Lucy's Autumn Adventures

.....in which she goes to the circus and then the seaside!

Hello dear friends & readers.

Autumn has gently settled upon us here, bringing with her a visit from a son. 

Matthew came on the bus last weekend and although he stayed at his best friend's house, just across the road, it was lovely to see him, being as it was, just about Mothering Sunday and also a perfect opportunity for him to meet Lucy. Kaitiaki and his mum popped in to for a quick visit too...he's the one with the green socks, reading the book "Vantastic" (click to enlarge the picture if you like)

Rob has had a little bit of time off this last week and by Saturday he had completed all the little jobs, such as, making all the right electrical connections between the car & Lucy & finding the right spare wheel, so when I came home from running a couple of errands I saw a sweet little blue van waiting for me out on the street.

It's funny how the first time you do something you've never done before can be so exciting & a little nerve-wracking all at the same time.

We had discussed where we could take Lucy on a short trial run & decided that our favourite spot in the show grounds would be ideal. It was very funny when we drove in to find, not just a few dog walkers, but a circus had taken up residence there for the week.

We didn't know that there was an indigenous circus in New Zealand. Aotearoa is the most commonly used Maori word for the name of our little nation meaning "Land of the Long White Cloud".

So we had a little park-up in the clear space alongside the circus set up & checked to see how things had traveled.

Having gained our confidence, since all was quite, quite well with the dear girl, we ventured out to TeAwanga the following day.

 It's a funny old stony, coastal beach but there are plenty of spots to drive in & set up for afternoon tea.

We later drove right to the end of the road & visited the Clifton Camping ground to see if it would be a suitable place to stay. Sadly, the coast round this way has suffered massive erosion in recent years & that has greatly affected this particular camping ground. The sea has clawed back great chunks of land & the area is in grave jeopardy of disappearing altogether, however, just along a bit there is another camping ground called Te Awanga Point Holiday Park & having a little wander around, we decided that it felt just right! We packed ourselves up, checked the weather & went back to stay the following Tuesday.

There are quite a number of permanent residents who live at the park, but very few visitors out of the summer season so we could choose to park where-ever we felt like. Just here seemed perfect!

$25 a night is amazing!
We had the loveliest time. The locals were so welcoming & friendly & we enjoyed a long chat with a young Czech man when cooking tea. Later we nearly collapsed in hysterical laughter trying to find space for ourselves, the table, all the cushions & make the bed!! Only one person at a time can do the job on that one! The next day we met John (he worked in the circus in Aussie for 16 years!) & he said oh yes, yes..you're in the little "Honeymoon Caravan". There you go Lucy, no longer Donald but a honeymoon van ; )

We set ourselves up & wandered off to make a coffee & when we returned we found roses on the little table outside. What a lovely welcome & SO kind of Trish!!!

I found another length of lace in my haberdashery suitcase that was just perfect to finish Lucy's windows.

Te Awanga Motor Camp is a best kept secret kind of treasure. Established 50 years ago, it has remained pretty much unchanged over time & draws the same families back year after year & now even the next generation come bringing their families too.

Of course there is the sea..

but also a lagoon & a river

 & lovely farmland back in to the hills.

Clifton Station has been long established on this land. I borrowed a pony once from the Gordon's (who own the farm) when I was a teenager & rode Dasher in the Pony Club Champs that year. (Seems like a whole nother time now!) 

Look what we found on one of our walks. We couldn't bear to tell Lucy about the tragic state of the poor little van.

 I've always loved bunnies tails...do you?

It was such a lovely time of the year & the light was so wonderful I took lots of memorable photos & have made a Smilebox to add to this post in case anyone is interested.

A picture slideshow by Smilebox

Thank you so much for stopping by to visit.

I hope that you find beauty in your week & time for at least a little creativity.

MUCH

♥♥♥♥♥

Gently Unfolding Stories..

Did you have a favourite teacher when you were little?

I had some lovely teachers when I was at primary school, but none quite as wonderful as my dear friend Pom Pom..I feel sure that all who have the good fortune to be under her guidance in a classroom will well remember her warmth & passion all the days of their lives.

I recall, a month or two ago, Karen telling about a young girl in her teaching care who had suffered great loss: the little burdened one had developed a way of coping with the pain, by taking her own time with all things. She would simply refuse to be hurried along.

I still hear much talk about our hurried, harried lifestyles but as I too sit with pain & discomfort (quite often) I am grateful for the thought that any of us can make the choice to simply take our time, measured time & refuse to be stressed & rushed. Such is the case with each day of our lives; the stories that unfold sometimes simply express themselves in their own sweet time & will not be marched to the insistent beat of the expectation drum.

I am letting the stories unfold gently these days.

It's good to have choices, don't you think & your own story to live in?

I got held up at the organic stall at the market on Sunday buying celeriac, I chose to relax about it & when I came running out of the hall, knowing that I had kept Rob waiting for ages, he came running after me laughing & not cross at all. It is so good to keep practicing ways of kindness, not irritation. 

We took the time to stop on a journey into the country last week.
These apples were just sitting there, perfectly ready to eat.
Tree-ripened, crunchy & delicious Granny Smiths.

Lucy is very nearly ready for a wee road trip..into the country perhaps

 or maybe to the seaside?!

Rob is organizing her a spare wheel tomorrow.

Last thing.

 I have finished making the pink candlewick/doily cushions & managed to find a very vintage '50s looking sleeping bag at The Hospice Shop a week or two ago. It's not as contrasting as the camera makes out & unlike the easy care modern variety is made of a heavy cotton fabric & lining & doesn't rustle...at all!

