Whangarei

Today Joe went out diving to Poor Knights Islands. I didn't bring my cable to download pictures, so photos today will be from Joe's trip. I had a lovely day shopping and sightseeing in the little town of Whangarei. The highlight was a old quarry that all volunteers have turned into a garden with great walking paths, called Whangarei Quarry Gardens. I hiked around for about an hour. There is a subtropical theme. There were lots of bromeliads, lilies and ferns. They had a specially planted Camellia garden with over 150 varieties. There were lots of arts and crafts stores, so it's a good thing I don't have much room in my suitcase for goodies like very cool teapot sets.

More adventures tomorrow.

Dolphins in Tutukaka Harbor

Hello from Tutukaka

Even though we are half a world away - as a Red Sox fan - Yeah! We signed Mike Lowell!!!

Now onto to our travelog. What a gorgeous place this part of the North Island is. We arrived in Auckland and headed north towards our destination Tutukaka. Along the way we stopped at Zion Wildlife Gardens. It's a Big Cat preserve. It's part of a world wide effort to save some of the rarer breeds of mostly lions and tigers. The star of the place is Zion. He was featured in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. As you may guess he is Aslan.

He even let out a mighty roar for us.

We also got to play with 2 white lion cubs, Ivula(Rain) and Amafu(Cloud).

Ivula


Big brother is hogging the milk. Amafu(left) and the female Ivula on the right


My what big teeth I have


Our guide Ashley was the greatest. He is from South Africa and was part of the team that raised many of the younger lions at Zion Wildlife. To help keep the gene pool diverse, many Big Cat preserves swap young lions and tigers. Ashley was there to see how their lions and tiger were faring. The environments (Whangeri is much cooler than the Kruger Park outside Johannesburg) are quite different, but the lions were doing well. We were lucky to have Ashley as a guide as he will be returning home soon.

Not much quilting going on

It's been rather hectic lately with work and preparing for our upcoming trip to new Zealand. We leave on Friday and return on December 4th.


This could be us in Abel Tasman National Park

Enjoying the World Series Win

It is was a little different than the win in 2004. My Grandmother really did believe every spring that "This would be the year!". My mother was also a die hard Sox fan and would have celebrated the first World Series in her lifetime. However I still wish they could have been there to see Paps strike out the last Rockies player. Some photos to remember the win and parade.


Mike Lowell MVP


Tito hands the ball (and series) to Paps


Tek and Paps


A beautiful day for a parade


Varitek and Mirabelli


Big Papi and the World Series trophy

It was close, but it seemed easy

Hideki Okajima is Oki Doki

One of these days I will get back to my quilting. But for now there is exciting (if you aren't a Rockies fan) baseball to watch. Last night's win by a 2-1 score was a great night of baseball. Top notch pitching by both teams and base running hustle by the good guys. Schilling pitch well until he stiffened up, but Oki was brilliant. What a find by our scouting guys. Paps was his usual fire breathing self. Off to Denver they go. Two down, two to go.

On another sports note - World Cup Skiing starts this weekend. Although he injured his back, it looks like we get to see Bode in Soelden although not with the American ski team. I have great hopes for the American women's team this year. We will miss Caroline Lalive (out with a knee injury), but Julia Mancuso and Lindsey (Kildow) Vonn are looking strong.

Red Sox start World Series with a bang!

This picture says it all. A dominant performance by Josh Beckett and an explosion of offense from Manny, Papi Youk, Pedroia, - well everyone got in on the fun.
Red Sox 13 - Rockies 1

World Series Bound!

Even though the score doesn't reflect it, much of the game was very close. Thanks to our little guy, Dustin Pedroia, things worked out great. A mighty swing of the bat for a monster shot over the Monster broke the game open for the Red Sox.



Big Papi welcomes Pedroia at home.

M.Murphy says it so well at Sophocles Was a Red Sox Fan.

4 New Blocks

A great meeting on Saturday at Quilting Connection. It's fun to see what motif everyone is going with. I particularly like the blue and white selected by one of the Ladies.


This is C-1 Trooper Green's Badge. I paper pieced this one.


D-13 Field of Dreams was nice and easy. It was paper pieced too. An appropriate name given the importance of this weekend. Game 7 is on now.


My first attempt at machine embroidery. H-12 Hannah Lou's Hearts I liked the heart shapes even though in the Jane Stickle quilt the shapes aren't quite hearts.


J-6 Granny Weaver - I rotary cut this one. I thought it would be hard with the little one inch pieces, but it went together easily.

Redemption for J.D. Drew

Wow! I was so sad to see JD Drew to step into the box with bases loaded and 2 outs. But with one swing he made up of the lousy season. Shilling pitched 7 solid innings to take us to Game 7.
GO SOX!

Hope is Alive

It's back to the Fens for 2 (I hope) more games. No game tonight so hopefully I can finish another block before our Dear Jane meeting tomorrow. I will have a block of each color as an example of my color scheme.
GO SOX!


photo is front the front page of the Boston Globe

Blog Action Day - Help Out Our Earth

Today is Blog Action Day, which highlights what we can do to for the environment. I try to make a difference where I can. Each individual can make a difference that adds up. For example, I drive a hybrid, partly to encourage car makers to make cleaner cars and because it is better for the environment.

There is a lot that an individual or family can do. Simply encourage your elected officials to create policies with a goal of limiting our damage to the earth. Other practical ideas can be found at these web sites:

Stop unwanted catalogs. This is a big use of paper
Catalog Choice

tips on living green
We Can Live Green

Stop junk mail
GreenDimes

That was fun!

I think they are scared of Manny! Two walks when the bases were loaded. Red Sox win 10-3.

Latest Block - M-10 Simple Simon

Heavenly Red Sox sweep Angels

What a great series! Manny & Big Papi got things started and Shilling was the Master of the Mound.

Other two blocks

The top block is B-13 Four Corner Press. The other block is C-3 Rayelle's Fence.

Making Progress

I have started like many others before me with A-6 Uncle Homer. I will continue with some of the other simple blocks that have no triangles or appliqué. I guess it's time to figure out how the scanning function works on my printer so I can post photos. I am also working to set up a Virtual Design Wall for my quilt thanks to the work of Sharon Mastbrook, it's creator.

Three blocks finished and 166 to go.

With the start of October - a little bit of Halloween. It could be my cat Lucky hiding in the pumpkins.

Start of Dear Jane

I have joined a group that meets once a month to work on our Dear Jane quilts. We will be all starting together this October. Will any of us make a quilt with all 169 blocks and the border triangles? Mine will be an "almost" Amish coloring. The background is a black from the Sunstreak collection by Patrick Lose. The blocks will be colored with tone on tones and a few small prints. Hopefully updates on finished blocks will follow.