An award :)

Mim - over at Mim's Muddle has kindly awarded me with a bloggy award:

The Love My Friends Award is given to those bloggers who aspire, inspire and share the most beautiful of human attributes: art, wisdom and friendship. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more.

Wow - that is something to aspire to for sure... art, wisdom and friendship.

So here we are with my picks:

Rachel - my IRL friend who lives in KL at present. Very much admire her crafty productions, value her friendship and chats about parenting, faith, family etc. So annoyed I was sick this weekend and couldn't entertain her before she heads back.
Sharon - fellow scrapbooker/Twitterer/food lover, excellent photographer, mother to two boys and fellow book club member
Janine - I enjoy reading her posts, seeing where her creativity is taking her and what she's making and her honest blogging.
Kristen and Amy - my online friends who I met on a parenting forum before DS was conceived and with whom I've shared numerous milestones, discussions, worries about parenting. They both have green aspirations like me. I really, really want to meet them IRL someday, somehow. Both explore photography as a form of creativity.
Mel , Em & Hen - who make me laugh, faithfully comment on my blog and Facebook, share the book club books, parenting "issues"....

I also have a number of non-bloggy friends who I am grateful for their friendship, their creativity and just for being there.

weekend away

FIL has been in hospital for a gall bladder removal, so we went up north to see the whanau on the weekend.

We decided to go for a $2.00 thrill and check out the new toll road and tunnel. Reckon for $2.00 the tunnel should have been longer! ;-)












On the way up we thought we'd visit Tawharanui to see what it was like. DH wanted to vet it for photographic possibilities and I was keen to see what it was like for camping. It was a lovely crisp, clear day.

The kids and I played on the beach while DH wandered round the rocks.

Both of us have favourable reports about it so looks like we will re-visit it.

After lunch we headed further north to Whangarei. Tim complained about having a sore tummy. I thought he was just grumbling until he chundered all over the back seat, his car seat and the foot well just as we came into Warkworth. *gag* So we had to pull into the rest area and clean him up. Amazing what you can do with tissues and wet wipes! Thankfully we had some clean clothes for him. DH was ready to give up and go home but we'd come so far, and I knew SIL and MIL were keen for our visit. So we pressed on. Tim seemed ok - a bit pale but he thought it was cool I let him have chewing gum.

"I hold it with my teeth and don't swallow it eh Mum?"

We got there with no further puking incidents and I wrote it off as car sickness, but he did have another go after dinner so I sent him to bed early. He was fine the next day.

We visited FIL several times and spent a quiet weekend with them all. The kids enjoyed the novel toys, I enjoyed them messing up somebody else's lounge for a change!

Here they are Sunday morning before we headed out for church.

Here's SIL teasing her brother by giving him a kiss.

Here is MIL watching her kids being silly! :-)

FIL has been allowed to go home today, so everyone is pleased about that.

Welcome to the blogging world!

DH surprised me yesterday with the announcement he has begun a blog. :)

If you are interested in photography then you might like to add this one to your rss feed and make a few comments. He intends to blog about his work, techniques etc. Without sounding immodest, I do think he knows quite a lot about the topic ;)

Here is the link: http://roddersd29.wordpress.com/

Backyard Princess

Backyard Princess
Originally uploaded by pdugmore2001.

Was thinking of submitting this to the new magazine Innovations but can't be bothered writing out all the stuff I used so am posting it here instead. Lazy huh?

just for a giggle

Not sure what they are barbequing here at this new restaurant near my work but I'll bet it comes in pairs.

May Reading Round Up

Bonk: the curious coupling of science and sex /Mary Roach
Okay - you can stop snickering now. Honestly! You may remember me reviewing this author's other book Stiff (ahem). Well I happened to see that she'd written this one, and had also been on TEDTalks talking about her book so intrigued I got it out. Being a G-rated blog I can't tell you some of the more interesting items inside this book but suffice it to say it is well written and very interesting. And also funny. As a highly dedicated observer of humanity I very much enjoyed it. :)

So what else have I read?

