op shopping

The last 10 days have been a tad busy, with a ballet exam (not mine, but being a ballet mum is almost as hard!), a small operation (which has taken longer to recuperate from that what I thought), organising and having a table at a craft market and hanging my 100 sharpie drawings in an exhibition (there will be a blog post soon I promise).

So yesterday was the first day I had time for a quick op shop in what felt like ages. I decided to go to Motueka for a change of scenery. And lo and behold in the Sally Army I found a little bit of op shop serendipity in the form of a black pottery mug.

If you saw Max's op-shop show-off post two weeks ago she shared a lovely black dish made by Chris Weaver a West Coast potter. And I lamented to her how I'd once found one of his teapots, but had in a fit of purging sold it on Trade Me. Reasoning that I'd buy another one, with the wooden handle, from his Iron series.

Well now I am the proud owner of one cup from the same series, and I'll not be selling it on Trade Me.

Linking up with this weeks Op-Shop Show-Off.

Now in a completely different tangent, a sunset from last week.  For some reason we don't get a lot of brilliant sunsets. I'm not sure if it's because we're too close to the mountains, or what, but when we lived on the plains we saw a lot more than we do now. And I discovered how to make a palette from a photo. These programs might be a dime a dozen, but this was the one I used.

It's the last day of term 3 tomorrow, so the school holidays are about to kick off! Wish me luck.

making

Yesterday as the southerly storm thrashed the South Island, I stayed at home and sewed. Luckily our area was not badly affected, there were some loud thunder claps overhead, enough to make me unplug the modem to avoid the computer getting fried, but compared to other regions we escaped damage.

Daisy had the right idea and slept all day on a pile of freshly thrifted and washed woollen blankets.

Before I could get down to the business of making I had admin duties for the upcoming Mapua Makers Market that I'm organising with my friend. It's the 4th one we've organised and I wished it got easier, but alas not yet. 

By the end of the day I had seven freshly made zipper pouches/purses. I'm trying to be more efficient in my sewing, but as each piece is a one-off it's hard to get a production line going. I make according to the materials I have on hand, what inspires me, and often one thing leads onto another.

I enjoyed the free stitching, or as The Teenager said "Mum it looks like you can't sew a straight line". So now I'm ready to try this on a larger scale and make some cushions.

A couple of weeks ago I found a 95% compete tapestry of a Constable painting at the dump shop. After a warm wash and iron, I turned it into four zippered pouches. I love these so much I've kept one for myself!

All of the materials that I used to make these pouches were sourced from an op shop (or the dump shop) - the wool blanket, the fabric used for lining, the zips, the doilies and the thread. As my motto for Mahana Redlegs says "I'm upcycling as fast as I can."

Linking up with Christina's Made By Hand and Leonie's Show & Tell.

poultry collection

It's been a while since I've talked about chooks, way back here in fact. Since then there have been a few changes in our hen house.

The chicks which we got in December grew and grew. The two pullets, Wanda and Betty started laying at the beginning of July, right in the middle of winter.

Wanda in April

Wanda in July

Note Wanda's crazy floppy comb, a feature of Leghorns. Yes it flops right over one eye!

Betty in April

Betty in August

Unlike children you can have favourites with chooks, and Betty is mine. She's a Black Orpington, which is a very fluffy and friendly breed. She likes to visit me at my studio, she hasn't come inside yet but it's only a matter of time.

Lucky in April

Lucky in July, along with some of his admirers

Yes Lucky has grown to be a very large and handsome Leghorn rooster.  Unfortunately as he has matured he's also become aggressive to me and Miss L. Which is slightly frightening terrifying for us and not very good for his life expectancy if someone doesn't buy him off Trade Me - soon. Apparently it's a trait of light breed roosters, while heavy breeds such as Orpingtons and Barred Rocks are much more placid.

Along with these three, we still have Mumma Chook, their surrogate mother, and Molly the Silkie bantam. Molly went through a tough time a few months ago when the pullets started chasing her. Yes Betty, who is so perfect in so many ways, is a bully. The solution has been to remove a board that was under the gate, so Molly can squeeze out of the pen and free range. We feed her separately, she only has to compete with the goat for her food now.  She has also taken to sleeping rough by squeezing under the hen house. She now is quite happy and knows to keep away from Betty when the rest of them are let out every afternoon.

