well hello... ages and ages since I been in here, and see what everyone is up to. My my my you have all been very busy indeed!

I am now ensconced in Twizel, the weather today is lovely and sunny, it is lovely and peaceful (one may even say a teeny bit too quiet!!), I can hear the clock ticking and the birdies cheeping cheerfully. The mornings are great for lovely long walks, Rowing Man heads off for an early morning row about 6am, it is just a teeny bit too cold for me then, so I snuggle in bed until he gets back, or take a cuppa back to bed with my book. Non-working people can do that you know! I am sure that will all change in a few weeks once it gets a bit warmer in the mornings, I will be out walking before it gets too hot!

We had the most wonderful long weekend just gone by, Monday being a public holiday over Labour Weekend, (which of course is really to celebrate the instigation of the 8 hr working day/40 hr working week, which in some respects is a bit out of date now that we are pretty much open 24/7, and can exchange at least one week of annual leave for a cash payout - wonder what Samuel Parnell would make of all of that?).

Anyway, Saturday started off rather lazily with a Pink Corner (boys were off rowing) coffee meet at a local cafe, and off to the local plant shop for these goodies...

we all managed to get one of these lovely Banksia rose bushes, they are just such marvelous climbers, and so prolific with the dainty flowers. Looks marvelous alongside the weeping japanese maple don't you think?
...then in the afternoon, we traveled over the Lindis Pass...., ( a very beautiful drive with very wonderful surroundings and scenery - there is a marvellous NZ artist - Graeme Sydney who is very well known - in NZ Anyway - for his brilliant paintings of the scenery in this neck of the woods - or rather NZ countryside. Have a peek here at some of his work, truly wonderful).

..to historic Clyde (Until fairly recently Clyde was a sleepy hollow, a popular place to retire to for many people from Otago and Southland. It really comes alive in summer when a huge influx of holidaymakers – up to 5 thousand – descend upon the town. Many of them own land or holiday homes in the area. But that is all changing, The impact of the rapid economic development in Central Otago during the past two or three years has seen a significant increase in the price of land and houses as well as large subdivisions and houses being built, and there are a number of lifestyle blocks. The major activities and industries in the district are pastoral farming, orcharding, viticulture, and hospitality. Much the same as Twizel really!)

.....to stay with friends at their holiday house, for a barbeque tea. Rowing Man, and mates, competed in the long distance row, on Sunday, from Cromwell to Clyde,which is something like 18k's. Quite a feat, and absolutely spectacular to watch, all those rowing boats on the water at one time, AMAZING! They let them off in groups, i.e. all the singles first, then the doubles, then the quads, and lastly the eights. Then it is open slather to see who can get there first, and in the quickest time.

here are some of the eights pretty close to the starting line, so they are still pretty close together..

I love the eights, they are really impressive to watch, and they make the most amazing whoosh/thud sound as the blades hit the water..

and here is Rowing Man about half way..


and at the end...

Lots of sore bums and thighs!@!! Guess that I am lucky that I get the easy job of driving from one end to the other... and a LARGE flat white on the way! The rowing season is upon us then...

Back to Twizel after the race, Rowing Boy and French Chic joined us, and we had a lovely evening with all. Hmmm, must have been tired after such a big day, as most of us were in bed by 10pm!

Now, I do need to be saying just a few thank you's...

Janelle sent me her Audrey bag pattern that I won in her giveaway a few weeks back, and Kaaren sent me these absolutely wonderful goodies for the Stitcher's Angel Swap,

and a very BIG thanks to Helen for organising this wonderful swap!

which reminds me that my Stitcher's Angel swap goodies need to be taken up to the post office, and be on their way to my swap partner, who will be waiting eagerly for them I am sure, (I am a bit like the march hare at the moment from Alice in Wonderland at the mo'!)

This post has just taken me forever, if I am slow at getting back to any of you, please be patient with me, as yet, we do not have land-line telephone at our holiday home, we are in the process of getting one, at an enormous cost I might add! Hrmmph to big corporations - a fee to get the man out to see if we have a line, another fee to see how easy it is to put in a line,and paint marks on the grass where to dig up the garden, then pay another fee to another man to dig the trench, and another fee to get Telecom to lay the cable, and pay the man to fill in the trench (we are not allowed to do this bit ourselves for fear of disturbing other cables, wires etc), and you would think that we may be set by then huh, oh no - we then have to pay $250 to have the line connected! and that is after we have muddled thru all the providers and the appropriate plans for our area - total $$$ somewhere between $500-700. Can you believe that! AND then likely to do it all over again when we build - where did the simple life go? Anyway, my point is without a landline, I am muddling away on Rowing Man's new laptop (macbook pro sommat, that he just had to have before his recent trip to Washington!) with a Telecom dongle which keeps turfing me off at most inconvenient times!

Oh and nearly forgot, YES we have sold our Dunedin home over the weeken ! YIPEE, one less thing to worry about, altho' now we have to head back over the next few weekends and pack and organise where we are going to store everything... hmmmm..... but that is for another day!

and yes I have been stitching madly, and will be pulling out the trusty Elna as soon as I get off from this post! just look at my sidebar to see how busy I am and need to be over the next wee while, when on earth did I have time for work!!

you all have fun huh!! and enjoy your day...