I haven't read the Book Club's book of the month yet (still on the hold list) so I can't review that but some of the other girls have:
The 19th Wife / David Ebershoff
Mel, Susannah, Janine, Sharon,
Sharon has reviewed June's book as like me, she was on a long waiting list at the library. I've also read this month's book but will wait to post my review later - mainly for my own continuity, others need not feel such compunction.
Kate has reviewed April's book as she's had a lot of real life to deal with lately!

I managed to delete my reading history off my library card record so I can't remember if I read more than Bonk. Silly of me to rely on technology I suppose. I know I started to read The Opium Clerk/ Kunal Basu and couldn't get into it. There was also a book with a yellow cover but can't for the life of me remember what it was.

Oh!! Now I remember - I read these two.
Call the midwife : a true story of the East End in the 1950s / Jennifer Worth.
Shadows of the workhouse / Jennifer Worth

These are Worth's autobiography and I highly recommend them. As the title suggests, she worked as a nurse/midwife in the East End during WW2 and after. The stories she tells will make you laugh and some will make you cry. There were some beautiful stories of people overcoming poverty and others that will make you want to rage at the injustice. Great stuff. Includes a women who had 25 children. No, really!

She's written a third and final book which I've yet to read.

And I'm now on a Gabaldon kick right now which means I started on Cross stitch and am now on Fiery Cross - 4 books in2 weeks. I know they aren't everyone's cup of tea but I find them engrossing. I really like the ongoing story of the Jamie/Claire relationship. So many stories stop at the marriage day and leave it as "happily ever after". I also like the strange diseases etc she describes. I'm going to be very sad when the series ends. I hope she writes some more in similar vein since her other series (Lord John Grey) doesn't entirely reach me.

And apropos of nothing, I see Elizabeth George has killed off Inspector Lynley's wife and unborn child. *meh*

Jack Frost has been visiting

Yeah yeah, I know you Southerners have to "lick motorway clean wit' tongue" and all but the frosty mornings have provided us with a bit of entertainment. DS claimed he was going to "tell it for news" when he saw the ice in his sandpit.

Parenting Fail

DD is toilet training her baby.

I had a little pony

I made a little pony
I hoped you'd let it stay
'Cause Mummy has been anxious
For some cute hair dressing play

I've seen you by the mirror
Admiring your pretty self
I think that you resemble
A pixie or an elf






























Oh - and that is a ginger beer bottle she's holding. An empty one.

Here are some layouts I managed to do on the weekend instead of weeding the garden.

"Bur-day 2u": this is what DD says when she sees a birthday cake. In fact, ANY cake is a birthday cake. If you ask her who's birthday it is, she will say, "Yidia!"

In case you didn't know you must sing "Burday 2 you, hip ray hip ray hip ray" whenever you have cake. I am sure you will do that now. Don't let me down.

I broke out the BG Lime rickey for this one. Love the paper, not sure I am happy with the layout.




























This one is an attempt to scrapbook those inevitable "school" photos. I've created a pocket for the class one to go on the same layout (behind the pink dot PP). They laminated the class one much to my disgust. Again, this one didn't really turn out how I envisioned but never mind!

making a pig of yourself

With the recent attention on the ethical raising of pigs for pork production I thought I would post about some sources of free range, organic suppliers that I use or have purchased from in the past (with good results).

This is by no means a post to induce guilt trip buying frenzies - what you do with your hard earned money is your business. But it does help to know of options available if your conscience is making you think a bit.

Eco-organics

I signed up to Eco-organics last year and have been happily munching their produce off and on since. You do have to register with them but once that is done, it's just a matter of filling in their order form and you'll get a delivery on either a Tuesday or Thursday depending on when you order. They will take internet banking or credit card (but you do need to wait for processing to get the latter set up).

I visited their farm just north of Kumeu last year. They send me weekly emails telling me what's new in the garden and what activities are happening. I rather like that connection with them. I've never had any issues with their services and I like knowing that much of my vege box is locally grown. Sometimes I've asked that certain veges are not put in (because we've got plenty in our own garden) and that has never been a problem. It certainly means I get a variety of vegetables.

