Ashley Park Country Fair

Summer is finally starting to tentatively show it's face and today was a lovely sunny day. Me and Mum drove out to Ashley Park and spent a nice few hours wandering the stalls and looking at the animals during their annual country fair.

Happy Birthday To Me..

It was my birthday last Friday and I got exactly zero presents, cards or candles. I guess now that I am 26 I am officially an adult, at least in everyone else's eyes. The fact that I am sulking over no one making a fuss of my bday quite plainly states I still think I'm a kid. Of course the arguement goes that Mum paid for new tyres for my car that I suddenly needed, I have a birthday cake (even if I did bake it myself) and I did go out to dinner with a friend. Our birthdays are exactly a week apart so we always try to meet up for a mutual thing.
Yet here I am complaining about a lack of gift wrap. I shouldn't be surprised though considering the history of my birthdays in NZ. No one shows up when I try to organise a party and I distance myself from all family here. Me and Rachy have a no gift policy going the only other friend that I see regularly is broke beyond belief.
I did try to make something of the day though, I had the morning off work so after doing a couple of chores (which were beyond depressing) I decided to buy myself a gift. I bought a litre bottle of Demon as my celebratory drink and a bowl shaped like a cows udder to plant some saplings in. It wasn't much but it made me feel better.

Lunch and dinner were incredibly unhealthy but tasty, A hungi for lunch and fish and chips for tea. Well wedges and hot dogs but close enough.
Other than food, work and chores though I did also go to the lake. It's duckling season and I wanted some photos. I was in luck too, there were quite a lot there and the second lot I came across were so bold that they ran right up to me and even tried pecking my shoes! It was beyond cute.

On Saturday night I went out with a friend to an 80's themed birthday party. Everyone seems to be born this time of year so there are plenty of parties to go to and I figured someone elses was easier than trying to organise anything. It was a mandatory dress up which I usually hate and there was no way in hell that I was going to dress in 80's fluro crop tops or whatever so I went punk instead. I think it worked really well with my short hair too.I used old things I had lying around, a cut off pair of old jeans, work boots and a dog leash for the leg chain! It was a good night even if I did get so drunk that I fell on my ass at one point. For which I have a beauty bruise as a reminder.

As for my cake I tried to make myself one of Saturday but it was bloody awful really so I tried again today since I have the day off due to the weather. I made a red velvet cake with cream icing and designed it to look like a pokeball. I'm pretty proud of it actually. I thought it looked pretty tidy and it's tastes pretty damn good!

So that's my birthday. Do you expect a big fuss for your birthday or have you resigned yourself to the fact that it's just another day of the year?

Cash From Crap and Curious Kids

Argh where have I been? I would like to say that I've been off on some wild adventures that have left me no time for the comp but no such luck. The truth is that with work picking up I have been averaging about 15km a day behind the mower and by the time I home, get clean and get fed I'm so brain dead that I just do things that don't require a lot of thinking like crochet, colouring in or simply staring at the tele.
Today was just too interesting not to write about though and I actually had my camera with me so got some good pics. We were up at 7am again this morning (on a Saturday! It's a crime) because today was the day of our combined garage sale with a few of the other people from the village.

I was actually quite surprised at the amount of people who came out to see what we had. People were already waiting at the door when we opened up and there was a pretty constant flow until 10am. By then we were totally frozen through and rather over it, sitting in the cold isn't much fun with out customers so by 10.30 we started to pack up and cleared out. I kept an eye on the hall after we got home and only two cars showed up after we left so we didn't miss many customers.

 We made about $60 which I was pretty pleased with considering we were selling just crap. I have a terrible sense of what people want though it would seem. Things that I thought would be snapped up were totally ignored and other items that I thought were a waste of time carrying over were sold really quick. Who knew CDs were still popular? I took over a stack of mine that have been sitting in a draw for years thinking I would be bringing them all back and almost all of them sold, they weren't even good artists.

Some old comp speakers, a box of coffee jars, a CD player/radio clock, a breadmaker and a bunch of plates all of which I thought would be better in the trash managed to sell. It's amazing what people will buy.

