Lennox Head and Grassy Head

Had a lovely nine days in northern NSW catching up with Jane and Nicola and Rita and Sandy - ir's been too long!

Beach walks, thunder storm, country drives, cafes, bit of shopping, sight seeing, dinners - great catch up.

Dog library renovated

 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.

After the storm

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:

Dining room bench, a reno retro fit

 In she goes.

More seating at the end of the table and a couple of useful side areas. A Mish production. 

Can't have too much yellow

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.

We trailered in 2 cubic metres of lovely mulch yesterday - much shovelling, at least it was light. Getting ready for summer, so we need more.

And lining the drive, the yellow rose is putting on a good show.

The monster oven

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.

Wind and rain

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.

And a circuit back to the car through Queen Elizabeth Park.

Christmas cake

First one of the season,.

1.5kg of fruit. Stand back.

Beach moment

 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.

City moment

We had a nice moment in the city a few days ago, knocking off some CBD jobs. There was book purchasing of course. We'd settled in on the verandah to check out the booty and Robynne and Diana arrived, so we got photographed. 

And there's Janey's moose that we lugged over the Tasman and Mish spruced up. Moose is quite at home here and is a nice memory for Mish.

French cafe La Cloche on the way home from the city. Busy as, which is nice to see. We've lost too many good cafes and restaurants in the last five years.

Sprucing up the girls

 Mish's metal sculptures in the garden getting a jewellery makeover.

Bedroom view

 Watering the veg on a windy morn. Mish still in bed!

Bathroom views

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.

And here it is in the hallway, not backwards.

 

Mish in her studio

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!

Seen here doing an online course in nuno felting - painting silk and merging the silk work and wool together into a felted piece.

There will be felting.

Janey's memorial

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.

Janey's youngest: Tom and Claire.

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.

We gave it a good shot and then called the pros. 

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.

Both had glass and Mish spent hours indulging her passion for packing. We carried them in the hire car to the airport, dropped them at our airport hotel, dropped the car off miles away and headed back to the airport for the night before our morning flight home.

It worked. 

Unpacking at home, and all is ticketty boo.

Walk to Red Rocks

 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).

Box Brownie images are in

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.

DYI asphalting

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.

Box Brownie adventure begins

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. 

Waikanae River cycle

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.

Weekend in Whanganui

Ran away up north a couple of hours to the Whanganui River for three days. Stayed in an old railway signal box that has been relocated and refurbished and placed on a river bend. Cute as. Windy as blazes the first night and the windows are original so it leaked cold air and cracked and creaked. It kept the rain and hail out though. 

All part of a signal box adventure.

We were on acreage and saw nobody, only the owner's chickens and two kune kune pigs. The word 'kune' in te reo means fat and round. They're a sociable domestic pig so they came over to say hello.

Wandered some of Whanganui's art galleries and second hand shops and cafes. Drove up river for a looksee and then down river to the beach.

Not many bridges over the river but here's one - a footbridge.

And its infrared shadow. The river was a major thoroughfare for Maori and early white settlers. There's so much history along here that the river has special status and is legally a person.

Both roads alongside the river are a bit dicey in places - I wouldn't do 100kph at this point.  Crazy.

 

We headed inland down dirt roads about 20km to visit Paloma, a large private succulent/palm garden. Extremely impressive, says Mish. We had a pleasant stroll around there, apart from getting dive bombed by a magpie and stepping over a dead lamb. Spring in the countryside!

Walking through the bamboo grove (with airy artworks).

Admiring the size of a giant aloe with flower spike.

Full moon rising over the river was simply gorgeous. This is the view from the signal box through trees with car headlights on the other side of the river on the Whanganui-Taupo road.

On the northern beaches

After Janey's funeral we spent a few days on the northern beaches. Janey spent a lot of time at the Bilgola Beach cafe, right on this beautiful small bay. It was a cool sunny day, not many people around, when we  did the same in her honour. 

Carol and Sally at the cafe.

Then Carol jumped in the sea pool for a cold dip - which Janey would not have done haha.

Later, Whale Beach sea pool (in underwear that day - no-one around). About 5 degrees warmer than Bilgola sea pool which was interesting as they are so close.

Newport Beach with Sally.

Mish and Sally took a walk at Bobbin Head.

It was all restorative.