Tea and Cakes

One of my knitting friends*, Sharon, is off in New Zealand for a year with her husband Cathal, and the two of them have been keeping a blog about their experiences. I did find it a little strange at first – when I left New Zealand it was because my visa was up and I really didn’t want to go home (I don’t believe in overstaying visas, that’s just asking for trouble) – looking back with the rose tinted glasses on it’s easy to say that I really found myself in NZ, and it was the first place I really felt at home, but if I’m being honest with myself I think that a lot of that has to do with my age at the time, having just left college, and also that I do have a habit of getting attached to places. There were a couple of really tough times there, but also loads of happy ones. As a child I was known to get upset at having to go home from holidays, and I definitely cried leaving Vancouver after 3 months**.

Anyway, allowing myself to pop the pink glasses back on, it was strange at first, but then really nice to hear all about Sharon and Cathal’s adventures. And boy, have they been having adventures. You can read all about them over at Where two next?. Sharon’s been keeping up the knitting, and has been expanding her crafty talents with forays in to beading and sewing, and is unsurprisingly mighty good at those too. All the crafty goodness is over at Clickety Knits.

To celebrate the 100th post to Where two next?, the guys held a draw, and I won! Woo hoo! A couple of days ago the most wonderful package arrived for me, and I’ve been petting and admiring and smelling the contents since then:

Uitiku Perendale 8 ply in ‘Orchard’
This is really beautiful yarn – the colours are lovely, and it’s really soft. I have about 400 yards of it, so plenty to do something with, I’m just not quite sure what yet. Besides, it just wants to be petted and admired as it is for a little while, and then wound into a ball or two and petted and admired some more, and then I’ll decide. Part of me is thinking a garment of some sort, but I’m also considering one of those nifty hat and scarf attached together combos. My office is freezing, and it’d be just the thing for the winter.

T-Leaf Fabulous Feijoa Tea
Feijoas were my favourite fruit in NZ. They’re sort of like kiwi tasting, but not really. They’re just yum. I found a few at a farmers market over here, once, and bought most of what they had, but it’s a flavour that’s hard to find. I have some feijoa flavoured 42 Below vodka too (yummy NZ vodka), but that’s not really something for everyday drinking.
This tea smells lovely, but I haven’t tried it yet – I may just pop off and make myself a pot now I think.

Thank you so much Sharon and Cathal – it was so kind of you to send me things, and they were so perfect for me!

~~

*I’ve wondered before why I quantify some of my friends in that way – ‘work friends’, ‘old work friends’, ‘knitting friends’ etc. I’ve always done it I think, although it used to be ‘rugby club’, ‘tennis club’ or ‘school’. But why? Why not just ‘friends’? Hmmm, maybe it’s so that if I’m talking to one group about my ‘friends’ they don’t think that I mean that they themselves aren’t my friends. I think I worry way too much about this sort of stuff.

**To be clear, I wouldn’t change anything, I couldn’t be happier where I’ve ended up.