A beautiful Saturday spring morning.

If the world gives you lemons make Lemon Curd. First ever attempt, can't believe I've never made it before, it is delicious. A friend has promised me more lemons, so more of the golden, scrummy, lemony deliciousness, ha, how about that for Nigella inspired "over the topness".  The beach this morning, the first time I been down there since the "earthquake", beautiful day, and lots of people with there dogs enjoying the warmth.  The sliding door between the lounge and the kitchen/dining room, it now doesn't meet, in fact although it looks as if it meets at the bottom it doesn't as the right hand side is in front of the left. The left hand side wont go back into the wall cavity so that's annoying but not serious, it is just another little thing to add to the list for the Earthquake Commission to inspect and assess. Went to the market this morning it's the first time in 5 weeks with one thing and another they have'nt been open, only got veges and eggs as there wasn't anything interesting,  not all the stall owners were there today. There are big cracks across the car park but I didn't take any photos seemed inappropriate in the circumstances as there were enough jumpy people there already.Things are getting back to normal............clocks go forward to night, plans being made for garden and deck for the summer........Looking forward to the summer. Love Aunt Bee.

Our first walk.

Basil and I used to walk, every night and at the weekends, which sadly fell by the wayside when we moved here 3 years ago. With his last heart it has given us some impetus to get walking again the weather has improved so we went for our first walk this afternoon. We went through the school, and around the block which was interesting. the school though functioning has some outward signs of earthquake damage. Brodie a two storey classroom block has black plastic over the the red bricks, and unusable, but the newly installed hockey ground is now the only Olympic grade hockey ground untouched by the quake. Spring has sprung and there are some lovely Magnolias on our walk, what a lovely tree I wish they could bloom all year around.

More quilts and stuff what I bought.

 Birds and Flora of NZ, fell over in the earthquake, ok. not really just my lack of skill.

Stunning quilt.

half a metre of ribbon with beads, I'm a magpie I admitt it.

A bag of scraps, I can't resist bits and pieces.

5 inch squares, thinking cushions.

Lovely fairy fabric, green is not my thing but I love this.

The sari offcuts joined up to make 19 metres, for knitting.

Forget the earthquake bring on the craft show.

Just some of quilts in the Quilt Exhibitions there were 4 at the Show.These are all NZ quilts, there were quilts from Australia and a group from a international blog group. Very interesting wandering around having a look before the main even" the market mall". I had a good look at everything and bought a few things, if I had more money I could have gone mad, but I was very happy with what I bought. I'm leaving that for another post as I want to have a cuppa and put my feet up, it was extremely warm in the Event Centre and quite frankly I felt  hot and dizzy at times and by the look of those having a sit down with me I wasn't the only one. This is a Craft Show with Australian shops featured, it usually only comes to the North Island, but this year it came to Christchurch, we met up with friends from the far south and they weren't the only ones from further south and north of Christchurch. It certainly looked very busy so  I hope it'll continue in the future, I'm glad I took a day off to go, because I think the weekend will be manic.Love Aunt Bee.

Earthquake brain.

Amazingly, in the the last week I have done more knitting, and sewing than in the whole year. The one thing I have enjoyed is crafting, my brain isn't up to crosswords, indeed we didn't do any lunchtime crosswords for the first time in years. The clients all managed to respond to the earthquake drill Monday morning so we all feel more relaxed, and although there were shocks yesterday we didn't feel them. I've started knitting from this book, my nephews wife is pregnant with their first baby so I'm happy to make baby stuff.  Love Aunt Bee.

La Boutique RIP

Back in March I showed you photos of a wonderful shop called La Boutique which was just down the road in Cranford St. What I haven't told you and please go and look at the photos because all of it has gone, the shop and all its stock have been demolished, there were a number of shops in the block and all were wrecked, the photos were everywhere as they were some of the first buildings to be condemned and bulldozed on the Sunday. I think I have the only photos of the shop as it was, so I shall be in touch with Rose at some later time and see if she wants some copies. While sitting here we have had a rumble and later a shake, we know they are getting less but we are so over it, I'm going out to check me cracks as opposed to me petunias. Love Aunt Bee.

Shaken not stirred.

Taken from Aj's work place our usual way there.

This is one of our favourite restaurants.

