The Third Wheel.

It has been some months since I’ve had a chat with you about spinning yarn… I happen to know it has been this long because I remember vaguely, quite some time ago, telling you all about my new spinning wheel and saying I would introduce you.  I still haven’t done that.

The new wheel travelled in the car with us from Wellington to Whangarei, it listened to Raymond yowling for 12 hours, it was one of the few possessions we bought in the car because I simply did not trust removal men with it.  One knob knocked off renders it useless until repaired by someone who knows what they’re doing, and being that my new wheel is in prefect condition despite being four years older than me, I wasn’t taking any chances with it.

I’m not actually going to introduce you to my new wheel in today’s post… I’m going to introduce you to the NEXT new wheel.  Oh yes… I am spoiled rotten… I have a third wheel.  Except I only have two as I returned the Magic Wheel to my Mum when the second wheel was purchased.  So it is my second, second wheel.

How my second wheel came into my life is quite an amazing story and I still can’t quite believe what a blessing it was.  A couple of Mondays ago I was at work (my new work remember, six weeks on the job and my colleagues don’t quite know the extent of my yarn madness… no-one does if they don’t suffer from it themselves after all…) and my lovely colleague asked me what I did on the weekend. 

“oh, you know… a bit of knitting, a bit of crochet and some spinning” I said….

“I’ve got a spinning wheel under my house.”  He said.  “My ex left it there years ago and it’s stored under my bedroom and I sometimes get scared it’ll start spinning itself and be all freaky.  You can have it if you want it, he bought it and never even used it”

I’m desperately trying not to start hyperventilating with excitement here and try to come off all casual when I say “oh wow!  What type of spinning wheel is it?”

“ummmm…. a spinning wheel…”  he says… “you put your foot on the pedal and the wheel goes around and then this other bit starts spinning too!”

Excellent, I have just established that it is working.  Cue more excitement….

“WOW!  Thank you!  I can really just have it?!”

“Totally, it has been under my house for six years!”

So KB and I went to pick up the wheel.  I didn’t let myself get my hopes up just in case it didn’t work…. We got it from under the house and cleaned six years of dust and some spiders off it and then gave it a nice polish.  And I am so blown away…. lucky, lucky me.

It is an Ashford Traditional…. Exciting as I have never used a traditional wheel before, and I love it.  KB felt like an archaeologist when she cleaned the dust off and found the Ashford stamp of Ashfordy goodness….

 As it has been stored for so long, all of the metal bits are rusty so I’m planning to replace the flyer with a jumbo flyer which holds more than 50gms of wool at a time…..

But for now, it is ace and I’m loving spinning yarn on my third wheel.

I am blown away by the gratitude of my lovely colleague and friend… knitted gifts are coming his way as well as Friday night drinks on an off-pay week.  I’ve said thank you about a million times, but am saying it here in public too!

On my wheel right now is some og my Mum’s homegrown Romney, I’ve spun it before and it is so lovely and rustic… I’ve been having a bit of bad luck with spinning lately, issues with breaky singles and underplying.  It has been bumming me out and even making me cry with frustration on the odd occasion, so I thought I would go back to the very basics and spin some undyed, earthy, homegrown fleece.  I’m going to knit a lovely cuddly cabled shawl with it, and as I’m spinning I’m designing it in my mind’s eye.  It’s a long term very sloooooooooow yarn project.

A few weeks ago i had the most amazing parcel arrive in the post for me from a spinner friend back home in Wellington.  Wow, I actually am marvelling at the generous people in my life right now, sooooooooo lucky am I…. of course KB, Raymond and I organised a parcel to send back to her and one of the little things we put in was one of KB’s watercolours.  Seeing as we are discussing spinning today, it fits with the theme… I love it, KB is so cute…

Before I sign off for this post I must show you this gorgeous book which arrived in the post for me today.  A gift from me to me. 

A couple of weeks ago I was at the library and found a knitting book I had never seen before!  I got it out and took it home, flicked through a few pages and immediately logged onto the computer and bought a copy.  Just like that.  Within about 2 minutes, that is how much I loved this book.  No remorse, just excitement about having a copy of my very own, forever.

have you seen this book?

