Day's Bay and the Dowse

Phil came across this mother and daughter enjoying the last rays of the sun over in Day's Bay earlier in the week - they were happy to be photographed.  The pontoon is dragged onto the beach for the winter so makes a convenient spot to stand 'on guard '.  What beautiful weather we've been having - I know, the ski resorts aren't too happy - what's that old cliche about 'pleasing everybody'?

I've finished knitting one side of the hot water bottle cover I started last week - have to say I enjoy simple knitting - but, am wondering whether there's much point as I had to visit my local Mitre Ten store last week to buy a new door bell - had great fun setting it up when I got it home, I chose the ring tone of Big Ben!!  I might get sick of it, depends on how many visitors I get.....  anyway, there in the big bins on the way into the store, were hundreds of hot water bottles, complete with soft covers for only $10 each.........

I went to Cafe Rika this morning for a coffee, and look what was outside -

It's lei work by Niki Hastings-McFall - something a bit different - reminds me of a totem pole  ?

Last time I showed some blocks I was playing around with, made with strips cut into squares and then altered by doing a sew and flip on opposite corners.

Here's a few ideas for putting the resulting smaller squares together -

using the part with the light and dark strips


turning them into a pinwheel,

or finally, making very strong diagonal lines - any colours could be used, maybe use plains instead of patterned - as with so much in quilting, there are endless possibilities.

I got a new App last week, This American Life, which has hundreds of radio broadcasts on any number of subjects - the first one I listened to was "No Coincidence, No Story! - some truly amazing stories of coincidences which got me thinking about my own life and some of the strange events...........

Why didn't I make the effort to watch the All Blacks last night? [we won 36-13] Sounds like the kind of game I would enjoy  - which leads me into the thought for the day, "When you win, say nothing.  When you lose, say less." Paul Brown

and a final photograph from Phil, the evening light at Baring Head last week - I feel so sorry for the little bush..........

Thanks for visiting my blog, take care
June