Jo Upperton our talented local artist.

I wanted something really special for us to celebrate / commemorate our 12th wedding anniversary. We've hung it a little early. Our anniversary is not till 29th of March. However, Jo had finished the painting - and it is more than I can do, to keep from hanging it for that lenght of time .

Click on it to see some of the detail. There are windows in the power pole - the same power pole also has a village church perched on the top of it. The orange trees have striped trunks. Real Jo Uppertonish. Love it Jo - you did a great job.
You can view more of Jo's work here

DH grew up on an orange orchard - he helped his father dig a well 30ft deep, with bucket and rope and a ladder or two. (OSH would blanch these days!) He loved working on the massey fergusson tractor and the pump shed looks too good for the real one he remembers. Still Jo did a great job of painting his memories. It looks absolutely wonderful in our home.

blog posts

I love changing the header on my blog. Hope you enjoy the day lilly in my garden. I really like the colour of this one. I also have a bright red, and orange and a vivid yellow day lilly planted.

All my knitting and felting adventures will from today be put on http://www.keriflowerknits.blogspot.com/ and I'll keep this as my 'waffle' space.

Oliver (4 now) had his tonsils out yesterday and I hope to read about it on the family's blog and see that he's OK. http://lozakids.blogspot.com/ I believe the poor mite won the contest of the day - MJ tells me that he had the largest tonsils the surgeon had seen for a long time. He'll be feeling a lot better in the winter coming up and will be able to swallow again. Wonderful when it all works out OK.

This is Olly a couple of years back and one of my fav photos of him. Wearing his Dad's undies as a scarf.

WEBS America's yarn store

KnitPurlGirl is holding a fabulous give-a-way on her blog. Sponsored by WEBS America's yarn store.

Go check it out. I don't know how to fashion a link so click on http://knitpurlgurl.blogspot.com/

and follow the prompts.
It is great!!!

WEBS is also holding a KAL . The chicken picture is from their site and the pattern for them is a Blue Sky Alpacas design.

http://blog.yarn.com/ will get you the yarn store blog where you will find all sorts of goodies.

Rain... rain.... JOY JOY

We've just had about six hours of steady rain. Hasn't brought the temperature down much. The fire risk is down though and the level in the water tanks are up. We have much to be grateful for this morning.

Panne-lappen

Saw some traditional patterns on Ravelry under 'dish cloths'. I just had to knit the NZ one. (would change it and increase the size of Taranaki and downsize the N in proportion to the Z, if I ever knit it again.) I've figured out how to make my own patterns now! It isn't that difficult. The other cloth (waffle) I added a loop to. Oma used to knit these (in pairs)and they'd hang in the kitchen to deal with the transfer of any hot pot or caserole she had to pick up. Cannot see myself wiping a bench with them somehow. I enjoyed knitting in cotton for a change

.

Yesterday it was 36 degrees here in Kerikeri. It was unbearably hot. Didn't get much done at all, heat is so enervating - Mum loved it, I sat and talked to her for the morning.

Feeling guilty for complaining, Melbourne was 47 degrees - no wonder it burned. I've been in Australia and experienced 40 degrees and suffice to say, I'm not too keen to repeat the experience! Those poor people who lost all their possessions (and a lot their lives) doesn't bear thinking about.

Aviatrix

I started another hat for Zoe, one that could cover her little ears this winter. the wool is Patons Jet and lovely and soft. The button is one out of my old button jar. The pattern Aviatrix by Just Jussi. Justjussi.com Thank you Justine Turner I loved knitting this.

I ad-libbed a little on the chin strap and put three button holes in. I know the strap is lovely and flexi (being rib), but I like to be prepared.

I was going to put the button on the strap and the button hole on the earflap - but it would mean shifting the button - --- something that would just never get done. I know I wouldn't have.