It is totally adorable and I love it.  All the details are here if you need a copy too!  The toys are just gorgeous and the page layout, just the cutest.  I’m thinking Simon the Snake will be the first on my needles…. KB loves the Pussy Cat from the Owl and the Pussy Cat…

But my favourite, the one who had me hook, line and sinker before I had even OPENED the book was the Frog Prince…

He is just toooooooo adorable.  The author and pattern designer is a genius, I love this book.

Anyway, the sun is going down so I’m off for a walk… it’s too hot to move until sunset right now!  I must say, I’m getting quite excited about the idea of chillier, snugglier weather right now!

Have an ace day,

lots of love from Alice and Raymond XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

January Socks

Before we get started on Socktastic Business, I have to post some more Summer Happiness, ooooh my goodness we are right in the middle of Summer and it is amaaaaazing!

Today is Saturday which meant another trip to another stunning beach, (I know right?  Life sucks) this time in the opposite direction to Waipu Cove, we headed about 30kms North to Whangaumu Bay and wowee, it was gorgeous.  Beautiful golden sand, crystal clear water, it did not disappoint.

No matter how far we swam out we could still see the bottom, it was breathtaking.  FYI- a few people mentioned about the beach in my last post being deserted… don’t be fooled, I think people ruin photographs so cunningly snap away during breaks of people traffic or crop them out to enjoy the beach au naturel!  It is the height of the tourist season right now, these beaches are well populated.

So onto socky business… because nothing is more useful than socks in the middle of Summer right?!  One of my 2012 resolutions was to limit myself to 12 pairs of socks, one for each month.  I had to limit myself as I get stuck in socky ruts and I think I knitted 17 pairs between March and December last year.  I love socks, love them sooooooo much.

But without further ado, let me ta-da my January Socks!

Did you spot something a little odd?

It’s not like me to knit one sock and immediately start another pair and end up with a bag of odd socks, not like some knitters I know and love (yes Allie!) but somehow, at the beginning of 2012 I had two odd socks on my hands and the little anal retentive voice in my head that keeps me knitting that second sock right through my pain and boredom thesholds started niggling.  So my January sock challenge was to knit the second sock from each pair.  I was to finish both pairs, not knit a new pair and finish both pairs because that would bump my 2012 sock tally to 13 pairs.  Against my sock rules for the year.

Sock number one, or two depending on how you look at it, flew off my needles, FLEW!  I could not believe it.  The Yarn Harlot says that when you go away, no matter how short the trip is, you should take multiple projects.  I thought on January 1st, when KB and I visited KB’s brother and family an hours drive away for ONE NIGHT that I would be safe taking a sock, that there would be no way I would finish it by the next day when we returned home… how wrong I was… I had finished the bloody sock by that night and had nothing to knit the next morning at breakfast.  I got mildly twitchy and KB reminded me (with a bit of a superior tone to her voice) that I should never ignore the Yarn Harlot’s wisdom and next time we go away to take at least three projects.

Do you recognise the sock yarn? I dyed it months ago and finally knit it and am thrilled with the greeny goodness.  I find it really hard to find nice green yarn, nice bright grass green, but have experimented with dyeing my own and have found that mixing emerald with yellow makes the best green ever.

So that was pair number one.

The second sock of the second socks was a different story.  These ones did not fly off the needles at all!  I started these allllll the way back in October and they have been sitting on my Ravelry projects page since then as a WIP.  It was an amazing feeling to change that status to finished today!  My ripple blanket has been on hold this week, not a ripple added in order for me to dedicate my full attention to my sock.

 And I’m thrilled with them.  My colleague calls them my Shrek socks and I think he is spot on… much more Shrek than Crocodile.  Want to see a close up?

I had a bit of a kitchener accident on that second one, the eagle eyed kitchener people might notice… somehow I ended up with twice the amount of stitches on the front needle as I had on the back… too close to the end, I just sewed up the holes and that was that.

My February socks are going to be soooooooooooo much fun to knit, I’ve planned a totally different and exciting pair, the yarn is on the kitchen table tempting me terribly.  What is it about socks?  So many of us fall under the spell of sock knitting, once we start we can’t stop.  I get heaps of people wanting to buy my socks, my answer is nooooooooooooooooo freaking way.  20 hours of my life is priceless and socks are my ultimate gift of love to the people I care about most in the world, I’m sure many of you out there agree.

