Carol and Mischa in New Zealand

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Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Christmas is coming

The second Christmas cake. Brandy soaked fruit and lots of spices.

Mmmm mmm.

Posted by Carol and Mischa at 7:57 PM

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Magnolia, Mish and Bo (sister Arlene's dog we're minding for a few days)

Driveway rose - who would have thought we'd encourage a rose in the garden?!

Poppies popping

Lavender and clematis

Crab apple blossoms

Pukekura Park New Plymouth

Oven christening - a loaf of bread and in she goes

Immersive wind artwork. Wind going in all directions here, and multiple speeds and temperatures

Botanic gardens walk - striking red bromeliad

Front door water feature.

Grasses have grown well. New window frames stacked up on the deck.

Grainy Kapiti Island

Mt Ruapehu ice sculpture

Bars of ice fallen off the wire

Tokaanu thermal area

Steaming pool

Mana Island from Raumati beach

Winter morning

Builder's van outside the kitchen window

Peka Peka beach

Peka Peka shell

Half the crop from our little plum tree

Next to the big tree and coming on several weeks later: an omega plum

Plum's travelling kennel (aka the car)

Installing a stencilled sign for couriers

Sunflower time - grew a good crop, all from seeds saved from the last two years

Sorting glasses collection into something that works.

I now have a trifocal implant in one eye so no prescription for that, but a new reading prescription needed for the the other one. Done!

Meadow bits all over the back yard

Poppies do pop up everywhere; Mish planted cornflowers; and here's her nicked bit of Blenheim orange

Zooming around the velodrome, sort of

New Plymouth cycle

Heading home

End of the working day

Crab apple in spring

Beach house stained glass window

Tohora - sculpture at Paraparaumu Beach

A traditional pattern depicting whale journeys off the Kapiti coast with whale singing sound effects

Picking up milk from one of the local farm's kiosks.

A2 and lovely and cold in glass bottles we fill ourselves, from cows milked that day.

Plum with stitches and cone of shame

Because, while we were in Rarotonga, she was in one of the local kennels, breaking out of her pen and getting onto the roof and cutting her leg pretty deeply

The little Olympus point and shoot works well in the water

Get in

Rarotongan beer: a bit bland but refreshing

The darts team behind are having a singalong in happy hour

Coconuts as mulch

Who's on the bed AGAIN?!

Felted Deefa dog by Mish

Dog library!

We found a roughly made box dumped by the road - perfect.

Dog collar picked up on Te Horo beach

Tag says 'Tasman' - that's the top of the South Island, way over there beyond Kapiti Island about 100km. Expiry date is 2012 - wonder where it has travelled in the last 11 years

Mish explaining what her new kitchen will look like to Janey and Peter

Flax seedlings

Thinning them out. My plan is to grow them a lot more and plant them on our park side bank. Guerilla style.

Surf clam

Dog run just delivered

Plum began to unpack...

Work ready

Landscapers left the little digger in the yard over the weekend

Weta

Took some of the grape netting off and there's a nice big weta sitting on the old fence. They prefer a darker spot so it took off soon after being uncovered. It was about 6cm long in the body and same again for the feelers

Getting the juice out of a coconut

Send help! Trapped in a vice!

Cinnamon scrolls

Down the beach

Playing with some other dog's ball (we have several of those)

Bonsai shelving under construction

More plum goodness - plum paste

The end of the long process of roasting and boiling, pouring into cupcake things to set

Up in the plum tree

Summer pruning after harvest

Mish going in

Summer!

Plum

Pears are on the way

View from the living room

Plum tree laden and kangaroo paw in full bloom

Covid

Lismore

North coast NSW hinterland drive

Jacaranda in a paddock

Ballina air B&B

Table full of meds (and some berries)

Carol and Jane in aqua

Ballina air B&B

Mish with Covid. laying low in a nice place

Water dragon

Ballina's south wall

University of Newcastle

Quirky

View from our room at the Briars, Southern Highlands

Sydney Opera House

Walking back to Circular Quay through the botanical gardens

The Coal Loader

Strolling the local history at Waverton

Sydney airport on the way home

Traditional airport fare for Mish: wine and a bag of chips

River rock goodness on a curved corner

Front yard

Looking past the crab apple yet to blossom (October 3) to the detached gate

Landscaper's dog and Carol

Watching the big stump and clump of grass come out of the far corner. So much easier by machine.

