July

 Well July is truly winter - after what seemed like a lovely long autumn we now have the wind and rain and  rather too much of both at the moment.  Good weather for working on unfinished sewing projects and i have been pleased with the progress I have made on that front although i think i have watched too many netflix movies and read books... not enough physical activity although keeping warm and out of the way of covid or the flu has seemed more essential.  

I had to read three Sanskrit verses from the Bhagavad Gita for a special evening held in mid July so there was a bit of practice doing that as I tried to get the pronunciation and rhythm  as accurate as possible. 

The weather was not good for doing outdoor activities with the kids in the school holidays so I resorted to taking the girls to try out the local indoor Go Kart racetrack which they found entertaining. The youngest,  Cordelia, just put her foot down on the special Kiddi kart and seemed to go flat out whereas Annabelle seemed to be jsut a bit more cautious although they both seemed to be flashing round pretty fast. 

Then my focus shifted to getting ready for the embroidery conference that cousin Linda was convening in Tauranga. I signed up for two classes and was looking forward to some creative time.  

The first class was "Creating your own textile Art design"and involved discussing the elements of design and then being given some shapes and using fabric we had brought to put these into a small composition which illustrated the concepts we had been discussing.   I really enjoyed this. in the photos, the small ones are my initial layouts and the big one was done by our instructor.  I liked her style. 

the second class was about using stitches to make "marks" and was a lot more random, exploring using threads of different textures, thicknesses, and stitching simple stitches in different shapes and directions.. I cant really say that i have any sort of finished product from that  class but my beginning efforts are shown in the following picture... We had to stick to black and white. 

The following two were examples provided by the instructor.  

So now I am back home after a lovely drive - the weather was much better going up to Tauranga than I expected and I got a lovely view of the mountain. Coming back  the mountain was totally enveloped in  rain and cloud  - wouldnt even know it was there.  I was warm enough in campervan although a powered site at the local campground meant I could use the eleectric fan heater ( cosy!)

I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with Linda and her family - I stayed overnight with them after the classes were over. She is a delightful person and such a talented embroiderer!  I always feel very welcome there and I think I am the only relative on her mother's side that she keeps in touch with. Certainly the only one in NZ.  Apparently she has fond memories of spending time with my family when she was very young and early photos of her as a baaby show her with my Mum and myself.  

I am off again this coming weekend to Morrinsville to celebrate the 80th birthday of Peter Sommerhalder a longtime canoeing friend - he met his wife at our place over 50  years ago.  Then the big grown up grandsons arrive from Australia for a few days  .. That will be fun!