I’ve noticed lots of new sock knitters posting about their gorgeous socks lately, shall we have a sock hop?  Leave a comment with a link to your blog post or ravelry page so we can hop around and share some socky love, I’d love to see what you’re making too!

I’m off to distract myself from casting on my Febuary socks…

have a greak weekend,

love Alice and Raymond XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Roast Vegetable and Haloumi Salad

After the excited response to my GF brownie from a few posts ago (still not quite ready to share that one… it’s not quite perfected) I decided to bring a new element into Crochet with Raymond and start to share some of my gluten free recipes and ideas.   Recipe sharing is fun, especially when your choices are limited by allergies and lifestyle preferences, so I hope you enjoy peeking into my kitchen and onto my plate a bit more frequently!  I love food, especially my current favourite dinner, Roast Vegetable and Haloumi Salad.

Are you a fan of haloumi?  I totally love it.  Up here in the Far North there is the most wicked Farmers Market on a Saturday morning where wonderful people sell their organic fruit and vegetables, breads, eggs, fish, oils, honey, plants and my favourite, the cheese people!  I love to buy their haloumi every week and get quite bummed out when it rains because then I miss my weekly haloumi fix.  I never used to know how to cook it, I’ve eaten it in cafes, but they fry it in butter and I just can’t do that… cheese fried in butter, it’s not my kind of meal, I like light and healthy food that fills me with energy rather than food that clogs my arteries.  I’ve been experimenting with cooking it since we moved back here, and have hit on a winner of a meal which we are currently eating about three times per week!

So to make my current favourite meal, begin by preheating the oven to about 200 degrees C.  I parboil my roast veges (ususally potato and kumara) before roasting them, I cut them into nice big hunks and put them in a pot and when they come to the boil I drain them and put them in an oven dish with half a big sliced onion, some salt and pepper and a light drizzle of oil.  They don’t need much oil, you will see why at the end!

They take about 20 minutes to cook and while they are doing their business, prepare your haloumi.  Haloumi is quite a salty and rubbery cheese and people recommend soaking it to reduce the salty flavour.  I don’t, I used to, but I quite like the saltiness of it, and don’t put tooooo much salt on my veges to compensate. 

Cut your haloumi into chunks, and when the veges have finished roasting, change the oven from bake to grill.  Sprinkle the haloumi pieces over the veges, throw in some tomato pieces (cherry or chunks, either is good!) and pop under the grill.

Grill until the cheese starts to bubble a wee bit and go a bit brown, pull out and serve with a fresh green salad!  Light, healthy, local, vegetarian and gluten free goodness.

I just finished eating it, but this picture is making me want to eat it all over again!

Because good food makes me extremely cheerful, I’m finally joining in with Planet Penny’s reasons to be cheerful.  Planet Penny is without a doubt one of the best blogs ever, so pop over for a visit and get yourself a bit of cheer!

Meanwhile, I’m off, I’m on the foot on my second January sock and I’m on a roll,

have an ace weekend,

love Alice and Raymond XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Saturday at my place….

A day trip to Waipu Cove, 40kms out of town….

Thank goodness we couldn’t find a car park at Waipu Beach and carried on around the bay to Langs Beach.  Pure Summer Bliss.  Same stunning golden sand and turquoise water, far fewer people.

A nice long swim in the waves is the perfect cure for a mild hangover, after being tempted in by KB (you can just see her head in the water below) I didn’t want to get out.

Despite looking small, those waves were knocking us over and dragging us back out to sea, it was sooooo much fun.

Hot chips after our swim

Then home to laze around, read books and do a few rows of my Ocean Ripple Blanket

And of course, hang with my buddy Ray

I’m off to wash the sand out of my hair…

Whats the weather like at your place?

Love Alice and Raymond XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxx

Higgledy-Piggledy Ta-da!

I would say that one of the best things about the house we are currently residing in is the view of the evening sky.  It is quite spectacular when the sky is not overcast and I’m loving taking photos of the different colours that present themselves.  I don’t retouch or enhance any of my sunset photos, how they come out on film is how they are and they are so completely different night after night….

