Another month goes by —

I know we often start a blogpost with the words "where has the month gone?"....well I can tell you exactly where the last month or so has gone - 

- on July 13th we started calving here on the farm. In New Zealand, we have seasonal calving -for us that means Spring calving - haha not that you would call July spring but that's what it's always been called!

Because our cows are outside all year long, it means we time calving so that when the cows need the most feed it is growing the best.....

I like to think of myself as the chief (one and only) calf rearer. Now that our son-in-law is working on the farm, I'm not called on for a lot of the other calving related jobs I used to do. I used to think I would miss having my finger on the pulse but (hehe) I don't that much!!

So cuteness overload —

After coming off their mum, they go into the calf shed —

When that shed gets full, they go to the Old Pigsty —

From there they have access to some outside paddocks —

Their first time outside is always entertaining!

And then I start moving them around the farm so they get lots of yummy grass as well as their daily milk —

And I  end up taking a lot of scenic photos of calves feeding with the farm in the background!

So far I have about 100 calves of various ages and stages. It won't be long until we form a weaning mob. About 70 calves have been sold as week old calves to a couple who raise them from then on.

At this time of the year we feel that we're indispensable, but the family rallied around and gave us 24 hours off the farm as a Fathers Day gift recently.  We went up north to Russell, a lovely spot we escape to from time to time.

Going over by ferry-

It was really windy while we were there so there were no beach walks but we were okay with that.

The view from where we stayed - 

And a cool tile floor outside the old restaurant - 

It was a great time away - a lovely (belated) Fathers Day gift!

On that happy note,

See you next time,

Raewyn

This and that~

My crochet afghan is growing deliciously. Each evening I decide I should put it aside and catch up with some other handwork but I think I have become addicted to it!! Maybe it's just an easy pick up put down project which suits well just now! 

Here it was a few days ago when I thought I was going to write a blogpost - 

First thing this morning while it was still dark and chilly I settled myself down by the fire and made it to another colour change-

I was able to get a good amount of crocheting done on our road trip up into the Far North last week. It only takes a few hours to get up there but I managed to crochet for most of our travelling. We spent our winter holiday on the Karikari Peninsular. That's the jutting out bit of land east of the North Island heading up to the tip of the country.

We enjoyed the three days off the farm, resting, eating and a bit of tripping about. We visited some beaches but, being winter, we didn't dip our toes in the ocean!

This the view from our room-

Ahipara on the West Coast-

Maitai Bay on the East Coast-

We ate well, in lovely surroundings-

And enjoyed the expanses of sky - 

Odie enjoyed feeding/shifting the cows while we were away-

Naturally our holiday was over far too quickly!

It was a lovely morning on Saturday  - perfect for watching the kids play their sport.

The three littlies and Rippa Rugby down one end of Kensington Park — 

And at the other end of the park, a 5 minute walk away, the bigger girls playing soccer. No good action shots to brag with I'm afraid but they all enjoyed their games. 

Once I got home, I devoted time to some clothes sewing for myself. I came across this fabric during some recent rummaging in my big cupboard and felt the urge to sew it up (it's more burgundy than pink) —

Buttons, buttonholes and hemming are still needed but am pleased to have got this far! The pattern is Geneva by Liesl + Co. It's pretty cool how the 3/4 length sleeves are made. I may share a decent photo when it's properly done!

I was contacted recently by Anuj of Feedspot telling me that my blog is on their list of Top Kiwi quilting blogs, and asked me to spread the word, which I said I would do.  Feedspot seems to be a big database of all sorts of blogs - however it does appear to operate as a paid subscription site, so I wasn't able to search for new blogs very successfully!

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Block-a-day-July Day 5

I made one block today. These blocks finish at 8" so sew up pretty easily. Perfect to make while dinner is cooking—

I wasn't sure if this level of contrast would work, but it seems to, so I'm pleased.

Last week the MOML and I had a few nights away - our winter 'holiday'. Just a chance to recharge our batteries before we get busy with calving. That will happen all too soon, and keeps the MOML under the pump until at least Christmas time.

We knew the weather wouldn't be nice but the chance of a few sleep-ins and a change of scenery presented itself so off we went.

As is our habit, we headed up north. Often we like to go to a nice beach or bay somewhere but decided on somewhere a little more populated so that there was plenty to do if we couldn't beachcomb!

