Can't have too much yellow in a garden

The view from the linkway between old and new buildings.

 

The bumble bees like it.

A late evening walk on Raumati Beach

About 8:30pm on a summer evening, before sunset but lots of cloud about. Low tide and a stroll along along the beach after dinner. A few people about and a woman offered to take our photo. It was warmer than it looks.

Making bread

A coolish summer day, with rain. The German sourdough rye bread mix from the Barossa Valley and, while still warm,  a thick spread of  Everything Butter. It doesn't get much better on a Saturday afternoon. 

Birds about, bathing and nesting and being birds

 The bubbling water feature is popular, summer and winter. This is a young blackbird enthusiastically diving in, with a sparrow waiting for a turn and a blackbird on the ground.

Paddling and posing. I'm watching from the bean bag on the deck.

They're all still nest building around the yard, but the blackbirds and sparrows and silvereyes at the front door have fledged. Those big babies are being fed, tweet tweet. We lay it on - there are seven bird baths around the house and the sparrows love a good dust bath in sandy patches. They have to find their own food in summer though. The pears are coming on so that fruit will take a beating. The plums and peaches are not so attractive, lucky for us. 

Meanwhile, when we filled up a bottle at the milk kiosk in Te Horo, we noticed this high private nest. Sparrows coming and going.

Happy New Year!

Christmas and new year, done and dusted. We had a fairly quiet one, Christmas lunch with the family and new year's eve with friends - home by midnight haha.

Jason came over from Hobart and we pretty much just hung out around here and Wellington for the couple of weeks over the silly season.  Jase hired a bike and we cycled to Paekakariki, he went to the top of Paekakariki hill. 

Working on something...

Had a short trip over to Martinborough for a night and did the Patuna Farm chasm walk. That's a dusty ride on a troop carrier across paddocks to the start of a 3 hour walk: a steep uphill climb  through trees, then down to the river and along in the water through limestone rocks and lovely scenery. We had to wade chest height at one stage, clamber along the side of a cliff using ropes, down a ladder and uphill back to the pick up point. It was a hot day so walking in the river was nice. Slippery, but the poles did a great job for balance.

Plum picking

 

Plum time!

The plum tree is loaded and they're coming on fast. It's a lovely time of year.  Plums appear in spring and those tiny green bumps mostly hang on in the spring winds. They slowly get bigger and then a red tinge appears on the highest plums and one day they're edible. Aint nature grand!

Jam making in the near future and plenty for everyone who drops in with a bucket.

We have a beat up old lemon tree beside the plum. The trees are entwined and the small lemon has improved in health and fruit quality every year with some TLC.

The view from the living room.

Summer making a slow arrival

Our pohutukawa is an early flowerer this year, while the plum tree is running late. 

Mish decided she wanted a pomegranate, and here it is going in.

She's been going mad with garden lighting.

The birds are nesting all over the place, especially at the front door. We now have two blackbird nests, a silvereye nest, and a sparrow nest at various places around the deck. Much tweeting.

Road trip to New Plymouth and Taupo

 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.

Having a swim in the chilly Waikato River, finding some warm thermal bits around the edges and not going out further out as she's a swiftie and you'd be last seen going over Huka Falls.

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!

Michelle's morning shave

The felting has resumed.

Mish is making a vessel in an online course. It has a silk painting component with nuno felting - so merging silk and felt. The shaving gently removes wool fibres to reveal the silk.

The artwork so far:

Broad beans and olives

The broad bean harvest. They took a real beating in spring winds, even breaking the plants and that's unusual.

After a quick boil and a de-skin it's surprising how little remains to eat. But they are delicious.

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.

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.