Visitors

We've had a fantastic weekend! Meg, Ryan and Henry came to stay. I love to spend time with my sister and her family and we made the most of our time together. Before they arrived, I spent the morning horsing. First I went to visit Southern Ben to spend some time grooming him and giving him a good scratch. He was so pleased, and I laughed so much at his facial expressions when I hit the good spots as I scratched him. He poked his top lip out and quivered it. I took Johnny Horse out to eat some grass too, as he is restricted to his loose box while his stifle fracture gets better. He was thrilled to be out, and while he was munching I found a four leafed clover, so I gave it to him to eat to help give him luck to get better.

After visiting Ben, I went and had my riding lesson. This week I had Erika as my coach for the first time, and she was fantastic. She took me through all of the things Celine usually does, and we worked hard on getting Sam into a good outline (body shape) and to ride around the dressage arena correctly. I got a big fright when he got spooked by a naughty horse in the jumping arena, and it took a bit of time for my heart to stop beating like mad. He is a drama queen and always makes the most of a fright. He shot forward with a huge scrabble and his head flailing. Anyway, I took a moment to walk around, then carried on. Erika was so sweet and called me a "good girl" several times, which was lovely considering I am at least 15 years older than her. Celine had Kate Cavanagh training two of her young horses in the jumping arena. Kate is another of Canterbury's top riders. She was really friendly.

It is great fun hanging out with our little nephew Henry. He is just two, and is chatty and busy, mostly super well behaved and really interested in everything. It was amazing to see how pleased he was to see us. Huge smiles. On Saturday we went shopping. I got a tunic with horses on it (yes, you can roll your eyes, everyone else did), a skirt and spotty leggings. Henry got some little cars to add to his collection, plus a bike helmet now he is a daring speedster on his trike. Johnny and Ryan both got sneakers, and poor Meg got nothing. We watched two movies, which resulted in my vivid imagination giving me nightmares.

On Sunday the weather was perfect, and as Henry loves animals, we visited Orana Park. His favourite animals were in the farmyard. He was running around everywhere. The adults loved the tigers, especially seeing one of them being fed. He had to jump up onto big upright logs to get his chunk of rather sinister looking hairy meat. The giraffes were divine, as always, but the huge line of families waiting to feed them caused us to walk on past. We had a great day. Then we watched the All Blacks battling with the French rugby team. Thank goodness we won! I was in bed as I was so tired, plus my nerves couldn't take the trauma of the second half. Yay for the All Blacks, world champions!!!!! It feels a bit like all New Zealanders are world champions.

It was so sad when the visitors left this morning. They left a little gift behind- Johnny is miserably coughing and sinking into a mire of misery with a cold. Thanks Henry. We still love you! Hope I don't catch it.

I did a bit of weeding today, but am incapacitated again by my riding injury. I've got pain in my hip, backside, and thigh when I weight bear, and the more moving and bending I do, the worse it gets. So I gave up on the moving and tried something new in my workroom. I am inspired by Bari J. Ackerman's fabric collage techniques, so had a little go today. Firstly I got into some scraps (thanks Fenella :) ).

Then I cut and put together some pieces. I layered it like a quilt, although I don't think Bari does for all of her work. She doesn't always add a batting layer. I like the puffy effect. Hmm, not particularly promising.

Meandering with my embroidery foot. I used cerise and leaf green threads.

I zipped around the outside with satin stitch then trimmed.

I think it looks better in real life. I'm not sure what it is. Possibly a coaster. Mostly an experiment. Anyway, as soon as I had made this one I got stuck into making a much bigger creation. You'll have to wait to see that one.

School starts again tomorrow. I have to go to the doctor so I'll see what she thinks about my pelvis. Annoying. Have a lovely week!