Some Time Away

10 Jan - 18 Jan 2016

Early in January my older brother, Vidor, came down from his home to stay. He did the same last year which gives us a chance to go away for a week. Vidor stays here with Pa to be here if Pa needs any help and to cook a main meal each day.

We headed over the hill to the Wairarapa to our favourite camping spot. 

Not something you see everyday here - a wedding. The brides family have been coming here to camp for 40 years!

Another shot - didn't want to get too close even though the groom had said we were welcome to come and look.

I really like this way of protecting growing veges. I took the photo for reference for the gardens up the back of our place.

Half-pint fast asleep the next morning. This is the hammock-type sleeping space Brains used to sleep in when he was little. 

Lil Battler decided he'd like the whole bed once I'd got out of it! The boys stayed with us for a couple of days as their parents had a few things to sort out.

Breakfast time! Half-pint enjoying his. For some reason meals always seem to taste better in the open air! The small orange and green chairs we found at Bunnings. We bought six so there would be one for each grandchild and one to spare!

A long time since this buggy was used! Locket used to sleep in it, and Brains before her. It's done many rounds of the camping place! Lil Battler enjoying a snooze  :)

Early morning and I love the way the sun is lighting up the underneath of these clouds.

This one too. This was before the sun had come up from behind the hill.

The sheep come pretty close on their morning walk through  . . . this one moved just as I clicked, she was looking right at the camera!

The hazy crescent moon on the night of the 14th Jan. I'd love to have a camera and lens capable of taking more detailed shots.

I managed to finally finish this cross-stitch embroidery. I started it quite a number of years ago so it is good to finally get it to this stage. Now to fully complete it!

Boar and Locket working on a puzzle. We picked it up at an op shop in Carterton.

Love how this cloudy mist is just sitting here . . . not long before the heat of the day caused it to dissipate.

Sunshine decided to stick all her stickers to her face so I couldn't resist getting a photo of that! Poppet is just happy to sit on Moneypenny's lap.

I woke up and got up quite early on our last morning. It was really peaceful and quiet and I needed a bit of time to reflect. I took this photo at 5:37am.

It was a little chilly - early morning chill - so I covered up with my new blanket. I bought it from a stall in North City Plaza in Porirua. The items are all made in Nepal. This blanket is Yak wool and it is lovely - soft, light and warm  :)   I saw it on the stall and I just had to touch it . . . and then I had to buy it!  :x

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 Harvesting the yak wool

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 The raw yak wool.

The day that Jester, Frosty and Mr Magoo came to visit we went for a walk to the top of the hill. Except for Mr Magoo, he was in the blow-up boat with Pop (Boar). There is a family graveyard belonging to the Morison's up there. Apparently we are related somehow, on my Mum's side I think. I'll have to get the family tree records from my sister so I can check it out.

Not a great shot as it is panorama which always seems to skew/curve the shot! The track meanders up  the hillside. Basically it's a sheep track!

Here is the beginning of it.

It goes behind those trees and then disappears up the slope. I was really pleased with myself when I made it up. It was the steepest walk I'd done since my PE. Jester gave me a hand in one place on the way down as it was steepish and on the edge of the bank. I didn't have my trusty walking pole so was grateful for his steadying hand.

I love the rustic look of this old wooden gate. Most of them now are metal, which last longer, so it is cool to see these ones still in use.

Hay bales . . . always seen in the paddocks in summer. The rectangular ones are still made but these are more often seen these days.

Sheep trail . . . just because!

Manuka or tea tree . . . Captain Cook made a tea drink out of the leaves.

Soon after I took these photos it was time to head home. We'd packed up everything and needed to get back as Vidor had to head home to Opotiki.

We had a good trip home and managed to get the Compact-A-Van onto it's deck before this storm rolled in . . . looking north were the storm is coming from.

Looking south . . . the rain has just started here, big drops pelting down, but the sky to the south is still clear. Not for long though!

It was a good to be able to get a break and some time away. A bit of time to rest, relax, think over things and appreciate the beauty of the world that God created.

A New Window

It's a month since I posted anything! Being busy, and tired at night  . . . the days go by so quickly and then before you know it a month has gone past. So to continue with playing catch-up.

6 January 2016

Boar has been working on making a new window for the south side of the house. He did a lot of it after he'd finished work for the day, over a few evenings. He has access to the machines in the joinery factory. Last year he bought home a couple of double-glazed panes of glass that were the wrong size for a job . . . but the right size for us  :)  It is for the upstairs and is the side that gets all the cold winds and weather in the winter here in Wellington.

Painting the frame . . .

The sashes that will hold the glass . . .double glazing to help keep in the warmth in winter.

And it's in . . . and keeping the weather out!

The view from outside. I had to go up the neighbour's path to get this shot.

This is the one on the lower floor that Boar did a year or two ago. It's the only other window on the south side of the house. Hmmm there has been a lot of ivy growing which has been pulled off. Nearly time for a repaint! Lovely hydrangea though  :)

It's been great over the summer. There was a window in the space but this is so much nicer than the other which was an aluminium frame. It served us well and has now headed over the hill to Featherston to be recycled as part of a glasshouse at the home where our son lives.

Titahi Bay walk

On the 4th of January we decided to go for a walk. Since Brains has his learner license Boar got him to drive us there. A while ago I'd walked to the right of the entry to the beach. You don't get far past the boat sheds when you come to a wall. However there is a track and also you can walk around the rocks a wee way before you hit water.

Looking between the point on the left and Mana Island on the right you can just see a smudge of the sounds in the distance. Not so clear as some days.

It's a pretty sheer  rock face although has quite a bit growing on it. The tide must come right up to the greenery as there is a lot of driftwood there.