I find this option works for me. I love going to Farmer's Markets, but I have so many commitments on the weekend when they are held, I find I don't get there regularly. I do grow some produce for our family but don't have the time or space to supply everything from my garden.

Eco-Organics are connected with Super-Janes Organic Meat. This is beef raised organically on the East Coast and it really does taste good. I've ordered packs from them quite a few times and been happy with the service and the cost.

Naturally Organic

Before finding Eco-organics I used Naturally Organic for a vege box. The quality of the produce was great but I found the delivery fee to be a bit steep. However, if you spend over $100 with them and live in the Auckland Metro area the delivery is free. They stock dry goods and other things as well, so it is easy to reach that target if you include things like flour, shampoo etc.

Their service is prompt and reliable, and they contact you if there is any problem.














Organic Direct

This website groups tgether a number of small businesses. Their aim is

"to assist organic and sustainable businesses to market and promote their products and services. With regularly updated educational and informative content, and easy-to-find business directories, we make it easy for consumers to make the conscious decision to buy organic".

I use them to order free-range eggs and chickens from Rolling Hills. Rolling Hills did a promotion via DH's work and I liked their eggs a lot. Of course, if I'm shopping myself I'll pick whatever free-range egg option is available. But if I'm also wanting to get a whole free-range chicken I can get a good deal through Rolling Hills: 2 Size 14 free-range chickens + 2 dozen free-range eggs for $44.70 (delivered free to my door). In fact, the last lot they sent me was actually 1 size 14 chicken and 1 size 16... so that was a good deal I thought.




















Havoc Pork

I've been impressed with the product from these folks. Their pork really does taste better than the stuff from the supermarket. Their sausages are great too. Unfortunately they don't have an online order option, but they are very responsive to emails. I notice they will now send a pack of a mixture of their products to the North Island for $125.00 (delivery included). I've also organised a pork fest with some like-minded friends and shared the cost of the delivery of a 20kg chiller box - we chose what we wanted, it was delivered to someone's house and we reimbursed that person. Works well.

These suppliers are just the few I know of. If you have any others you have used let me know because I'd be interested.

I'm also blogging at:

The Room of Infinite Diligence

I'm going to move my librarianship related blogging to the blog above. It's a joint blog with some other librarians. This is what we're about:

The Room of Infinite Diligence is community blog consisting of a number of professional librarians from around New Zealand. We hope that you will find our musings both entertaining and thought provoking. We also hope that not only will you read us, but will engage with us to create a community of thought, where librarians from all parts of the sector can discuss the issues and problems of interest to them.

This blog (Walking Upside Down) will be my personal blog for stuff about me, my family, crafts, reading round ups and rants.

And just for your entertainment:

DH to DS: Do the lions in Africa eat zebras?
DS: No. They eat meat.

bag winner!

Thanks to Random.org we have a winner! :-)

Step right on up

Beverley said...

rain streams down window
blurred lights shining through dark night
nice and warm inside

7:03 PM

Beverley - email your address to me at pdugmore2001 at yahoo dot co dot nz and I'll send them on down.

Thanks for playing gals ;-)

It's been 3 years

since I started this blog - my actual blogaversary was last month but what with one thing and another I didn't post about it then. So to celebrate (albeit belatedly) I'm having a giveaway.

I'm giving away a set of Onya Weigh eco bags. You can see a photo of them on the website.

These are really neat inventions to replace the plastic produce bags you get in the supermarket. They are see through so the checkout operator can see those pesky stickers on the fruit and what sort of vegetable it is. They weigh next to nothing so won't add anything to your bill. Mine arrived yesterday and I'm delighted to see these ones will fit in your handbag. I'm all for things fitting in my handbag.

You can read more about Onya bags at their website.

So if you'd like to be in the draw to win a set of 5 Onya Weigh bags you know what to do*.

