It's full on for him but a doddle for me - St James Walkway

Dark, Dark, Dark - 6.30am Aaron starts walking

Misty, drizzly at the Lewis Pass drop off

Gearing up and ready to go

Breakfast by the roaring fire...mmmm didn't want to move

On a drizzly weekend after some very hot weather Aaron and I set off to do the St James Walkway. In two very different ways. We intended to be dropping Aaron at the Lewis Pass end of the walk by 6am. Getting up at 4am meant we were at the trail head at 6.30am. Aaron hoofed off as he had 60 kilometres to cover before meeting me again. I did the genteel start. I drove over the Lewis Pass and parked in the car park to the Maruia Springs Hotel. Having done my homework I discovered they opened for breakfast at 8am. Flipping the car seat back down, I got a quilt and a pillow and snuggled for a rest. The rain pelted and I was comfy. I felt heaps better an hour and a bit later.

 Some other people, waiting for the hotel to open, woke me with their chatting and we all wandered in. Oh the bliss, a lovely flat white, some decent food and a roaring fire. I got the seat right by the fire and even sat on the hearth for a few moments. Warmed and feeling human I then drove back to Boyle Village to walk into Magdelen hut. I started at 10.10am and by then Aaron had already zoomed past the first two huts as pictured. Cannibal Gorge and Ada Pass Hut.

Feeling happy and thrilled the weather was cooler I pottered on with another takeaway coffee in hand. Through the bush. Chatting to the few people I met and loving being out by myself. It's been years since I was well enough to be safe walking alone and I loved it. 

On the open plain an hour to go. Still feeling perky. 

At my accommodation for the night. Magdelen Hut. Not looking quite so perky as I had to take a couple of big deviations due to some cattle and a bull or two. The sun was starting to heat up, which was not meant to happen. 

4pm. By this time I had the knitting out on the porch, had a dunk or two in the stream to stay cool and was loving having the hut to myself.

Starting to be tired.

Aaron on the other hand had rested at the fourth hut for an hour before hitting the Anne Saddle.

at 9.25pm I heard tromp tromp outside and scream with excitement "No way!!" only to shoot out the door and find three fishermen in their 50's preparing to come into the hut. I then had to explain my scream as they thought I was really angry that someone else was coming into my space, either that or one of them thought they were interrupting a 'private moment"...

Anyway, thankfully 5 minutes later Aaron rocked up, corroborating my story and looking trashed. 59 km in what turned out to be a hot afternoon. Starting 6.30am and finishing 9.30pm. Crazy. 

Next day was a doddle out with a dip on the way. 

I loved the weekend

Happy trampers homebound.

Glamping food

Sometimes, when camping, I can muster the energy to go above and beyond for a meal. It tends to be brunch. In the tiny cooking space in the caravan it surprises me just what we can produce.

This weekend it was brunch of Ciabatta bread turned into french toast (or eggy bread depending on where you hark from). Bacon from a pig raised on my aunts farm and banana. Topped with maple syrup

This Tiny messy bit of kitchen top managed to produce the above. The teenager told me he waited hours for food!!!

Idyllic holiday

We headed off to our friends farm for a few days Rest and Recreation. A great New Year and few days with lovely weather, lots of river swimming and time together.

Arriving at the farm, opening the gate to get to our camping spot.

Great swimming hole after an hour walk along the river, in amongst incredible wildflowers. 

A bit of Alpaca wrangling and a tired 12 year old Fox Terrier.

Cushion - A Christmas Tree Bauble

I'm really happy with this make. A Christmassy item that is different, reusing what someone else had discarded. It is a cushion made to look like a Christmas tree bauble.

I was cruising Bloglovin before Christmas and an interesting blog post came up - Studio DIY. She had made cushions to look like Christmas tree baubles. Some of it was sewn, however to simplify it the entire top piece was glued. I knew that I could sew it all and so collected old cushions from the local dump shop to use as stuffing and ransacked my own supplies for material.

However I wanted plush comfort and so in the end purchased some furnishing velvet from the Fabric of Society and obtained the shinny furnishing fabric, for the top, from Fabric Vision. For $32 I have enough material to make two or three of these. A lot of trial and error as for some reason my seams weren't equal, I think I took more seam in the zip. My guessing for sewing the top section in worked well however, the circle given for the top did not match and was too small, so there was some fiddling.

Very excited as it was my first ever invisible zip and I think it was very successful. No more zips showing up unless I want them to be a feature. Woo Hoo. I've shown you the rather ugly bottom but when it's on a sofa you will not see that.

This Christmas present was sewn after Christmas but that's OK as I have yet to see my niece to have a present time. So all wrapped in a brown paper bag that my grocery shopping comes it... Another bit of reusing. I'm going to adjust and try the pattern again as I think they look better in a group and are a bit of fun to make the house look Christmassy.

Redcurrants

 A significant part of summer for me is about picking fruit. This starts in November and goes through to April. I love being in the sun entangled in vines or trees, adding to the bowl, basket or bucket and enjoying warm fruit as it's being picked. We have two redcurrant bushes and this year due to all the rain the currants are enormous. I don't normally net our bushes but was we were going away just when everything was ripening I thought it prudent to do so.

I went out to pick and thought I was done but every time I went to leave I would lift another branch and find it dripping with fruit. Perfection.

Another Christmas make - dress pattern weights

I previously made myself some pattern weights and was really pleased with them, so decided to make a set for my sister and niece for Christmas. I used an oil cloth again but this was a much heavier cloth and very stiff. It made it incredibly difficult to turn through.

The first of the season's raspberries

Picked today, the first real pick of about about 500 grams of raspberries. Oh so delicious. I was laughing at myself as I was picking. My picking style at the beginning of the season is not to miss a single one, checking every branch, being careful. As we're going away I feel that I am missing out on all my season's raspberries.

I have three varieties. Some get more bugs than others, which are always clean. So I pick with two bowls - one for eating and one for jam.

Everytime I drop one on the ground it is a lost opportunity and a scrabble to get it, normally by the end of the season I don't care !!!

Ceylon Curry Powder - home made

When I was in Australia with relatives I took photos of a few recipes from very old books. Back HERE I blogged about the hot chilli oil. Yesterday I made a curry powder that was simply titled Ceylon Curry Powder from a recipe book bought in Darjeeling. It makes a flavorsome and not overly hot curry. So now with two recipes from this book under my belt we are going to have some tasty dishes at our house.

Minecraft Pillow

Minecraft is now almost a retro game!! When my kids were little we all used to play it as a family and the Zombies and Creepers used to freak me out. Now on ten years and my young nephew is seriously into it and has slowly drawn my family back into the net too. Now they all play online together with their own servers. It's a great boys family thing with the two brothers and their offspring all getting involved again.

Anyway - forward to this Christmas and trying to be inspired for presents, I had the brilliant idea to make a Minecraft Creeper pillow. Super easy as it is a block based game and due to the wave of popularity 10 years ago there are a lot of Minecraft inspired patterns and ideas out there. So I made a 2 inch block pillow (total finish is 20 inch) stuffed with a gorgeous good quality feather pillow.


Linking to a new link up over at Wendy's Quilts and more.

 

Hot Chilli

I have been doing a bit of crafting for Christmas presents which will have to be posted about after Christmas. But one item I've made was meant to be for Aaron for Christmas but the reality is that the whole family will use it, so it's no longer a present.

When I was in Australia Barry gave me some recipes and one of them was for Chilli Oil. It was delicious. So I have come home and made it and it's the most luscious colour and boy does it have kick.

No licking these bowls! This is going to jazz up our plain pasta meals.