I was feeling somewhat slow on Sunday morning.

It was Marah's actual birthday so I spent some time making her a car.

I haven't been in my art corner for a while and I so want to give it a thorough clean and sort out but haven't had the energy or time to do it yet.

I did however use a new cuttlebug pattern to create the lovely bird background.

I just wanted something clean and simple and loving for a special young woman.

I think I achieved that.

 

Harold arrived around 10:30am with his friend Fred.

They had a cuppa while I finished the card and then we had fellowship together.

We had lunch - Harold brought around a fresh loaf of raisin bread & his electric bread knife which fascinated Azzan.

He had a turn with it and thankfully retained all his fingers!

I was feeling rather weary and not up to too much talking so I left the men to chat together.

They are pretty good at that.

 

The men left mid afternoon.

I lay on the couch and read my book.

 

Anson & Marah came around for afternoon tea with pressies for the kids.

I gave Marah her card and some truffles.

It was a lovely day.

Sabrina & Patrick went kayaking.

Azzan was 'hanging' about, waiting for them to arrive back.

Ropes are a wonderful plaything for children aren't they?

The kayakers had circumnavigated the bay so were rather tired on return.

But they enjoyed themselves.

 

I made dinner for us all.

Cat & Leann ate at Anson & Marah's.

I was in bed reasonably early.

I have been doing so well over the past few months, managing to keep pretty even emotionally.

But I am not doing too well at the moment.

Major feelings of being overwhelmed and also being taken for granted.

Not fun really.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner Cat asked the kids if they wanted to have a bonfire.

It was a good still night and the tide was low.

Perfect for a bonfire on the beach.

Tim and I watched the beginning of the proceedings from the deck.

Along with the regal one!

It didn't take long for them to get a good blaze going.

Tim & Cat etc have been having a big clean out in the woolshed.

Old timbers blaze well!

 

The dishes were still being done inside by Leann, Sabrina & Patrick.

I was busy in the living room when I heard Shoshannah yelling for Azzan.

Something in my head clicked and I went to the bathroom and found her locked in!

Seems that Azzan locked her in for a joke and then Cat side tracked him by calling him down to the beach to get the fire going and he completely forgot about Shoshannah.

I thought it was rather funny but she didn't.

She had been locked in for quite some time!!

So she didn't feel like joining in the fun on the beach and went off to bed.

 

I wander off down to join the bonfire party.

It was very bright and very hot!

Azzan had taken marshmellows down but this fire was far too savage for toasting them o the kids made a small fire along the beach a wee way.

Tim helped light it by crawling in as close as he could and igniting some newspaper from the big fire.

It was rather funny cuz the paper caught fire a bit quicker than he thought

and he had to make a bit of a dash down the beach to the small fire!!

Cat had to use a long pole to keep the logs in the fire - the heat was immense.

Meanwhile down the beach aways the kids were toasting marshmellows with Sabrina & Patrick

No flash required - plenty of fire light.

Love the colour and texture in the flames.

Once the packet of marshmellows had been consummed the children created their own evening entertainment.

Mahalia curled up in the sand with Skip and watched the fire.

Patrick buried Azzan - after his little trick on Shoshannah Cat thought we should go up and get her to come hose him down while he was contained.

Revenge is sweet

But we wisely left her sleeping - she's not the best if she is tired.

 

A great nights entertainment.

Who needs tv on a night like this?

So much fun.

We called it a night around 10pm.

Tim popped the kids to bed.

I finished my blogging.

Cat & Leann soaked in the spa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday was a beautiful flat calm day.

Perfect for fishing

Tim and crew were up and rearing to go straight after breakfast.

But Seb & Dean had gotten a big haul of sharks in their net so it took them a while to process them before they could come over.

 

While they were all getting ready to go I hung out all the washing.

It is one thing I really enjoy doing.

I love to be out in the sun and am quite pedantic as to how and where each article is hung on the line.

It is also a place where I can be away from everyone for a few moments of my day.

 

It was after mid-morning that they were all finally able to leave.

Tim had asked me if I wanted to go and I was very tempted, but I seriously needed some people free time so opted to stay at home.

Azzan wasn't keen to go but I talked him into it and made him some lunch.