 A day or so ago I found a bag of filet crochet tucked in the corner of the craft section of the same op shop. It was one of those continuous varieties, painstakingly crocheted & intended to grace a linen tablecloth.
I have re-invented it's purpose & used it instead to decorate Lucy's little windows.

 Much better for it to be used & admired ever single day than tucked in the cupboard through over-preciousness!

We called in for a delicious cup of Earl Grey tea at this garden centre cafe last weekend.
We just had to sit at this pretty table.

I quite fancy finding an old pram or dolls pram, but ah...the space factor!

This is such a magnificent vista viewed from the cafe courtyard.

I love this idea..hosting a beehive in the garden. Apparently we need to help the bees as much as possible these days. It costs $300 a year to host a hive but you do get 250 grams of honey every 2 weeks, which is quite a lot in a year really. Worth thinking about.

I hate to contemplate what might have become of so many unwanted items before the advent of ebay & Trade Me. I just love this vibrant tapestry.
I am going to make it in to a cushion soon.

Having spent most of my life feeling like an outsider & that I didn't belong or make a difference I really liked this quote that I came across today. It's through the open sharing & correspondence of blogging that I have discovered that we do indeed touch each others lives & that helps me to believe that I make a difference in the world around me, right here too. 

"What I do know is that, feel it or not - no man is an island, we are not alone.

 My failures, my successes, my strengths and weaknesses reach beyond me - they affect people around me. Whether or not I feel close, my life - every life - touches other lives.

 We are joined in a responsibility to together make this world a good one for all of us.

 Each of us warms the world or chills it in-as-much as we offer or withhold respect, hospitality, encouragement, love, or truth. In that sense we are all part of each other's well-being or
sickness, and we affect the climate that we all share."
~ R. Mullins

Isn't that just such good commonsense talk...each of us warms the world or chills it!

Thank you so much for warming my world!

I am so glad that you came to visit.

I hope that you know just how important you are through this coming week...every moment of every day. 

I was so blessed to have an Inspiring Blog Award passed on to me by Barbara from March House Books just the other day. I'll tell you more about that next time. 

We've been sitting in Lucy & singing this little song loudly all week (well not the actual whole week)..want to join in..??!!

It's a perfect Lucy song!

♥♥♥♥♥

The Ugly Duckling Becomes...

Do you ever have ideas about something, imaginings in your own mind, stories that you somehow created, but then when you actually ask the questions...the right ones, the reality is quite, quite different? Sometimes we do that in judging other people, or situations, like when you hear a snippet of the news headlines & then later you get a hold of the full story & everything changes in the light of the revealed truth. Well the story of Lucy is a little that way. I decided to contact Rachel (who we bought Lucy from) & ask her for a few more details about Lucy's life & origins.

Would you believe it, Rachel bought Lucy from Hamilton (the city where I was born)  

from a man with a penchant for Disney characters.
 Poor old "Donald" had some interesting Donald Duck embellishments plastered on his sides & a colour scheme to match. Fortunately, Rachel was able to see past the venetian blinds & tacky styling & so remove the affronts & creepy bits, adding many of her own sweet touches in the transformation process, so that by the time that this dear old caravan reached us here in Hastings she had made a full metamorphosis from ugly duckling

  to our dear, sweet Lucy...with friends!!

 Aren't they silly!! and oh so pink.
 They are also very Kenyan & Rob is a long way from home so..
we bought ourselves a whole flock & they flew all the way from America, we sold half on Trade Me (& had some lovely encounters in the process) & the rest cost us next to nothing.

You'd never believe how ghastly I have been feeling, much of the time, through these days, but life is for living in between the dumb & ugly & I finally found myself heart shaped sunglasses that were made for adults not children!

Having bought them from a simple listing on Trade me I laughed & laughed when I read the details on the bag they came in..my goth, punk purchase!

I have been sitting in Lucy in the afternoon sun to finish a little hand sewing on her cushions.

I just had to go back to the Mart for this silly wee pink elephant I had seen last week, after I realised that we really did need an ashtray to put the old matches in after lighting candles & tea lights in the evenings.

We had a go at a sleep over. 

I made it to 3 am, but oh dear, the bed was too hard so off I clambered inside & woke in the morning with a very bleary head & sore neck.

I think it may have been a case of the Princess & the Pea.

So we have been keeping a look out for spongy additions to the bedding arrangements.

One of my useful finds was this lovely thick wool rest underlay ($14 at The hospice Shop). It has washed up well & responded beautifully to an airing in the sunshine.

Glorious autumn sunshine & azure blue skies have been so welcome..

perfect weather for outdoor markets, which is where we found this fabulous Zip kettle for Lucy.

For some reason when I saw this plant at Anna's old house I recognised it to be the Thai spice galangal. It belongs to the ginger (zingibar family) & is like a mild ginger. I was permitted to bring some home & found it so easy to grow down under the feijoa tree. Yesterday I discovered it was flowering.

The last of the tomatoes are still ripening & clinging to wizened vines but they still taste delicious. These are called orange past.  Matthew took one home last season & grew 14 plants from seed (this being one of them).

I found this very vintage Sanderson print in the cupboard the other day. Perhaps it might be useful for a rag bag or some such use in Lucy. I love the graphics on these old fabrics.

Our lovely neighbour & friend Margaret mentioned that she had very much enjoyed the movie "Quartet" recently. Oh it truly is wonderful!! Here's the trailer..have a look & see if it might appeal to you too.

Isn't this this the dearest picture..."The Littlest Fairy"

We all need to feel safe & watched over & cared for don't we.

Thanks so much for visiting with me.

I hope that your week holds sweetness & promise of sunshiney days to come.

MUCH

♥♥♥♥♥