My name is Charlotte, sometimes known as Ms Lottie, occasionally as The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady. This is my blog, where you'll find me writing a lot about my quilting and textile arts and a little about my family's life in a small seaside town in New Zealand. Haere mai!
Showing posts with label memories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label memories. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Super Moon


I took these photos of the setting moon early in the morning.  


It was the full moon and a perigee moon - when it's closest to the earth.


I relish these little moments.


It makes the chore of getting up early a little easier.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Memories

The thing about a blog is that you can pretend.  You can make your life seem as perfect as you want.  Your house can be clean, your children cherubic.  But in reality, we all have our fugly bits.

But I'm happy to announce that in the week just been, one of Windyhill Farm's fuglier bits got towed away to become someone else's treasure.

 

The caravan served us well.  First as a shelter and cup-of-tea making place when we first owned the land.  Later it became a storage shed when we moved out here.  But now (finally) it has been emptied and all that's left is a mark on the ground.  Next spring there won't even be that.


In that caravan was a whole pile of junk, lots of stuff that has already been shipped off to the op shop and a few boxes of memories.  I've spent the weekend periodically immersing myself in my teenage years.  The above picture was my sixth form ball photo.  Taken in about 1995.  Can you guess which one is me?

I've burnt the scary love letters, thrown out all the really terrible photos and the birthday cards from people I can't even remember anymore, but there is still more to sift through.  So much of it makes me cringe - as a teenager I was boy crazy, incredibly self-centered and terribly superior.  I really wonder how my parents put up with me.

On TV recently there has been an advert for a program about parenting teenagers.  The psychologist says,"Teenagers - they're not right in the head!  And judging by my diaries and letters, I'd have to agree.



Consequently, I've also been spending a bit of time this weekend watching my kids and imagining them as teenagers.  If karma has anything to do with it, then in a few years I'm in for a rough ride.  I'm guessing that there will be plenty of fugly moments.  Wish me luck!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Flood Memories

Thank you everyone for the kind words about my Father in Law.  He has had some good news yesterday, but will have to have more tests and some surgery.  But for now we can breathe a little easier. 

The rain is lashing down here,  absolutely pouring.  It always makes me a bit nervous when it rains like this. 

In April 2007, Northland suffered terrible floods.  It had rained and rained, but I went out to Playgroup anyway.  I shouldn't have because I ended up hiking home, with my son and husband, through the wet and slippery bush, five months pregnant with my second child.  The roads washed out, slips came down and we were marooned at home without power for three days.  But at least we were at home, some people couldn't get home that first night.

When you got to the end of our road, you turned onto State Highway 11.  This was heading south.

I don't think my family ever saw these photos so I'm posting them now.  Lets hope the rains stops soon (ungrateful wench that I am, I've been moaning about the drought, now I'm moaning about the rain!).


This was State Highway 11 heading North.  We couldn't get through either direction.




My waterhole is almost completely full.  The driveway is like a little river and we have a creek in the cow paddock where there wasn't one before.  The ducks, however, are in heaven!  (And it's perfect weather for staying inside and quilting till my heart's content).