January 2014 - Happy Holiday Pics

Our holiday photos - January 2014

On holiday at our 'other' home. We have bought the land in Central Hawkes Bay, now all we need to do is build a house there. 

I have been calling it our Mountain Retreat, but as it is not actually in the mountains I think I'd better rename it "Mountain View".

Breakfast and/or dinners under the walnut tree on our building plot.

A bit of an unusual sight - a large plum tree has grown out of an old stump and up through a coil of fencing wire. 

The plum tree (yellow Christmas plums) is laden with fruit at the moment. 

A spectacular weather front heading our way as the sun sets over the mountains. 

The view from our back yard. 

Our beloved caravan has been with us for 30 years. Not only has it traveled all over England, Scotland and Wales, we got it sent out to New Zealand with us when we left England 13 years ago, and it has since journeyed from Cape Reinga at the top of North Island NZ, to Innvercargil at the bottom of South Island NZ, and many places in between. 

It's a rather unique caravan.

And the awning gives us double living space. 

Part of the forest that our land is adjacent to. 

The forest on the left is the one next to our property, and this road leads to the Ruahine Mountain Forest Park.

This gully is where a dam is going to be built over the next 5-10 years. 

You can just see the river at the bottom of the ravine. All this will eventually be under water. 

Most of this will be lost under water too. Such a shame. It's so beautiful here. 

And this is a better view of the actual river which will become the lake bottom. 

All this area will be lost too. So sad. 

Tony and friends on a search for a good fly-fishing spot. 

Had a day trip out to Dannevirke and took the Saddle road back which went over the mountain tracks to the wind farm.

On top of the world. 

This one was whirring away (video to follow soon). 

The (old) information board there said there were 56 wind turbines here, but I counted more than that in just this one area, and there was another 2 hills absolutely full with turbines further over too.

And, YES, it was very windy up there. 

Another day out, and we were sat outside the village shop enjoying a Magnum while waiting for the pub to open, haha.

Onga Onga is a lovely little village with historical buildings that attract the tourists (yes, like us), and the pub was recommended to us for it's fish and chip dinners.  

The village has a park area of these old Settler's buildings (shacks?). 

How twee is that..... but I would not like to live in it. 

And the dunney (long-drop). 

"Take a Chance" Embroidery & TAST

I have had another very productive long weekend away at our proposed new home site, and my sofa currently looks like this with loads of different house plans and ideas that we are "trying on" for size. I've got to make sure I can fit everyone and everything in. 

It's a very exciting time (but I'm sure it will get more stressful the closer we get to the actual build). At the moment we are in designing mode, and I'm in my element there.

Wahooo......... I have actually managed to get some TAST stitches done on my 

CHANCE Embroidery this week.

The pale pink at the bottom is the Bullion Buttonhole Stitch.

(sorry the pic is a bit blurred)

Some Buttonhole Wheels in a variegated pink/green thread.

This next one is a funny little stitch called the Crested Chain Stitch.

It is meant to have a nice braided effect when worked evenly, but my 'roll of the DICE' called for "irregular stitch", and so I ended up with a happy frilly looking thing. I love how I don't have control over what I stitch on this project. I get so many lovely surprises along the way.

And here is another TAST stitch called Slipped Detached Chain Stitch.

(I think it looks like a row of palm trees on a desert island)

And a photo of the whole of this Chance piece so far, with "roll of the dice" telling me to use: lace, wool, braiding, irregular stitch, couching, and some other things as well that are yet to be applied to this piece.

Ok, back to the drawing board for me now.

Happy Stitching

Retirement Plans (but not much stitching)

Well, it seems like it's been absolutely ages since I've posted, but it has only been about two weeks.

Things are getting a bit frantic here as we explore all the options available to us in doing a 'new build' home in the Central Hawkes Bay area (with a view of the Ruahine Mountain Range).

We spent most of last week there again. It's about a six hour journey to get there, so we try to get as much as possible sorted while we are there.

Bare block site visits take priority, as we need to get the land in our possession first, but we also need to know what prices everything else will be so that we can get everything we want on our block within our budget.

The bare block, or blocks, we are looking at don't even have a formed road, so that is an extra cost that we weren't originally budgeting for, and then we need water tanks etc. and there is some buried waste that we have to get a bio survey done for. It all adds extra $$$.

The site itself is gorgeous, and I would really like to live there.

So you will, I hope, forgive me for not getting much stitching done at the moment.