But at the last minute he discovered that he wouldn't be able to go diving where they were going as it was too deep and dangerous for a novice diver, so he jumped ship.

I was not impressed and told him very plainly that I needed space and peace and quiet and if he was going to stay then he had to occupy himself and not be pestering me to use the computer or watch movies etc.

He wisely took his lunch and went off for a walk.

 

I then went for a walk up to the top sheds to see if I could find my missing Leonard Cohen disk.

It wasn't in the Terrano so that eliminated that possibility.

It was a lovely day to just wander.

I love this wee shed.

Each time I see it, it is in more of a state of decay than before.

I am wondering how long it will take before the demolition cleanup machines around here decide that it finally needs to die.

Or will be allowed to quietly fall asleep.......

The old plum tree is loaded this year.

We are all praying that the spring storms will hold off for a few days as the fruit is very close to being ripe enough to pick.

The right side of the tree is dead.

Wonder how much longer the rest of it will persevere.

Must remember to count the rings and see how old it actually is - am thinking it probably was planted back in the very early days so could be 100 years old!

 

The other plum trees are also loaded with fruit but it is still very green.

They reach out towards each other and sprawl across the road down to the house.

Makes a lovely welcome.

A warming sight.

Plenty of firewood stacked up.

Actually this is only a small portion of what is cut during the year.

It gets stacked in various places before coming down to the house supply shed.

This provides us with our hot water and warmth on cold days.

 

I wandered around the garden

Azzan's garden outside his door.

He is so happy with his wee blue watering can.

Sabrina has been busy weeding.

So pleased with how this garden is looking after we replanted it over the past year.

Evan & Jesika's protea looking healthy.

Cat has since cut down the gnarly old cotoneasters behind it.

They once were very pretty but have grown long and woody and windswept over the past 20 odd years.

 

Jesika & Evan's other protea to the right of the white stake, also looking very healthy and doing well.

 

I spent the rest of the time reading my book and catching up on my blogging.

I am reading my way through the series of books by Jennifer Worth.

I finished reading 'Shadows of the Workhouse' in tears.

Jennifer really tells it as it was, and some of it was jolly awful.

I did enjoy the TV series of 'Call the Midwife' but now after reading her books I am sad that it has been portrayed as being more humerous and the pathos of the times is not shown as vividly as it should.

It is really more of a drama than a comedy.

 

The fishers and divers arrived back mid arvo with a few crayfish, butterfish and moki.

 

Shoshannah got Sabrina weeding in the vege garden for a wee while before dinner.

Fresh fish was rather tasty with our dinner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was feeling quite good this morning so was up early and into the kitchen.

Decided to get some cooking underway.

Got a whole lot of corn and tomatoes out of the freezer.

Sabrina helped me.

She peeled a large pot of potatoes for dinner & soup.

We made corn & potato chowder, humus, tomato & corn relish, stir fry veges & cheesey corn & tomato for dinner.

I also made two cakes.

It is Marah's birthday on Sunday and Anson's a month ago when he was away.

So I made them a cake each.
We had decided to have our celebratory dinner tonight as they were off to town on Saturday.

I managed to get through the morning and get all of this done but then physically flagged by lunch time.

I was in the midst of making the humus and realised I had no tahini so was going to grind up some sesame seeds in the coffee grinder.

But then I couldn't find the grinder.

I looked high and low to no avail.

I was really annoyed as it has a home to live in and it was nowhere to be found.

So I had to leave the humus half made.

When Shoshannah came in I asked her if she knew and she immediately located it.

She had put it in a crazy place where I would never have ever found it.

I was very unimpressed and told her so - and then got told off by Seb for being grumpy

 

I wanted to get everything done before I stopped for lunch so the others all came in and had soup while I finished off the cakes.

When Tim came in for his lunch I was so tired and had finished all I needed to do so sat and ate my lunch with him.

It was just the two of us which was quite pleasant.

Because I didn't have my laptop functioning I hadn't checked my emails since early in the morning and I had been waiting for a response from a business mail I had sent so I was checking my phone for it while we ate.

Cat & Leann came down late for lunch.

I was told off by Cat for using my phone at the table.

By this point I was too upset and tired that I just left them all to it and went to my room .

I needed some space

 

Seb & Dean went out fishing.

