Dear friends, new and old, have a wonderful Christmas.  Love, laugh and eat lots, and have a glass or two of something bubbly; I will be.  Take care. XXX

Today has been filled with many tears, and there will be many more of them to come. No matter how many times I experience grief, it still cuts as keenly as the first time. My darling Izzy,  faithful companion and constant shadow unexpectedly passed away last night. I've had 13 years with her, bringing her home on my lap as a tiny bundle of fluff from the farm where she was born. She was never destined to be a working dog and lived a very urban life and slept inside wherever she pleased.

Dearest Iz, I hope you enjoyed your time with us as much as I treasured having you. I'll miss your bark, and your black hair on everything, and your way of following me from room to room no matter what I was doing. Going for a walk will never be the same without your enthusiasm and company. Thank you my darling girl, and I'm so incredibly sad that we couldn't have had a few more years.

I'm eternally grateful for being blessed with some very thoughtful friends. Thank you Stella for the gorgeous flowers. My favourite 'vase', an old Agee preserving jar. The real vases are still packed away. The pest control people are coming on Wednesday to bomb the house as we've discovered lots of unwelcome visitors living here since our arrival, so I'm still living with boxes. Thursday will be a hive of activity as I'll finally be able to open my treasures and put them in their rightful places, and get the Christmas decorations out.

Until then I'll have to make do with the view from the front room, the Pohutukawa in flower. Not a bad compromise as it is our native Christmas tree. It reminds me of past Christmases spent walking along the beach, the trees humming with bees. Happy days...

This is a self imposed 5 minutes peace from packing boxes. The movers will be here at 8am tomorrow and we still have loads to do. I'm still decidedly zen but that all may change. Deep breaths...

If it's not becoming a wee bit obvious I am somewhat of a magpie, and I think it may be a genetic trait. These are old cards of another Great Aunt, Ruth this time. She held on to them for a life time and now I'm doing the same. They're not only interesting for the images that they've captured, but for the little snippets of life that are woven in their words. There are birthday greetings, little love letters from my G.Grandfather Will to my G. Grandmother, and postcards sent from another family member early last century from all over the world. It must have been a mammoth journey, sailing from the bottom of the world as he did. There is one that I'd love to find the time to research (top left corner). It is written in German and has a feldpost stamp on the back, dated 5th of June 1918. I don't know how this came to be in my Aunts possession but I know she was not the intended recipient. I really need to scan these before they become  more worn. Never enough time. Back to the packing...  

I've psyched myself into tackling the careful packing of the dresser tomorrow. My honeypots have managed, thus far, to survive many a pack and move, and hopefully this time will be no different. The first ever pot, this yellow one, was bought when I was still a teenager. It's a mass produced pot from the 30's/40's made in Japan, but to me it's priceless and always makes me smile.

One Person's Trash Is Another One's Treasure

We're moving in a couple of week's, not far, but a move nonetheless. My good man has started packing boxes; I'm still contemplating.  I always find shifting home a time for rediscovery of objects that I may have overlooked for a while, tucked away in drawers, or out on shelves that are in full view but I forget to see. Lots of memories and associations that are nice to find again.

This old wooden bowl was my Grandfather's. He may have made it, I'm not sure, although he definitely stained it as I have a bentwood chair that he restored in the same finish. The egg-shaped pieces of wood are my Grandmother's darning eggs, and I think her Mother's before. They would be horrified to see holey socks being thrown away without a few attempts being made to extend there lives. I used them a few months ago to mend my son's soccer socks and surprisingly he didn't complain about the blue wool covering the bottom of his blacks socks, and it was a nice way to reconnect with some of my maternal forebears. The two black things sticking up are a shoe horn and a plier type tool to fasten buttons, both stamped "Real Ebony"just in case anyone thought otherwise. The white and metal thing in front is a button hook, no stamp but "Real Bakelite" (plastic). These all belonged to my Great Grandmother, and the button hook has come in handy over the years, its last use repairing a rag rug that my daughter's have found it impossible to walk past without pulling pieces out. Tucked in the right hand side is a small poker work plate that my Aunt Eve gave me, made by her or one of her sisters when it was the thing to do. And lastly in the front is something I made about 15years ago; a small rock picked up when I was walking beside the Manawatu River while my husband was fly fishing.  It was perfectly smooth and in my minds eye it was already a contented, sleepy cat, I just had to make it visible to everyone else. It's a great paperweight and something of mine to pass down.

More rediscovering to come...

My Very First Post

Hello... I've been putting this off but the time has come to take the plunge and write.

I'm about to wrap a present that I've designed and made for my daughter's friend who is turning 7 next weekend. My wee poppet loves it. It will be safely wrapped and stashed away, so I'm feeling quite organised after what has been a very hectic week.

Hand embroidery is the best stress buster and makes me feel very at peace with the world.  I probably should carry around thread, cloth and a stretching frame just in case inspiration grabs me, like my friend, the knitter, who always has her needles and wool on hand and has no shame in producing them at will.