Playing with words helps me to learn them – Marama keke means it’s a piece of cake – or it’s really easy! Easy Peasy!
Summer came – a hot, hot walk in the bush with tempting streams to quench our thirst! Jo and I ran and Rob and Nigel biked the Waihaha track. It was a beautiful trail with really varied terrain. Unfortunately, I wasn’t 100% when I started and totally lost my voice later that day and it didn’t come back for a week! Talk about ‘kill or cure’!
Gin cocktail in the evening sun. Nigel is a great concocter! #dontmindifido #summerishere☀️
Third day of no voice! Reading was one of the remedies a colleague suggested! I decided to take a sick day since I was feeling miserable!
I had never spotted this hitching post from 1877 on Grey Street before! Interestingly neither had this reporter in 2018 www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/life-style/107507297/histor… Even more interesting is that it appears to have moved and also has a different plaque on it. This one reads “1877 Hitching Post, Australian Hardwood, sponsored by HCC Streets Unit”.
On closer inspection of the photo in the paper, they are clearly not the same post – now I need to go on a mission to see if there are two!
So this hitching post is the one referenced in the link in my previous photo – much more modern – placed in 1936 but some mystery over its provenance as the butcher’s shop it refers to doesn’t appear to have been at this site. On the other hand the shoe shop on the other side of the road, with the large boot above it has been there since 1915 apparently.
It’s such a shame that this exquisite workmanship will be destroyed. Wee waspy has been working so hard but we don’t really want wasps in the garden. For one thing, they sting and they also scare the honey bees away.
Dad’s Day out has become an annual event. This year our surprise was thee U2 concert at Mt Smart. My two boys looking like their grandfather, my Dad.
My companion in the garden today as I dismantled the old compost heaps! Quite unbothered about my proximity – clearly the bugs were good!
I am always amazed by the skill of creatures to build their own whare. I’m not sure if this one was ever finished – it looks like it might have been abandoned or maybe it fell from the tree in the wind before the birds had a chance to complete it.
Aunty Chris and Nigel cooking us up a treat. Chris brought the recipe with her because she thought we might like it and then acted as Nigel’s Commis chef as he cooked. It was delicious!
25 years since this beautiful young man came into our world. Happy Birthday, Lachlan! How has time flown by so fast?
I am never sure what to call these roses but we have a whole bed of small bush roses that seem to flower profusely however badly we seem to neglect or over prune them.
There is something beguiling about sparrows or ‘spuggies’ as we grew up calling them – definitely the scavengers of the urban bird community – they have learned where the next feed is coming from and are not afraid to get it. I think the cleverest thing I have seen is the way that they open the sugar packets.
Kaiako trying out sorting networks. So great to work with inspiring educators who can take an activity, run with it and change it up.
The Aunt. The woman. The myth. The bad influence.
Aunty Chris always has an adventure when she comes to stay with us!
Yellow Roses – yellow is such a happy colour and I love this rose. They are in a vase that was my Mum’s and I love the whole retro blue bubble glass. The vase is sitting on our new garden table – long story…!
When the only photo you’ve taken all day is of a receipt for expenses because it was pouring with rain and your nose was to the grindstone!
Christening the new table. Gus working on perfecting his unsmiling, being cool pose!
Running today to support #outruncancer and Caroline’s 1000 day run streak. Inspirational. I couldn’t make it to the group run around Lake Rotoroa in Kirikiriroa because I was working down in Porirua so I did my own run in support along the Hutt River.
More adventuring with Chris. One of the pleasures of having to work in Porirua is being able to stay with Chris while I’m there. We went on a wee evening hikoi…a bit of an adventure exploring trails in the rohe that she didn’t know about.
Pauahatanui Reserve. I decided on the way back to stop and explore this rohe. After a morning of talking I felt the need to sit and reflect and have some quietude. While I was sitting on a bench looking out across the lake I received the news that my cousin’s son had taken his life that morning. Another beautiful young man lost in depression. What is it that makes our babies struggle so much with life that they feel the need to take themselves out of this beautiful world? Devastated.
I really can’t take her anywhere! Our favourite Aunty!
A splash of colour on the beach at Eastbourne.
The promise of summer!
Rangiriri Pā – I was driving back home and looked left to Rangiriri and saw that there were more pouwhenua. Pulled over to have a look. There are now 16 pou – the original 6 face towards the pā the new ones face the river Waikato.
“Belf is born”! I decided that since my Elf from last year was kidnapped that I’d make a new one rather than buy one. She is called “Belf” because she was gifted a bell from my friend Jo which was on her walking pole when she climbed Mt Fuji earlier this year.
A rather alarming colour for a beer but it was actually very tasty – a refreshing sour!
That bloody bird is at it again! Tonks hasn’t moved for an hour despite being verbally harassed and dive-bombed! #battleofwills #whosincontrol #catsandbirds
The boy has bought himself a keyboard – that necessitated moving a few bits of furniture around. We now have a ‘music room’!