Breakfast spot

Eating granola and watching the birds in the front yard

Plum tree

First blossoms coming out September

Beach daisies Raumati

Grainy sunset from Raumati beach, wet weather over the South Island

Brass quartet at Classical on Cuba

Sunday on the waterfront, strolling the fruit and veg and food vans

Sunday on the waterfront, a waka (canoe) practice

Making a very smooth turn

Jase concrete block shifting using Reid leverage knowledge and equipment

Book sorting (can't be done without reading)

Our new dining table

Wrapped and loaded in the van we hired for Mish and Jason to go to Waitara (just north of New Plymouth) and pick it up from the maker.

Beach scene, shell snuggling

Thank you flowers for a volunteer editing job.

Nice to still be useful in the world of work. Don't have to get dressed up for it either.

Poplars across the park

Looking west at sunset: View from the house

Collapse hazard at Christchurch cathedral. But, all will be well.

Lyttleton. Our car on the left.

Artwork on buildings to show what was there

Autumn in Christchurch

Olives! Yum yum.

Rainy afternoon walk on the beach

Bluebottle looking like Nessie

Lots of big ones on the beach this grey afternoon, more than we've ever seen. Had a careful paddle.

Weed flower in the middle of the driveway

Bush wattle

Holding the old fire/new letterbox in place at the bottom of the drive while Mish was getting another tool, looked up to see a fantail zooming around. Missed the bird but here's the wattle leaves.

Cycling along the Waikanae River. A picnic spot near us.

Mish in Napier Timezone about to be thrashed in air hockey

Napier walk with sequoia

Surf clams Raumati low tide

Loads of triangular trough clams and one backlit coarse dosinia clam

Toetoe at a roadside stop coming home from Napier

Blowing on bbq corn, straight out of the garden. Time for a haircut I think.

Given all the love and water and compost they had, it's a pathetic harvest.

Pecked through the netting

Olearia bark on the Nikau Valley walk

Native greenery on the Nikau Valley walk

First fig, way ahead of the others (which explains why it didn't taste so good)

Seaweed, driftwood, jellyfish, stones.

Typical NZ beach.

Rain walk

Loving the little waterproof camera, out in all weathers

Waikanae Pool

Just me in the rain, taken from the spa pool.

NZ native pigeon, kereru. Big body tiny head. Flax flowers in the background.

Off the verandah of our Christmas Day shack, 2021

Albatross above Taiaroa Head, Dunedin

Northern albatross just landed beside the boat off Taiaroa Head

Many one lane bridges throughout the South Island

Stoker shovelling coal in on the Earnslaw. Artistically blurry!

Afternoon light across Lake Hawea from our campsite

Franz Josef glacier terminal

Our beach: the sea is so warm

Got my watersports shoes on. Crabs! Been nipped a few times so they won't get me again.

Our pohutukawa tree from the study in December. NZ's Christmas tree.

One special bag

It's a linen bag from a hospital. It's been a family green waste bag as long as I can remember, but I only just found out how long. It was left behind by the couple mum and dad bought the service station from in 1960. It's 60 years old! Mum was still using it, but it's just ripped and this is it going into the car for its last ride.

Feet up on the deck, with our cheap sunshade working well in the afternoon

City cafe stop opposite Michelle's studio

Mana Island on a rainy day

Infrared or reverse processed or something (arty farty)

In Nga Manu Nature Reserve, a bee on a large kanuka (ti tree)

Mish over the fence pruning a big old buddleia jammed in between two camellia

The mysterious purple flower

Update: it's a Peruvian lily

Olde world yellow rose

Plum blossom

Black backed gull skimming the waves

At the boat ramp

About a kilometre down the beach

Playground at the boat ramp after rain

We've had a bit of rain

Looking back at our place and the other end of the park on the left

One pine tree that will give us actual pine nuts. In about 6-8 years.

Go baby!

A little front door graphic left by previous owners.

Now we're coming out of another national lockdown, it still holds.

