Stylish Electric Cars

More stylish than a Prius.

We checked out these very cool vintage cars at the recent Kapiti Sustainable Home and Garden Show.

Salem loves vintage cars and it didn't take him long to find these beauties.

Check out the batteries!!!!

As you can see, electric cars are not a new idea.

Imagine driving this home.

I think this next car was a hydrogen powered car.  Or it could have been another electric one.
I can't remember, it was a very hot afternoon.

Both these cars are in working order.
Much more stylish than the modern hybrid and electric cars.

Autumn is Finally Here!!!!

After a long, hot and very dry Summer, Autumn has finally arrived.
The leaves are finally changing colour and falling to the ground.

We love Autumn!!!!!!!!

And what is more fun than playing in all the leaves.
We couldn't resist when we found this large mass of leaves on our walk home after dance classes.

The temperature has dropped a lot over the last few days but we still haven't had any rain, just two days in the last week or so that had about 5 to 10 minutes of a very light drizzle.
Nothing to break the drought.....yet......

Playing in the Autumn Leaves

It's nice to be able to layer on the clothes and to wrap up warm in one of the many blankets that we have made over the years.
In the evening, when the boys have gone off to bed, I snuggle up on the couch wrapped up in a blanket to watch a bit of telly, with Sugar, our big fat white cat curled up next to me on the blanket and Misty, our clueless black cat purring away sitting on my knee.
What could be better...........

Getting Ready For Easter At Kirks

Clucky, the Easter egg laying chicken

It was off to Kirkcaldie & Stains for our traditional visit to see Clucky the Hen who lays chocolate covered marshmallow Easter eggs.
We visit Clucky every year, the build up to Easter would just not be the same without her.

Clucky has just laid an egg

Kircaldie and Stains department store has been around since 1863 but of course Clucky hasn't been around that long.  My Nana and Grandad used to take me to visit Clucky and that was many, many moons ago.

As you can see from the video above, Clucky really put's a smile on your face and it's amazing how many adults still come to see Clucky and put in their 50 cent piece to have an egg laid for them.
I still do..!!!!!

After our visit to Kirk's (Kirkcaldie & Stains) we had a quick visit to the botanic gardens to see what was in flower now.  It's been a little while since we were last there.

There were some lovely vibrant colours so I had a bit of a sit down and just enjoyed the sights while Salem went and did some fort building.  It keeps him busy for ages.
I had to call out for him when it was time to leave.
We ended up missing our bus anyway so had to wait for the next one.

It's going to be interesting to see what the gardeners are going to plant for the autumn displays.

Coronation Cafe

Arise Sir Salem!!!!

The Crown Jewels are at the Coronation Café

There was no need for us to travel all the way to London to see the crown jewels as the City and Sea Museum has replicas with all the glamour of the originals on display at the Coronation Cafe.

On a wet, windy and very humid day we popped in for a look around and just loved everything there.

Salem was even knighted by the Queen.

Come on in to the Coronation Cafe

There was bunting and Union flags all around the cafe and the Union flag was painted on the floor.
The tables and chairs were all painted gold so it looked very regal.

Have a seat and look at the Union Flag painted
on the floor.

The cafe was closing soon but we managed to get a hot drink each.
There wasn't a lot of choice so I got a latte and Salem had a fluffy which was very small for $2.
So I ended up giving him some of my coffee.

Replicas of the Crown Jewels

The crown jewels that were on display were made for the Centennial Exhibition in 1939.

Under one of the many creative crowns

There were lots of very quirky crowns around the cafe, my favourite was made out of pencils.
Very clever.

Colouring in his crown

There was coloured pencils and pictures of crowns to colour in so Salem did that while I thumbed through a couple of the books on the table.

They were all about the Queen and some were of her coronation.

Every table has books about the Queen

This was a "pop-up" cafe so apparently there wasn't much in the way of food earlier on.

There was no food at all when we came in.

But it is such a great idea and makes good use of this space.

It would be great if they did some Devonshire teas.

Bye for now.

Cable Car Station is to be Replaced

We found out recently that the cable car station/ terminal is to be demolished to make way for a new "improved" and up-to-date terminal.

We don't like the plans that they have published and like the charm of the station that is already there.

This was built in 1979 but will be gone by late April.

Salem and I thought we had better go and take some photos of our beloved station before it is gone.
It was a beautiful day and as there was two cruise ships in town, we couldn't actually ride the cable car up the hill as there was a queue of hundreds of tourists down at the Lambton Quay (city) terminal.
So we caught the bus up the hill and then went for a lovely walk through the Botanic Gardens.

Some articles about the cable car:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/8215715/Cable-cars-new-Kelburn-terminal-to-cost-1-3m

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/5527315/Cable-car-building-to-get-make-over

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/local-papers/the-wellingtonian/4411008/A-decade-of-riding-the-cable-car

And website:  http://www.wellingtoncablecar.co.nz./

Giant Bugs at The Botanic Gardens

On our way through the Wellington Botanic Gardens, we encountered some magical beasties.

It was a very nice surprise.  The Botanic Gardens have some amazing lighting displays and there was lighting rigged up around the giant bugs.

They must look amazing all lit up at night.  It's a pity we can't get to see them at night.

But they look amazing in the sunlight.  This is all part of the displays that are put on every summer.

I wonder what our next summer treat will be??????

It's Time for a Yarn

Granny square blanket so far.

I am finally back and ready to start blogging for another year.
I really needed the break as the holidays have been hectic.
I hope everyone has had a great start to the new year.

Time for a Yarn was held for the first time this year on Wednesday morning.
It was good to go along and have a chat and a cup of tea (or two, in my case) and a biscuit (ditto).
I was without my boy this time as he was at his dance schools summer school helping teach the little ones.
The project I took with me this time was a blanket I had just started a few weeks ago.
It is just made with small crocheted squares.
I was inspired by watching "Wartime Farm" and Ruth was making a blanket and I had made a small collection of small squares which I was going to use as bunting but I thought this was a better idea even though I have crocheted many blankets.  But I haven't made one this way before.
So I've been making heaps more squares and sewing them together.
It will be a lot bigger for the next get together.

Time for a Yarn Come to the library with your knitting,  crochet, embroidery, hand sewing, tatting - anything involving  yarn or thread -  and share an hour with like-minded  people. We meet on the  last Wednesday  of every month in the  Paraparaumu Library  meeting room at 10.15am for a cuppa,  followed by a "yarn"  while we work on our projects, share ideas,  tips, and  patterns. The next session will be on  Wednesday 27th February.