If you look carefully Molly can be seen behind Lucky

To add to the dynamics we also have a rescue rooster, Mr Frizz. As his name suggests he's a Frizzle, a breed which has unusual feathers that are curled backwards, so they always look dishevelled. But Mr Frizz has taken dishevelment to another level.

Unscrupulous people dump  roosters on one of the country roads around here. A couple of weeks ago we noticed a new trio there. After stopping to feed them the crumbs off the back seat of the car, Miss L declared we had to rescue the most bedraggled and unattractive rooster that I've ever seen. So armed with chook food, the washing basket and a piece of wood attached to a long string, the trap was set and the desired rooster was caught. I did feel bad that we left the other two behind.


























These photos of Mr Frizz don't really show his true sorry state. His neck is completely bald, and he's lost almost all his tail feathers, plus he's had both his wings clipped to stumps. I wanted to write this post with before and after photos, but realise the after photo is going to take a while.

Unlike Lucky, Mr Frizz has a lovely nature, will eat out of my hand and doesn't have the attack gene. He is confined to the small coop until I let the girls and Lucky out into the paddock, then he can have the freedom of the run. Sometimes one of the girls stays behind to keep him company.

So that's the politics of the hen house. Despite the ups and downs I get so much joy out of this motley collection of poultry. It's a great stress reliever to watch them out and about, only now I have to watch my back to make sure Lucky is not coming for me!

after the rain

You get sunshine after rain, well eventually.

Last night was particularly stormy, I didn't sleep well, and woke late so missed the sunrise this morning.

As the mists were lifting I could tell we were going to get a lovely sunny day. Finally. The children complained they were down to their last pair of underwear. August has been very wet. After a mild and dry July it's been a bit of a shock.

At the beach the sea was still stormy. The roar of the receding waves as they grabbed the loose stones was almost deafening.

After collecting two bags of rubbish I went home and hung out another load of washing.

Sorry I couldn't resist including a sunrise. This was Monday's - before or between rain. I'm trying out a new blogging method, of less words and more frequent posts. Time will tell if it's any more successful than my previous method.

Day 56 and counting down

I'm over the halfway point of the 100 Days Project I'm doing. It should get easier? Maybe, maybe not. Each day I have a blank page and a Sharpie pen, and the two have to meet. Deciding what to draw is usually the hardest thing. Once that decision is made and I have a spare 20 minutes, it happens. And I'm more often than not happy with the result.

Day 8

 I've never felt like quitting, but some days have definitely been a struggle. The two weeks of the school holidays meant that most of my drawings were done at night, sometimes just before going to bed. This is not ideal and made it feel like a chore.

Day 12

Sometimes I use an earlier drawing to expand on an idea/theme. Other days I draw things that I have collected or picked up. On the tough days I draw from books or images I've pinned. Sometimes I'm not quite sure where my inspiration comes from.

Day 36

I chose to draw with a Sharpie pen, as it stops me getting caught up with too much detail. And I like colouring in with lots of black.

Day 25

 

You'll notice there is a bit of a theme with my drawings. I'm inspired by nature; plants, shells, insects. Luckily these are also easy to draw! And they make good motifs which I am going to explore further in my paintings. I've already used one of my drawings as the basis for hand painting/drawing onto a china beaker.

Day 10

When the 100 days are over I'm going to have a giveaway. Yep, I'm going to give them away, to the lovely people who follow this blog and make the lovely comments that encourage me to keep on blogging. (You know who you are, thank you.)  Also to anyone else kind enough to start following me and commenting, names will be placed in the hat. I'll sort the details out closer to Day 100 (Sept 14th).

It was hard to choose just a few drawings for this post. If you'd like to have a look at the rest pop over to my Facebook page.

lights and shakes

Sunday night was the last of the newly established three night festival Light Nelson, which was held in Queens Gardens in the middle of the city.  We arrived soon after this free event opened at 5.45, and there were already a lot of people wandering around in the dark. Despite the full moon and all the lights from the illuminated installations, it was quite dark, and we wished that we'd brought a torch.

The first installation to greet us as we walked in the gardens looked like three clumps of spun sugar, was in fact made from fishing nylon. They were hung on wires across the pond with lights above to illuminate them. It was great how the reflections on the water and the gentle breeze added another dimension.

These small paper houses with candles inside them, were made by refugees based on their old homes. They had names and handprints on them, and were set in a quite part of the gardens, and were very moving  in their quiet and simple understatedness.

