An accidental breakfast

We had a very very hot weekend camping at Balmoral Forrest. Whew this summer is long and hot. It was not only hot outside the caravan but inside!

On Saturday morning I was cooking brunch for everyone (American pancakes with maple syrup) and I cooked more than the pancakes. I was leaning against the stove opening the window to the kitchen area and I saw a bit of smoke. Nope the pancakes were not burning. Then I looked down and thought - my top is smoking!! The time it took me to register that, my top was flaming - literally!!

I must have sqwarked pretty loudly as Aaron came running over saying "what's wrong". But man I was quick. I had that top off and thrown out onto the grass before he could even get near me.

Morris had a great time

The photo shows a really large part burnt but in actual fact a lot of that happened outside before everyone stomped and threw water on it. I was more worried that with the extreme fire danger at the moment that I would set the camping area on fire.

Being a cotton top the flames just went up the material and not on me. I did not even feel any warmth or anything. No marks or red. Just imagine if it had been polyester.

Sigh. Sadly that had been my favourite top all this summer.

The boys spent heaps of time together being pals.

Apart from that we just swam and sat in the shade and swam some more. Bliss.

The gorgeous swimming hole

Things that caught my eye

On my trip home from Dunedin and my uncles funeral I took the long way to everywhere. All the old places I used to go to, basically I went down memory lane. So many of the off the road small towns are run down and shops empty. It was sad to see. Other things, like the gorgeous floral baskets that adorn all the shop frontages in Oamaru, were amazing.

I woke in the morning in Dunedin and from the door where I was sleeping this was my view - misty morning. What the mist did was accentuate the colours of the flowers.

View from the door

the flowers looked like they were glowing

Then on my travels around Warrington, Seacliff and Karitane I spotted lots of old signs. I had read about a man doing photos of these kinds of signs, calling them ghost signs, as he said they were part of our history that tells quite a social tale and will soon be lost. 

Then on to Oamaru where I am always so taken by the hanging baskets. What a progressive city council to organise this. It really beautifies the town.

 A stop at Riverstone Kitchen where I wandered through the most amazing garden. Broccoli the size of my handbag, oh I was so envious. I need a big garden too!!! I could not partake of anything there as they were getting ready for dinner service. But I wandered the amazing vege garden for about 30 minutes. Unfortunately a lot of my photos there went weird so I can't show you the magnificence of the place.

The last place that amazed me for the change that has occured was at Hands Ashford in Asburton. One of the staff has bought the shop out and the shop and cafe have been modernised, re equiped and was amazing.

I bought a hank of baby alpaca wool to make a scarf. It is superfine, spun at lace weight. So should be gorgeous.

Work in Progress

Well I am a bit late joining the hexagon craze that started a few years ago. But over the holidays the stitching I took with me was 1" hexagons. What I will do with it and how many I will make, I do not know. I would like some sort of modern setting or quilt but will have to fossik through pinterest etc for that.

Eli's great work

While I started stitching Eli also started. He made one flower. Chose the colours, stitched the material on, sewed the seams. Well done to him. He wanted something to put his MP3 player on by his bed. He is now talking of making another one so that it will quilt together to form a mat.

I have been thinking of my stitching as I am packing it again, so soon after coming home. This time unfortunately it is going with me to Dunedin for my uncle's funeral. See you after the weekend.

Linking in to WIP Wednesday and other parties here.

Relaxing summer holidays

Yes we had a fantastic summer holiday. We feel that this summer has been great as we have had two big camping trips away, both by rivers and with lots of sun.
We all managed to get some walks in - the boys and Aaron went up to the Trig but the hill was out for me so I did all the flat walks around finishing at the coffee shop.

Lots of lying around in bed in the mornings.

Some tramping

Ready to go (Eli took a while to get into it)

the game turned into other lego!!

Minatours 

I link to these places

Gourmet camping food

Blissful bush camping

We have come back from another gorgeous eight days away. We stayed at Pelorus Bridge DOC camping ground. This was our relax and do nothing holiday. Lazy lazy mornings, Lots of yummy food, heaps of swimming and a bit of walking. I read 2 books and five magazines and did a bit of stitching. It was great.

We always say that with the caravan we are "glamping" and our food this time certainly followed that. Here are some food photos. I even made some English Muffins for brunch one day ( I have the recipe on my blog here). Yes excuse the photo - but I was still in my nighty. (With a very naughty Aaron in the background pulling faces. I told him that if he was not careful I would put the picture on the blog!!)    I link into these places sometimes.

Of course there was wine

Olives, pastrami, blue cheese, cumin gouda, gooseberry jam and brie

Put the egg with the flour

knead the dough

Use the Milk frother to melt the butter into the milk

Let it sit to rise while we all have a shower

Cook!! on the griddle

Eat

and eat some more

Awesome finds from the Op Shop

A Breville food processor with all the bits

 I went into two Op Shops just before Xmas. At the "Save the Children" in Kaiapoi I found these quilt blocks and negotiated it down to $5. They will sew together quickly to be a quilt for the orphanage in Kenya that is the charity I support. As timing would have it, in the shop was Sarah, who is the Mother of Ian who set up and runs this Orphanage. So we had a good discussion about how many quilts we had etc. and how to get them off to Kenya.

Then I popped into the Salvation Army Op Shop in Rangiora looking for second hand school uniform for Jakob for his new school. No uniform but for $20 I got a full working Breville food processor and all the bits. Am thrilled!!

Quilt blocks

 I am linking up to 

Work in Progress

Over the last week I have been working hard trying to finish many things. Goodness how do I get so many unfinished projects? I have a bit of a rescue job to do when we come back from our next week away (the garage flooded with the recent rain and in spite of being up on blocks the suitcase with half done quilts and material for the charity I support, all got wet and I have to clear it out) so am trying to get things in my room finished first.

The cushion cover on the  matching quilt

The hourglass flannelette quilt in the making

I have just about finished the entire redo of Jakob's room. The last thing on my list for him was a matching cushion to go with his new decor. Last night I spent quilting the cushion top. It is now ready to be made into a proper cushion cover.

I have also been wanting to have my quilt for the caravan done. I am going girly and recycled. It is made from a flannelette sheet I bought at an Op Shop for $3 and lots of PJ tops and bottoms purchased for .50 cents. I am loving it so far but want to be using it!!! (sigh it will not be ready for this next trip away).

I sometimes link to these places.