Loving the fire in Dawson Falls Lodge

Downloading some very creamy A2 milk from a local dairy's roadside kiosk

Two men and a digger moving a couple of big camellias and some small ones from the driveway.

First big one coming out

Up the driveway, upside down.

Three small camellia going into the corner

Five left-handed gloves.

Right-handed ones nowhere to be found.

First strelitzia flowering beside the veranda

Two dual citizens watching the Olympics

Buderim ginger (Australia) and Whittaker's chocolate (NZ) in a Japanese bowl

One big daffy blooming in Gramma's old jam making pot

Kitchen view

Cooler weather flowers coming on. Feijoa still falling from trees around the house

Beach plastic

Little blue penguins!

Haven't seen any yet

Green lipped mussel

Silvereye in the fig tree

Mish netted a big branch of the neighbour's tree and we harvested heaps of figs

What the birds didn't get

Cycle track beside Kapiti airport

Little planes and helicopters use this one

Tiny mussels, jammed in rocks at the steps down to the beach - waiting for high tide

Leaf on beach, late afternoon

Found object: grapes on the beach

Lighting the first fire, autumn 2021

View from the surf #1

View from the surf #2

Fish eye gull

Kapiti Island

Window sealing goes on. Just the middle one.

Southern Black Backed gull, floating in the rain

Cheesy pair beach walking in the rain

Looking south to Wellington and Mana Island

The high tide walkway

At Newlands we had...hmmm...maybe three or four bbqs in ten years.

But now, we have a much more salubrious area to hang out in. Out comes the bbq.

Brand new chimney, all set for fires again!

Gold card ride on the bus into the city from Island Bay

Free!

A classic Reid image. Measuring and designing and not out of dressing gown

Hedge trim

A Canadian Club moment with empty boxes

Mish tucking in at Martinborough

Birthday breakfast

Earthquake works from the last big shake

Town Hall & civic building bracing

Front door

One of our big stick insects, missing a leg

Back door

Blackbird nest just outside the door. But they decided it was a bit close and have abandoned it

Mish on the ferry

Nelson city hammock

Black beech in Pukekura Park, New Plymouth

Ferns in steam

Thermal colours

Orakei Korako

Yellow pokers by the back deck with a silvereye tucking in

Painting our bedroom window frames

Watercolour ink making using rhubarb leaves

We could only walk in our local area

Our walk up Ngauranga Gorge with perfectly timed ambulance. Like a ghost freeway.

Anzac poppy in progress

My bestest sourdough loaf ever (said Mish)

Oops.

Haircuts for everybody!

Carol's study set up for Zoom conferencing in her writing course.

Looking out at the veg garden and the blackbirds nicking tomatoes.

Working in the kitchen too

Cruising by the new seal pup hangout

Summer wildflowers in the Snowies

Top of the Thredbo chairlift, mountain bikers jumping off

Candle heath, Snowy Mts

Little skink out the back door at Castle Hill

Palms reflected in pool; smokey afternoon

Zealandia track

Sneaky vine

Brooklyn wind turbine from the top of Zealandia

Wellington's first wind turbine, now we have loads across the western hills

Walkway to Red Rocks

Chicago River, busy waterway

Sue!

View from hotel upper west side, one rainy morning

Waterworks outside the Met

Subway. MIsh, queen of the transport apps

On the High Line

Staten Island ferry from the Hudson River walk

Vancouver

Tulip shadow in the kitchen

Gorse flowers

Daphne in full winter flower and smelling fab

Wee cauliflowers in there; broad beans behind wind shield

Petone pier and an old wharf, looking out to the harbour entrance

Under Petone pier

Peach chutney mmm mmm

Golden queen peaches, the best! Bought a box online from orchard country, Hawkes Bay

Knocking off a writing assignment before Easter 2019

Kitchen table to myself; Mish in Sydney

Down the garden path at back of house. Mischa's hydrangea plantings also going very well.

Mish at an Indian restaurant in Newtown

Looked at this wall for some time, thinking what the hell are they - happy slugs? Then Mish turned around and said: they're chillies. Oh. Yeah.

Serious cumulus action behind Mt Kaukau tv tower

In a park I cycle through on the way to work

Yellow pohutukawa

New seat!

