yum scrum whitebait fritters on the open fire

John went white baiting this morning and caught  600 grams of yummy whitebait so we cranked up the outside fire again and cooked them on the  hotplate, we also made bread in the campoven and roasted potatoes in tin foil, and shared it all for lunch with Mum and Dad, the kids played with the fire from about 10am till  3pm lots and lots of fun...I think that this is the sort of thing that kids should be doing in their holidays a bit risky but as it happens nothing went wrong...just lots of fun and laughs and good food

an evening to be repeated many times over the summer...

After a busy outside sort of a day and then a young fellow who loves to light a fire, we managed to sit down and relax and cook our dinner over the little fire we have in our back yard....yum scrum.... nothing tastes better than food cooked over a wood fire...my dream is a pizza oven but I guess I will be happy to settle for this as it does the trick...well not the pizza but still pretty satisfying yummy food...

The newest additions to our family!!!

Cute!!! Don't know about that!!!! trying to not get to attached....but better the devil you know than the devil you don't!!!

oops sorry finally here are the photos!!! Blogger problems

here are the pictures of the cushions I made yesterday

I'm making these cushions and plan to have 10 or so  made before our shop opens next month, I have 10 cut out  and plenty more fabric squares cut out and ironed and ready to go....so now all I need is time... which I probably won't find this weekend...we have all 4 kids this weekend and a pony club event tomorrow so no sewing to be done... and I also have very untidy parts of my garden I want to tackle this weekend...will keep you posted on our happenings over the weekend....have a great weekend all!!!!

Sorry readers I've had the flu!!!

Quick update before I go get the kids from school....Yah!!! its the holidays and even better nearly daylight savings!!
I have had a crappy cold flu thing this week and am just getting back on my feet today...
Haven't even been crafting,till this morning I whipped up a couple of funky cushions and if I could find the camera I would put  a photo on but will do when it turns up..Ii suspect John took it with him today!!! How dare he right when I need it...I would also put on a photo of the yummy scrummy baking I just did but you might just have to imagine it...caramel crunch slice and the best moist banana cake ever...
What else is news from me...We have 2 new additions to our animal family...2 black 8 week old piglets....Very cute now but must remind oneself that  best of friends ain't best!! Have had to have a talk to the kids about their future destination and have explained that it is better to know where your meat comes from than buying it at the supermarket where god only knows where it comes from...half the time not even this country!!! Probably hard for you townies to understand but what we are doing feels kind of right...
Eggs Eggs Eggs and more Eggs at our house ...I only wish I had more friends who didn't have chooks so I could give you eggs!!!!

A few good shots of Life in LBB

Mr Rascal King of the 4 legged crew

sweet Diva Rose

Mrs bossy pants

Larger than Life Lass

One of the kids huts

Tree house built by John

My Hut!!!(Tack shed) Built with Love for me from John

A sneak peak at what John has been up to in the tunnel house

Check out the lemons on our tree

A Blog post especially for Nana Trish!!!!

Well I have had a complaint!!!!
What has happened to Jenny's Blog she hasn't written on it for a week.."its the highlight of my week reading it"
So this is for you Trish with lots of  Love from us here in Le Bons Bay
Was just having a bit of bloggers block!!! after our extremely eventful and stressful week last week nothing seemed quite right to post about..........
Doesn't mean nothing has been going on cause it has, we had a lovely weekend with Fran and Paula visiting and the cousins getting together is always a highlight..we love your little girls soooo much Frannie and I find it quite amazing the bond that cousins instantly have and it makes you realize how strong and important family is...our little lot all cousins  just seem to get each other, they are kind of in sync with each other...and I reckon we have the perfect mix of boys and girls and different ages(for those of you who don't know this family there are 9 cousins aged between 1 year and 12 nearly 13...plus johns 2 girls mixed in there as well, and as far as boys and girls go i guess its a little lop sided with 8 girls and 3 boys  but it never really seem to matter)
Family means everything to  us and even more so through the tough time we have just been through..

So thanks to all of you who have contacted us  over the last 2 weeks  your emails, phone calls and just knowing you are there means a lot.

Heres the two lovelies who are my parents

Heres a picture of my Mum or as most know her as Mama and Dad mostly known as Pa doing what they love to do...Mum is Dying wool with the help of their Japanese Woofer Kyoko (who by the way took these 2 lovely photos)  and this is a photo of Dad doing what he likes to do when he is relaxing (spinning!!) not much of that going on in their house at the moment SPINNING DYEING OR RELAXING!!!! Bugger off aftershocks......

 

These were photos that I was supposed to post on Saturday

Life here in LBB is getting slightly back to normal...well if thats at all possible...Me and the kids vacated our house today as John had to take down our badly damaged chimney's...my nerves are to frayed to stand the noise of falling bricks on the roof so took refuge at my poor parents earthquake stricken house..I feel so much for them as their whole house was trashed severely... Mum has even had to empty and clean all her linen  cupboard as their hot water cylinder pipes all pulled off( not just wet sheets to dry but most had to be washed as they were stained by the copper pipes...and whats more it has been drizzling for the last 2 days and they also no longer have a fire as it was pulled apart!!! it makes me want to cry as I write this) Both Mum and Dad are gutted I can tell but are getting on with the massive clean up and organisation involved in putting a life times worth of collections and memories either in boxes till its safe to put back up or in the bin!!!! SOB SOB

Please all you bloggers who are living in areas not affected send out your love to those who have been as this is a very traumatic situation we have found our selves in...XXXXX

Pre earthquake dinner!!!

What I achieved the day before the earthquake!!!

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope I never have to go through something like this again in my life....

Well as you all probably have heard the south island was struck by a massage earthquake today....it was so scary and made even scarier by the fact that my kids were at their Dads and I couldn't get hold of them till well after 9am!!! I never thought I would feel the way I did...my kids mean the world to me and the thought of them not being with me was out of this world....
Anyway we are all alright and can be only thankful for that
Heres some shocking photos mainly from my parents house....we have spent the whole day there helping them securer everything and pick up and place in piles everything thats not broken....My Mum had loads of beautiful china that is all in pieces...Sad as for all to see...

Will make this do and hope that all is okay in your world...take care and keep safe and remember that at times like this we all need to band together....XXXX