finished

The first wallhanging is now finally finished.

I fixed some too loose hanging petals and I sew cotton fabric as backing on, which makes it look tidier.
I quite like how it hangs at the moment with the light coming through the background, but eventually it will just hang at a wall.

it is fixed with velcro to a board and can be taken off

overhanging leaves at the sides and bottom

A blank canvas/felt now for the next one!

you can see that I cut wrong first and had to fix it,
but that will not show up once it is covered 

Beside of this we have already found early bird flights to Germany next year. It sounds very odd, I know, we just came back. But it was such a good deal! Now it is blocked for another week until we have to pay it. Still making my mind up if I can bear to go knowing that son and his partner are not very pleased about us coming again. And the need for housesitters again is not a very nice thought too, but:
looking forward to catch up with friends again, visiting some wonderfull exhibitions hopefully, not to forget our favourite beer gardens will outweigh everything else :)

almost finished

is the wallhanging now

I added kowhai flowers

and korus

detail of the kowhai flowers

detail of the clematis flowers and buds

some water drops

and the finished wallhanging

I still want to cover the back with fabric because the wool is very fluffy and fabric would makes it look tidier. And I might do the odd stitching to fix some too loose petals.

Clematis Spotting

This afternoon was such a nice sunshine, that we decided to go for our favourite Matauri Bay Scenic drive to hunt for some native clematis views. We didn't see big white patches as in years before, but we spotted some plants with smaller flowers. I was now looking up information about it  http://www.terrain.net.nz/friends-of-te-henui-group/new-plant-page/native-clematis.html  and learned that they were possibly female plants which have smaller flowers.

I discovered the first one near Te Ngaire Bay

and Alex remembered a big patch near Mahinepua

zoomed in

We saw quails on the way to and from Mahineapua beach

and lots of kingfishers

the 3rd one just flew away when I pushed the button

I always love this view on the way 

New were 5 emus nearby, I tried to take photos but they turned out all very blurry

It was raining when we came to Whangaroa, but the tide was out and we saw spoon bills and lots of herons and oyster catchers

On the way home we made a little detour to Puketi Forest - gravel road the first time with the new car!

Well thats how a black car looks after