Macrocarpa, already christened with after work gin and tonics

It's been snowing down south. A little cold blast before summer

Tapuae-o-uenuku in the Kaikouras across Cook Strait. View from the living room in morning sun.

Unloading at Cliff and Annie's new place. A pause in proceedings.

Mish photographing koi underwater

Castle Hill

Freesia

One of the lost bulbs (see post on garden works)

Swans and cygnets

Waiwhetu Stream, near work

One of the big gulls

Daffodils in Gramma's old jam making pot

The view to the south

Massive earth moving going as that hill disappears

Fishing on the beach at Grassy Head

Sandy, Rita, and Carol catching nuttin' and having a picnic instead

The Gumnut Babies; story projected onto the Customhouse Building, Circular Quay - Vivid Sydney

City view from Opera House

Where we had a drink and watched the lights - Vivid

The royal wedding

Sal, Mish, Gillian, and John (we'll just watch a bit of it...)

MONA forecourt

Metal sculpture concrete truck

New Holland honeyeater

Doctored by Mish in Photoshop to blur background

Playing in one of the bird baths

Spot the hedgehog

Pohutakawa

Pohutakawa flowers

... and a bee

Ponga tree ferns

Mexican dinner with wine and tequila

Swing bridge on the Routeburn

Mish at work: Let's cut holes in this wall

Living room wall; first cut in the plan to open up sections of the wall between studs and dwangs and build arty boxes in there

Thrush nest in mum's bay tree

Abandoned. Two beautiful speckled blue eggs in a deep nest

Chimney demolition

Old roof going after that

Old building stuff; reverse processed

In Bushy Park

Baby stick insect heading up the house in the late afternoon

Tapestry by Peruvian master weaver Maximo Laura

Exhibition near us, and we took mum for lunch too.

A mini slip

This is typical Wellington rotten rock, a greywacke. We've had hundreds of slips in Wellington over the last couple of months, from this size (a square metre) to highway blockers.

Window memories

Now just a leaking memory

Waterfront art

Gannets

Low cloud moving through

Looking west from the kitchen, across the valley

Getting a coffee on Oriental Bay

Contrasting outfits

Tonight's southerly, breezy but not too bad

Check out windy.com and you can see all sorts of weather happening at your place

Sunset shortest day

With swirl of cloud and plane trails

THE ice cream dairy in the city, Oriental Parade

With perfect 5 minute parking right outside. More flavours than you can poke a cone at.

Bemused mother with a Mexican hat cake

Having a coffee after Friday grocery shopping

Crocheted poppies on a school fence, Anzac Day 2017

Paua

Mish outside the Beehive

A Saturday walk in the city

Kelp ripped from from its footing in the storm

Beach reflection by Mish

Slips galore after heavy rain

Navigating yet another one on a minor road

Rock layers on the coast

Mataikona, north of Castlepoint

Petone iron sculpture

Red eyed gull mosaic, Petone Beach

Botanic Gardens and Opera House

Mona Vale post-swim

Water on lens, but it had been in the pool. Nice little camera the Olympus Tough

Sunset from living room

Path to bottom of the yard

Yet another pot totem - birds like to sit on the teapot

Wash up after a spot of gardening

Nestled in alongside

And all good to guide her safely into the harbour

Tugs steaming along to help

We love watching wellington's 2 jaunty orange tugboats nudge and guide in the big ships. This was a (friendly) Sth Korean naval vessel that came on a goodwill visit recently.

Playing Thriller and it blew the front off the speaker and shifted the light off the subwoofer

Then Michelle came inside from potting up plants and made me turn it down

Mish stretching before walking down to Johnsonville

I'll just stay here, working at home...

Pukaka walk: Ferns and trees and raindrops

View to Cape Kidnappers from motel room, over the roof of the aquarium

Paddles and canoe

Looking west to spinning wind turbines on a cold grey afternoon

Tapu on a clear winter's day late July

Can't see a thing from here today...

Pole position park at Tawa sushi place

Score!

