Garden tour

The girls and I went for a little drive the other day with my Dad and brother, through some local districts that had lots of significance to my family.  We drove through the farming area where my Mum's grandparents farmed and then on to this beautiful garden called Maple Glen.  The farm that this garden is situated was once owned by my grandparents and Dad spent his earliest years there until 1954.  He assures me it didn't look like this then, it was a small farm, not the magnificent garden it is now....... if you click on any of these pics they should enlarge for you. 

This is a stunning garden, beautiful in all seasons, and there is a wonderful nursery with plants for sale too. It is an absolute credit to almost 50 years dedication by the family who own it.  I hope you enjoyed this little garden tour today........see you later..... Nicky x

Hello November

Oh dear, yet again it's been a while since I posted, but here are a few things I worked on in October.  Firstly my Fresh quilt, from Camille Roskelley's book Simply Retro.  It's made from five different Bonnie and Camille fabric collections, I love how their fabrics all work together so well.  

This is my Sugar Dish top completed for a friends gorgeous little girl.  A design my Cluck Cluck Sew, I made this top using Posy by Aneela Hoey, and I discovered that I love dresdens!!  They are so cute!  Now to decide on backing fabric and how to quilt this......

Last month I was also lucky enough to win a giveaway from Leeanne at Quilt Me.  Isn't the quilty wrapping paper and card adorable!  A full set of Lynette Andersons H&F Wagtime patterns and a lovely Cottage Garden Thread.... thank you so much Leeanne, these musical cats and dogs are adorable....

There has been some building happening in the vege garden, my hubby has built some new garden beds and planter boxes, it is a work in progress but I have some planted and things are growing quickly now.  This is the before shot, the old glasshouse will eventually be replaced with a poly tunnel when the big trees in the back have been cut down.  My little mini greenhouse was well pinned down with stakes, as a few days before this it blew over the fence and right across the paddock!

I've been waterblasting the outside wooden fence in preparation for painting.  There are two more boxes to be built yet beside the first two.....and decisions to be made about what material to use for pathways..... any suggestions....? 

                            

I had to keep a big secret recently, and it was not easy!  My big brother planned a surprise trip out to visit from the UK, to spend some time with Dad who's been having a very rough year healthwise.  I had to tell a few fibs about plans and sneak off to the airport to collect him a couple of weeks ago.  The look on Dad's face was worth it though!  So we have been having a lovely time together, I miss my brothers lots as one lives in Perth, Australia and this one in London, I wish they were both closer to home..... 

During the last week or two I've been working away on my SSCS gift, it will be time to mail it off in a couple of weeks so I need to get a wriggle on...... I'm off now to finish waterblasting my fence....... fun times.....hope you have a lovely weekend planned.....

SSCS and another BOM

Yet again, it's been a while since I've been around.......for many reasons, mostly just life!  I have been doing a little stitching, mainly working on my gift for Chookyblue's SSCS exchange, which I think I have mostly under control now.  For very obvious reasons, you won't be seeing exactly what though, but it is fun to be working on an SSCS gift for the third year, wonder where it's going this time around.......?

In one of the first few posts I ever blogged, I shared my Leanne's House Block of the Month quilt which I had started quite a few years ago. Below is where I was up to on Block 4 back in 2010.

(If you clicked through to that last post you may have also seen I said I MUST NOT START ANYTHING ELSE!   Ha ha ha ha ....... One thing that blogging has made me even worse at is starting new things and taking a VERY long time to get them finished .......lol) 

 I've dug it out again and almost finished the stitchery on this block, added some finishing touches to another couple, and made up another one ready for stitching.

This little vase is one of my favourite mini blocks....

It's been great to put some stitches into a long-neglected, but not-forgotten project.  I've also been trying to get some gardening done, though the weather has been truly awful for the last week or two, always raining, or even like today, lots of thunder, lightning and hail!  This is my new red pot on our deck with some parsley, chives, strawberries and my favourite 'Maggie Mott' violas.  I've scattered some Mesclun salad seeds among it all, and they are just coming through now and trying to fight the hail. 

We have got about half of our lambs tailed, just waiting on some settled weather to get the rest done.  The forecast for our holiday Labour Weekend is terrible, so it may not be till next week now, but I will enjoy my extra day off from the paid job though and make the most of a Monday at home!  I hope all the Kiwi girls have a lovely long weekend too............. till next time........... happy stitching....Nicky

PS:   GO the All Blacks tomorrow night in Brisbane  -  make it a clean sweep for 2012!!

If I'd known it was that simple ........

.................. I would have blogged about our 'drought' a lot sooner!  Thanks for all your kind wishes,  because late this afternoon it started into a nice steady rain, we've had about 12mm by this evening and it's still going - Thank goodness! 

During our trip north last weekend, we visited Riverstone Kitchen restaurant/garden/gift shop near Oamaru.  The gift shop is incredible, but I was most taken with the amazing vegetable gardens and chook domain.

Now that is a real palace for chooks ......................

If anyone can help I'd love to know what the cane type of support growing in the last three pics might be.  It is growing in the ground, and doesn't seem to be trimmed in the stem part, but is all leafy at the top.  The screen type ones have been woven into a super strong support/shelter.  I don't think it is bamboo, it has more of a woody stem than that and has a different habit, could it be some kind of willow maybe?  In the bottom pic it is all trained into the cone shape for beans etc to grow up......... I should have asked, but there were no staff around the gardens that I could find.......