While we are very much looking forward to finding a home more appropriate to our needs, we are enjoying the benefits of the view and the yard, after living in a top flat for two and a half years, having a half acre section is quite a luxury.  KB might disagree seeing as she is the official lawn mower in our home, but Raymond and I love it!  One of my favourite things about living in the Far North of New Zealand is the tropical goodness in the gardens.  I love beautiful, huge green palm leaves and lilies and the hibiscus trees which flourish up here.  KB went a bit mad with my camera the other day and in keeping with the green theme, for those of you in the snowy Northern Hemisphere, enjoy!

So as for the Higgledy-Piggledy Blanket… It is done!  I finished it before I started my ripple blanket (which I officially love now) and before I forget and it gets lost in time, welcome to the ta-da post! 

Are you ready?

Awesomely Higgledy-Piggledy and I am quite in love with it.  In saying that, I was thrilled when I finished it as the yarn for my ripple blanket had already arrived and I was itching to get started on it… Plus KB and I have very different tastes in colour, but at the very end when I laid it on the ground we were both quite smitten.  I love that it is different, that my KB doesn’t follow trends, she marches to the beat of her own drum and sticks to her own styles.

And it looks amazing in our house, folded on the back of her chair.

These blanket photos are all courtesy of KB too by the way!  Raymond finds blankety business quite boring…

Ridiculously boring in fact…

This blanket took one kilogram of wool and I’m surprised at the size, it is just a small afghan and I was expecting it to be bigger!  I’ve listed all the yarn on my ravelry page if you are interested… total cost for the blanket was $70 NZD- not exactly cheap but very cheap considering that the yarn is about as cheap as it gets here in NZ, selling at about $3.50/50gm ball.

So there we have it, Higgledy-Piggledy love!  I am totally making another one of these, perhaps for the bed, in lovely bright colours… I just have to get the ripple blanket done first, but I must say, I’m enjoying my ripple journey immensely right now, so there is no hurry!

Have a cool day, hope the sun is shining in your world,

lots of love from Alice and Raymond XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Colour theme for January…

Blue and green are totally my colours for January 2012… They usually are, but right now they really, really are.  I’m drinking in these colours and just can’t get enough of them, as you will see in a few upcoming posts!

Want to see a sneak peek of my latest crochet project?

Yes indeed that is my first ripple blanket… I have a love/hate relationship with ripple blankets, meaning I love everyone else’s but I always hate the ones I start myself.  I’ve made a deal with myself to stick with this one to the very end.  But more about that another time, I still have to show you KB’s finished Higgldey-Piggldey Blanket before we get onto ripple business.

I’ve been learning to bake brownie since New Years, when I found what seemed to be a totally do-able brownie recipe!

Back home, as a day-off treat KB and I used to go to our favourite cafe and buy huge slices of gooey, chocolatey, nutty brownie and take it home and sit in our little sanctuary and eat it with big mugs of instant coffee to wash it down… sooooooo much more relaxing than sitting in a cafe!  As yet we have not found a cafe that makes excellent gluten-free brownie, so I’m making it my personal mission to create the most perfect GF brownie I can…..

It’s looking good so far, and tasting awesome too, but still needs a bit of tampering before I’m happy!  Shall I post the recipe when I’m happy with it?

Hope your January is going well!

Sending you much love,

from Alice and Raymond XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

One last thing….

It just didn’t feel right seeing out the year without my December mosaic, so KB and I had a play on photoscape and here we have it…

Thank you soooooooooooooooooooo much for your lovely and understanding words about my need for a wee break, you are all just so lovely and I appreciate it so much.

Lots and lots of love to you and see you soon

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2011

2011 has been quite the awesome year hasn’t it?  Hard work, yes, but a year with so much more optimism and hope than the previous years I do believe.

Raymond has enjoyed the year, despite a gruelling trip up North he has discovered an entirely new life, one which involves a roof to climb on and a big backyard to explore.  He had a large territory back in Wellington  but most of it was neighbours backyards and the streets.  Here, he has a whole half acre to play on and is outside most of the day.

I’ve had a few days off and have spent most of it at home, relaxing, trying to settle into a new groove.  I’ve been making baby hats for shop samples…

I love making these, they only take a couple of hours and the instant gratification is great…. One in green and one in blue and a lime green one in the pipeline.

The pattern is over on ravelry so put “baby cabled hat” into the pattern search and up it will come.  Normally I would do it for you but I can’t be bothered today!

