We took Daddy to Wellington Zoo on Sunday afternoon and look what we saw… Mummy wishing she could be an Emperor tamarin! Because… Did you know? When Mummy Emperor tamarin’s have had enough, they stick out their tongue – and Daddy takes the load! ________________________________________________ Go check out some more mustaches on ‘The Gallery’ at […]
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The Gallery: Chilled Out
This photograph encapsulates my ‘moments’ when I am chilled out – they are rare, and fleeting – but I have to embrace them, how ever small, as it’s never long before I’m back on my feet saving the day! Thankfully, my feet kept quite snug in my amazing boots! ____________________________________________________ This post is for Week […]
The Gallery: Green – A visit to a Nikau Reserve
Beautiful nikau palms growing in a safe reserve on the Kapiti coast. The nikau is very slow-growing. Research conducted in lowland forests near Auckland found it takes 40-50 years to begin to form a trunk and about 200 years to reach 10 metres tall (ref. DoC). These beautiful palms, with rich green fronds and brightly coloured […]
The Gallery: My Blog
It’s what I do when my children sleep. It’s what I think about, whilst I wash their clothes – scrub paint off walls, and food off the floor. It makes me focus on the magic. I want my children to look back one day, in awe at the precious childhood they had. I also want […]
The Gallery: Tomorrow
Tomorrow is like the pages of an unwritten book. Tomorrow we choose which foot to start on – be it the left or right, good or bad. Every new day holds promise and we choose how to live it – no matter how the odds are stacked against us. Sometimes those odds seem unsurmountable and […]
The Gallery: Trees – We can NEVER have enough
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 […]
The Gallery – One Word – BEACH!
How lucky are these children?! They have NO IDEA! The WHOLE school spent the day at the BEACH today! There were sandcastle competitions between ‘Whanau’ groups, boogie boarding (classes taking it in turns to avoid total mayhem in the surf!) & picnics with obligatory sand in sandwiches. We all had a blast! Little Alice got […]
Simple Pleasures: The Gallery
I feel a lot of the time I am giving at the moment – to my children, to the house work, to my husband (not nearly enough). I am trying to keep all the minds and bodies of my home happy, with clean clothes, a tidy, healthy home, good food, stimulating activities for mind and […]
Togetherness
After six weeks of togetherness we farewelled Chinese Grandma & Granddad on Valentine’s Day. They dropped off Charlotte & Sophie at school and said a brave good-bye. In the afternoon, Dan, Alice and I took them to the airport and had one last coffee together. We don’t know when we’ll meet next, but hopefully it […]
The Gallery – Shapes from Stoneridge Cafe & Maze
Whilst on holiday in Nelson we visited the wonderful Stoneridge Cafe & Maze. The cafe is set in a beautiful villa, with tranquil gardens and expansive grounds for the children to run freely on. A special highlight for young and old is the well-maintained hedge maze. We set off with Chinese Granddad in tow. Grandma […]
The Gallery – Children: A Holiday Special
Three generations Father and son reunited, for a special holiday together, after nearly four years of living on opposite sides of the world. The bond never breaks, but grows stronger yet with a new granddaughter to get to know. Grandparents and grandchildren reunited Stories and laughter, days out and late nights, treats and sweets. The […]
Mother Nature gives us a sand whipping in Abel Tasman (The Gallery)
We walked with determined, weary legs, head-first into the wind. The sand whipped our exposed skin and scratched our eyes. The scenery was picture perfect (if we were brave enough to open our eyes and look). Laden down with bags of towels, togs and beach toys, we trudged along hoping to catch a boat out. […]
The Gallery: White
‘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 […]
The Gallery: ‘Black and White’ mourning the loss of twenty nine brave souls
The theme on ‘The Gallery‘ this week is ‘Black and White‘. I had lots of ideas for this, from piano keys to black ink on a white page, but the saddest news has shadowed all my thoughts. Since Friday the whole of New Zealand has been caught up in the plight of twenty nine miners […]