Karekare

Our extended family has owned a bach (holiday home up north - called a crib down south) at Karekare on Auckland's west coast for decades. Karekare is a black sand beach and is patrolled by a surf life saving club for part of the year. It is a bit of a walk to get to the actual beach. The only things at Karekare (apart from a few baches) are the surf life club and a toilet block. There are loads of bushwalks everywhere. You can drive over to Piha to their surf club or the RSA for dinner, but really it is bring everything in for the days you stay there.


 I've just spent a few lovely days here. We have an old tv for dvd viewing only and there is zero wifi, so it is perfect for total relaxation. it is pretty dead quiet, with the odd car driving down the road (which is windy and horrible and I usually always get carsick on the way out. yes it is only a 4 minute drive to the top of the hill, and only a 45 minute drive from home, but I h-a-t-e the drive. it puts me off going out there a lot!).


Lots of knitting, reading, talking, eating, writing took place and that really was all the excitement that happened for 3 days. Bliss. A few more days of freedom. Things have already happened at school which aren't fab :( .  My university course work has arrived a month early too, so I guess I should get a good month early head start...

Cotton and Book giveaways

We are being battered by strong winds and driving rain. I guess it is this part of the country's turn. I have actually loved out summer weather due to the virtually non-existent humidity (it can be 20 deg c but 90% humidity - that kills me more than 38 deg c in a dry heat!). The rest of the country has had very poor weather with snow (!), major flooding, slips etc.


I've been doing a colossal sort out and taken another car load of stuff to a charity shop - if I hadn't worn something in the past 6 months, it went ta-ta. I found this cotton, which I don't think I'll ever use (considering I have had it for 2 plus years!) -

Sometimes (okay, a lot of the time),  I do random impulse orders from the Book Depository. (I've just done my first school order for the year - woo hoo).

This Moomin notebook was one of them, and it wasn't quite what I thought it would be. I am pretty sure I won't use this...

the pages are tear out and it has several sections with multiple identical pages...

Leave a comment below and tell me which one you'd like (either cotton or Moomin notebook of both :) ). Open worldwide. I'll draw winners on February 6. Please make sure I can contact you easily!

December/January little things

I thoroughly enjoyed my Opal sock wool advent calendar. Every day there was a new little delight to discover - all variegated and a few rather bizarre colour mixes in there...

 Took me about 6 weeks to find the limited edition Griffins Christmas biscuit tins. Not bought for the biscuits - bought for the tins, ' cause you know... tins! These represent corrugated iron, flax and a kiwi beach towel.

 New umbrella love - one can not sit out in the NZ sun for more than 5 minutes in the burning sun. Most of the country would say summer was still to arrive - the south has been hit by a massive storm today and temperatures are plummeting! It's summer in NZ!

 Now look at how lovely and lush and green my hedge is before Christmas. And the privacy...

 One of my dear aunts made this for me and sent me a surprise parcel. I adore it!

 New Year's Eve fireworks in Rotorua - they were incredible!

 Rotorua even had a Christmas tree made out of random bits of cycles!

  I found this road near some NZ town - can't remember exactly where I was now! Near Te Awamutu perhaps???

 Our beautiful front lawn with jacaranda flowers everywhere

 The reading pile... finished the Lake House last week - highly recommended!

 The year 8 pile - most of it gone into the recycling pile now. A few things were kept. You find exam results and all sorts of things in piles like this. Merits in Australian exams etc! Things you would never know about unless you'd gone through page after page. Man schools go through photocopying paper!

 Look! look at my lovely hedge last Friday at 9am...

 love this view...

 and this is so beautiful and green and relaxing and private...

 and what the?!?!

 That view has gone.

 NOT at all happy. Landlord next door is livid with us as we stopped her contractor. We wanted some privacy. So did the tenants. The tenants are livid with her, as they themselves didn't want OUR hedge that low either. The stupid woman is now getting a survey done to see boundaries, as she does not believe our boundary survey.  We now look into each other's windows. She has been informed she is never touching the hedge ever again or we will be issuing her with a trespass notice (we then found out she was 80....). I'm still looking at it and sighing! Grow little hedge, grow.

 Look how many balls of wool/cotton I knitted last year. Yikes! That basically is a ball of wool a week.

 A kind person bought back Builders' tea from Booths in Preston, UK for me. It is yummy. Builders' tea. Have you ever?! Hilarious. Biscuits are from a workmate from Christmas.

 I found these cute little clipboards in Kmart for $2 !! They are perfect for keeping one penfriend's letter on it (I write long letters usually!) - I am always writing more than one letter at a time. They are perfect for keeping pages together. I usually write on a mixture of pages too - I've so much lovely stationery - am trying so hard to not buy anything new.

And that's a few little things.