Thursday 31 October 2013

All Hallows Eve...boo!




 Image from here


 Hallow dear friends!
Halloween is not a huge event in New Zealand
but it is becoming more so every year
as you can see from the advertisement above
from one of our local shopping malls.

Children of all ages (and some adults too)

love dressing up in costumes.

It's
FUN FUN FUN
to dress up and take on another persona
every once in a while!  

I've always bought or made up bags of
spooky treats for the neighborhood
visiting gremlins, witches and ghosts
who knock on our door once it gets dark.


Image and historical information from here

I decided to search Mr Google for a traditional
halloween biscuit and this is what I found
with a song to go with it.

Soul Cakes
if you would like to see the recipe it's here 



SOUL CAKES SONG 
BY STING

A soul cake, a soul cake,
Please, good missus, a soul cake,
An apple, a pear, a plum or a cherry,
Any good thing to make us all merry.

A soul cake, a soul cake,
Please, good missus, a soul cake,
One for Peter, two for Paul,
And three for Him that made us all.

God bless the master of this house
And the mistress also,
And all the little children
That round your table grow,

The cattle in your stable,
The dogs at your front door,
And all that dwell within your gates
We'll wish you ten times more.
A soul cake, a soul cake:

Go down into the cellar
And see what you can find,

If the barrels are not empty
We'll hope that you'll be kind,

We'll hope that you'll be kind
With your apple and your pear,
And we'll come no more a-soulin'
Till Christmas time next year.
A soul cake, a soul cake:

The streets are very dirty,
Me shoes are very thin,
I have a little pocket
To put a penny in,

If you haven't got a penny
A ha'penny will do,

If you haven't got a ha'penny
God bless you.
A soul cake, a soul cake 
 

There are some interesting
decorating ideas out there
(Shhh don't tell anyone... but time has got away with me on Google this morning
flitting from one site to the next!)


Image from here


I love these 'spooky' candle holders 
easy to make and a
great thing to do with your children/grandies!

There are lots of wonderful
FREE
images to download from

Please check it out!!!!

 Image from here

SO CUTE
This is a Kea - our native parrot.
He is very cheeky and also loves
shiney objects just like magpies!

Best wishes to all of you
my dear friends
for a fun and


HAPPY HALLOWEEN




  Merci à bientôt
take care of one another!

Shane

 

 

 


Wednesday 30 October 2013

I must go down to the Sea again.........



Hello dear friends
Summery days are in the air in our part of the world!

We have just had our last long weekend
before Christmas
Labour Day weekend.


We went away on our cousin's boat for the weekend.
The weather looked promising
although it can be fickle in Spring.


When we left the mariner this amazing
super yacht was sitting in mid-stream
of the harbour.

It resembles a stealth destroyer.  
Known only as 'A' it is owned by  a
Russian fertiliser and chemical magnate 
Andrey Melnichenko.

Some fascinating facts I discovered on Google.

"While a frigate can probably outrun 'A'
 – cruising at 50 kph to the superyacht’s 42 kph
 a frigate probably wouldn’t boast a jacuzzi or a swimming pool. 
It’s also an open question which ship has more security systems.
Superyachts.com rates A as the 16th largest superyacht in the world
 – but it is due to slip a couple of places to 18 this year
 thanks to some Middle East billionaires building bigger vessels".



Back to reality!
I took this photo in Islington Bay
Rangitoto Island
where we moored for our first evening.


Rangitoto is an extinct volcano
in Auckland Waitemata harbour
and can be seen from almost anywhere in
Auckland. 



Little boats were out for a sail at the weekend too.
It was exhilirating to be back on the water!

The good news is
we have bought an old classic launch
which "we" are slowly restoring back to
how she was when she was originally built.
It is time consuming meticulous work,
scraping, sanding, painting etc
but I know it will be worth it!!!

The royal "we" means my husband
aka "the yachtie"
does the bulk of the work and I encourage
and help where I can!




Thank you dear friends for popping in
I'm belatedly joining Mary for
Mosaic Monday 

WELCOME
to my new followers - lovely to meet you!


 Merci à bientôt
take care of one another!


Shane

 

 

 

Thursday 24 October 2013

Campagne Grey Deys



Hello dear friends
my daughter recently sent me the
latest issue of my favourite
french Interior Design magazine

CAMPAGNE
DECORATION 

You can imagine how I squeal with delight
when I find one of her parcels in our letterbox!

The best part is
there's always a lovely long
newsy letter inside
which I read over and over again!

 
All of my "greys" this week
come from Issue #83
September/October.


The entrance way
of a
private château in the
Loire valley



dining room


grey vintage candlesticks


I love grey..........................................!

I'm joining Michelle of
Petite Michelle Louise blog for

please pop over as there are some
great grey posts there this week!

Thank you for visiting
and
WELCOME
to my new followers.

Merci à bientôt
take care of one another!

Shane

 

 

 

 

 


Wednesday 23 October 2013

Embroidery Tea....



Hello dear friends!

I've blogged about embroidery days before.
Our small group meets fortnightly
and this time our venue was
Mary's apartment on harbour side.
Some of you might recognise her lovely pink glass teapot
with the Chinese flower tea I posted about here



We each had a different tea cup, saucer and plate.
There is nothing quite like sipping tea
from a fine bone china cup
I'm sure you would agree!



This was my cup
with the most beautifully painted pattern
of a Spring garden.
The flowers are pink and white aubretia, bluebells
and yellow primroses in a rock garden.

I forgot to photograph the maker's stamp underneath
so I can't tell you the name or the company...
I searched Mr Google but didn't find an image
of this particular one -
can someone please tell me what it is?


Today I'm joining these tea parties
Ruth at Tuesday Cuppa Tea 
Terri at Tea Cup Tuesday
Bernideen at Friends Sharing Tea
Sandi at Tea Time Tuesday
Kathy at A Return to Loveliness

If you're into "tea, pretty china and yummy baking"
please click on the links to visit these
these blogs - why not join in
with your post on anything to do with tea!


A very yummy chocolate slice topped with toasted coconut!


Thank you dear friends
for visiting and leaving your sweet comments!

WELCOME
to my new followers - thank you for being here.


Merci à bientôt
take care of one another!
 

Shane





Monday 21 October 2013

A beautiful village in France




Hello dear friends
we have had two beautifully warm and sunny
Spring days in a row - long may it continue!

It's Monday so I'm joining
Mary for her party




 I'm taking you back to France
to wander with me through one of
the top most beautiful villages there called
Noyers
(Noyers-sur Serein)
in Burgundy.

It was one of those languid days
we all remember from our childhood....
hot and sunny with bees buzzing about the flowers
collecting  nectar....
the kind of day you wish would never end!



This walk was a feast of photo opportunities,
from the beautiful old 14th century buildings
to charming little gardens
and some unexpected touches in between
as  there always are in these villages.


We were escorted for part of our walk
by this friendly little cat
much to the delight of my
granddaughters!




I'm looking everywhere for a basket like this
to hang in my courtyard!


and of course I fell in love with this cute little Renault
and wanted to bring it home with me!

Please pop over to Mary's
she is a very accomplished photographer,
it's her business as well as her hobby.

Thank you for popping in here and leaving 
your sweet comments!


Merci à bientôt!

Shane

 



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