Phoebe made a cheesecake for dessert.

Dean & Sarah went walking.

When I came back out everyone had gone so I had a nice quiet kitchen for a while which was great.

 

There were 15 of us for dinner so the table was extended out to the max.

We had a delicious roast mutton & pork with veges for mains.

 

Then the children brought out all the pressies.

There were quite a few wee parcels and cards they had made.

I had bought Marah a pink tool set.

She was pretty happy with it

 

 

I had made a carrot cake with lemon butter icing and a chocolate mudcake with chunks of dark peppermint chocolate inside it and chocolate ganache on top.

Azzan presented Marah with her cake

and Phoebe presented Anson with his.

I think he was quite surprised that we had made him one too.

But I had promised him when he was away that I would!

Azzan insisted on lots of candles.

He said he only put 25 of them on so they wouldn't feel too old!

We had cake, boysenberry cheesecake and jellies for dessert.
We all ate far too much but it was all just far too good to not come back for seconds!

 

It was a good night but nights have to come to an end and folks have to go home.

So the dishes were washed and everyone departed to their own abodes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was getting my laptop connected up to the large screen and realised the backup hard drive wasn't connecting.

I had a bit of a fiddle around and tidied up all the cables to see if I could get it to function and then for some strange reason my laptop decided to die.

It appeared it might be the charger so I text Anson to bring his charger around.

But that didn't work either so I called up SouthTec and booked it in for repairs

I am so frustrated cuz I had all my recently downloaded art lessons on it and I hadn't had a chance to back them up so cannot access them now until it is fixed and who knows how long that will take!

 

We unloaded all the plants and groceries and sorted them all out.

Cat wanted some for various empty pots to brighten things up a bit.

We let Sabrina loose in the garden with some of the flowers.

It is quite good to let someone else get busy - you get quite a different effect.

I would've spent ages getting each one in just the right place but she was a lot more random about it so the results will be fun and colourful.

Azzan wanted some too so Sabrina helped him get the pots of Nathan's balcony and he planted flowers out to make his doorway pretty.

 

Cat gave him a small box for his cactus plants so he surrounded them with small white stones and they are now gracing his window sill.

Shoshannah has been busy with her chickens, garden and birds.

Her two baby chicks are very cute.

They live in a box in the lounge with a heater during the night.

In the daytime if it is a good day she pops them out in the rabbit hutch.

 

Leann is busy altering Cat's hut.

They appear to be making it more self sufficient.

Cat is busy dejunking various areas around the place.

It's a great feeling to have the rubbish gotten rid of.

Tim and Patrick went out to do some mussel work.

It's quite strange not having Mahalia at home.

Sort of like having one wheel missing!

But it is great that she can help Phoebe with the wall paper stripping and painting.

Seb& Phoebe and Mahalia came in late this evening with another trailer full of gear.

They also brought Dean & Sarah with them.

They went straight to Waterfall bay as it was 9pm-ish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was awake way before the alarm so I got up and had a bit more time to get myself ready before waking the children.

Cat came with us to the top of the hill so she could load up Graham's trailer with stuff for Nathan.

We left just after 5:30am.

It was wet and foggy most of the way out.

Also the road is really rutted and full of potholes which made driving quite slow & rough.

By the time we got to the main road I was getting very noddy so I pulled over and out my head down on the wheel and rested my eyes.

I must've dozed off cuz I woke with a start when a car horn started tooting.

Shoshannah laughed and said it was me tooting the horn!!

I was fine for the rest of the drive.

 

I had a long list on my phone to work through.

We just had enough time to shoot into Starbucks and grab some drinks on the way to Richmond.

Azzan had to be at One Day School by 8:45am.

We were a few minutes late but that was okay.

He slotted straight in so I left and took Shoshannah to her guitar lesson.

Mahalia and I zipped to the mall while we had half an hour to spare and went shopping for an engagement pressie for Emma & Matthew.

Then we went and posted all the mail.

Got back in time to pick up Shoshannah and then whizzed back to Nelson and dropped Mahalia off at her harp lesson.

It was pouring with rain now so I drove all the way up the steep drive to drop her off as she had her harp with her.

Managed to maneuver our way back down again and zoomed into the city.

I left Shoshannah to suss out downies at the Macpac shop while I went off to the bank.

