Dogs

One thing that always makes me stop wherever I am is dogs. If I see a dog, I ask the owner if I can pat he/she. This one was outside one of the local hotels now a backpackers where minor construction work was being done inside. Edited to add: No I didn't pat this dog, he looked kind of growly so we just told him he was a cute boy

Linking up with Mosaic Monday and Ruby Tuesday.

Pride

I've been seeing a few new building projects being made around town and some of the old heritage buildings being pulled down for them. I'm guessing the old ones are probably not earthquake proof and will cost too much to bring up to an acceptable standard. Shame really but that's progress I guess.

Every week at work a lovely gay couple come in and do their shopping. I always make it a point to chat with them and last week they gave me a bag of brand new pride shoelaces that they sell at markets. When I took them home my children and I divided them up and now we all wear them in our shoes.

Linking up with Through my lens, Ruby Tuesday, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world and Wordless Wednesday.

Wallpaper

We have been busy pulling out the old kitchen. My house was built in the 1930s and we have been find bits and pieces of wallpaper behind the walls. This piece was found next to where the cupboards were and although I was hoping to save a section of it, it's sadly a bit too ripped up. I do think it's pretty though.

So now we have a decent bench space with some of the new cupboards put together but it's probably going to take a few months to fully organize everything and we are still waiting for a few more items to be delivered.

I have this week off from work so once I get the normal amount of housework and cleaning done, I'm planning to rest and catch up on some crochet while it's raining outside.

Some Autumn planting of seeds has been done outside in the garden with some Hyssop, Soapwort and other seeds I bought online.

Linking up with Through my lens, Ruby Tuesday, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world and Wordless Wednesday.

 

Things of yesteryear

Sometimes when I venture into op shops it can be a bit dangerous. Recently in Reefton we popped into the local traders and I spotted this rather old vacuum cleaner. Can't say I'd buy it but I do wonder how good of a job it use to do compared to today's modern ones?

I did however buy this little Choysa tea caddy which probably was part of a promotion once upon a time. It now stores my teabags in it and will be perfect in my new kitchen.

Not many people know I have an obsession with vintage hats so when I managed to buy this one online made of faux fur - I was very pleased. I will definitely be wearing it in Winter.

Linking up with Through my lens, Ruby Tuesday, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world and Wordless Wednesday.

A stormy day

Last week my daughter R and I met up with one of my cousins for coffee who was moving back to the North Island after living here for a few months. It was a stormy day so afterwards we drove out to one of the local marinas for a look at the waves. This one is in Cobden, a nearby suburb.

 

Can't help but enjoy the sound of the ocean when it's angry and the smell of the salty air. Linking up with Through my lens, Ruby Tuesday, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world and Wordless Wednesday.

The cat's miaow

Bruno and Floki

When I first bought this house last November I purchased online a small cat tower as back then we only had Mr Cat and Bruno. Now that we also have Tiger and Floki we also have 2 more cat towers making 3 altogether. Sometimes Bruno and Floki will squeeze onto the same bed and groom each other, Mr Cat has her own bed on the floor and Tiger has taken up the lowest one.

We have expanded on the vege garden outside. Now we have 2 red chilli plants, various mini Spinach (bright lights) rainbow chard, some calendula flowers and tea tree (manuka) growing in amongst them and the tomatoes in order to attract bees.

And I finally finished this wool crochet blanket that I posted to my niece last week, it's big enough to fit a single sized bed, from what I hear she loved it. My next project involves me making green granny squares to eventually sew together.

Linking up with Through my lens, Ruby Tuesday, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world and Wordless Wednesday.

The Vintage Collective

So last week R (my daughter) and I finally popped into a local shop named "The Vintage Collective" that has been open for a while. Any 2nd hand shops in town aren't that great, in fact we haven't found anything really that has anything decent...until now.

I sometimes collect vintage stuff but it has to be something that will go with my house interior or something I can use. 

 

 

 

 

 

In the end I bought an old Brownie camera, a green tea cup and saucer and a lovely 1960s pea green coat. The prices were pretty reasonable too.

Linking up with Through my lens, Ruby Tuesday, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world and Wordless Wednesday.

Tunnel Terrace Walk

One of the other local walks in between Stafford and Hokitika is the Tunnel Terrace Walk which originally were used for goldmining. The walk was about 20 minutes tops - the original entrace has been closed off due to rock falls so after walking about 100m up the road from the carpark we found another entrance. The photos are below that show the native bush, paths and plants etc.

 Linking up with Through my lens, Ruby Tuesday, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world and Wordless Wednesday.

Discovering Goldsborough

Last weekend B and I went on a mini roadtrip to Goldsborough (near Hokitika). This little spot use to be a well known gold mining area in the old days. These days it's quiet place people can go camping and/or fossick for gold bits and pieces only along the river bed.

B walked further up to see if there was anything he could see, we hadn't taken along our panning eqipment so we will have to go back at some point. This is how low the rivers are on the West Coast as Summer has been extremely dry, we desperately need some steady rain here.

Something nice I saw were some stone sculptures people had made along the river bank.

The river ran quite a distance and from what we discovered from the map there are a few tracks through the land and hills.

Although there wasn't much water I still managed to have a little paddle and rest my hot feet which was nice.

 

  

These last photos are the contents of a shed near the bridge that show many of the artefacts that have been found by people over the years from the gold mining days.

Linking up with Through my lens, Ruby Tuesday, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world and Wordless Wednesday.

Tomatoes...

 

A couple of months ago we planted 2 tomato plants in the existing vegetable patch in our backyard. One of them hasn't done very well but the other one has taken off and is loaded with fruit. Our neighbour across the road gave us 2 more as well so we are hoping that before the end of Summer we will have a good crop before Autumn comes.

Linking up with Through my lens, Ruby Tuesday, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world and Wordless Wednesday.

Granity Band Rotunda

In towns we visit I like to take photos sometimes while B is driving of things I see along the way. Last year when we took my parents to Westport we visited Granity which is on the outskirts of town. I like old historical buildings and noticed this old band rotunda. I can't find much about it but normally these were made around the turn of the 19th/20th century to honour military in the wars and so military band members could play their instruments on important days. Many towns around the country have these, there is also one in Westport and one in Greymouth.

We've been enjoying a very hot dry Summer so far and although we've had the odd bout of rain, water restrictions are still applying. Auckland and Northland have unluckily had storms and floods including one this week that started at a category 3 cyclone and ended with a category 2 - 5 being the highest. We can count ourselves lucky that we moved to the South Island just in time last April. Climate change, as people call it seems to have it's own mind about what it does.

Linking up with Through my lens, Ruby Tuesday, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world and Wordless Wednesday.

Bye bye Chateau Tongariro

With much sadness last week I read that the historical Chateau Tongariro will be closing after 94 years due to being earthquake prone. Apparently DOC (department of conservation) had been discussing the lease with the owners and specialists had also been conducting site and seismic assessment due to plants to renovate the building. They found that underground shifts over time meant that the building was no longer safe so staff made the decision to close instead.

This building is iconic to New Zealanders and will be sorely missed. In case you didn't know this area is hugely volcanic with Mount Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngauruhoe nearby. 

When we lived in Tauranga 5 years ago we visited this spot and enjoyed the snow, something we don't normally see. I haven't been inside but I found these photos online which are not mine of some of the interior:

 

 

 

Linking up with Through my lens, Ruby Tuesday, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world and Wordless Wednesday.