Actually... since I don't think one should get somethin' for nothin' I'm going to make you do something!

*throws head back*
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA. HAHAHA. HA. HA.
*cough*

In order to be in to win you need to tell me what is outside your window while you write the comment. In haiku format.

*rubs hands together*

Here's mine:

Upright in stacked rows
Silent until opening
Reference books wait

*NB: I will post overseas. Comments close on Wednesday 13th midnight New Zealand time.

birthday suits

Me to son hooning around house after his shower: Have you got your pyjamas on yet?
Son: No! my skin is all out.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

April Reading Round Up | Book Circle book of the Month Review

Break no bones/ Kathy Reichs
Struggling with a lackluster teaching position at an archaeology field school in South Carolina, Temperance Brennan discovers a fresh skeleton among ancient bones and traces leads to a free street clinic where patients are going missing. ~ from the blurb
Anyone who has read Reichs before will recognise the typical style of the book. But even so, I enjoyed the twisty bits.

The wedding officer / Anthony Capella
Naïve and already war-weary, James Gouding takes up a position in Naples in 1943. What he doesn't anticipate is that this involves a limited menu of fried Spam fritters and interrogating the would-be Italian fiancées of members of the armed forces. James's chance at true heroism arrives when a German tank is sighted and he is caught in its path. However, it is the imperious and dogmatic Livia who opens the hatch and yells at him to stop being such an idiot. Livia gladly becomes cook, translator and general factotum to James. The two begin to fall in love, but the eruption of Vesuvius triggers a chain of explosive events that will force the two to flee behind enemy lines and will alter their lives immeasurably.~ from the blurb
I really loved this one. I want to have an Italian grandmother who will cook me Italian food that gets described in this book. Apart from the salivatious (is that a word? if not it should be) food descriptions I also enjoyed the realistic romance.

Cataloochee: a novel /Wayne Caldwell
Against the backdrop of Appalachia comes a multilayered post-Civil War saga of three generations of families - their dreams, their downfalls, and their faith. Nestled in the mountains of North Carolina sits Cataloochee. In a time when "where you was born was where God wanted you," the Wrights and the Carters, both farming families, travel to the valley to escape the rapid growth of neighboring towns and to have a few hundred acres all to themselves. But progress eventually winds its way to Cataloochee, too, and year after year the population swells as more people come to the valley to stake their fortune. never one to pass on an opportunity, Ezra Banks, an ambitious young man seeking some land to call his own, arrives in Cataloochee in the 1880s. His first order of business is to marry a Carter girl, Hannah, the daughter of the valley's largest landowner. From there Ezra's brood grows, as do those of the Carters and the Wrights. With hard work and determination, the burgeoning community transforms wilderness into home, to be passed on through generations. But the idyll is not to last, nor to be inherited: The government takes steps to relocate the valley's people to make room for the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and tragedy will touch one of the clans in a single, unimaginable act. ~from the blurb
Interesting story. Found the muti-layered aspect to it a wee bit confusing at first but the characters are intriguing. Quite good.

The memory keepers daughter / Kim Edwards
In a tale spanning twenty-five years, a doctor delivers his newborn twins during a snowstorm and, rashly deciding to protect his wife from their baby daughter's affliction with Down Syndrome, turns her over to a nurse, who secretly raises the child.~from the blurb
I admit I've put off reading this book because I thought I might find it too sad. I have a problem reading about "bad-things-happening-to-children" so was a little unsure if I'd like the book even though it had been recommended to me. As it turned out, I really did enjoy the book. Bad things don't happen to the child after all ;-) The character development in the book is great. Highly recommend it.

Letters from the Bay of Islands: the story of Marianne Williams / edited by Caroline Fitzgerald
Previously unpublished letters from Marianne Williams have been brought together into this book. Combined with background history and snippets of letters from her contemporaries and friends/relatives the book portrays the kind of life this pioneer of New Zealand had. I found the book very interesting from both the point of view of a New Zealander and a woman. We have such a cushy life in comparison. I also liked the primary source viewpoint on the relations between Maori and Europeans.