(A grey day at Waitangi)

We stayed at Waitangi which is where New Zealand's Treaty of Waitangi between the Maori people and The Crown was signed in 1840. 

(A grey day at Russell. Waiting for the ferry to take us back to Paihia/Waitangi.)

It's a short ferry ride to Russell which was an early European settlement - well known in the 1830s for its lawlessness and a place where "whaler, seafarers and merchants mixed with adventurers, deserters and escaped convicts from Australia." As well as bullet holes to be found in the church, and amongst other places of interest, there is Pompallier House. This was once the headquarters to the French Catholic Mission to the Western Pacific. We took a tour around its Printing press and tannery, which we found fascinating. Quite a bit of history and some interesting stories hidden within. 

(The tannery outside. As well as leather being needed to cover the books

(all of which were printed in te reo), it was used for shoes and so on.

The raw hides were imported from Australia in the early days. Not one

bit was wasted - fat scraped off the hide was used for glue, candles.)

(I imagine it would have been a very smelly place!)

I was doubly interested to see how the printing press worked after reading about Jamie's one in the Outlander series.....I can now picture the heavy bit of machinery he transported around the countryside and also the 'types he set' (not to mention the ones Marcelli made from their gold bars!).

A lovely NZ Tree Fuchsia in the grounds. I must try growing one of these; I love their flowers.

We did a bit of shopping one day (I now have a couple more shoe boxes to keep projects in!)

We visited the Waimate mission, another early European settlement.

The trees in the grounds were gi-normous. Goodness knows how old this Totara is —

Not long after the above photos I became violently ill after being fed gluten for breakfast (arrgghhh!!!) so I spent the rest of the day in bed while the MOML strolled around the town and had Eccles cakes for lunch.

The day we left the weather brightened up! —

In spite of the illness it was a lovely few days away :-)

'til next time,

happy stitches,

A New Year

Well here we are, into a new year already. Somehow my last post for 2021 got swallowed up by gremlins (or something) - hmm maybe that's just my way of saying I didn't quite get here to write my last post!

I hope everyone had a great festive season, and that you all have a happy and healthy 2022.

We seemed to have a busy time between Christmas and New Year. Mostly involving family. The MOML kept busy on the farm trying to get some fencing done before the tractor is needed for feeding out in the summer dry. And while one son-in-law gets the fences out at the runoff under control, our other son-in-law hired a friend's digger and is spending some of his holidays cleaning out our drains and putting in culverts! 

I've had a couple of days out with ED. One time we went up north to Russell for the day; visiting friends up there. While ED and her friend took the kids swimming, us mums had a good old catch up on the sand. It was a bit of an overcast afternoon so we weren't tempted at all by the water!

Another day ED and I met up with another friend and we went for a walk at a reserve in town. A good workout as two three-year olds decided they'd had enough walking after a little while and needed carrying!

Not a lot has happened in The Palace aka the sewing room. 

I have a couple of makes from December to share. 

I made a few oven mitts as Christmas gifts — 

I've done what I often do with things like this - look up tutorials, etc, figure what suits me, then combine them all and write my own instructions to refer back to for another time!

I bought fabric to make a couple more so will (hopefully) do those soon - they can be the first things for the 2022 Christmas box!

And I spent a few evenings making dishcloths - which were a perfect thing to do when I was feeling tired but had itchy fingers!
It started with this lovely recycled yarn we got in at work - I had a play and made a sample—

Then I remembered other cotton yarns I had sitting about that I could also use. Dishcloth number two - there was a limited amount of this yarn so I knitted (and weighed!) until I thought I'd used about half of it, then started decreasing. I didn't run out.....

.....but I didn't quite get it right and had some left over. So for the next dishcloth I combined two yarns - the leftover green/pink and an off-white. When the green/pink ran out I switched to a red. Satisfying to use those scrappy bits!

They boosted my year's tally of finishes a bit - not many in the end but oh well, I'll try again this year!

This is the first photo I took in 2022. A small boy, not long awake, enjoying a bit of quiet play and grinning cheekily at Ganma. (He and his sister stayed here on NY Eve so Mum and Dad could have some time to themselves!)
I thought it was a good way to start the year and it will be a good photo to look back on as 2022 progresses to remind me of the freshness, hope and promises of that time.

(Whew, I think I'm going to get this post completed before our visitors arrive - they'll be staying a couple of days so I really wanted to get this written first!)

'til next time,

happy stitches,