The one cup teapot from the Lake District

It gets a good run when I'm on my own

Afternoon in the living room

Manuka at work

Sunset from the kitchen

Len Lye water whirler on Wellington Harbour

Yelllow pokers from the kitchen window

Plum jam mmmm

Opening the next jar

stick insect on back door

Monarch butterfly larvae on the swan plant chomping away

Monarch larvae

A ficifolia eucalypt beside the bach. They grow well in this area.

And the bees love 'em.

Sunset, looking south west over Wellington to the South Island

Pukekura Park light show, New Plymouth

Pohutakawa flower about to unfurl

The South Island branch came up for Christmas, with retired guide dog Vincent

His job is done and he's back to live with his first family

Ring ins at lamb and calf day

Rocketing over Newlands

In the glider clubrooms

A model of the Piper Pawnee (an ex crop duster) that tows the gliders up

Daiquiri and olives at Oriental Bay

Looking at Freyberg Pool marina over boatsheds

Daisies at work

Seagulls at Raumati

Frond on the way

Yet another sign writer with a spelling problem

Wellintgon: NZ's catipal

Daphne in the communal kitchen at the Toi Poneke art studios

Route of the 1915 ANZAC ships from NZ to Gallipoli

Victoria St food market and a hot waffle to help us on our way to the third bar

Wellington by night

An alternative view

Road down to Pukerua Bay

Garage door, Pukerua Bay

Shark, porthole, and reflected sea. Arty.

Top of the old St Gerards monastry from Oriental Bay

with gull

A bit of wharf art on the fishing platform at the harbour end of the new Chaffers building

with gull

Wellington cenotaph

Close up of Katherine Mansfield titles

Southerly blast

seagulls hanging out onshore

Enthusiastic wave action at Petone

Fern walk in Otari bush

Taking the van through the carwash

Niece and nephew tumbling

City street, tarted up with some playful art and seating

Leaving the South Island heading back to Wellington, looking south

Quinces...big and beautiful

Looking down a row of vines to one of the walnut trees and the dry Wairau Hills

Vines

At the airport

On Miramar Pensinula: run thisaway and keep going for 130mt

Red stickered - a church in Seatoun

Mt Kaukau in the evening cloud, looking like an alien city in space

Saturday's washing day...

A sight to gladden an environmentally sound heart: freshly washed clothes being solar dried in a gentle breeze

Leaves in the gutter at the railway station

Latte and jaffa at the Pauahatanui cafe

Jaffa - orange choc and a very NZ sweet thing

The distinctive leaf of the ngaio tree

Chaffers Dock Sunday market with shark backdrop

A fab food and fruit and veg market with everything from traditional Mexican to Vietnamese summer rolls and mussel sandwiches, yum.

Chaffers Dock

Photographing a pathway icon

Purple and yellow, what a colour combo

Seaside daisies

Loads of yellow popping up all along the beach

Van with daisies, looking north at Te Horo beach

Another graffitied editor at the battlements; we've seen this before, on East Cape.

What does it mean?

Mish with squid

Came home with a couple of squid (from the fish shop) and we watched a YouTube video to see what to do with them. Wearing squid gloves wasn't in the instructions.

Just after sunset (getting later and later!)

Looking west to Mt Kaukau

More seagulls: one diving, one sitting; one cruising by

Hey Jude - that's a juvenile southern black backed gull in the air, and an adult diving in. The babes are browny grey for 3 or 4 years. Bring your field guide to NZ birds next time you're over.

Seaweed Antlers

Walnut buns before they got turned over

Delicious

The Boatshed on Aotea Lagoon

Lit up as part of the annual light show on the waterfront

More nuclear explosion sunset colour off NZ's west coast

Ever so slightly warm on a winter evening in Wellington, but it is happening 86 million miles away.

Rusty staying over for a couple of nights

While his pack went to Queenstown for a few days, Rusty the Huntaway came over for two of those nights. We had to get some tennis balls. He likes tennis balls.

Baby hedgehog, powering around the yard today. It's moving into 'no hedgehog here' position.

Post weekend - Sue and I down with chest infection

Bronchitis - aint that just dandy.

A surprised weta, minding its own business under a bit of driftwood until Carol comes along.

That raised back leg means 'not happy'. This is the common backyard weta, about an inch and a half long with three inch feelers.

