Catching the Magic

Two Brits in Aotearoa bringing up three little 'Kiwis'. Our children: Our future. Haere Mai!

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Garden

Inspiration Weekly Theme: Life

November 2, 2011November 5, 2011 BritMumInNZ 1 Comment Garden, Inspiration Weekly

Join us on Sunday and link up here with a post inspired by the theme LIFE. Charlotte’s come up with an amazing theme this week ‘LIFE’. It’s a big subject! This week I’ve seen plenty of life in the garden, with a visit from our first Monarch butterfly of the season. It flew straight to […]

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The Photo Gallery – Green

October 5, 2011 BritMumInNZ 14 Comments Garden, photography, School hols

It’s early October in Wellington. The weather is typically varied. Last week threw us a hint of summer days to come, this week we’ve barely stepped out the door. I don’t mind a little rain and, naturally, the garden LOVES a good ‘ole hose down from the heavens. I’m sure the Irish and Welsh rugby […]

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Wordless Wednesday: Spring Weather, Sunshine & Showers

September 14, 2011September 14, 2011 BritMumInNZ 7 Comments Alice, Garden, photography, Sophie

Joining in with ‘Wordless Wednesday’ at ‘Faith, Hope & a whole lotta Love‘ and ‘My Little Drummer Boys‘

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There was a little green fairy in the garden today

September 12, 2011September 12, 2011 BritMumInNZ 3 Comments Alice, Garden, Sarah, Writing

Running barefoot, in the grass, a fairy frolicked in my garden today. She stopped to pick some lavender and then hurried on her way. Dressed in green, she blended in, a magic figure of spring. I noticed her stop and rest a while, and wondered what magic she’d bring. I looked at where she’d sat […]

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Loving a touch of spring and off with the locks!

August 26, 2011August 26, 2011 BritMumInNZ 6 Comments Alice, Art, Charlotte, Dan, Garden, Loving & Not Loving, Sarah, Sophie

Last week snow, this week sunshine and flowers. What a change in the weather! ♥ All of a sudden it’s light till 6pm and with the clocks rolling forward in a few weeks time we are feeling the joy of spring. We’ve had a few lovely days this week. Weather for swinging open windows, flinging […]

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The Gallery: I’m Grateful For

June 1, 2011 BritMumInNZ 12 Comments Alice, Art, Charlotte, Garden, Sarah, Sophie

This week a lovely lady and Mum to four, Chris (of ‘Thinly Spread‘ blog), is on an incredible journey to see the children of Mozambique. She has embarked on a journey, with Save the Children, for the ‘No Child Born to Die‘ campaign, which I blogged about recently. Chris hasn’t left her own children for […]

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The Gallery – My Backyard

May 25, 2011May 25, 2011 BritMumInNZ 16 Comments Dan, Garden, Sarah

It’s overgrown and wet; my backyard. I look at the grass in despair – much like I look at the smeared, dirty windows. ‘I’ll get round to it…’ I am forever saying, but there’s always something else. Dan summed up my existence perfectly, ‘It’s like you have two tornados in the house – whilst you […]

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Monarch Wednesday

March 30, 2011March 30, 2011 BritMumInNZ 5 Comments Garden

It’s Autumn in New Zealand. Our clocks go back an hour at the weekend. But the sun is still smiling and the beach is still tempting. We are choosing to ignore the chillier mornings and evenings, the shorter daylight hours and the dew in the mornings – whilst we can! Winter’s on its way? But […]

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Things we’re Loving: Equinox Season

March 18, 2011March 18, 2011 BritMumInNZ 7 Comments Garden, Loving & Not Loving

There’s something magical about the equinox seasons. The garden is thriving and rich, with slightly cooler temperatures and the occasional rain shower. The birds too are feeling revived from days of feeling parched in the dry spells of summer. The few deciduous trees we have are still looking lush, but a few outer leaves are […]

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The Gallery: Trees – We can NEVER have enough

March 16, 2011March 16, 2011 BritMumInNZ 10 Comments Garden, Sarah

When The Gallery called for trees this week, ‘Because you can never have enough trees,’ I stepped into my garden, camera in hand, a prime specimen to seek. As I walked barefoot through the grass, with Alice toddling along precariously and our cat not far behind, I considered that if it weren’t for blogging I […]

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Seasons: Shhhh! It’s Autumn!

March 15, 2011March 15, 2011 BritMumInNZ 4 Comments Alice, Garden

Officially we are in the season of Autumn in New Zealand. But it rarely feels like Autumn until the clocks change at the beginning of April. We have noticed the evenings creeping in, but we still have plenty of daylight hours to play after school. Earlier nightfall makes for fractionally earlier bedtimes and a chance […]

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4 Seasons: Summer Solstice a Washout

December 21, 2010December 21, 2010 BritMumInNZ 5 Comments Garden, School hols

Today it is the Summer Solstice in New Zealand, but it felt far from summer this morning. Rain pelted down and winds funneled through the valleys making walking a challenge. Second day of the school holidays and not the best way to start, but the garden is grateful and so too are the birds. We […]

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The Gallery: White

December 8, 2010December 9, 2010 BritMumInNZ 7 Comments Charlotte, Garden, Sarah

‘I’m dreaming of a white Christmas… just like the ones I used to know…’ But actually, I’m not! Though I still love that song and it does make me feel all squishy and nostalgic. In our garden we have plenty of white, but of the flowering variety. I find my eye is especially drawn to […]

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Christmas in the garden & at the beach

December 3, 2010December 3, 2010 BritMumInNZ 12 Comments Alice, Charlotte, Dan, Garden, Sophie

National Jandal Day couldn’t have asked for better weather. Wellington was bathed in sunshine with collectors reaping the rewards for Surf Life Saving NZ. Charlotte spent most of the day with her entire school at the fabulous Wainui Summer Pools, whilst Sophie, Alice and I had a quiet morning at home and in the garden. […]

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Welcome to the ramblings & photographs of a British expat Mum living mostly in Wellington (aka *coffee capital of the world*), New Zealand, since 1997.

This blog is a way to preserve sanity whilst raising children, capture the magic in the chaos, and share tales with family, friends, fellow parents and expats.

Along with my British born husband we have been bringing up our three Kiwi born daughters in the land of sheep, kiwi fruit and fine wine, since 2003 (with a brief 16 months living in Santa Barbara, California - where we home educated our daughters). We both first landed on New Zealand soil in 1996 (hubby) and 1997 (myself) - as fresh graduates from the UK wanting to live and work overseas... our 'OE' turned into something a lot longer and more life changing than we could ever have first anticipated!

Thank you for stopping by (if you would like to know more visit the 'About' page!).
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Recent Posts

  • Walking the Paekākāriki Escarpment Track February 1, 2021
  • Patuna Chasm | A river walk like no other! January 24, 2021
  • One week into 2021 January 10, 2021
  • Festive greetings from Aotearoa! December 23, 2020
  • Term 4 and winding down to the last days of school for 2020 December 1, 2020
  • ‘HELLO’ November 24, 2020
  • A spring holiday in Wanaka and Queenstown’s outdoor playgrounds! November 1, 2020
  • End of Term 3! October 2, 2020
  • Before the pandemic! ‘Six’ the musical in Sydney September 26, 2020
  • I miss her, Mum, even though she’s not gone. July 23, 2020
  • Our ‘bubble’ of 5 million has done it! June 9, 2020
  • Reflections on coming out of seven weeks of lockdown in New Zealand May 13, 2020

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The Toll
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