A few weeks ago I had a letter in the mail all the way from America with a crochet hook inside it.  Jessica from Sharp Crochet Hook asked me if I would like to review her hook on my blog so of course I said yes… poor Jessica has been so patient waiting for me to get myself together and review her hook!  First I had to find something to make it with, then get the cotton to edge it with, then I finally get around to it, so here we go!

Jessica’s Sharp Crochet Hook has a pointy end so you can crochet through fabric.  Pretty flash right?  I wanted to make a frilly edging on a baby jumpsuit but sadly the hook won’t stab through the doubled up edgings of sleeves, so in the end I did a little picot trim on a pillowcase.

It’s quite fabulous and I can definitely see myself using this hook in the future to trim things like little cotton dresses and pillowcases.  As you can see from the above picture, the hook is very sharp and works like a dream.  I’ve had people ask me how they might crochet borders on commercial items and finally I’ll be able to say “well….!”  I think that someone who sews would get a lot of use out of it.  If you want to try one for yourself, Jessica’s online shop is HERE and she has a lot of photos of what you can do with the hook so it is well worth checking out her website.  Thank you again Jessica!

So 2011.  It’s coming to an end and I thought I might review here my mosaics from the year.  I love looking through them sometimes to see what was going on for me during the month, so humor me as we take a trip through the last 12 months.

January was a fun month I must say, I did the Tongariro Crossing with my Lovely Mum which was a totally life changing experience.  I started to dabble in dyeing and hooked myself silly!

Febuary was the month I honed my skills in knitting on DPNs!  And learned to read a knitting pattern!  previously terrified of patterns my knitting wasn’t really advancing… while I’m not exactly a dare-devil knitter now, I’m much more willing to give it a try than I was back then!

March I must say was such a beautiful month, we were coming into Autumn and as I’m looking at the mosaics I remember walking through the Botannical Gardens with KB… oooh I must say, sometimes I get very homesick for our life back in Wellington!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand… I learned to knit SOCKS!  What a life changing month that was!

April was all about winter coming on it’s way… knitting cowls and other warm gear

May was about socks.  Sooooooooooooooo many pairs of socks.  I do believe I knitted three pairs that month…  Plus I had my one year blogaversary all the way back then too!

And June… aaaah June.  June is my most favourite mosaic I do believe, it is so colourful and bright.  It was the month I learned to spin and I’m telling you, my world brightened up when I learned to spin, sooooooooooooooooooooooo much new potential for colourful happiness opened up and I am still loving the spinning journey six months later.

July of course was all about spinning!  Being that it was a new skill it’s all I wanted to do (other than knit socks) and was luckily the month of the Tour de Fleece so I had a good excuse to spin every day.  I can’t WAIT until next years TDF….

August was my birthday and on that day we met Richie who had just entered the world a few days before….  I love that wee boy so much.  I learned how to dye and woah, there was no stopping me- I went on a two month dyeing bender and now have an enormous box of fleece to spin my way through sitting in my spare bedroom!

Oh yes, and let me not forget the Gypsy Caravan Blanket!

September was still about dyeing and not much else… the Circus Baby Blanket was gifted to my sister for her baby who was still two months away from the world at that stage…

October= spinning, dyeing and socks!  Big surprises there!  New skills however, I leaned to cable and navajo ply, two things I thought I’d never do!

November was ace because not only did I finish studying and get a job I adore, but my niece was born.  Total love at first sight, I adore her and can’t wait to see her in May 2012 when I next go home….

And as for December!  December has been all about change and settling in… A very quiet Christmas and excitement about 2012.  Unfortunately I can’t upload my December mosaic!  Aaaaah!  It is too big for Facebook, Flickr and WordPress so we will have to go without. *insert sad face here*

And as for my resolutions for 2011?  I had three of them.  1. To learn to knit on circular needles- tick!  2. To knit a cable something- tick! And my third was to only purchase NZ handmade for gifts all year.  Aside from a few charity things from Nepal and India for our local wondershop The Himilayan rading Post for KB, I managed it.

Resolutions for next year?  OK, lets go:

1.  Knit the Tappan Zee

2.  Knit a lace scarf (not in lace weight, that can be for 2013) without throwing a massive tantrum!

3.  12 pairs of socks in 2012.  No more than 12, one pair per month is enough. 

