Gisborne retreat third day

Today has been another day of sewing and outdoor adventures. We went to a CITO, which is Cache in Trash out, part of geocaching. We met at a local Gisborne Cafe and then went to the park to do a clean up

This was what was gathered after half and hour of 14 people gathering the rubbish they could find.

Back at the retreat

I made a Anthology block and started the second, but I hadn't cut enough fabric  so that one will have to be finished at home.

These blocks are in a quilt top, despite me making a mistake,  a border to add and something on the green block to be done at home too.

Ingrid gave me these blocks quite a long time ago so I am happy to have put them together.

I have put together other blocks I have been given but need to make one more block, my counting was wrong at home and I am one short

I am off to sew a little more

Happy stitching.

Gisborne Retreat

It is day 2 of the retreat and all is going well, I have finished two quilt tops from the half square triangles

This one with the darker plain squares

This one with the lighter squares. The plain layer cake was given to me by Ingrid, the coloured layer cake was from a fabric sale.

Everyone is busy stitching 

Sue finished her beautiful quilt

Maxine is working on these blocks, they were given to her to finish by someone who had been given them to finish....Maxine is finishing off the buttonhole stitching on 54 leaves!! 

Next up for me is to join these blocks together, I was given them ages ago

These blocks have been joined together now I need to join the rows, it will be a challenge as a lot of the blocks are uneven, again they were given to me to finish up.

I had better get back to it

Happy stitching. 

Anthology blocks

 I made one wonky Anthology block when we were in NZ

and this one once we were home, I think I have 2 more to make and that is it!! Just a few filler blocks and then getting it together starts. Will be a challenge to decide where each block goes, I will have to make sure the colours are spread around.

Yesterday I sewed a heap of half square triangles, I was given a layer cake years ago and bought one in a sale recently, they are now all sewn up

the heap before I ironed them out. I am trying to use up fabric I have here, I think it will take me a long,long time.

I am off to Gisborne in the morning for a retreat for three days, so have three projects to work on, all blocks I have been given to finish up and put into quilts. 

I had planned to have some photos of Finn here but I cant find the cord to connect the phone to the computer, so maybe I can publish this and then change it on the phone. Maybe blogger will be nice and allow me to do that!!

Adam and Finn when we went for a walk last week.

And with Ganma! 

I made another Anthology block, I nearly forgot 

A repeat photo of the pink and white block and the second block for this week.

I made a date and ginger gf loaf today to take away to the retreat and a big brew of spaghetti  🍝 

Smelt wonderful as it was cooking! 

Finn is 6 months old now and has started some solids, just love his face in this photo!

Happy stitching.

Geocaching

Today I spent a few hours walking along a bike/ walking track looking for caches. 

Sunrise from our unit

This place had many bird boxes by the house and on rhe track

Beautiful countryside here

Love this big old oak tree, there was a cache around the back

I had rhe track to myself fir most if the tine and then along came this lady on the horse with her little dog trotting along beside

I went past big pohutukawa trees

Then I came out to the estuary,  over the water is Athenree

Off in the distance is Tauranga and it looked like it was raining all day there. 

Back at the motel we had lunch, then I went to look for one last cache

I finally found it on the third visit with help from the cache owner, little sneaky thing!

One last walk on the beach

This tree has been washed up and people have added bits of wood as a kind of sculpture

Oops that finger again!!

I have been doing some stitching  - secret at present

Tomorrow we head up to Auckland and stay overnight and Thursday we fly home. 

Happy stitching.

Bowentown

Today I walked up the hill behind the camping ground and spread Mums ashes part way up and at the top, up there you have a beautiful view over the surf beach and harbour

The path up was very steep, my muscles are a bit sore tonight!

On the way back I diverted to another  beach to look for a cache

On the way down

And up..sadly I didn't find the cache

Qhe  I got back to the main path I could see activity down on the beach, there was a pod of dolphins swimming down in Anzac Bay

Not such good photos from a distance

I walked down ro the beach and thankfully the dolphins were still there

I have a heap of photos showing about this much of the dolphins! I was excited though and enjoyed watching them. After lunch domestics had to be seen to so I did the washing and some stitching at the same time.

Views down the beach.

I went to try and find a cache before dinner but no luck again!

Evening at the beach.

Off to cook some dinner.

Happy stitching. 

Exploring

From being up at Cable Bay we came south to Whangarei and were lucky enough to stay with Raewyn and the MOHL on the farm.

Raewyn feeding her cookies

Emma dog heading off to work 

The first of the new calves being checked out by one of the cows

We went for a drive around the farm and over the road ro the run  off, this is where Raewyn walks

A panoramic view of the farm and surrounds

Still trying the selfies 🤣

From Whangarei we went to Auckland and then Tauranga. We were planning on scattering Mums ashes at a local park but when we went there it was heading with people, so Mum travelled with us.

We left Taurabga and travelled over the Kaimai Ranges in the rain and low cloud 

Luckily most of the traffic  followed the 60km speed on the road here

We carried on to Tirau and met lovely Julie for an early lunch

Then travelled on via Matamata and of course I had to stop at the tourist info centre 

This is such a great building, no Hobbits, just me!

From Matamata we went on to Te Aroha which is at the base of the Kaimais which once again were in cloud

Te Aroha has some beautiful buildings most we passed by this time

Then after stopping for groceries in Paeroa we arrived at Bowentown,any a family holiday and outing happened here.

There has been a huge amount of erosion here, there must have been some huge tides.

We have a motel unit with a wonderful view to the ocean.

Time for a cuppa I rhink

Happy stitching. 😊