A play day and a sunny trip North

After  returning from palmerston north I decided it was a good time to do a bit of playing with creativity.. this required tidying up the house a bit first, and doing a few errands and visits with friends but then my inner child let loose a bit and I spent a few hours painting fabric with my friend MArgaret. The flood of posts on FB regarding the bushfires continued to bother me, so I took the opportunity of following up one suggestion - the Wollongong Modern Quilt group are going to put together quilts from blocks sent to them - each block to have a tree on it.. so i tried out a couple of things and made two.

some of our painted fabric - 

My tree blocks for the bushfire quilts.

My next task is to make the denim bib front pinafores for the girls.. I need to make a pattern first.

I dragged myself away from the design table and headed up to Mangawhai via Kaukapakapa and the home of one of my former engineering students - great talking to someone who is making a real difference as a teacher and mother. Then up to the good company of Gil and Dorothy - we sat in the sun and just watched the scenery, boats and people - gorgeous afternoon, then had the buffet dinner at the Golf Club.

While they headed off to play golf on Saturday I enjoyed the idyllic windless sunny day with several walks, a little reading, a trip tot he local market and more walks and even a bit of sunbathing. It was the best day so far in January apparently and lots of people out to enjoy what for many must have been the end of their holidays.

Sunday dawned gorgeous again so I took the canoe out with Gil on his stand up paddle board - I went right up the estuary, past the farm - looking at all the new houses and bringing back some memories of earlier walks, paddles and pipi gathering. Back for morning tea and then Dorothy and i went out again - another gorgeous paddle - the arms remember how to do it, even if it had been months or even a year since they held a paddle. The tide was helpful and really relished the clean air, seeing all the families and people out enjoying themselves.  So hot by early afternoon there was lots of lying around reading, sketching, little walks with lots of ball throwing and cold cider.... and watching Serena Williams win the ASB tennis tournament in Auckland. her first major win in three years apparently so she was pretty excited about it.

Bye bye Mangawhai!

Monday morning was again glorious but decided my arms might not appreciate pushing them again, so took a leisurely time packing up, another walk and then headed home. Took a bit of a detour when I found myself nearly into Warkworth - the Tomarata road must have taken me out further down than I thought, so I headed over on the Kaipara Flats Tauhoa road to get back to SH16 - but didnt realise it got narrow and metalled - bit of a giggle but I pulled over well in time when a really big truck with a huge water tank was sighted coming the other way. easy trip home, no problems and not too tired. Traffic was easy!

Catherine had another birthday ! and sent some photos of the family - gosh how they have grown -
All looking good!

They take this shot every year - Havent they shot up!

All taller than Mum now! and Josh is taller than Dad? Well done Brett and Catherine.

 So home again, pick the beans, water the garden - not quite Australia brown but definitely needs watering!