 After the garage sale we went to my Uncles to drop off some pig scraps and while we were there I heard a strange but cute bleating noise from one of the sheds so went to investigate and look what I found! He has recently aquired about two dozen goat kids and they are adorable!

The chooks seem to think they are pretty neat too and spend a lot of their time with them, helping them drink their milk and eat their grain.

 They are cheeky little things and very curious. They all wanted to have a nibble at my camera strap, gumboots or jeans so needless to say I came away rather slobbery but happy.

Tongue out cuteness!

 For some reason this little chap was the only one with floppy ears! As a bonus he stuck his tongue out at me too! Cuteness overload or what?

 This cheeky bugger was trying to eat my hair while I was trying to get a close up of the others. He even climbed onto my knee to get a better chomp.

By the end I was totally surrounded, I had three chomping on my camera strap, one chewing my hair, another trying to climb onto my back and another sticking it's head in my gumboot! It was totally worth the mooch and I rather felt like I had stumbled across a free petting zoo. Great day.

Spring Has Sprung

 These snap dragons were at one of our clients properties who recently passed away. It seemed a shame that no one was there to enjoy them anymore so I had to take a few pics. They also happen to be one of my favourite flowers as I remember playing with them as a kid.

 Cherry tree in bloom and sunshine glinting on water, what more does a picture need.

 Here's another cliche pic that I couldn't resist. A bee on blossom. Not quite a bumble bee yet though, they still elude my lens for now.

 I was quite taken with this tree for some reason. Perhaps just because it was so large.

 This cheeky chap is an escapee from the aviary that is on the other side of the lake I reckon. He certainly seemed rather tame as he was happy to sit and watch me as I watched him.

 Daffodils! There are so many at the moment and all different sizes and colours too.

 The swans have started nesting so the ducks can't be far behind. I'm looking forward to getting some pics of fluffy ducklings.

I quite like this pic although it didn't really turn out like I hoped. The coot was moving too fast for me to get another try though.

Why Hello There...

I'm going to do a few photo posts since I have been busy with my camera now that Spring is starting to show through. I went to visit my cousin a few weekends ago as she always has an interesting mix of animals and I wasn't dissapointed.

On her front lawn she had this little pen set up with these two cuties in. They even had cute little coats on!

What a little poser huh? Not that lambs need to pose, they are always cute.

I guess I tired this fella out with all my photo taking.

Spots! I love piglets! My cousin has two sows that gave birth within 3 days of each other and now share the litters, feeding any piglet as if it were her own.

The black ones are from a smaller sow so they look younger alot younger than the pinks but they just started smaller.

These little explorers got lost while we were watching the mothers eat. they went round and round in circles but couldn't seem to remember where the entry to the sty was.

This spotty one is everyones favourite at the moment. Apparently everyone who visits reckons they want to take this one home.

Everyone jumps in at feed time. This pic also shows the size difference between the pinks and the coloured.

Succulent Showday

I've always liked the idea of house plants but I'm terrible at remembering to water things, add that to the fact that as a house sitter I can be away from home for a week at a time and it's easy to see why I've never had pet plants before. Until now!
I decided a couple of months ago that I rather like succulents and since I was accumulating a rather large collection of glass GU pots (they contain rather tasty mini cheesecakes which I had a fad on) I thought it would be nice to put the two together. The original idea was to use a tea cup and I even bought a little succulent from the saturday market and transplanted into a dainty little cup with matching saucer and rather promptly killed it.
Being rather good at knowing my knack for failure I picked up a couple of freebie succulents from a garden we worked in and whacked them in the GU pots, not really worried whether they lived or not. These of course have thrived.

Due to my fascination for miniature things I had high hopes for this guy and he was tagged as my favourite early on. Not so much anymore. He is still living which is a definate bonus but due to it's size and lack of anything exciting happening it has slipped into more of an average placing. I still have high hopes for it to be sure but I think a lot patience is required.