Garlic planting on a sunny Sunday

Drizzly, cloudy, but not windy and still not cold

Mt Kaukau with passing evening cloud

Pilot boat - duty done at Pencarrow Head, turning for home, ta ta. Kaikouras in sea mist behind.

Evening peak hour at the seed station

Mish up the attic ladder gathering drawings to take to Sydney

Spruce Goose cafe on Lyall Bay

Time for a hot choc after getting a bit damp and cold on the beach. It's a new cafe in the old aero club building beside the airport. Shared a bowl of the biggest thick cut chips in the world (maybe).

Friday!

Mish: 'Stand there, stand there! You've got a halo.' (And a whisky.) (And a kink in the waist.)

Why the world needs editors

Cause signwriters can't spell

Saturday night dinner for 6

We've done this once before, in Robertson. This is our biggest pumpkin, so here goes - a stew cooked in a pumpkin. It's in the oven now...

And still more paua

Scallop with beach stones (or, beach stones with scallop)

The messy wig; no, really, it is a wig.

And that's why I don't grow my hair.

Rusty (& trusty) ole farm ute

Good for getting firewood and moving hale bays across paddocks. This is the eco system beside the front passenger seat.

Sea Shepherd in Wellington Harbour

Sea Shepherd sailing in as we left the city on the way out to Matiu/Somes Island

A fan shaped bone. Picked up on the beach, after last week's storm

And it took a while on Google to ID it - I think we have; guesses anyone?

A backlit puka

A very broad leafed NZ native

White fronted terns taking off from the rocks at Plimmerton

This evening on Petone Beach

Such a beautiful afternoon. We had a paddle in the warm sea and a fish'n'chip supper at this point on the beach. There's some serious sea fog rolling in on the left horizon, but that's as far as it came today. Yesterday it rolled up to our house and closed the airport.

Here comes the nothing

At about 6.00pm today we watched this amaaazing mist come in from the sea. First it blotted out the harbour, then the city, the mountain and then into our back yard. Ethereal bringing much needed 'coolth' after a hot day.

Corymbia ficifolia; red flowering gum

with bees, blue skies, and a tui in there somewhere having a lovely nectar time

Flax flowers

Wellington Harbour looking north from Seatoun and Point Dorset

Now this is a great way to start the work day!

Magic weather so made the most of it with a takeaway coffee at Petone beach with Mish on the way to work (we car pool on Fridays). Only missing a dolphin or two.

Wellington Harbour

Sunset from Moa Point

Down the back

The grassy track to the bottom of the yard, all dandelions and weeds. Pohutakawa just finishing on the right.

Three of the whitest legs in town - Greg & Mish

Taken after I put my sunglasses on...

Mish talking to Sydney late in the afternoon

On Petone Beach, looking south to Matiu/Somes Island.

The amazing levitating niece

Mark and Penny bringing up a movie onto the tv via the laptop

That is one loooooooong Huntaway dawg

Old fashioned signage icons, outside the Wellington Botanic Gardens

Cerise

Our front door has a new look and now it matches our living room rug. Fantastic!

Otaki Beach, low tide, looking east to the Tararua Ranges

Sand tracks, Otaki Beach

4WD meets boid

Flax weaving

I'm resisting the urge to write a silly caption - but its sooooo hard! M

Maori language week -

- and the focus this year is place names, so here's a couple near us

An after work beer in the kitchen

So cold after the ride home that I'm leaving the gear on until I warm up. The beer was a pressie from a woman at work - her son has started a brewery in wine country, Martinborough. A very nice dark beer, too.

Carol: I'll take a photo of us. Mish: Well, take a reasonable one where we both look ok.

That wasn't successful.

How about this one?

Nope.

Fudge

Simple, plain, yummy fudge. Well, I did add some raisins and walnuts. That covers a few food groups. Oh yeah.

Zealandia

Mish on the lookout

Looking over the top reservoir at Zealandia

and then we walked back over the dam

What is the new lawn mower doing in the living room?

Indeed. Apparently it's drying out after a strenuous mow. Why it can't dry out in the shed with the rest of the garden gear has not been adequately explained this evening.

