Quilts

When we walked down to the Lake House the other day we found that the art gallery was actually open. Usually we arrive after the business day and it is all locked up. But we were early that day and had time to stop inside. They had the gallery filled with quilts for a show and competition. It was really fun to look at them. Admittedly some of them were pretty bad and I was certain that I would have been able to do better than they had but still. They had done it and they were there for me to look at. And since there was no one else in the room, not even anyone from the gallery I felt that I could go ahead and take pictures of them, which I did.  Each quilt had to either have a word on it or be able words.  I will just show a few here.

This is a fun one. I have seen too many splats on the beach myself to not know what that is all about!   I thought it was clever.  

This one was very well done. I really liked it. 

It is hard to see the quilitng on this on but the black is quilted just like you can see the white. The lines are all that close and straight. It is very well done. It won a prize also.

This really looks near. Each square is machine quilted with a different pattern. 

This helps you see it. It was probably the most professional of all of them. So well done.  But then you never know what is hiding behind that rick rack that divides it!

This is the grand prize winner. There are words stitched into the jacket but you cannot see then in the photo and I cannot remember what they said. 

This was posted next to the winner.

New Wood Carvings

We did not have time for a long walk so we went down to the Lake House which is an art gallery just south of the large playing field across the street from us. They had had a live carving exhibit during the month of April but we had not gotten down to see it. Now the things that they are carved are on exhibit at the Lake House. I am not sure how long they will be there but it was great to see them. Most of them were carved from a tree stump that was already there. They had cut the trees down before but the 10-15 foot stump was left. They must have been planning this event for some time to have them already there. One were carved from logs that had been strategically placed around the yard. There are so many. It would have been awesome to see it happening live so we will watch and see if it happens again.  Hope you enjoy the photos.

This is strange but you can almost see and eye and a mouth and a fin. I liked this one.

The fern leave is the most recognized symbol of New Zealand. They are on the shirts of the All Black Rugby team. They are in the jewelry. It is amazing to see the fern forests among the trees. This is the outside and the one below is the underside of the leave. See the bench in the background?

The one below was by far my favorite. I am not sure what kind of bug it is supposed to be but it is cool looking. 

That is the Lake House that is behind the bug. It has an art gallery and a cafe.

This is some kind of bird I would say.

These two are the same one just taken from different angles. Each one of the ends has a face carved into it. I don't think it was finished. 

I really liked this one too. The detail was pretty awesome. The face below was the bottom of the one above. 

This one almost looks like it was an iron decoration but it is just the wood that was stained. 

Indecision

I have been wondering for the last few days what I would start with as an update. There is so much to add. Let me see...maybe we will start with our latest walk on the battery.

You might recall that the battery is on Victoria Peak which is at Devonport. We drove down last weekend. That is the walk that we took in the rain. When we got there we wondered a bit and then found another trail we had not explored  before. It took us right along the coastline but above the lava rocks. I am sure it was an area that they worried about during times of war because if the tide was low it made them vulnerable to enemies coming on land. We went through a tunnel, which I did not like at all, and up and over and around. It was a great walk.

Off is the distance we saw a container ship leaving port. Nice rainbow huh?  The clouds were so heavy with rain but luckily we were dry by now.

He seems like he is pretty happy to be out walking. Look at all the lichens on the trees! There is a mountain on the right of the photo and a cliff on the left.

I thought this was such an interesting tree growing up the side on the rocks. 

This is what is left from on of the defences during the war.  The harbour was closed off with a net that extended from one side of the harbour to the other. There was a large steel net that was hooked to these posts in the ground. There were several that we could still see. There are some on the other side. When a ship was either coming in or going out they would open the net with large ships that just waited to do that. I remember seeing movies about WWII where they would show a big ship going into a harbour and the enemy submarine would slip into the harbour underneath the ship and then they would bomb the ships and sink them all and in the end win the war!  I am not sure if anything that exciting happened here or not.

Eventually we wound our way to the top. I thought this was a nice photo.

Kiribati

I thought I would tell you about Kiribati. It is a country that is made up of low-lying coral atolls. There are 33 atolls with a total landmass of 350 square miles that is spread out over 1.3 million square miles in the Pacific Ocean. It is on the same time zone as New Zealand so it is due north of us. It is made up of what used to be the Phoenix Islands (eight of those) and the Gilbert Islands. I think it was Robert Louis Stevenson that talked about them in one of his novels about the South Pacific. The only real resource that they have is a large phosphate of lime mine.

