Freya the blue puss - we have a routine here where our retired cats get time out of the run supervised. We live on a busy street and Mack the Mastiff has never understood cats. Time out separately is needed.
The cats know the routine and usually don't venture far and come back into their run, on their own free will. Lordy never goes much further than the back door steps.
Freya was last to come back and found the doors closed. She sat on top of run crying wanting to get back inside.
Wild weather....
Thunder, lightening and heavy downpours - so heavy that it has washed all the pine needles off the bank and we had good sized ponds in top paddock
I put my big girl pants on yesterday and booked the home kill butcher - he is on holiday until the 20th......
I felt a slight bit of glee, however we really have to cull due to grass situation.
It's just that I know Pink Nose and Lily's number is up SOB. It is much easier if one does not name the animals... I often waiver about the lifestyle choices we have made - but then refocus on the goal of living off the land as much as possible. I know our animals have been well looked after and have had a better life than others that end up in the supermarket- I can distance myself when the time comes.
Knitting...
photo source.
With the cold snap, talk of knitting is happening - Isn't this Debbie Bliss pattern gorgeous. Abbey ordered the pattern from UK and it arrived Tuesday - super fast delivery. BUT GULP visiting our local shops for wool is such an eye opener. It is very hard to find 100% NZ wool. There is wool from Australia and 100% acrylic. The Wool Company sells 100% New Zealand wool and we have been looking at their website.
FarmStay Guests.With the cold snap, talk of knitting is happening - Isn't this Debbie Bliss pattern gorgeous. Abbey ordered the pattern from UK and it arrived Tuesday - super fast delivery. BUT GULP visiting our local shops for wool is such an eye opener. It is very hard to find 100% NZ wool. There is wool from Australia and 100% acrylic. The Wool Company sells 100% New Zealand wool and we have been looking at their website.
Baxter loves scratching poles and knocking them to the ground.
We moved Baxter back to inside cattery due to the cold weather.
The boys are back in town (Charles, Ollie, Muddy, and Milo) Their family have asked that they have the outside run
The boys have all settled in fine - they did arrive rather grumpy - but they had been given quite a dressing down as they left their place looking like four teenage boys had just had a party. You see they were all kept overnight in the kitchen - Making sure they would be all home for a timely get away in the morning. These boys were not pleased being locked inside. Their litter tray was garden dirt and they made sure they left tracks everywhere in the clean kitchen......
I so agree with you about the wool. It is so hard now to find NZ wool. Our last wool shop that had been going in the Mount for over 40 years has just shut down and now we have to go to Tauranga to buy out wool. I was looking at maybe doing some quilting never down it before but do sew so I was wondering which is the best design to use when you are just starting out and how did you teach yourself.
ReplyDeleteKate - we wish to support the local shops very much - but but but they don't stock and can't stock everything we like. We have been buying on line and so far extremely pleased with our purchases. And with the exchange rate including postage it is sooo much cheaper than the shops. We brought at Spotlight backing and batting since the local shop didn't have their annual sale. Not sure how small shops are going to compete. But the savings we made are huge.
DeleteI'll do a blog post of how I taught myself and Abbey to quilt this week.
Love Leanne
Yes Leanne, wool made in NZ should be so readily available.Cold here too, we had 4.9C at some really early hour this morning. Stars and a clear sky, so I thought maybe a frost, but 7.0 and cloud later on.Boys will be boys, dirt is, in their mind, to be played in!!! Cheers from Jean. p.s. a truly lovely pattern.
ReplyDeleteJean, not being a great knitter I was quite surprized at how hard it is to find NZ wool. And the price of wool cough cough cough. Nice morning here looks like summer is back - but I can feel a nip of autumn air brrrr.
DeleteHave a great day
Love Leanne
Isn't it crazy that in a country full of sheep it's hard to find 100% NZ wool?! Sad...it seems to be sign of the times. We've had some rain up here but it's been the light drizzly type..so very nice and gentle on bone dry ground.
ReplyDeleteWe have had a good amount of rain everything looks ready to flourish - have to watch the zuchinnis they are double quick to become marrows now.
DeleteI'm real surprized at what the shops stock I just assumed it would be NZ wool... makes me want a spinning wheel it does.
Love Leanne
Freya is very pretty, she looks like she has eyeliner on! I think she is like Miss Pops and likes to explore a bit. I have just been watching poppy climb a tree as she scratched the hell out of it, and climb the fence to explore the neighbours garden.
ReplyDeleteThe boys are funny too - typical teenagers.
Julie and Poppy Q
xxx
Freya is very pretty and yes does look like she has applied eyeliner on - I don;t think she has been down to see the boys yet. We try not to encourage them to go down to the guests.
DeleteLove Leanne
Muddy might know something...rainwater might be purer than town supply with chemicals? ( or do you have your own water? )
ReplyDeleteThe knitting pattern looks very little Red Ridinghood. Are you going to knit it?
Chilly up here this morning too.
I think Muddy is very clever drinking rain water. No we are on town water that has fluoride in... We do go to petone spring and get our drinking water.
DeleteI'm not going to knit the red riding hood - I'm not a knitter. But Abbey is thinking very hard about taking on the challenge. We looked at her budget (both the kids are really good at budgeting and there is some fat. Not sure if she is going to or not yet - the jacket will cost about $250 in wool)
Love Leanne
Hi Leanne,
ReplyDeleteFor NZ 100% wool go to this website and down the side of Wei Siew's blog are lots of stockists around the country: http://kiwiyarns.wordpress.com/
The Holland Road Yarn company in Jackson St, Petone has imported 100% wool as well as NZ wool.
I have also found The Wool Company in Utiku very helpful when I have rung them. Their wool is wonderful to knit with.
My knitting and craft blog is here: http://koruknits.wordpress.com
The proposed garment will be a BIG knit but looks scrummy.
Hi Lynley I still can;t comment on your blog it doesn't seem to accept blogger- in too hard basket for me)
DeleteThanks for website - Abbey has gone and visited them all.
Yes a very big knit and about $250 I'm not sure which way she is going to jump. She likes knitting so will keep her busy, she gets fybro pain in her hands so has to pick her knitting days. She is knitting baby booties for a friends baby due July and has knitted a lot for neo nates Wn. So it will be a big project to knit a jacket for herself.
Love Leanne
I often have problems leaving comments on BlogSpot blogs. Sorry I cannot help you work it out on blogs.....
DeleteI thought the wool would be pricey but it will be a lovely warm garment.
So much in life is about pacing ourselves and going gently....
Lynley I was gobsmacked how much wool is. GULP! It is going to be cheaper for Abbey to get it sent from the UK. A lot of money for one jumper - but what hobby makes money aye and she will get a lot of pleasure from knitting it. Plus won't it look cute with cowboy boots.
DeleteI love the cardigan/coat. Let us know how Abbey gets on with it. I tried a Debbie Bliss pattern a few years ago (I love her designs), but I found the pattern hard. But I'm sure Abbey is a much more experienced knitter than me. If she doesn't find it too difficult, I might even be tempted to knit that pattern up too. Is she doing it in red?
ReplyDeleteAbbey has chosen red as the colour and is just waiting to hear if a place in the UK has enough balls of wools in the same batch. She has decided it would be best to use the proper Debbie Bliss wool as it is in between a 10 ply and 12 ply of the wool here in NZ and it is cheaper to import the wool from Uk including postage - I think she said so far a $70.oo saving than buying it NZ. Plus it is 100% merino and not just standard wool.
Delete