---

Book Circle: Book of the Month

In defense of food: the myth of nutrition and pleasures of eating / Michael Pollan
Michael Pollan's bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we might start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives and our palates and enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy~from the blurb

I knew that Pollan's book would appeal to me but wasn't sure how the rest of the book circle would feel about it! His style is easy to read but I thought the topic might be onerous for folks who aren't as obsessed with food like I am.

Pollan develops his thesis by discussing how we got from food to their individual components (e.g. vitamins) and why this has created problems for our society today in terms of health, biodiversity and even our social culture.

I particularly liked his advice (in the last chapters of the book) where he details his opening statement of Eat food. Not too much. Mainly plants.

I really do recommend this one especially if you are concerned about your family, the environment or your health. It's not preachy, it doesn't advocate going back to being hunter-gathers and it's not filled with scare-mongering hyperbole.

Read other reviews - updated as I read them or remember reading them (please remind me if you've already posted!). Or by visiting the list of book readers on my side bar :)
Sharon, Suzannah, Mel, Kate,

You can find more about Michael Pollan from his website but you can also listen to him here at TED Talks.

thames layout & philosophical discussions with kids

P1010997
Originally uploaded by pdugmore2001.

A follow up layout for the holiday photos.
____________________________________
My grandma died on Tuesday which naturally involved some discussion about death and funerals etc.

Mr 5: Why did MummysNan die?
Me: Well, her body was so old and worn out that God decided it was time for her to go to heaven. MummysNan is Pop's mummy so he's a bit sad right now.
Mr 5: Are you sad?
Me: Yes, I'm a bit sad too. So now we need to get ready for the funeral.
Mr 5: What's a funeral? *he's been to a few already but I think the word was new*
Me: A funeral is when we put MummysNan's body into the ground because we can't have her body with us anymore.
Mr 5: And the digger digs the hole!

And as we drove into the cemetary he saw the plot opened...
Mr 5: There's the hole that the digger made! That's where we are going to put MummysNan eh? Because she died eh?
Miss 2: Digger!
____________________________________________

After a tanty incident involving an annoying little sister and the discman I was having a frank discussion with Mr 5.

Me(in a cross tone): Don't you know how to be good?
Mr 5 (in a small voice): Yes. But sometimes I forget.
Me: *melts*
Miss 2 (in the background in a smug, self-satisfied voice): Timmy naughty eh. Yes. Timmy naughty.

Stay tuned for Reading Round ups and the Book fo the Month review :-) Oh and a giveaway.. soon.

Choose - entry for final NZ Dare

Choose - entry for final NZ Dare
Originally uploaded by pdugmore2001.

NZ Dares is wrapping up and this is my entry for the final challenge - the topic "choices".

I used mostly stuff from the Scrapbook Outlet March SOS kit. BG Marrakech, Bazzill, Heidi Swapp butterflies, plus a few other things. The little book has the journaling about my career choice.

A holiday in Thames

After spending Wednesday morning filling up our car with gear and kids we set off for Thames.

View Larger Map

DD? Check.

DS? Check.

Kitchen sink? Check.










There was a bit of traffic on the road. We are used to having holidays outside of the school holiday period so there was some muttering about traffic from the driver. ;-)

Still, we made good time and audio-books are an excellent invention for keeping kids (and drivers) amused.










The appearance of clouds as we turned off Highway 2 delighted the Mad Photographer but didn't exactly fill me with joy.















The new tent got set up without getting rained on though. The kids were very excited about it. DS got into his bed as soon as I made it up! We found a leak in our airbed (just what you need to discover) - I'd foolishly lent it to some folks and they'd tried to mend it but not very successfully. So we had to head back into Thames to try and find a replacement. Fortunately the friendly Hammer Hardware folks found me one and even checked to see it had a bung in it ... no. So they opened another one and purloined the bung out of that one.