Putiputi (flax flowers)

Broadband chaos

Busy busy busy outside our house for weeks now as hordes of contractors drill, dig, shovel, talk, laugh, talk some more and generally stand around a lot as they install supposed ultrafast broadband in our street..

Off to work...

Kiwi highwire act

Saw these 3 dudes above our local supermarket yesterday

Saturday morning at the football

An essential NZ experience: kids football on a cold wet Saturday morning. This is ripper football; no tackling, when an opponent rips the velcro tag off the shorts, the kid with the ball has to stop and pass the ball. It was fun - that's our nephew on the far left, anticipating the run of play.

Ngauranga Gorge track, looking into Wellington Harbour

Out of our place, down the hill, up another one, then onto a track which goes down to the bottom of the gorge, up that long hill and up and up all the way back home

Mmmmmm... onion soup

Presenting, by popular demand, Jamie Oliver's recipe for this brilliant dish. It's in the posts, stage left. He's right about using lots of different onions and cooking them very slowly. Works a treat, bon appetite.

Levelling the soil (oh what a lovely path in the background)

Amazing how useful a bit of leftover clothesline pole can be to compact & smooth the soil. A cross between barrel rolling and rolling out dough. Good result though!

Giant moles cause havoc in Newlands

Careful with that tipper truck Eugene

Empty planter box in a whiteout

A recent cracker of a sunset

Overkill

This huuuuuge cement truck for just 2.5m3 of recycled concrete!!

Carol horsing around on our partly finished path

Sunset snapshot

From the kitchen this evening; a lovely lenticular cloud collection in the west

Dad at the beach house, early 1970s

Dad gave me my first camera, his old Box Brownie, and he taught me how to mix concrete on the many construction projects at the beach house. This is one of my favourite photos of dad; I remember taking it - he'll always be smiling at me.

Rain lovely rain!

I know she ain't pretty, but sawing the downpipe and swizzling it around means we can collect all the water that would have just gone down the tubes - literally. Woohoooo!!!

Yachts coming in from Cook Strait; from Breaker Bay

Brave new world for Wellingtonians

Day 1 of total outdoor water ban in Wellington

The newbie editor at The Open Polytechnic

First day on the job and she's feeling pretty chuffed

'Cruisey' capital today

Mary's a big momma

Sunday at the beach

Fixing the bike

The weird and the wonderful at the Sevens

Didn't know monarch flutterbys were this big

Breaking news

See? It's really hot. Mish home from work AND INTO SHORTS AND T-SHIRT at 6.30! Almost unheard of. I can hear wine being slurped too...

Summer time and the living is easy

Carol chilling out at our new deck party last weekend

Early morning mist & Mt Kaukau

Carol on our new deck capturing the moment

Mt Kaukau looking towards the city and Cook Strait

Walked up on a beautiful day yesterday

Cycling along the Hutt River, Wellington

With a bit of blackberrying and dogs enjoying the algae free water

Today's works

Summer cruise city

One of the floating bricks that are cruising NZ over summer; they come and go almost daily - this is the view from our living room

Clothesline post - a wannabe sculpture (every work of art has to start somewhere...)

Featuring Greg Thomas mit de chainsaw, helpers Glen & Carol (footwork to hold ladder) and wood-dust!

Mish home from work and straight out onto the deckette for a spot of Irish dancing

and to check on all the fabulous worksite things that happened today

Friday building work and demolition

That concrete has got to go says Mish; so the excavator worked around the builders and they all played very well together

More concrete disappears from #9

Thursday building work: rain, mist, hail later

Turbo gal racer

A still life: Mish with grass, daisies & driftwood

On Te Horo Beach today - a beautiful summer day

Sydney's spectacular fireworks

What a way to usher in 2013, from a great vantage point near Janey's house at Waverton.Thanks sis!!!

I love the lips.. (mish)

These were superb - like golden chrysanthemums

Carol in the Reid's pool

..with new goggles - brilliant!

Mish at her folks' 65th wedding anniversary party

...putting flowers on the tables

Roasted toms, hot out of the oven and onto toast toot sweet

One fine day in Wellington

From the top of the cable car, in the botanical gardens, looking south west over the city and harbour

Baby sparrow on the deck, squawking until it got fed

Weta Studios, where they make the special effects

In the Weta Cave, Miramar

Mish planing under the planes

Mish and Mark conferring

Looking north, Penny dancing

The hobbit is coming to town (world première late November)

Sculptures are going up around Wellington. This silhouette of the dwarves is on the GPO building in the city.