Well thanks again for all the good wishes regarding some rain, now the grass and crops can begin to recover ................... so until next time...........take care ........... Nicky

A Gardener's Journal ........ the final block

Late last week the final stitches went into my last block of A Gardener's Journal, and it felt kind of sad to be finished.............. of course I still have to get the borders on and decide if I'm brave enough to quilt it myself or send it out to get a proper job made of it!  Once that's done I can get onto the new Stitch-A-Long project, another Anni Downs quilt, My Favourite Things from her Some Kind of Wonderful book.  I'm really looking forward to that!!   

Finally ......... the blocks are joined, almost a quilt top now!

Here are some pics of the kids vegetable gardens, they have their own little patch each, this is our youngest's below.........

................... and our eldest girls here ..........

And below is part of my potato patch...... some yams are in the tyre at the back.....

and some of the other goodies growing in our garden........

.............we've been eating lettuce, salad greens, radishes and silverbeet for a while now, and lots more is nearly ready now ....... I've had a terrible time getting carrot seed started this year, the first lot I think the seed was too old, and it's been pretty dry since I sowed the new seed.  We are desperately short of water, we are only on our own rainwater supply, and there is no rain forecast till at least the end of the month......... so I need to convince hubby to help me pump some water from the creek for the garden.  

So now there's only 5 more sleeps to go, I'd better behave myself so Santa stops by ........

Till next time....happy stitching

Nicky

What happened to October.............?

Oh boy, so today is the 1st of November, and I'm not quite sure what happened to October.  School holidays, trip to RWC, lots of illness for me and the kids, and busy days on the farm might be part of the answer.

By now I'm sure you've heard that WE WON the Rugby World Cup 2011!  Didn't the All Blacks do so well, but there's nothing like keeping us in agony until the final whistle blew.  It was such a close game and I did feel for the French, to lose by one point is cruel!  However, rugby fans all over New Zealand have been rejoicing to finally have won the Webb Ellis trophy again, it feels great!!!

The main stitching around here has been of the secret variety, my gift for my SSCS exchange partner is well underway, and I have a few ideas kicking around in my head for the Christmas ornament part of the exchange too.  This morning I had a play with one of the Ruby charm packs I've been hoarding, and decided to try pinwheels, something I've never had much success with, all those points usually drive me crazy.  So far they are coming together well, I'm going to work on a couple of baby quilts for some dear friends who've just had twin girls recently.  I found this tutorial over at Moda Bake Shop, and thought I might try one in 'Ruby' and one in 'Bliss' fabrics. They will then be similar tones, but with enough of a difference for each of the babies.   I'll also be attempting prairie points for the first time ever in these quilts ....................... which could go one of two ways!

I planted out some vegetables over the weekend, the girls and I had sown lots of seeds earlier in spring, and they are all planted outside now, we are starting to enjoy some yummy fresh salads, it's so nice to have grown some of it yourself.  The girls each have their own patch in the vege garden, some of their sowing is a bit hit and miss, but they are enjoying it and learning lots by trial and error.   They did learn that a late visit from Jack Frost can sneak up on you when you least expect it, the girls have some rather blackened potatoes to prove it!  They should have been slack like me and only planted them a couple of days ago. LOL 

I hope you're having a great week ...................till next time ......................... Nicky

This week down on the farm ...

This week has been a busy one, I worked at my part-time job on Monday, Tuesday and half of Wednesday, and spent Thursday and Friday working with sheep. We were dagging and innoculating our two-tooth(rising two year old) ewes in preparation for shearing and tupping. It is a slow and mindless job, but they certainly look a lot tidier once they are dag-free. The vaccine we give them is to prevent a couple of different diseases that can cause the ewes to abort in the early stage of their pregnancy, so is definitely worth doing. In the evenings I have been spending some time on my Pin Pillow exchange piece. It is coming along slowly but surely.

I took a few pics in my garden, it has been taking a bit of a battering with wind in the last few days, and has also got to that stage at the end of summer when everything would benefit from being cut back and tidied up. Maybe next week.

Look at the little guy I caught enjoying the lavendar, it smells heavenly, and is full of bees at the moment.

Pansies and violas are my favourite flowers, and I usually let them self-seed wherever they please. Here are a few in my herb garden.

This rose is called 'Trumpeter' and I love it for its longevity, the buds open and the blooms seem to last for well over a week before they start to look straggly. The colour is brilliant, and a lot brighter than what I usually go for, but I really love how it lasts and lasts on the bush, without dropping petals everywhere.

We have some friends coming over this afternoon for a visit, they have two girls about the same age as ours. The two Dads are taking the two eldest daughters away on a motorbike ride. Both the girls have a motorbike each, and are gaining in confidence all the time. So at school this week they hatched a plan that they would get together on Saturday for a ride around one of their farms, cunning aren't they! I think their Dads are looking forward to it just as much as the girls are. The two younger girls are going to ride their pushbikes back at the house with the Mums. So I guess I had better go and have a tidy up, and make preparations for a BBQ dinner to follow. Whatever you are up to this weekend I hope you have an enjoyable one.