Another favourite was this large lotus flower installation that was constructed out of bamboo poles and fabric around the Victorian fountain in the middle of the rose garden.

I didn't manage to take any half decent photos of the walk through a rainbow. As we went across a bridge we grabbed an umbrella and were wowed by the rainbow produced by laser lights and a fine mist of water.  It can be seen on this video of the event. My camera and I struggled to take good photos, here's a link to the local newspaper, which has some much better ones.

It was a good place to quell post-quake nerves. We only just got to experience the 6.5 magnitude earthquake that shook the centre of the country at 5.09. If we'd been better organised we would have already left the house and been on the road. But instead we were in the garage going out the door when it rattled us. We then had to go back inside to check the computer to find how big it was. The drive into Nelson was a bit tense as it took the radio station almost half an hour to let us know that Wellington was still standing. There must be lot of people with raw nerves in Wellington and Blenheim as the aftershocks have been very frequent, and are still going.

adventure close to home

Yesterday I was doing my early morning read on the internet, when I was thought; why am I reading about what other people are getting up to on their holidays instead of getting out there and doing it?! So the two that were still in bed (our family is split 50/50 between early and late risers) were told to get up and get moving! Sometimes the chores just have to wait.

The night before we had friends over for dinner and we had talked about Harwoods Hole. I thought I'd been there with the hubby, but it turns out he'd never been. So it's been over 20 years since I last went. Maybe the drive had put me off,  because it seemed so far away then, but it only took us an hour to get to the carpark. Part of the road is quite windy as you drive from sea level to 790 metres at the top of the Takaka Hill quite quickly. The views are amazing, but we didn't stop, we were on a mission. From the turnoff to the parking area is 11 kilometres of narrow dirt road, it was not as bumpy as I'd remembered, but was quite slushy from the frost.

Yes the warning signs are needed. Maybe that's why we hadn't gone before as it's not a place to take young children. Maybe from 8 or 9 years up depending on how good they are at listening to their parents!  It was quite cold  in the beech forest, and we came across two frozen ponds. It was great fun to skim rocks across one, listening to the echoes as the stone hit the ice was magical. 

It is a 45 minute walk to Harwoods Hole, the first 30 minutes are very easy walking as the terrain is flat, then more limestone boulders start appearing and the vegetation became denser. The last scramble was quite hard as the rocks were icy, I went very s-l-o-w-l-y. It was almost an anticlimax as the kids expected a viewing platform and to be able to see into the hole, all 183 metres of it! But what you see is the rocks around it, it's 50 metres across, and you know there's a very deep hole in front of you, it's the deepest vertical shaft in NZ, and connects to a very long caving system. My memory from my previous trips was that you could get closer, and at least stand on flat ground, but that would have been in summer when you didn't need to worry about slipping.

After the anticlimax I was able to say the next bit is better! We went onto the Gorge Creek Lookout, it was a 10 minute steep hike up, until coming to this amazing area of very sharp limestone rocks. Over the edge is an incredible view down, down, down.

Unfortunately I didn't quite make it to the edge to look over! Twenty years ago I was slightly nimbler and my fear of heights can't have been messing with my head, so I was happy to pass the camera over to the kids. There's even a very rare photo of me, looking remarkably cheerful while sitting on razor sharp rocks. Thankfully they didn't take a photo of me crawling around them on all fours!

While it was nice to be in the warm sunshine, we were getting a bit hungry by this stage, so we set off back to the car and our lunch. Stopping again for more stone skipping on the frozen pond. The pies we had brought almost three hours earlier in Motueka were still slightly warm, and were delicious. As was the warm sun on our backs.

While having our lunch a tomtit was having his too, as he flew from fencepost to fencepost, occasionally swooping down to grab something from the grass. We also saw a South Island Robin, but I was unable to get a photo of it. We heard lots of bellbirds but unfortunately didn't see them.

If you are a Lord of the Rings fan, you might recognise this area, as the Canaan Downs was used in the filming. Don't ask me which bit because I must be one of the only people in NZ who hasn't watched the trilogy. Does that make me a philistine?

All this and we home by 3pm so there was still time to do some chores, including washing the car! Sometimes we have to remember that we can have an adventure close to home, that holidays don't need to involve getting on an aeroplane, and that the simplest things in life are often the best.