The Week That Was

And what a week it was.

I spent 19 hours in Wellington one day... visiting Hutt Hospital with two colleagues from Australia to look at a special bed called a Therapulse ATP, which is an air mattress in a special frame, for badly injured patients. It’s been “faulty” for a while, and required its valve/motor assembly to be replaced. The damage had been aggravated by heat, vibration, and a lack of regular maintenance. It would have been good if the tools and spare parts, sent via FedEx, had stayed in Wellington, rather than them sending them to Christchurch, and then back to Wellington. Spent some time training the Biomed Tech, and checking the 3 ATS units the hospital has. We got there at 0830, the parts arrived around 1000, and we were gone by 1100. Had an excellent dinner and lunch, and 2 nice flights – I DO LIKE FLYING! It was nice to get home tho.

Thursday morning I started my first rust-dyeing experiment, and with Becca’s help we wrapped vinegar and salt soaked fabric around the rusting pole of our mail box. Temperatures are averaging around 14-15 degrees C, so we’re going to leave it to “cook” for a week before we check it. I joined a Rust Dyeing group on Yahoo earlier in the week, and it looks like fun. Pictures to follow.

Saturday morning was Brother Club at Newsons, which included an Overlocking class – much more fun than the usual “sit and talk” meeting. Now I’ve got a fabric pack that I’m supposed to turn into a white frilly cushion cover – aaaarrrgh – so not my thing – with lace and ribbon and all. And then I thought ..... ooooohhhh – that could look really cool rust-dyed, and then over-dyed with lwi colour. We also got to see all the farmyard fabric challenge packs – it’s amazing what some women have made. One was a Victorian style doll, with net stockings, petticoated dress, bonnet etc; a couple of wall hangings; a barn held up by a tree; a placemat; cushion, cow and wheatie. I now know a lot more about my overlocker than I did before, but I still really only want it for the overlocking.

Saturday afternoon was shopping – groceries, Mitre 10 for STRAWBERRY Plants, garden mix, wire brush and water filters.
Saturday evening was the Weber Brothers Circus – “Shokarn – Acrobats of the Orient”. Very cool – I kept getting sidetracked watching the technical aspects – setting up nets, guy wires, the acrobats locking themselves into ribbons before swinging themselves around the ring. DB originally didn’t want to come, but in the end we all enjoyed ourselves very much.
Sunday – Hooray – I now have a six-plant Strawberry garden (planted in the garden mix in the Magik Garden), the worm farms’ tomato plants are in the waka, and the lavender plants are spread thru the other gardens. Nearly lost my pansy collection that was growing in pots – didn’t realise how dry they’d got, but they seem to be recovering.

DB has bashed one of the rusty frypans into submission – it’s as flat as it’s gonna get – and it’s now soaking in a salt/vinegar/water solution in a plastic bag, in a wheelbarrow in the garden, with a crushed dog food can. Rust on, my little petal, and you and I will dye together!

Also done the bathrooms, toilets, 2 loads of washing, gone to Mitre 10 for Slug & Snail bait – Quash Iron Cholate pellets, Spotlight for fabric, cleaned the fish tank, cooked dinner. Darn – didn’t do any baking!