HAPPY CHRISTMAS 2011

Thelma and Edna singing "Away in the Manger."

Happy Christmas and enjoy the holidays from Kowhai Corner residents.

Happy Holidays 2012

Yasmin and Pat are relaxing during the holidays and have put up a poster with some advice to all during the holidays.

Abigail and Peggy are playing with pet rats.

Tom and Joey have made an aeroplane from a balsam  wood kitset.  They cut out the pieces with a craft knife and glued the pieces together.  Darren has been an interested on looker during the process.   Tom has painted the under coat on and would like to paint it yellow.  Joey wants it to be grey and Darren wants it to be red!   What colour will they agree on?

Tricia received a soft toy Koloa for a Christmas present.

Annabelle and Tricia are playing with their soft toys.

Joey goes on a twilight hot air balloon ride.

Helping Hands Meeting December 2011

This is the last meeting of the year for the Hitty girls.   Yasmin tells the group that we call ourselves the Helping Hands Group but we haven’t helped any one this year.   Has anyone any ideas who we could help?   A discussion starts and a few ideas are mentioned.   The most popular idea is to offer to take the White sisters poodles for a walk. Those who are interested to do that are to meet at the hall on Saturday at 1.30 pm.  We will go together to the Whites sisters’ home.

On Saturday the Hitty girls arrive at the agreed time and go to the White sisters’ home.  When they arrive they see the sisters outside putting leads on the dogs so that the dogs are ready for the Hitty girls to take for a walk.
The White sisters are renowned for their high quality poodles at the shows they attend. They have been breeding poodles for decades. Thesisters are elderly and find exercising their dogs daily is very demanding.

The younger Miss White asks Thelma to post some letters for her and gives one to the dog to carry.

Abigail has chosen Goldie to walk and Alana will walk Bow.

Ethel likes the pink poodles and is having difficulty deciding which one to take for a walk.

Annabelle and Rachel have chosen to walk standard poodles.  Rachel chooses the one  begging in front of  her.

Tricia will also walk one of the standard poodles but he has other ideas and he starts running as soon as the lead is clipped onto his collar. 

 Tricia’s bonnet has blown off and the poodle keeps running ahead so she can’t stop to pick it up. She hopes someone will see it and pick it up for her.   

Thelma posts the letters that were given to her by Miss White. 

 On her way back to Miss White's house she sees something blowing in the wind.   The poodle also sees it also and pulls on the lead towards it, "Oh, it's a bonnet!" she exclaims and the poodle picks it up and carries it home.

Preparing to watch the Rugby World Cup 2011 Series

New Zealand is the host to the Rugby World Cup 2011 series.

  Tom, Darren and Joey look at the poster of The Webb Ellis Cup and hope New Zealands rugby team will win it.

 Steve and Harold are going to set up the hall for the “males only” to watch the series there.Their wives, Stephie, Daisy (John Sunshine's wife) and Brenda are cleaning out the hall and will stack the chairs so the men have room to set up the couch and bean chairs. Daisy discovered rat poo under a chair while she was sweeping the floor. Is there is a rat living nearby? she wonders.

The brothers, Steve and Harold Sunshine have loaded a couch, four bean chairs and a big screen T.V. onto the truck to take to Kowhai Corner Hall.

Suddenly, a green car tries to past them on the inside and ends up cutting the truck off. Steve puts the brake on as quick as he can but it is too late they have collided.They both get out of the truck and Steve looks at the damage to the front of the truck and can see a big crack.He looks at the green car and sees damage on the front and side but can’t see anyone in the car.That’s odd, he is thinking, where is the driver?

Harold yells out that the load is still secure on the truck and the T.V. is not broken. Penny his dog, on the truck starts barking and Steve’s dog joins in. They all look around but they still can’t find the driver to the green car.
Steve gets in the truck and starts the engine which starts okay so they continue driving to Kowhai Corner Hall.

The ladies have done a good job of cleaning and are ready for the men to carry in the load off the truck. Steve tells the ladies about the car accident and shows them the crack on the front of the truck.

 The boys, Joey, Tom and Darren have come and joined Steve, Harold and John Sunshine,Luke and Brian (the vet) to watch the first rugby test on the T.V. at Kowhai Corner Hall.  

Three weeks later… New Zealand is in the final game and tonight the men and boys have met  to watch the final game between France and New Zeland.  The score is 7 to 8 to New Zeland.  NEW ZEALAND HAS WON. They jump up at the end of the game yelling and cheering in excitement.  NEW ZEALAND HAS WON THE WORLD RUGBY SERIES 2011 and won the cup.They all leave the hall very happy.  Steve and Harold will come back tomorrow morning to take the furniture home.

