Goodies from Christchurch

April gave me a fantastic weekend in Christchurch taking me to places that had my favourite things!

Ballantynes for stationery - this has to have the biggest and best range I have ever seen in New Zealand anywhere! Very very impressed! Bought a sweet set of notecards. (photos way down at the bottom!)

A yummy lunch at the Make Cafe and spending my voucher I won months ago on some fat quarters.

Ooh that caramel slice took me 3 goes to finish it over the next day! I love the table markers of knitting needles.

I made my April these fingerless gloves too - enough wool left over (sent from my dear sister in law in Switzerland) to make myself a pair too.

A sweet pin cushion from a gorgeous shop in the ReStart Mall. (oops forgot its name!!)

Wool. Of course wool! From Knit World. Does anyone else know of any other wool shops in Christchurch? I found another one in Bush Inn, but that is all my knowledge extends to.

And books. These few are for my collection and I bought a whole lot more for school too! Lots more! The fantastic Children's Bookshop. It was quite funny - I had the lady looking up to see if my school had an account and she goes " I know you. You won a school library award!". Yes - that is me!

And I recognised her name too from the NZ school librarians e- mail list serve. So funny - shows you what a tiny country New Zealand is! I'm known all around New Zealand! Hee hee. April said I was very modest. :) 

And a couple more at Scorpios bookshop.

And I bought the gorgeous "City of Christchurch" rose bush back with me - hand luggage on the plane below my feet - no air hostess I cannot put this under the seat nor in an overhead locker.....

A fantastic weekend and I helped to support a great little city too!

Grass verges (yeah I am a Central Aucklander!)

Grass verges. The verges (or berms) outside your front gate. Who knew they could cause such a fuss!!!

The old Auckland City Council always mowed them throughout the city. Then all of Auckland became one big council and the council stopped mowing them! Except the council did not communicate with the residents who always got their lawns mown, that they were stopping mowing them. Lots of people still do not know this and are wondering why their front lawns look like a jungle.

(for the record we have always mown ours and sometimes our neighbours one too.)

So the old Auckland City Council area is beginning to look like a dump.

I got so fed up with my street looking like a dump that today I hauled my lawn mower out of my property and mowed two of the verges at opposite ends of the street. Well the other end of the street is only half mown. It killed me and nearly the lawn mower. The grass was so blimin long! 

The husband came home and told me to stop - that the lazy neighbours should do their own lawns, that the council should have told everyone and that anyway it's council property (it is) and that they the council should do it! The lawn mower has run out of petrol anyhow , so I guess the other end of the street will look like a jungle, a half mown one, for a while longer.

I guess too it may look okay at the moment, but as the husband says, was I going to mow it every fortnight???

Bloody verges. Lazy neighbours. I just don't want to walk through metre high grass...

I am impressed with my mowing .... :)

Wind down knitting

Last week of any school term from a library point of view can be manic. I wind down at home by knitting!

Finished in 4 days after school was this sweet little cardigan called "Cardigan Rose". I knitted it in a gorgeous 100% New Zealand merino wool which I picked up a few months ago at the Knit World sale for $4 a ball. This 18 month size took only 2.5 balls! A nice simple knit. Destined for a niece.

I found some of my childhood coat hangers too which my mum had knitted the covers for many many years ago.

I finished the orange sock (Another NZ wool - Waikiwi 4 ply - one of their new colours) from the heel up in the next 3 days!

And then started in Christchurch the next multi coloured brownish wool sock and finished that last night! On a roll!

The next sock has already been cast on , as has a Waikiwi Shawlette which I am knitting in some gorgeous Zelanda Kauri merino/ possum and mulberry silk wool which I bought in Christchurch over the weekend.

I do need to knit another dish cloth for a NZ swap too.

It isn't all just knitting , as the boys and I have been kayaking around Auckland Harbour this afternoon in stunning spring weather. Much like summer really.

But I do get a load of down time during the school holidays , so I'll just keep on knitting!

Christchurch CBD / red zone after earthquake finally open

I will really let the photos,tell the story. Christchurch (New Zealand's second largest city whihc i located in the South Island) had a huge earthquake on February 22, 2011. (preceded by one n September 4 , 2010) and then several big aftershocks (notably June.)

The Red Zone, which was basically the central business district  was just opened in late June, 2013.

On my walk around Christchurch on Sunday afternoon this is what I saw. 

Few words. Very strong people. I would have walked away myself with my family.

To do

School holidays! Yay.

Today:

Look for i-pad memory stick thingy so I can down load photos!

Clean up my bedroom

Fold about 10 loads of washing (5 on the clothesline)

Sort out summer school uniforms

And I think i will throw out the grey winter school uniforms totally (10 years of wearing and starting to look hideous. Means I will have to buy the new uniform for the last year of school but oh well! SO OVER GREY uniforms!)

Make chocolate brownie

Knit another sock

Empty Christchurch bag

Pack for Hamilton ( everyone is laughing at this - holiday in Hamilton??? YES.)

Package up giveaways to send off

Vacuum entire house

Tell the boys that unless they want to go to Pukekohe today- tomorrow in between stuff , we weight just stay home ( 2 are teenagers and will not surface till about 11 am and the 9 year old is not much better!)

Yesterday I helped weed a school library  - love it - lots and lots of piles of hundreds of books piled up to withdraw. 

 And man it just bucketed down so ran outside to retrieve washing and now it is sunny again... Weather is supposed to be good today!

What are you to these holidays?