It continues on for quite a way but I wasn't game to go through the water or scramble round the rocks.

Lots of little pools with seaweeds in them.

Brains walked out a fair distance

Boar, Brains and Locket had a good look in the rock pools.

I was intrigued by the formations on this rock

A lot of different plants growing between the rocks. Must be tough as they survive the tide washing over them!

A different plant with sweet wee flowers.

Some big waves must have deposited this log here.

More seaweeds

Someone enjoyed a feed of mussels!

Precariously poised rocks.

A bigger rock pool

I wonder if it was the waves constantly coming in that eroded the rocks in these almost straight lines!

The art you see if you look up!

A close up because it really amused me. looks a bit like a sheep with wonky horns  :)

The colourful toilet block.

A New Year beckons!

31 December 2015

One of my best friends from college (high school) days came to visit on New Years Eve day. A was over to see her parents and siblings for Christmas and came to see me. She always tries to get here when she comes to NZ. I'm hoping to one day have the funds to visit her where she lives in Australia now.

A came bearing this lovely basket of fruit for us and also some pastries and cakes - I didn't think to take a photo of them before they were all eaten! They were yummy though  :)

As usual A and I chattered away catching up on what has been happening in our lives. After dinner in the evening A left to go into Wellington City as her mum had gone in to watch the New Years Eve fireworks.

Brains and Locket had also gone into the city with friends. From what I heard they had a great time :) That left the rest of us at home and I was so tired that I had to go to bed! It's the first time for many a year I haven't stayed up to watch the New Year in. Boar usually looks on askance as I go outside and bang merrily on a saucepan!! Well, he didn't have to worry this year - he was asleep too!

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Since this post marks a change of year I thought I'd wish everyone a Happy New Year all over again!

From the Garden

November

In our front yard we have a succulent in a pot. At least I think it is a succulent! If you are a gardening person and know and I'm wrong - please correct me! It flowers for only a few days. I managed to remember to get a couple of photos.

9 November 2015

2 days later - 11 November

 It's pretty and makes a vivid splash of colour when it flowers. I think someone was throwing it out and Boar brought it home and put it in a pot!

We also have a lovely rambling rose. At least I'm pretty sure it is a rambler - it just goes where it likes!  Boar knows that I like it and so when they start to come out he usually brings me in some of the first ones. Sweet man  :)

22 November 2015

I think this bottle came from my parent's house when we were clearing it out. It was in one of the kitchen cupboards. It would have had a rubber teat, long gone by now. It has written on it "Agee Pyrex Feeder" and measurements in ounces on the side.

A number of years ago I splashed out on a copy of Botanica and over the years it has stood me in good stead when I want to find out the name of a plant or information about it.

I'm pretty sure the rose I have is Alberic Barbier from the picture and description of it. Once again I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.

Here is the picture from the book:

Also there is a description:-

It has got a bit wild over the years and there are bits coming up in places I don't want them to. So I need to do a bit of pruning. Apart form that it is a lovely rose, one of the ones that has been here the whole time we have, has had no real care, and yet keeps growing!

Otari-Wilton's Bush Walk

Jumping forward now to October 25th last year. I decided I wanted to push myself a bit and see how I went on a longer walk. Longer than 10-15 minutes I mean!

Growing up we spent a lot of time in Wilton's Bush as we knew it then. We lived in Wadestown and it was around a 15-20 minute walk from home. Pa often took us there on a Sunday afternoon. Or we'd go ourselves when we were 10 or so. No parents - just us! The fun we had - walking over the pipes across the stream - they're all boxed in now - going across the stream and I do recall on one occasion I met up with a stinging nettle bush! Suffice to say it was not fun.  :(

As my own children grew up we often walked here too and they almost always walked back along the stream bed. There should be a billboard:-

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The board at the entrance to the walk. The green area is all within the boundary of Otari-Wilton's Bush.

Sunlight breaking through the trees, dappling the rocks and stream bed.

Tiny rapid, mossy green rocks, fallen down branches, nature will have her way!

Fungi growing on a stump

A hollowed out trunk . . . 

. . . Room for a Locket though!  :)

The walk into the picnic area is basically flat. Many of the trails are not! I was still feeling pretty good and so we decided to go on a bit. There was a short trail and I remembered it being not too steep. So . . . yeah . . .steps! I had to pause a couple of times to catch my breath wait for people to pass, but I made it to the top of the short hill.  =D>  I was glad to turn off the main trail though as I remember it goes on for quite a distance!

Pretty hard to see but we had to go down to the stream bed then up the other side. The trail is well marked but hard to see through the trees.

Near to the end you walk over the intertwined roots of these two trees, again the sun is peeking through the gaps.

On the way back Boar decided to walk along the pipe - and of course Locket had to as well! And I wonder where they get it from. This probably is one of the pipes I walked over too  :D  I was a lot younger than I am now though!

If you look closely you can see a grey patch near the middle of the photo - Locket! I'm standing on the trail. Boar is somewhere on the pipe too, just ahead I think.

Brachyglottis repanda

Rangiora - or colloquially "Bushman's loo paper"!

I love the way the sunlight is shining through from the back and you can see all the "veins" on the back of the rangiora leaves from the front.

The small yellow trail is the one we walked around from the picnic area. I edited my photo to show the arrows.

A larger photo which shows how small the trail we took really is in comparison with some of the others. For me on that day it was plenty. Since it was my first big walk since my PE I was really pleased with myself. I was tired but I achieved a few things:- a longer
walk, all up around an hour; steps!; pacing myself through the walk.

All in all a lovely way to spend an afternoon.  :)