mundane at the moment after the excitement of Symposium, we've had some not-so-great news about my Father in Law's cancer, my garden is a neglected mess, and the rain is making the animals muddy and unphotogenic!  

But I know that if I ease myself into it gently, I'll probably find my mojo again.  So I'm going to just try and do short, simple posts.  A little snippet of what I'm up to.  Nothing deep and meaningful here, folks - nothing that requires me to think too much. 

So today I'm working on a 21st Birthday Signature Quilt.  I have had all the signed blocks for a while now, so I must knuckle down and knock it off to clear my headspace a little.  The Flying Geese are done, now onto the Bear's Paw and Pinwheel blocks.