Merry Xmas Everyone

 We hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and best wishes for the New Year!!!

 Salem on Xmas morning with his Cristmas Cat I made for him.

Notice our bunting?

I made this as our xmas decorations this year.

It didn't take me long to crochet it.

I was inspired by the knitted bunting that was created by the English Womans Weekly

Centenary Celebrations in which they created a world record bunting of over 3kms in length.



Christmas Eve Lunch at Arthur's

After a busy morning buying all our veges at the Hill Street Market we went and treated ourselves to lunch at Arthur's Cafe on Cuba Street.

The lovely ladies gave us a xmas cracker.  We ordered a pot of tea (which we really needed), crispy potatoes, homemade fish fingers and some bubble & squeak (Salem's favourites).

The fish fingers were soooo yum!!!

 We were in a different room this time.  It just feels so homely and comfortable.

 This greets you as soon as you walk in the door.

There is always lots to look at.  And lollies to help yourself to at the counter.

There was also xmas cake but we were far to full.

New Blog "Nellie B's Wartime Rationing"

I have just started a new blog to document a new challenge my son Salem and I are undertaking.

As of Boxing Day we will be living on WWII rations as a chance to study what it was like

 for people living in England during that time in our history.

Salem will be doing alot of research on WWII and experiencing a little of it.

We are both looking forward to starting this.

You can see how we are doing on ://nelliebswartimerationing.blogspot.com/

Christmas in Wellington Shops

 We had a good walk around window shopping on Saturday and saw this lovely window display.

I forgot what the shop was called but it was up Cuba Street.

 This is such a great idea and looked so cute.

 Salem just loves this and will be making his own version.

 Also on Cuba Street was this window display at Iko Iko.

Something different for xmas.

The shop was so full that it was an effort to get in and then to get out again.

We couldn't really look at anything so battled our way out.

This was taken at the Xmas Shop at Kircaldie & Stains, Wellington's oldest and most

wonderful department store.

We love coming here an looking through the many floors and imagining what we

will buy if we ever became rich.

They were having a half price sale on their xmas ornaments so we treated ourselves to one each.

Arthur's Cafe in Cuba Street

 Today we went into Wellington and as it was a horrible wet and cold day we decided to go to Arthur's for a nice hot pot of tea and something warm to eat.

We had the Big Vegetarian Breakfast with a side order of "bubble and squeak" to share.

Yum, yum, yum!!!!

It went down a treat and filled both of us up.  Nothing left on our plates!!

 Arthur's is owned and run by the lovely ladies who have Martha's Pantry just around the corner.

But Arthur's is more manly with "manly decor and food.

They do an all day breakfast along with lots of more robust food.

 There are two rooms for dining upstairs as well as more relaxed tables downstairs

and outside at the back of the cafe.

 I just love the antlers.

These photos were taken in the room where we ate upstairs.

Our meal set us up for the rest of the day walking about the city with all the hustle and bustle of the

Christmas shoppers, it was so busy!!!!!

Pantries Update

This is my Pantries sampler, I've still got a bit of work to do on it.

I put it down a while ago as I have had alot of other projects to complete for our market stalls and for selling on-line.  I must get working on it over the holidays.

Happy Feet the Penguin

Happy Feet

Happy Feet the Emperor Penguin turned up on our shores not far from where I live.  He was very, very off course.  He was eating sand thinking it was snow and the sand stuck in his stomach and was beginning to set like concrete. 

He was taken to Wellington Zoo to have the sand removed and kept in a cool room with ice and was fed lots of New Zealand salmon to built up his strength be for they released him closer to the antartic.

We went to the zoo a lot and saw him on the monitors.   Salem and I wrote on his good bye "card" before his release.

This is a life sized replica of Happy Feet.

At the same time as Happy Feet was at the zoo, thousands upon thousands of the little Pirons (a seabird) were blown so badly by severe gale force winds we were having around the country that they were exhausted and thousands upon thousands of them died.

Their bodies turned up all over Kapiti (where I live), we even had one on our lawn which unfortunately died.  The birds that were alive were taken to the SPCA and other animal shelters to recover, hundreds were also taken to the zoo while Happy Feet was there.

Hundreds were successfully released when they had recovered enough.  But dispite the efforts of very caring and hard working volunteers many just couldn't recover.

It's been a while......so here are some flowers

 Some lovely tulips at the Wellington Botanical Gardens

Salem smelling "Mr Meaty" the flower that only flowers every 7 or 8 years and smells like rotting meat. It looks very beautiful though.

Some gorgeous orchids in the hothouse.

Well, it's been a while since I last made an entry, I have been so busy that time has just flown by.

I'm getting my act together and will be doing a catch-up and letting you know what we have been up to.

It's summer now and very hot and humid so it will be nice to sit in front of my laptop with the fan blowing on me while I am updating my posts.

So..............watch this space!!!!!