We went to work yesterday for a planning session, very useful it was to we had to think of every possible outcome, as we work with people who have a ID. Aj got called to work, yesterday as school doesn't go back till Monday and Uni which has been hit hard goes back the following Monday. Aj works on Saturday mornings at a building supply company so this morning I took him to work, yesterday I discovered the quickest and usual way to go is impassable with road closures and detours, so setting off this morning in the opposite direction we got there in time for 7.30am. Just some photos I took on the way this morning, the bricks are our house which after Monday nights terrible shakes, 4 over 5RS,  have finally succumbed to cracking, our neighbour who is an engineer said as they are on both sides of the house and roughly equal distance on either side he thinks that is the renovation line when the house was extended years ago. We had come to the same conclusion, it's not urgent or important in the scale of things but we have reported it to the EQC and hopefully in the next few month someone will come and check it. The worst thing is they are getting bigger as with each after- shock the poor house creaks and moans more, it has held up well but it surely will be affected by the hundeds of after- shocks we have had since Saturday. Everyone is worried about 4.33am Saturday morning, there are more that a few people terrified we will get another big one, although to be truthful we have got a little blase, with each shock and we have a game of guessing the power of each shock I;m getting very good at getting them right.  Love Aunt Bee.

Feeling a bit nervous.

A quick post, nearly  my 100th, wow that hasn't taken long. I'm up and dressed and it's 12.33 in the morning we have had 2 big after-shocks since 11.25pm and I really terrified. We have at least 5 today over 5RS and it is really so wearing on the nerves. Went to work today because we knew we would have clients and we had 12 but thank god 5 went home at lunchtime, we are only 2 main streets over from the CBD, and our building though it looks all right really moaned and groaned with each tremour, the water situation is such the Boss cancelled work till we have an all clear on the cleanliness of the water. No damage to our house, good old 1970's construction they weren't pretty but they were solid, but we now have a few small slumps on the road by our drive. Aj and Tom are sleeping on the lounge floor now as we have had some really big tremours tonight.I can't describe the terror of such a large earthquake, but we those of us at work today all agree it is by far the most scary thing we have ever experienced.Barry found it terrifying on the 2nd floor of the hospital, they told him after surgery on Friday he needed to go home to peace and quiet and a stressless environment. HaHa. Tomorrow we shall do some stocking up of supplies, we need more batteries etc..........and water bottles. thinking of you all hope you are safe where-ever you are...........Love Aunt Bee.

EARTHQUAKE

A quick post to say yes we had the mother of all EARTHQUAKES at 4.33am this morning. It was the worst earthquake ever and as NZ is called the Shaky Isles we do have a few at least 25,000 a year I think. But in all my 54 years that was the worse, pitch black, only me and the "men" at home, Basil still in hospital, I've just picked him up. Three Simpsons will not fit under our table, so it was the doorways for us, the first thing we did was rush outside and check on the neighbours, we at least had a gas hob and I had got a new gas refill only on Saturday. No power, so no phone till 1pm, but oh! Lordy the after-shocks have been so bad, one at 8am was 5.5, God almighty there has been some praying done in this house today. We are o.k. our 1970's house went with the flow, but I just picked up Basil from hospital and the destruction is bad especially town, at this stage I don't know what that means for work...........as town is closed off. We know people whose house is a right off and some with business gone but we are fine and no after shocks for 1 hour now. Basil was on the 2nd floor of the hospital and awake so he has some stories to tell. That's it no photo, took some but they didn't turn out, probably because I was shaking so much. Love all Aunt Bee..........I'm off to have a shower now, the water should be warming up.And for the cat lovers, Dave is very shaken and wont come in the house, or only for food and then he's off to the relative safety of the deck.

Heart Sick.

Well what a week it has been, Basil is in hospital with his 4th heart attack, which to my mind is a bit greedy. I have been worried about him for months and felt he hadn't really got better from his kidney trouble and from Thursday of last week he had been having angina pains. I wanted to call an ambulance Sunday but he wouldn't hear of it and on Tuesday after a spell of breathlessness which left him stranded in the middle of the Main North road, until he could breathe properly, he finally made an appointment to see the Dr.  Didn't say it was his heart so we waited  for ages in the surgery,and he was sent straight to hospital. And that's were he's been ever since, this afternoon will hopefully tell what has gone wrong and what is going to happen.  While this is all going on I have had to deal with the builders coming and going mostly going , for the repairs to the garage. I've taken the last 3 days of work because quite frankly I have been running around like a headless chicken. Of course I never sleep well when he isn't home so I am sleep deprived, not grumpy yet and hoping not to get like that as Aj doesn't cope well with Basil being ill, although Tom is very calm and organised which is funny because that is so not him usually. We are a bit shell shocked really, 4 heart attacks is so mind boggling, he himself is in good spirits, especially when he found a coffee machine at the end of the ward and he is eating well so that's a good sign. So that's it from m, have to go to the Library and see if they have any books for him he is getting lots of reading done and he'll be off work for awhile so have to find things to keep him occupied , it's like having a child ill really I need to keep him out of mischief. Love Aunt Bee.