A Second Mishap Bearing Banana Passionfruit

I know that "they" keep telling us that change is inevitable so we better get used to it.

 Just as unavoidable.. mishaps & deviations, detours & stuff ups. 

How we react when things do not go according to plan, can, in effect, make all the difference in the world.

When you grow up with people that "fly off the handle" or "go to pieces" or get "hot under the collar" it an be quite can exercise to retrain our responses to accidents & incidents...one things for sure.. they are going to happen....to us all.

This morning for instance, we woke to the shrill sound of the smoke alarm going off in the kitchen...oh dear, oh dear our Chinese house guests (friends of No. 2 son) had managed a little toasting accident.

Abruptly, all doors & windows were flung open & the offending carbonized items thrown out the kitchen window.

Thing is, burnt toast happens...to the best of us.

 And some of us head off to Spring Fairs on a Saturday only to find that the apparently spartan crowd, is in fact, no crowd at all, as somebody had got the date rather wrong!

Well it was a MISTAKE & it did get us out and about, uncharacteristically bright & early.

Our journey was soon redeemed & no one was cranky...imagine that..by heading up the road to Tainui Reserve. I am glad that in Havelock North (only around 12 mins drive from home) there are still hilly, paddocky places & uncultivated green spaces to walk & explore.

They are the overgrown valleys & vistas of my childhood.

 Not parks but reserves, specially dedicated places that have not been built on.
 They are wild & free, yet looked out for & managed a little.

 Banana passionfruit scramble wildly through trees, reaching way up in to the land of the giants, beyond the reach & vision of the mere explorer. And some, kindly extend their spindly arms groundwards.

 Evidently not overly prised by the locals, we were able to find quite a few fruit within easy reach.
They have always fascinated me..their familiar yet strange flavour. I think the banana bit is just about the shape. They can only be foraged as they are never available to buy.

 I love stumbling upon the patches of naturalized forget-me-nots.

 I am always delighted to find flowers anywhere I go.

 Up & around the top...the view is wonderful on a clear day.

 You can see right across the Heretaunga Plains & through to Mount Ruapehu.

The flowers of spring can sometimes surprise us. 

I had almost forgotten the sulphur yellow of our native Kowhai.

 The tuis adore them.

Not usually seen until right on Christmas I was amazed to find these flowering Pohutukawa. 

We are having such fun collecting Duraware & my favourite "Gay Life Ware"

The melamine plates are part of the Greengate range & fit in perfectly with the vintagey picnic theme.

Look what we spotted the other day...and loaded with vintage vessels.

 Now how cute is this! Delivering groceries around the village on a Saturday morning, by donkey!
No wonder I love British Country Living..where else would you see such a thing!

 The other day we called into a cheap & nasty little secondhand shop...but you never know just what you might find...other than crap! I bought a little bit of linen very cheaply & tucked in the middle of it was this sweetie...oh I love it!

 I think I must have come across this on Pinterest...I just had to show you.
Isn't it so whimsical & delightful, don't you think?!

My dear friend Cheryl told me about some vintage blanket bunting that she had seen in a magazine quite a few months ago. I have kept the idea quite close since she mentioned it & finally begun to cut & shape my own blanket bunting yesterday. 

 Are you a "everything needs to be precise & even" sort of person? Or does it look right sort of free hand & random? I have hung my pieces up with pegs for ponderation just now, 'cos I can't quite make up my mind which camp I'm in.
Probably leaning to conformity on this one..
We'll see.
Every time I walk past them they make me smile..that's a good start at least.

 What's making you smile this week?
Lovely to see you. Thank so much for dropping in.

MUCH

 ♥♥♥♥♥