Samoa in Pictures

Right I finally have a bit of time to catch up on things!

Well I don't really, but I'm going to squeeze it in

 

As you know, my husband and I went on holiday to Samoa

 

It was amazing, the sand, beach, fish, diving, snorkling, swimming

 

No so much the food....

 

So here's my holdiday in pictures

 

We stayed in Beach Fales (Fales = House in Samoan)

 

 

 

The water was RIGHT THERE!

 

 

And soooo warm

 

With friendly sand fish

 

 

 

The first thing we did was go snorkling at a marine reserve

I got badly sunburned

 

 

JJ taught me how to free dive

 

 

 

We saw so many different types of fish, it was hard to get a picture of all of them because they run away when you motor after them shoving a camera in their face

 

Except for the black/brown fish in the first picture (to the left of the black/white one)

He attacked!

I think he was guarding his nest. JJ's watch was bitten a few times (being black) and on the elbow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw some amazing coral

 

 

The sights in the main city were interesting

 

These buses painted in every colour you can imagine were everywhere

 

 

We went to the Apia markets

 

 

This is just one of the many many many churches in the country

 

 

This one wasnt anything special to look at but it had a moat!

 

 

 While we were driving around, we saw a LOT of coconut trees

 

 

So it only makes sense that we would see piles of coconuts

 

 

And people sitting in the back of trucks

 

 

The police didn't seem to notice....

 

We went to as many non-water related attrations as we could too

 

I call this the bridge of doom

 

 

It was HIGH

I didn't want to do it. I got up six steps before I cried, threw a tantrum and put on my sad face which unfortunatly JJ managed to get pics of!

In the end, husband put himself on the step below me and I couldn't get back down past him so the only way down was up and across

 

We went to a museum, looked in the door and decided pictures of ourselves outside were more interesting

 

 

But most of the things to do involved the water. Including this Ocean Trench

Which is pretty much a hole in the ground with water from the ocean swirling in and out

 

 

We went to the south side of Upolu where the tsunami hit years ago

 

The coral is still damaged, and the reef fish are nervous

 

See them in the photo? No? Exactly

 

 

One of the highlights of the trip for me was the super warm 29 degrees celcius water meaning that I could go scuba diving without getting cold

 

Yeah!!!

 

 

We found Nemo

 



 

 

And ninja Turltes!

(sorry the photo didn't turn out very good)

 

 

Would I recommend Samoa?

 

YES!!!

 

 

There are tons more photos but I've already added 30+ photos and thats almost enough

 

If you ever get the chance - go to Samoa!

 

 



Howdy Doody

Its been a while hasn't it?

 

I have no motivation to blog and for a while I thought I might give up

 

But I've decided not to

 

As I sit reading other blogs, from people who post every week (or several times a week) I've felt like I don't acheive anything blog-worthy

 

Where do people find the time to do all that baking/crafting/running around after children?

 

Then I realise, I've taken out the baking and children and have only been crafting (that and I don't have children!)

 

I also realised, that while everyone blogged for the past month, I've been out at the beach in my cheap beach house (my caravan) relaxing. Now that is doing something useful!

 

I then picked out all my projects from crafting that I've made since I last blogged (about crafting). There's been quite a few items appear

 

A Cowl -pattern here

 

Another Cowl here

 

I loved this one so much I made it twice



 

 

I then made this cute Cardigan for an expecting mummy

The pattern was in a magazine

I then found out that I made the cardigan a bit too short in the body so I said I would make something else

 

So I made this little vest

and broke the first rule of knitting, I didn't measure my gage

I knit too tightly/small and should have used bigger needles

Now this 6 month size vest has become a newborn size

 

To top it off, I can't find the vest to give it away

I put it somewhere, came back from holiday and its gone

My secret 'it'll be safe here' place has betrayed me

 

While on holiday, I started and finished one sock

The pattern is in the book Knitting Rules by Stephanie Pearl McPhee

 

It was  an easy pattern to follow

I forgot... again... to use bigger needles and now the sock won't fit me

I'm still going to make another one

The pair will make a good present for someone, once I find someone who has smaller feet than me

 

I've now started on this 'Miss Jane' cardigan for myself

I found a problem with it last night and will have to frog it back past the mistake

It makes me want to cry

 

Now since you've probably noticed, I've said I was camping

 

I went to Whananaki

This is the view from our campsite

 

We went fishing at 5am 

 

I caught a big snapper

 

We were circled by a shark

 

Then we went diving

This is JJ

I caught a crayfish

 

There are certain rules when catching these things

The females have to be smaller than males

I caught a female and it was only just too small!

 

It was a great holiday with lots of sun and warmth

 

Last of all, I learned a bit of beekeeping

We had one day at home before going back to work and my afternoon was full of excitement

 

I put on the beekeeping clothes

 

 

I got stuck to them in about five minutes

Especially wearing socks and gumboots

 

Its very very hot here

 

JJ's Grandad showed me what to do and we were away

First we pulled out the frames and put them into the bottom of the bigger box

 

As we did, we hunted for the queen

 

She was hiding and it wasn't until the last frame that we found her

 

I kept pointing to the drones

 

Random bee fact #1 = The Queen does not have black stripes

 

The photo is blurry (bees do not sit still)

The queen is in the bottom half of the photo, she's to the right hand side and is dark orange compared to the rest of the bees. One of the drones is on the top right side of the pic, he's big

 

We then made sure the queen was in the bottom box, put the queen filter on it and put a second box on top (this is so she can't lay bee grubs in your eating honey)

 

I've been told that bees can fill the top box within a few weeks if the weather is good

 

I'm looking forward to learning how to get the honey out of the box and buying my own bee equipment

Its expensive so it looks like I'll be saving up for a while!

 

And now, that I've put everything down like this I do feel as I've acomplished something

 

I've made six big or complicated knitting/crochet patterns (for my skill level) and started another even larger item

 

I went on holiday with a husband who is an 'active' relaxer

Me? I'm a sit on my bum and do nothing relaxer

 

I learned how to move bees from a small beginner hive to a large hive

 

Wow!

 

What have you been up to?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos and Craziness

I usually update my posts in my lunch break or before work, or sometime where I have access to my photos and the internet

Well that just hasn't happened for weeks!

I got a new computer at work that won't let me use the new blogger template or upload photos

Then Husband got an iPad, that thing won't let me upload photos

My iPhone won't let me upload photos

I'm stuck

So here I am, at home working on some slippers ( which are supposed to have car racing stripes, we'll get to that another day ) when all I want to do is share my finished ripple blanket with the world!

And what do you know, I go to the computer, I log in and stupid iPhoto says 'upgrade or die!!!'

Okay I'm lying, it says 'quit or upgrade' 

Now I can't share my photos, have 855 incoming messages and I'm really loosing my patience

So here are some pics that I have been able to access:

Here's my latest diving adventure, we went to the Tutukaka coast, to look for crayfish.

We found one, he was too small

I would have a picture of it, but I let go of the camera and it floated away

Later, while eating lunch in the boat, Husband saw it floating by! Hurrah!!

This is me, at 16 meters deep ( 52 feet )

Here's Husband and I - hows this for a couples shot??? 

And here's the ugly blanket I repaired for someone

Now, before you say anything, I was asked: 

''could you please fix this ugly blanket for me?" 

While I was working on the brown blanket repairing holes and praying I wouldn't break the already thin, very old and worn wool, Husband was setting up the new TV bracket

Miss Holly found the box it came in

And made herself at home

Once my photos are working, I'll be putting up pics of my Ripple Blanket!!!