We both apparently needed a rest day after our touring. Started out exciting though – Marge knocked at my door to say there was a mother Pukeko with some chicks in the yard – and there were! Very nice seeing the younger birds with the quite recognizable adult.

Marge then did some gardening and other bits of chores towards future endeavors. I looked at books on penguins and other interesting stuff. We had a nice lunch – mmmm smoked chicken sandwich with a glass o’IPA on the side. Not bad at all. And yes, please, a nice slice o’fruitcake for dessert.

Tonight we had dinner with Helen Marshall who not only fed us very well but then showed two quilts she was working on. And of course, there were beautiful quilts on the walls as well. I think Helen and I met at the Vermont Quilt Festival which would have been years ago – we were pretty sure we’d met somewhere along the line. Had a great visit and I enjoyed seeing her gardens and in a tree outside a group of tui were eating berries – fun to watch as we sat chatting.

Then home where the internet provided answers to questions like “american vs nz possums” (not at all related although both marsupial and the latter named for their resemblence to the former which are technically known as opossums. One of the two wiki entries added:

The name derives from their resemblance to the opossums of the Americas (the name is from Algonquian wapathemwa, not Greek or Latin, so the plural is possums, not possa).

While we were quizzing the internet we looked up a bunch of quilters and looked at what they had done or were doing or were teaching and a bit about authors and now it’s time for some sleep to get ready for tomorrow which promises a museum, some lunch and dinner with some of the family.

This isn’t today’s lunch but yesterday’s dinner, tasty salad with flowers from the garden. (bonus photo of a set of quotes from the paper)