Back "home" in Whangas

 Working through things I need to do...post one of my prints to friends in Titirangi....

Choose cards to.post to grandies...two chosen, two to go...

Buy a sports bra in the Warehouse.... comfort!!!!

I walked to the shops early afternoon and had time for a long black and a brownie....the last one in the cabinet seemed to just be there for me!!

And why shouldn't a Waka have an outboard motor?!!

The base of that palm tree is not much higher than the riverbank....now that it sticks up higher it is being affected by the wind from the sea!!

Back to the Stayplace, just 20 minutes walk (today's exercise!) and off with friends..the intention had been to go out to another friend's house...but she is also on call with the fire service as a trained volunteer and there was a large chemical (ammonia apparently) spillage at a dry cleaning place so she ended up helping coordinate communication between teams...and organising food for them all.. over thirty firemen (and women) in the end including a specialist unit from Palmerston North over an hour away.

So back their house in Aramoho for a relaxing afternoon and supper together.

We get on so well...and I'm fitting in well.. its a shame I have to go back to Scotland!! 

However there are plans to come again....

Alice through the looking glass?!

As it is still 18⁰C now at 10.30pm ( it was at least 28 this afternoon) I have started sorting things to pass on to others to use, and what I need to take back to Scotland...thinking of weight....

Back South

 Another long bus journey..but comfortable and well driven.

Just before I left, the latest kiln opening!

My plate on stubby feet and tile. Giving me ideas for the future.

A Hamilton hospital building from the bus

Looking across the Waikatō 

Home of Kiwiana 

These two in Te Kuiti. I think that the cottage is a museum or information centre now.

There is a lot of shearing here!

A house in Waimarino. ("National Park")..well suited for any snow...

And the kiwi made from Ponga (tree fern) trunks

And ToiToi...good to see that native instead of the invasive pampas grass 

Ngauruhoe showing itself...
Unlike Ruapehu, hiding in clouds.

You can see how dry it still is, brown dry grass everywhere.

It is good to be back in Whanganui, but sadly only for a week...time to see friends for one last time this time, and reduce the contents of my bags again.....

Last day in Mātangi

 Drawing has taken a back seat to the patchwork...but I've still been doing enough..

On Saturday the palm tree by my friend's workshop was getting a trim, so I could see a flower stalk and frond close up.

Aren't feathers like leaves?

Then you have Rimu whose leaves are not feathery!

The first small block of four is finished.. including resisting one strip twice!!

While Mr Digby Brown (17¼ years old) kept watch...

I've been repacking my bags ready for tomorrow...seeing what I can leave behind as gifts!

On the bus!

 I was brave today and venture on the bus into the city..I had a lift for the first 3.5 km..and then with luck caught the number 22 bus coming in to Hamilton from Te Aroha..the same route that we took twelve years ago from Te Aroha , the first time that we met our friends to be, here!

I bought my bus ticket for the return to Whanganui...which I should have done earlier....I paid the full price of 80$ instead of the 50$ or so on the way here...I bought that ticket a while before travelling. Lesson learned!!

Then to a huge mall to top up my phone, and do a little shopping...50% successful...and it isn't my favourite occupation...or my favourite sort of place.. However it was spacious and airy...and the temperature outside was in the very high 20s....

I should have taken more time to photograph murals....but cities unsettled me and I was glad that the bus to return arrived at the stop as I did. That was the M2, a half hourly service to get me back to where I was dropped off...and well over an hour until the connecting bus back to Mātangi...time to walk (and text my friend to say what I was doing) 

After 1km she arrived in her car ! 

At least I've done some exercise today...and some sewing as well this afternoon...

Half of the first small block done.

My friend's daughter arrived later from Christchurch with a large wheelie bag containing what is left of the things we had to leave behind two years ago....(She is up here to do a study course)...

It is a bit heavier than I expected....but sorting it will wait until tomorrow.

It is good to have a chance to meet her and catch up as I'm not going to the South Island this time.

Sunday out

 Sunday was my friend's duty day at the Arts and Crafts group gallery in Paeroa...so a bright and early start to be there before 10am opening time.

Heading for Te Aroha, and the mountain Te Aroha...as we got nearer it was clearer than usual right along the KaiMai range..then just over 20km along to Paeroa.

As it was Sunday, most shops were shut, apart from the secondhand shops, a couple of op shops and the dairies.

It was an interesting wander, including an old theatre building now an emporium called Junk and Disorderly! I did see one pot which said Buy Me...but as it had no price, and its shelf mates were a little pricey...I resisted!!

As the temperature rise, after my lunch I sat in the gallery and sewed...

One corner started..

Then travel home later in the afternoon 

Hills to the side on the way back towards Te Aroha.

Saturday, homeday

 Gardening was the order this morning.

I pulled the grass from a straggly lavender hedge..last year's visiting gardener didn't prune it as requested....it could provide an amount of cuttings to start again...

Everyone else was at the front...a palm tree was being tidied!! ..and it is about 10 metres tall....

I drew the tree and one of its flower stalks.

This afternoon I had the lend of a rotary cutter and a cutting mat. The new project is now safely in five small bags ready to pin and sew.....

Drawing and walking

 Drawing carries on... setting good habits... stopping myself from not bothering, being too tired, any excuse....

An easy morning, then this afternoon I walked to the village to go to the quilting shop called Tis the Season...I need a fabric pencil to mark for cutting patchwork blocks.

It is a flat 3 km with a good footpath most of the way, and a decent grass verge up the road where I'm staying. A pleasant walk, with enough shade from trees when it's hot...like today! The return journey was relieved by a light shower of rain, as schoolchildren rode home on the path...I chose the verge to let them ride easily.

At home my exercise walks are an hour on the walk around the nature reserve..an old opencast mining site...or a hilly 4km road walk which takes and hour. So 6km flat was good.

Drawing lines and cutting squares tomorrow, hopefully!!

Still drawing..and applied mathematics

 

This morning...The Waikatō showing its foggy side.

And doing the calculations...

If I cut 1" squares (plus ¼" seam allowance) I would be 31 short.....

If I cut 2" squares (plus ¼" seam allowance) I will have nothing left over....

Cushion cover here we come.....