4.  Start doing some knit grafitti in my new town.  There is none, nothing at all and I want to remedy this and excite the knitters and crocheters I am yet to meet.

Wishing you all a wonderful end to 2011 and a promising start to 2012.  Raymond and I are going to close our doors on the world for a wee while, we’ve been blogging for 18 months now and need a bit of a rest.  Plus I’m needing a bit of space to find my rhythm in a very different home, we’re sure you understand, and if you don’t, we hope that you respect our need to take a wee break.  So enjoy your January and see you soon!!!

Wishing you much love,

from Alice and Raymond XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas up North

Happy Christmas to you!  It’s mid-afternoon as I type this, so many of my blog friends will not have reached Christmas yet, still asleep for a few hours before being woken up by over excited children!

I started to write this post a few hours ago but could not muster any Christmas cheer so turned my laptop off and went for a drive with KB… to be honest, the post I was writing sounded as though it was written by the Grinch with a terrible case of PMS but thanks to a nice drive and some chocolate I’m feeling a lot more festive and cheerful!

We are having quite the beautiful day today here up in the Far North, a bit overcast but very hot and summery.  I get a lot of comments from people who can’t imagine Christmas in the summertime and I can understand that, as we are programmed with Northern Hemisphere Christmas images of snow gently falling, candles twinkling and general coziness… it looks lovely to be honest, but here in New Zealand Christmas is about jandals and barbeques, backyard cricket, trampolines and cold beers, beaches and sunburned shoulders and of course, pohutukawa trees which I have shown you before but will show you again!

Pohutukawa trees are the ultimate summer Christmas image, beautiful blazing red goodness, I just love them.  If the trees flower before Christmas it means we have a hot summer on the way.  Well, the trees here in the Far North flowered WEEKS ago so hot summer, bring it on!

KB, Raymond and I are having a quiet day, just the three of us.  I’ve been drinking too much coffee out of my new mug, a gift from my lovely KB…

Raymond has been doing a lot of this….

We bought him a packet of ping-pong balls for Christmas which are a lot of fun on wonky wooden floors like ours, plus a mitt with rubber spikes to sort out his shedding issues!  Normally I take him outside and de-fur him with my hands and to be honest, I was sceptical about a spiky mitt but oh my goodness, handfuls of fur came off, it was amazing!  He MUST be feeling better now, like he has taken a jersey off or something.

Other than eating, drinking coffee and brusing Raymond, our Christmas Day is all about reading books and working on my latest crochet project…

Things were going fine until my beautiful HiyaHiya PURPLE crochet hook fell through the slits in the deck *sob* … there are so many spiders under the deck there is no way in hell I’m going to even try to crawl under and retrieve it.  Meanwhile, as I have to order things online now, I’m going to try to finish this with a 4mm hook and hope my tension is loose enough that it doesn’t get smaller and smaller as I make it!  I’m hoping to have it finished by the time my five day holiday finishes, so stay tuned for a ta-da moment.  If there is no ta-da next post, it’s because it has not turned out how I want it.

Hope you all have a wonderful time this Christmas and enjoy your family and friends,

lots of love from Alice and Raymond XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Summer Solstice

Solstice blessings to you!

We were lucky enough to share Summer Solstice Celebrations with some dear friends last night who love on top of a hill… whoops, as I proof read that I noticed my typo, but not all typos are accidents, they are a loving family and they live on top of a hill which made for good Summer Solstice sunset watching….

Good food, red wine and sharing our achievements of 2011 and our hopes for 2012.  My biggest achievement of 2011?  Completing my degree and making it through the insane workload that comes with learning a career, yay, it’s done!

My biggest hope for 2012?  Finding a home where I can settle, I’ve been transient for the past 13 years and now I want to put my roots down somewhere with KB and create  lovely home we are not going to leave in a year or three.

What is your biggest achievement of 2011?  And what are your hopes for 2012? 

We’re gearing up for a gorgeous hot summer here, time to bite the bullet and buy some togs to take advantage of the beautiful tropical beaches in Northland. 

Wishing you a fabulous festive season, see you on the dark side for Christmas!

Love Alice and Raymond XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX