We're all going on a.....

....summer holiday.  No more working for a week or two.

Christmas and New Year's in New Zealand is shut down time.  Schools break for their summer holidays and there are four days of public holidays so lots of businesses close their doors for a week or two as well.

We traditionally break out the tents and sleeping bags and go camping in an Uncle's paddock.  The extended family all come to stay and sometimes friends too.  At one stage this year we had 13 kids running round.

Now that our house is portable, we decided that our maiden voyage could be combined with our Christmas camping expedition.  We cruised up the river and anchored for a couple of nights before Christmas and then motored out into Manawaora Bay where we had organised to borrow a mooring in Jack's Bay.

Borrowing a mooring was the best thing ever.  It let us spend nights camping (it was a short dinghy ride up a tidal creek to get to our usual camping site) without worrying about Cerego dragging her anchor.

This is the little creek at high tide.  I learnt how to operate the dinghy so I could zip back to Cerego if I wanted to.  Living tied up to a dock meant I hadn't needed to use a dinghy yet and it hadn't even crossed my mind that I should learn.  The first day we were up the river, Hubby took his runabout sized boat to work, leaving me on Cerego with the dinghy.  Fat lot of good that was because I didn't know how to use it!  I had my freedom curtailed and I didn't like it one little bit.  I made sure I had my first lesson that afternoon, and actually, it's pretty simple.

The weather before Christmas was a bit grey and dull but it slowly got better and better until we were having the most beautiful days.  The temperature would get up around 27 degrees Celcius, hardly a cloud in the sky and the water temperatures went up too.

This is our sixth year camping in this spot.  The kids look forward to it so much.  There is so much for them to do and now they are getting older and older, they require less supervision and have an even greater range of activities...like mud bathing.

And horse riding.  That's my Uncle in Law leading the horse.  Marshall is a bit of a famous horse whisperer in the area and there are ten or so horses on his property.  It's very relaxing in the evenings watching the horses graze on the hill behind our tents.

This year was the year of the flounder.  The kids discovered they could find flounder in the creek during daylight (usually you go flounder spearing in the evening with lights) so they made or found flounder spears and went hunting and they were surprisingly successful!  And it's the funniest thing to see half a dozen kids crowded round a frying pan devouring a freshly cooked fish - gone in seconds and none left for the adults.

It's becoming a tradition to build one of the Aunties a birthday cake on her birthday.  I say 'build' because we pile up pre-made goodies like pavlovas, eclairs, fruit and we've even tipped out a whole container of ice-cream to use as a base.  That whole tray got eaten with none left for seconds - our annual sugar fix!

Whipped cream shenanigans!

If we needed respite (from noise, kids and hard mattresses) we would spend a night on the boat.  The incredible peace and beauty when we would sit up on the top deck in the evenings was totally soul restoring.

And the top deck was also the perfect place to jump from when swimming!

The water was warm and clear.  

And everyone swam.

Now we are back home safe and sound and restored.  

I am preparing for my next adventure which is a week away at the Manawatu Quilt Symposium.  I have a four day class with Texan quilt artist, Sue Benner and I'm totally excited.  I intend to use mostly my own hand dyed fabrics and the requirements list says to bring 40-60 different fabrics.  I needed to restock my hand-dyes so I used my lazy days in the paddock to dye about 25 yards of fabric all in fat quarter sized pieces.

So hopefully I'll be back to a more frequent style of blogging, and I'm hoping I'll manage to squeeze in some interviews at Symposium for my podcast - watch this space!

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.

Catchup

Gosh, the weekend is almost here and I haven't even written about last weekend!  Labour weekend was a full-on one for us.  Being a long weekend, my brother and his wife took the opportunity to visit us and they brought their gorgeous son with them.  I could wax lyrical all day about how perfectly delicious he is!  Four months old and just starting to get interesting.  My little Miss with smitten!

Then we had a lovely day relaxing on the beachside whilst hubby took the kids fishing.  We caught up with my hubby's cousin and all her family too.  A real family picnic.  Sunday was another family picnic with different cousins and aunties and uncles and the kids got to swim in the creek where we'll be camping at Christmas time.  But the highlight of their day was horse riding with their Great Uncle M!  Now both of them want a horse for Christmas.  Hmmm, we'll think about that.  And of course I forgot my camera so I don't have a picture of their delighted faces when they were jumping a wee ditch!  (Let's not mention that I was made to get on that horse too....did you know how unstable those things are?!)



This is a pic from last Christmas - high tide in the creek.

 

Tuesday was a busy day at the Quilting Guild and then Wednesday - yesterday- was the first day I had to sit down and just be.  So I whipped up a couple of grocery bags from upholstery fabric swatches.  I say 'whipped up' because that was how it felt.  Really!  I just sat down and sewed while my girl was napping.  I listened to an audio book and before you know it, I had two bags.  I love it when projects just 'work' - so often they don't so I'm bragging while I can!

So today I'm just pottering.  What are you up to?

My baby turns two!

On Monday she be all growed up!

This is her not long after being born. Getting checked over by one of my fabulous midwives (and very good friend). She was born at home in a birthing pool which is why she is nice and clean!

This is about six months old. I love the look on her face. A kind of,"Yeah, so I've got rolls, and your point is.....?"And here is my little raggamuffin now, helping me cook brownies for her birthday afternoon tea this Sunday.

And here is one of her birthday pressies. I love this pattern from Jodie at Ric-Rac. This is the second one I've made and it gets easier and easier - by the time I've made my fifth one, I should even be able to remember to sew my lining right sides together (yes, I was having a bad day).

That's a little horse applique I put on the front. Hopefully it will satisfy my horse-mad girl. "Horshies, horshies!" she squeals when she spots some. But beware, don't get too close or, "Horshie get me, Mummy!" A pony addiction that needs to be satisfied from afar. I hope this continues long into the future and I'll never be posting a picture of the real 'horshie' she got for her 12th birthday.