People call this country many different things. Some call it ki-ri-ba-tee but those from there call it Ki-ra-bas. The "ti" actually sounds more like "us" more than anything else. The main island used to be called "Kiritimati" so if you make all those "ti's" sound like "us" then what do you think it is? Kiriusmaus....maybe Christmas?  Christmas Island is one of the main islands in Kiribati. Fun huh? I entered the papers for a missionary the other day who is from the Banana Branch on Kiritimati Island.

They speak Gilbertees but nearly every missionary speaks very good English as well. The daily temperature is about 81 F and they have 70-90% humidity daily. Some of the islands are north of the equator while some are south. They used to be divided by the international date line but I think they fixed that.  They are not in the direct line of most cyclones but they can have heavy rain and at times they can have drought.  They rely largly on rainwater for lots of their drinking water so drought is a problem. They are at times in the pathway of a tsunami and the highest place the can go is the top rows of the national stadium where they play rugby. They are 265 feet above sea level.

The main city is Tarawa with over 28,000 people living it in while the next largest city if Bairiki with 2,300. Weird huh?  Life expectancy is 58 years for men and 64 years for women.  Infant mortality is 46 per 1000.

The people are very hard workers. They are a very happy people and very positive. All of the missionaries from there speak great English and are obedient.

Just thought you would enjoy a history lesson today.

A mystery solved

As we have walked the shores along the eastern side of the island I have found wonderful shells. One of the most fascinating on is this one.

They are all different colors from white to pink to blue to red to almost black. And you find many that are flat.  Then you find other ones.  

They are not as dark and where the other in flat this is certainly concave. They range in size from as small as a ball you would place jacks with to a tennis ball. Again all sorts of different colors. The insides are pretty interesting too.  

I have wondered why some were flat and others not. I wondered if it was because if whatever was in it had died long ago and that the sea had "caused" it to go flat. What it been soft when it was housing a life? Finally I just looked it up. These are scallop shells. And although this is not a matched set, this is how they go together.  The flat part is the top of the shell and the concave is the bottom. And they house scallops. They are called pecten novaezealandiae. 

They say that you almost never find a matching set because once they come open they will quickly become separated and therefore, usually not found together on the beach. I am so glad that I finally solved this mystery and that I now know what they are for. 

The scallop business is a huge commercial business. There is a period of time where just anyone can go scallop fishing. I cannot imagine it would be fun to clean them but then for those who want to each both parts of the scallop you would have it all together. The white part that is usually served in restaurants is at least reasonably priced but the other part of the scallop is expensive. If you catch it all it costs you is the time to clean it.   

Such biting words!

I was in the work room at the office the other day getting missionary recommendations ready to scan when my friend Tessa came in. I think I  have told you about her before. She and her family are from South Africa. She is the secretary to Elder Pearson and Elder Watson. She is a good friend and I love to visit with her. Anyway, she walked into the office and looked into the organizer that has all the gadgets that we use in that room.

Tessa: Do you have the mother in-laws tongue?

I must of looked mystified.

Tessa: Don't you know what that is?

Me: Not that I know of.

She reached over and picked it up.

I have thought so much about it since then and have hoped that this is not a true replica of my tongue.

Gives new meaning to a sharp or forked tongue doesn't it?

The bridge and the Sailboat

We went for a walk down on the wharf with some friends of ours last week. The weather was so nice.  Not even a jacket was required. The sun was shining. It could not have been a better day. We stopped at the fish market and had fish and chips. We even tried a new fish. We usually one get snapper. It  just seems to be the best although we have tried some others.  This time we got snapper and blue cod. The snapper is a pretty ugly fish but I think the blue cod is close to being as ugly. It has big lips. It is considered a very curious fish and will even come up to divers and nibble on their fingers. They are blue in color. They are native to the islands, specifically to New Zealand. Anyway, we did not think it was that great of a fish for what we normally eat.  (We did eat one later in the week that was steamed with spring onions and ginger and soy sauce. It was delicious although a bit boney.)

The one place where we walk has a walking drawbridge.  There is a marina with large sailboats on one side of the bridge and the main part of the bay so when they want to come in or go out the bridge needs to raise.  And we were so lucky to see it do that.  It was a very sunny day and we were facing west so the photos are not the best but maybe you can see what I mean.

This is a picture of the sailboat going towards the bridge. It seems so weird to me because I would think that the people should be on the other end of the boat but not this time.

Here you can see it is going through the drawbridge. Sorry the quality is bad. We should have been on the other side but it was too late to change the vantage point!

It was fun to get to see this. A few days later we were on the top of the sky tower and actually saw it go up and down again. Fun in the city.