After the bed acquisition we set off for the Kauaeranga Valley. The autumn colour was lovely in the afternoon light.














We did a couple of short walks around the visitor centre and up further into the valley.

This one included a model dam. The valley was extensively logged for kauri to fuel the booming Thames goldrush in the late 1800's.















We crossed a swing bridge over the Kauaeranga River. DS was very brave - he did stop halfway over and say he didn't want to go any further but after a bit of encouragement he did go on. I hate these bridges. If I hadn't been carrying DD I'd have gone over it with my eye's shut! On the way back we decided to boulder hop over the river instead ;-) Wet feet seemed preferable!














The Billy Goat Falls.
Not the greatest of photos - difficult with the light. The falls are at the top of the picture, in the distance.















When kauri loggers tried to transport kauri over these 180 metre high falls they shattered. Doh. Eventually they built a tramway to transport them.

Another walk we did was to the Wentworth Falls over near Whangamata. You would think with all the stuff we'd brought that I would have put in the back pack for DD, but guess what? I didn't!

So she started off with lots of energy....














but quickly degenerated into lots of "Mummy up" requests...









The falls were nice though.














While Daddy went down to the bottom of the falls to take photos, we stayed at the lookout and amused ourselves with the self-timer and video function on my camera.









We also visited the Broken Hills area which was a thriving goldfield from 1893. By this time DD was over walking.










So the holiday was nice in parts.

On the bad side:

• DS managed to work himself up into puking after a coughing fit one night... all over the bedding.
• DD is scared of moreporks and anything that makes a sound in the night. Everytime they called she said, "No like dat sound" and came running into our bed. Most inconvenient. Especially when Mummy and Daddy had ..uh.. other plans.
• My ankles are a mass of sand fly bites.

On the plus side:

• I got to see my friend S who has moved to Thames.
• We did enjoy some family time and walks together.
• I didn't think of work at all. (Not looking forward to going back tomorrow).
• We had a swim at Miranda.
• I had the best sleep back in my own bed when we came home. ;-) For months I've been waking at 3am-4am and staying awake for awhile so it was nice to have a full night's sleep.

Day 6 & Day 8

Well, the deadline for layouts to be submitted to SBO's Amazing Scrapping Race has passed. It's been fun. :) I didn't manage all of the challenges but that is okay.

Here are the final two I did.
Day 8 (Japan) - went for the cutsey anthropomorphism of the kiwi fruit with the google eyes.

























Day 6 (UK, use time or a clock):Trip to Australia

Don't like this one, but the photos were difficult to work with. I would have binned them were it not for the historical significance of a few of them. My parents emigrated to NZ a few months after they married so all our relatives are over in Australia. My paternal grandparents eventually came over here to live. This is one photo I have of their Australian house, my grandfather's gladioli's and their cat Millicent. My grandfather's beloved V8 car was actually shipped over here when they came. It was sold when he became too old to drive safely and I've seen it out here in our neighbourhood which amuses me greatly.























So totaling up my entries:

5 layouts = 5 tickets
plus one bonus ticket for doing more than 4 of the challenges = 1
bonus ticket for making comments in the gallery = 1
bonus ticket for answering Nic's question first = 1
blog entries = 3
Total raffle tickets: 11

It only takes 1.....

Day 4 France

La belle France... how I long to go there.

Day 4 of the Amazing Scrapping Race at SBO, and here is my attempt at 4 layers. :) The challenge for France was to get layering! (Note I said layering and not laid. Although you could do that too if you want. Just don't blog about it ok? Ta).

This is a blast from the past as DH said when he saw it. While we were courting we went on some bush walks including one to Fairy Falls in the Waitakere Ranges. Nothing has changed since we got married. We still do walks in the bush only now we have 2 sprogs following us and we're not quite as slender as DH is in this photo. Hee hee!

Can you tell I've run out of photo paper to print on? I'm scratching the bottom of the barrel in terms of photos to scrap on 12x12 at present. (Apart from old school class photos which are so hard to scrap nicely). I'm digging out the real old ones.