Our pohutukawa is an early flowerer this year, while the plum tree is running late.
She's been going mad with garden lighting.
Marina and Olaf came to stay, so we took them for a drive.
A slow day driving to New Plymouth via Foxton estuary to catch a glimpse of the godwits. And there were a few, feeding madly to bulk up before their long flight back to Alaska in autumn.
Mish found us a great house in NP - sea view on one side, Mt Taranaki on the other.
The Three Sisters bar on NP's main drag.
Then a drive across the island to Taupo along the green and scenic Forgotten World highway.
And home along SH1 and the Desert Road past the three mountains hidden in low cloud.
Mish and Marina making grain crackers. Delicious.
Strolling Zealandia. They saw NZ's smallest bird, the elusive rifleman!
The felting has resumed.
The artwork so far:
The broad bean harvest. They took a real beating in spring winds, even breaking the plants and that's unusual.
On our last trip to Australia we discovered the yumminess of smoky olives. So, down to the BBQ shop and back with a wee smoking kit.
Delicious.
Had a lovely nine days in northern NSW catching up with Jane and Nicola and Rita and Sandy - ir's been too long!
It was looking a bit shabby after a couple of years. So, fresh coat of paint, new wording and artwork, new dog on top, with a stick holder added for stick selection, and she's back in place.
Phew, we had a doozy of a national storm yesterday. Rock and roll in the South Island and very high winds up to the mid North Island. Trees down, rooves peeling off, trucks blown over. Minimal damage at our place but it would have been very exciting at our last house in exposed Newlands. Max wind speed was recorded top of the South Island in Marlborough: 232kph.
Today, totally different. The sun is warm, the sky is blue and the washing is drying in a light breeze.
Mish has gone to yoga and I've been for a walk on the beach. The wind has churned our shallow sea so it's a reddish brown jumble of sand and surf and seaweed.
Our beach access steps:
In she goes.
The summer daisies are everywhere in the yard. They completely disappear over winter and then whooshka! They are back in force. We differ on how many daisy weeds are a good thing. I am currently winning the meadow argument but Mish is charging the mower battery as I type this.
The two spindly grevillea and the little magnolia stood up to some ferocious spring winds and are growing well. The little ginkgo is still a stick but it has leaves now and is hanging in there.
Mish struggling to fit the sliding rails in the monster oven. The door is so big it's good to be able to slide the trays right out of the oven to take dishes out safely. It's been quite a drama going all the way back to ordering them.
Well, the buggers are finally in.
Spring weather.
Beach walk today was a tad breezy, but we made it without getting rained on. Sea all churned up. But 17 degrees out so not too cold.
Stormy seas and plenty of spume up at Te Horo beach today, weather coming in from the south west. It's cool but warmer temps are on the way from the Australian outback.
Had to hose the car off when I got home.
One of the packages we brought back from Sydney was a Robertson landscape. Janey bought it when she was staying with us years ago and now it hangs in our bathroom/hall area.
It looks great there!
One side benefit is that it can be admired (backwards) in the vanity mirror when you're sitting on the loo.
The last time Mish was surrounded by her wool and her felting books was when she had her studio in Wellington city, and that's going back...five years.
A milestone today!
After a great deal of prep (Mish and Peter) we held a memorial for Janey in Avalon at Janey and Peter's house in Avalon.
Mish, Peter, and Jason sharing Janey memories and moments.
The weather was perfect (after flash flooding during the week), the caterers did a fab job, the AV worked, and the 80-odd family and friends milled about and fitted into the place just fine. A few laughs and a few tears and Janey would have been happy we think.
Mish, Jase and Carol stuck around and helped Peter do a few things. Like tackling the jammed gate.
Had a couple of sea pool swims - even Mish went in once at Bilgola - and some delicious meals. But it was a pretty quiet time and it was nice for the four of us just to hang out.
Mish and Jason packing a couple of Janey gifts.
At the bottom of the North Island there are a few winter seal colonies. The males haul up for a rest, safe from the local population of orca. It's a flat 3.5km walk from the car park and we went on a sunny late winter day with a picnic.
Cook Strait with a ferry coming to Wellington and the Kaikoura Mts in the South Island. Destination Red Rocks on the right.
Plenty of chunky seals hanging out on the rocks.
We were both limping along with various ailments but we were doing ok until both my soles began to peel off on the way back. Made it back to the car with a teensy bit connecting on each boot. Another reason to travel with a roll of 100mph tape (and a couple of cable ties).
Surprisingly, no light leakage and pretty good lens action for an 80 year old camera. Somehow I only managed six images. The roll should do eight. Expensive: about $25 for the roll and $30 for the developing. I knew I had mucked up the winding on to begin but the little numbers were a loooong time appearing in the little red circle. Manual ops! Next time I shall be a tad more savvy.
Photos aren't much composition wise, but the detail and exposure are dandy. There are definite arty possibilities here, and it's fun to go low tech.
Here's the veg boxes and the island on a grey day. The weird stick is our ginkgo.
It was a gloomy day, which was just right for black and white. This is our track to the beach.
Our long driveway is uphill and potholed and patched with asphalt from past years. A year of trucks and big vehicles and workers coming and going in 2024 made it pretty rugged in parts. To hold it so it stays driveable we bought some heavy and expensive bags of asphalt and gave it a go.
Easy! Having an excellent product helped. We pushed the mix into dips with a bit of old wood (still plenty of that lying around), and drove over the repairs a few times and Bob's your uncle, done.
My first camera was the good old Kodak Box Brownie. That camera from dad is long gone, so I bought a couple online to have a play. You can't buy the 620 film any more, but you can buy 120 film and hack the canister and the loading to fit the Brownie.
One camera cleaned up nicely, the other I have buggered trying to take it apart. So here's the good one, a Box Brownie D, getting its first run. No idea how the 8 expensive images are going to turn out but the film is now being developed in the city. What fun using an old camera again and loading and unloading film in the dark. The skills are not forgotten.
Just a short 20km cycle up a cycle path by the expressway to the Waikanae River and a sunny winter picnic by the river. Then onto a different cycle path to the beach for an estuary check - but not many birds around at the moment.