Decking timber arriving

Mish chose each looong one ( yeah, really, those in the know will believe it). Saturday, come rain, hail or shine, we're hammering!

Mish on her way to a Halloween party

Neither of us had ever been to one; the neighbours threw a Halloween party last weekend, so up the road we walked...

What happens when you get a rainbow and a gale force southerly at the same time

Blackbirds singing, nesting, scratching - it must be spring!

I had camera in hand when this male blackbird landed on the gutter for a quick scratch

Front entry after

Front entry before

Huntaways playing

playing and playing and playing

Friday night market, Wellington city

Hot dumplings on a cool night

Mish going up a Wellington zig zag

one of the access routes to houses around Oriental Bay

Crazy access...

...imagine coming home late, under the weather, in weather - wo

After the storm

Mischa's table, lifted off the ground and dissected in the southerly. The legs are intact. We can rebuild!

Front yard - the paddock

Facing east, the street. This was our wasteland, until we trucked in horse poo and hay and spread it around. Then it became a paddock. When we got back from Oz, the hay had happily sprouted. Not sure what we do with it now. We do have spuds, rhubarb, a thornless blackberry, and misc. plantings going on there. Yeah, it doesn't look like much YET.

Actual deck, at front entry.

It's improved the entry outtasight. Still needs concreting around the edge, a bit more timber and river rock, and a planter box against the house and arty mosaic to finish. Have to do something about that woman too, she's been out there for days now, scraping, bogging, taping, painting, trying to get in...

Draft deck

Back yard looking west. This is the Mish outline for a deck beside path and steps leading down to orchard. Steps are phase 3 (after phase 2, french doors leading out to deck).

One Sunday evening with mulled wine and frog

She's apples: driven down from Hastings pre dawn

He's there every week, singing up a storm. Love ya work

Mish window dressing

Late in the day, wind shifting from northerly to southerly, runway lights on, and Mish still scraping away at the old putty and soft wood of the south facing windows. That's a plane landing over there.

Tail end of the renovation

Putting back clock and blinds post painting

Carol and her two birthday presents (bike and helmet)

Just clarifying which is the indicator and which is the horn (after scaring the locals when I just wanted to turn)

The GG about to shoot through

Sir Jerry got bailed up by a friend as he walked offstage and past us on his way to the next Waitangi Day do.The MC behind him is Gary McCormick, one of NZ's poets of the people.

Looking south, over the entrance to Wellington Harbour

Waving the Maori flag on Waitangi Day

No, not quake damage - just Carol and her sledgehammer

Holding your mouth that way apparently helps

Chimpanzee sleep time

they're so like us...or vice versa

Lizard slide or Shelob? Hmmm, what a choice for a kid

It'd be fascinating to see an arachnophobic come unsuspectingly around the corner and see this sculpture. Every time we went by no-one was on it; then one kid braved it

Front yard taking shape

One day this will all be the luscious leaves of spuds. Right now, it looks like a hay baling accident

The morning after the storm

Slapped onto one of the south facing windows, amidst hay and leaf debri, a baby fern in mint condition

Gingerbread guys pulling weird faces

...but they taste yummy

Last thing out of storage about to go into the van- hooray!

One Ikea chair, sold for $161 on Trade Me - another hooray!

Rusty B. pausing for a mo after playing with squeaky toy for hours...

Dogs are so angelic, when they're pups

Topsoil delivery

supervised by project manager (who saved the Christmas peas growing on the fence from inundation)

Mish contemplating what to plant, where

Second, and successful attempt

With drill and pruning saw, she makes more mess than the bird

First attempt

Note Mish dressed for winter, on a gorgeous day; everyone else at the markets in shorts and tshirts

The diary: Mish in project manager mode

Today: tv/stereo system actually being completed; dishwasher leaked, but two visits by plumber appear to have fixed that; dishwasher now not closing so Fisher&Paykel guy is here with drills; more unpacking of boxes going on; then off to the city!