Travels in New Zealand and beyond, going back to 2003!
Winter has started with its usual mixed bag in Wellington – calm, sunshine days that are moderately mild lull us into a sense of ease, before a sudden southerly change hurls us into an abrupt awareness that it is actually the season of winter. Gale force winds, heavy rain, and snow on the distant Kaikoura…
Yesterday I cleaned a lot (with a brief late afternoon escape to our local zoo). Today I had fun (except for a morning appointment to see the doctor for a warrant of fitness – but even that was plain sailing). The sun shone. The wind didn’t hamper my every step. Nature played ball (and threw in a real…
On Saturday evening, as I sat writing a blog post on the futon in my bedroom, with Alice asleep at my side, Dan sent me a text, which read, I got you a little Kindle book I thought you might like. Go to your Kindle on your iPhone xxx So I go check and see…
Sometimes it feels good to dump down the activities of the day in words. To let everything go like a leaf at the mercy of the autumn wind or blossom raining down to carpet the ground in a spring shower. To come up for air. To appreciate the two forces at work in a strong…
I am bravely picking up the baton and going to give this post my best shot, where others have skillfully gone before me – inspired by the amazing mistress of words Vix of Vegemitevix blog and her ‘Tribal Wives in Britain‘ post. Here follows my offering and I’d recommend visiting ‘Moments of Whimsy‘ blog for…
‘Race you to the top!’ I shouted to my sister as my legs started at a run up to the summit of the hill. ‘See you up there girls. We’ll take our time and enjoy the scenery,’ my Dad said with a smile of pride and perhaps a hint of envy at our boundless energy….
And now she lies here blowing raspberries at me like it’s all a big joke. 1.32 AM my clock reads. She’s fed and slept, but I’ve snatched only pockets of twenty minutes sleep at a time. Third night in a row. Hubbie took her downstairs. He said kindly, ‘Get some sleep love.’ But as I…
It really has been hard to get back into the swing of things since our amazing holiday in Nelson. So many times we’ve looked at the properties there and considered a move. We’ve been in Wellington for twelve year’s now and it is totally amazing, but something about returning from holiday and the change in…
I am so full of emotions tonight. It’s been tough letting go of my first born to a system where, due to numbers, children are molded to doing ‘x, y and z’ when told – how else would it be possible to contain so many free spirits within one room! The end term heralds in…
Wellington is such a compact city, encased in hills and geographically challenged when it comes to expanding (but of course there’s always the option of building up – and one look at the number of cranes on the cityscape exhibits evidence aplenty of growth to the sky). The compactness makes Wellington a neat city to…
Being in the moment, totally at one with nature. Free of the monkey mind chatter and internal dialog. No ego to feed; just simple happiness from living in the present and being consciously aware. Every breath drawn from the centre of the Universe. Every cell in the body soaking up the warmth of the sun…
It’s officially Spring – or so I read in the newspaper today. The weather was beautiful this weekend and we treasured every moment. It’s been a rough winter with news reports saying it’s been the wettest on record. After a magnificent six month’s of summer, this winter has been hard on everyone. I reckon treatment…
In my first year of motherhood my bedside table was stacked high with a wide selection of parenting books. The subjects of most interest at that time were sleep, health, breastfeeding and developmental milestones. My reading of parenting and child psychology books became a little obsessive. There was a time when the only other items…
I have a little bench, outside our backdoor. It’s sheltered from the wind and rain and it’s where I like to sit and think. I look up at the changing sky, the mostly ever-green trees and watch the season’s change. Listening to the cicadas in summer and the birds cavorting with one another. I think…