This one is my current favourite. It started out as excess to requirements as this was the mother plant that I stole the pup from. I couldn't quite bring myself to throw away a living plant though and since I had plenty of pots I whacked it in just to see what it would do. I figured if the first pup died I could steal the second one off this one.
Not only has this plant lived but it has grown which really quite surprised me and pleased me. After all it's one thing to keep things alive but quite another to know you are doing well enough for them to get bigger and better. Now all it has to do is produce a second pup and I'll pee my pants with pride haha

This is the bottom of the above pot. I really like having them in glass and watching the advancement of the roots below the surface. It's a bit of ritual now for me to lift it up and peer at it's underside before I water it now just to see what's new. I also like the glass jars because I can see when the entire soil is dry and that's when I water them. I'm pretty stingy with the water, I wait until they are entirely dry and then they get two teaspoons each pot. Usually once a week, sometimes less if I forget them.

While working in another garden the other day I thieved these guys from under a mass of weeds. They won't be missed and they make good free trial plants to replace the one I killed. I don't actually have much confidence in these guys but I will treat them the same as the others and see how we go. After all if they die they haven't cost me anything except a little time.

The twins round out the collection to 4 pots. These two were also thieved at the same time as the previous two. Again I'm not sure if they will do well but I rather hope so.
Do you have any indoor plants? Do they do well or are you as good as me at killing them off slowly?

Well It All Went To Shit Pretty Quick...

After a fair share of suppressed irritations this week I finally cracked today and ended up in an irrationally foul mood over a very minor insult to my pride. I had plans of catching up on my blog today (I think I've failed the challenge) and even writing spares to put in the files for future use. What I achieved was a very impressive silent sulking session and some half arsed distraction thanks to google.
So accepting the first possible chance of escape and solitude I high tailed it home and surrounded myself with a 'Cheer The Hell Up If It Kills You' kit and thought I'd share with you the things that I assembled.
Firstly as you can see above I plonked my butt in front of my fav table ( I tend to sit on the floor as I find it more comfortable, I guess because I can pretend I'm still a kid that way) with my laptop and a glass a wine. The laptop to distract me and the wine to sedate me. I also put on A Cook On The Wild Side, one of Hugh Fernley Whittingstalls first DVDs. I find it soothing for some reason. Perhaps because it reminds me of living in England and has nice country scenes to look at. Maybe because Hugh doesn't get overly excited so there is no sudden rise in volume, no bickering, shouting or tension and he speaks mostly in a low tone. Also I enjoy the subject of food, self sufficiency and exploring which is the main topics throughout and lastly I have watched this DVD so many times that I can tune in and out at will. Basically it makes nice soothing background noise to help me relax without serious attention.

Next of course I lit the fire. Warmth is happiness and the fire also makes soothing back ground noises. The heat also makes me sleepy or at least takes away my tension, a bit like a back massage without the horrible prospect of someone touching me haha.

Food is very important, it's hard to be depressed on an empty stomach. My favourite snacks at the moment are burger rings and although I always choose savoury over sweet I like to have some chocolate around. Usually it's just to look at as one or two pieces is usually plenty for me but if I don't have any I crave it fiercely.

I've got my current colouring page on stand by for when I get bored of the technology. I started this one last night while watching Pretty Woman on TV. My red has pretty much run out now which is sad. I guess I will have to decide soon whether it's worth buying a new set of felt tips or just moving onto a new hobby. Either that or I will have to go back to the pencils. I'm a pedantic sharpener though and spend more time creating a point on the pencil than actually colouring.

Lastly, and also on stand by, is a new project. The plan is to write in all the things I want to do/see/eat while in the UK. I saw recently a chinese method for how to index a notebook which really intrigued me and this seemed like the perfect project to use it one. I will write all the things that I want to do, index at the back and then when I'm in the Uk I should (in theory) be able to easily refind my ideas when wanting to fill a day. I am also planning to leave enough space under each entry to add a date of completion and hopefully the signatures of those who completed it with me, making it into a home made souvenir/diary/autograph book.
So there you have it, my method for calming myself down. I'm feeling pretty chill now which just proves it works considering I was ready to hurt someone or something barely an hour ago. Wine and heat will do that for you haha
Do you have any unfailing ways to calm yourself when you get angry or do you ride it out?