Our final day in Timaru and the main reason we’d come down, Mum’s birthday. The morning was spent preparing food and getting everything ready for brunch as a bevy of family arrived. There were copious pancakes and croissants, fruit and Christmas mince pies. And then it was time for a birthday cake to be presented. […]
Strawberry Fare
Our trip down south coincided with the Waimate Strawberry Fare, a celebration of the local crop that has become a well known event. We parked at the home of Waimate legendary teacher Mary Firth (also fantastic Aunty) and headed inside for a chat. Mary produced a suitcase full of interesting things for Alayna to play […]
Lux is back
A beautiful and calm winters evening last Friday saw the return of the Wellington Lux festival for 2015. I’d read about a free workshop for creating fairies in a jar so while Keryn went and signed us up Alayna and I took a quick trip to Moore Wilsons to buy a suitable jar. The workshop […]
Gardens Magic – Eb & Sparrow
Last week we had a rare night out thanks to a recent reciprocal babysitting arrangement implemented within our antenatal group. While Alayna was looked after at home we headed into Wellington and enjoyed the Gardens Magic concert featuring folky/Americana outfit Eb & Sparrow. We’d just arrived at the botanical gardens and were approaching the sound […]
A Summer Holiday – Napier & Hastings
Our last three nights of our holiday were spent in Napier. Travis was also in town having spent the last few nights our tramping so we met up in Hastings at the weekly night market for some good food. There were a few craft stalls and a dozen or so food stalls from which we […]
A summer holiday – Hamilton
We had a couple of nights in Hamilton and we spent our free day wandering in the city and later on going for a walk to visit Adam’s school. I had told Bridget about a photo competition I am looking at entering which has a theme around tea in an urban setting. Bridget though the […]
Short and very sweet
Alayna has been expressing her individuality at dinner time and is quite happy to have a go at feeding herself. It might be messy but its a lot of fun and so far the mess has been confined to Alayna and the high chair, both of which are easily cleaned. We’re looking forward to more […]
A zoo party
Today was the combined first birthday celebration for our antenatal group held at Wellington Zoo. We headed to the zoo a little early to walk around while Alayna was still fresh after her morning sleep. It was a sunny but cold afternoon and many of the zoo animals were sleeping in the sun but therefore […]
New year, old habit
The first day of 2013 and I did something I haven’t done in a long time, baked some pin-wheel scones. They were nice and tasty, and as easy to make as I remembered. Maybe there will be more baking in the year ahead. Photo by Brendon & Keryn Fresh out of the oven. Photo by […]
Sometimes I bake
It’s not often I bake these days, in fact there have probably been only a handful of baking occasions in the last 10 years (Keryn bakes much more frequently). So today I baked, spurred on by bad weather, finishing a game (Portal 2, thanks for asking) and avoidance of packing. It wasn’t anything onerous, a […]
Sam & Jules at Pounui, part 2
Day 2 was the big day and the weather was glorious with sunshine, the odd fluffy cloud and a gentle breeze keeping temperatures manageable. We had a slow start with breakfast at the cottage we were sharing with Jen & Paul and their little cutie Mathilde. Then we were off to get photos of Sam […]
Visitors
Patty and Sam were in Wellington for a week or so for a Hay family celebration and spent some time with us. I took them to Zealandia and drove them all around as we visited people and places. We visited Sue at the Island Bay home of Compassion and had a walk around which included […]