Later that night when all is quiet in the hall two rats emerge and eat up any crumbs that are left!

 

Wooden Dolls

Left to right;  The Pennywood is 29 cm high and she came with a paper clothes pattern for the purchaser to make the clothes.  The second doll was made by R. E. Jeffreys, my uncle, in 1985 as a special request.  It came without a face so I painted the face on.  It is 29 cm high. The third doll is wearing a blue floral dress and bonnet and has a painted pink face and arms.  I brought it in 1985 undressed.  It is 28 cm high and I was told it was made by a lady in New Zealand.   The forth doll on the far right was made by my uncle in 1985 at the same time as the other wooden doll.  She also came without a face so I painted the face.   It is 26.5 cm high.

Mary Lou dolls.
 The doll on left has a cream head, which could have originally been white and is 17 cm from head to feet.   The one on right is 18 cm long from head to feet.  I also have one with a pink head.

 XV An Antique Peg Doll Looking Through A Miniature Rosewood Chest. This blank card has Ward Mason Hill Design 1996, made in New Zealand on the back.

The inscription underneath this picture reads; The wooden, jointed lady doing her wash is from “Baby’s Book of Rhymes and Pictures.”

Wooden Pull Along Toys

Thelma and Serene are looking at the wooden pull along toy display.

The first one they look at is an elephant.

Next is the big red and pink rabbit.

Serene gives the duck a cuddle.

Serene and Thelma sit down and play with the friendly dog.

Serene and Thelma climb on the Buzzy Bee Twirly Whirly to have a ride.   The  rabbit has no wheels so he can't pull them along.

The ladybird would give them a ride if she could fly, but she can't.

They can't climb on the turtle's back.  The turtle was made in 2010.

The grasshopper has strong back legs but his back is too narrow for them to sit on for a ride.

 

This is another friendly dog the girls can pat.

These dogs tell Thelma and Serene that there is only one more toy to see.

The last toy is a push along toy.   The drummer boy plays his drum when he is pushed along.

The China Cow Milk Jug

Serene is admiring the cow.

This is the other side of the cow.   The cow is made in Japan.

Pat and Edna are with another china cow milk jug which has a slightly different pattern on it.

This is the other side of the cow.

The Emperor Penguin

Ruby has been contacted to come and have a look at the Emperor penguin that has arrived on the Kapiti coast.

Ruby has a Bird Sanctuary where she looks after injured birds.  Some of the birds she has been involved in their rescue and other birds are brought to her with injuries. When they are well enough she returns them back to the area they were found or to a safe area. Ruby is training to be a vet.

Ruby travels to Kapiti coast to examine the penguin. On arrival she observes the penguin is eating sand. She wonders why this penguin is more than 3000kms from its home in Antarctica. Ruby rings Brian, the Vet, to get a second opinion on what to do. They agree to leave the penguin where it is over night and she will come back the next day to check on it.

The next morning Ruby observes that the penguin is lying down on the sand and looks quite weak as it struggles to stand when she walks over to it. Ruby decides to take the penguin to Brian so he can give it a health check.

Brian examines the penguin and can feel the sand in its stomach which is not natural because the penguin would normally be on snow and it would eat snow for hydration. Brain puts a tube down the throat of the penguin to try and drain out the sand. He is successful in getting a small amount of sand out.

They keep the penguin in overnight at Ruby’s Bird Sanctuary.  The next morning they notice the penguin  hasn’t improved so they operate to remove the sand still in its’ stomach. Ruby  assists Brian with the operation and removes more sand and some sticks from the penguins stomach.

The penguin improves each day in his enclosure which has snow on the floor. Annabelle offers the penguin a fish to eat. Annabelle has been a voluntary worker at the weekends at the Bird Sanctuary since Ruby came to a Hitty meeting to talk about what she does at the Bird Sanctuary. Rachel started helping at the weekends when she arrived at Kowhai Corner to live. Both Hitty girls love helping at the Bird Sanctuary.

Two weeks later the penguin is well enough to be returned to the Antarctic. Ruby invites Annabelle and Rachel to come with her to release the penguin back to where it has come from.

The penguin can see out of the holes in its carry cage and starts flapping his wings in excitment as they approach the area he is from. Ruby opens the carry cage and the penguin dives into the water and swims to the snow covered coast. The penguin is happy to be reunited to the flock. The girls are pleased too, but a bit sad because they have spent a lot of time with him. It is too cold to linger so Ruby turns the boat around and heads towards home.