She found what she wanted to I raced back and did the exchange for her.

I just had time to go visit Leeanne about my dresses and show her the new material I had found in Christchurch.

We picked up Mahalia and then because we were all rather hungry we went out to Crusoes for lunch.

I had to have the girls back in town for appointments at 1pm.

I made the most of the next hour and went off to do a few more jobs.

Got back at 2pm and waited for about 15-20mins for them to finish.

I was getting a bit worried cuz I needed to get the girls back to Richmond for piano and pick up Azzan by 2:45pm.

I just had time to do that.

They had been studying The Hobbit movie and things relative to that.

Azzan had written a couple of stories and also made these signs for his bedroom door.

He had really enjoyed his day there and doesn't want to have to choose between One Day School and Gifted Online for next year as he loves both.

So I have some thinking to do about that situation.

Nothing is insurmountable so I am not too concerned at this point.

 

While the girls had their piano lessons Azzan & I went up the road to Bunnings to get the thinks Cat & Leann and Graham had asked for.

Whilst we were there we went to visit the garden centre and came away with a large variety of flower seedlings.

Azzan was very happy because he was able to choose 4 interesting cacti or cactuses - however you wish to pluralise them!

Then it was back to piano for Azzan.

As soon as he was finished we said goodbye to Andrea and zoomed back into the city.

Mahalia got a frappe for her and Azzan at Colombus, I got a frappaccino for me at Starbucks and Shoshannah bought socks at Farmers.

All before 5:30pm!

We then met up with Sebastian & Phoebe at The Warehouse.

They took Mahalia home with them.

We did some shopping there and then Shoshannah sat in the car while Azzan & I got the groceries.

Two large shopping trolleys later we eventually made our way out tot he Terrano and proceeded to stack everything in.

We called into see Seb & Phoebe, said goodbye to Mahalia around 9pm and headed home.

Stopped off to pick up some truffles from Victoria on the way.

It was wettish but not as foggy as we drove home.

There was a small stretch of real pea soup fog along the top of Okuri where I couldn't see much ahead at all.

But most of the drive was fine.

We were home around midnight.

The two children put themselves into bed and I fell gratefully into mine.

 

While we were in town everyone at home was busy doing a big clean out in the sheds.

It was a very wet day so a great time to do that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday was spent unpacking and trying to get everything into order.

Everyone was tired so we just did what we could.

Got the Terrano unpacked and groceries put away.

Washing done and on the line.

Shoshannah was still feeling a bit achey and has a few yucky battle scars on her back and elbows from her fall.

Cat is busy cleaning and dejunking.

Sabrina has been in the garden weeding.

Tim & Patrick were doing farm stuff.

Anson & Marah were so happy to be back.

They popped around for a visit.

 

 

Tuesday I had to get things organised for town as I was heading to Nelson Wednesday.

Azzan was not terribly happy about going out and I was going to let him stay at home and then I remembered that actually, the day out was for him to attend One Day School!

I was trying to get the children to do some music practice but he was not happy about it.

We managed to get a couple of songs done.

Azzan did some maths but got distracted and built some fun stuff with the math blocks.

 

I managed to get the children to have themselves ready for an early start but I waited until morning to sort out clothes as the weather forecast was so changeable.

Fell into bed with the alarm set for 4:45am.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday while we were attending the wedding Azzan was staying with Bri.

She and Cat took him canyoning at Glentui.

Cat has allowed me to share some of the photos she took.

He had a ball up there.

Told me that it was the most exciting thing he had ever done!!

Bri abseiling down the waterfall

Love this photo!

 

Lots of fun in the pool below.

 

 

 

We had another slowish start to the day.

But still managed to pack up and leave by around 10am.

We had thoroughly enjoyed our stay with Sharon & Jamie and they fare-welled us insisting that we were most welcome to return.

I think we kept them well entertained

 

When we got out of the Waimate Gorge and back into reception we were able to make contact with Cat.

She had already packed up the truck and left quite early.

They had Azzan on board Anson's truck and had already loaded on the quad bike at Waipara.

When we called them they were already heading through Amberley so we all decided they should keep going and not wait for us.

She stopped in Blenheim at 1:30pm and picked up our two new wwoofers.

Sabrina and Partrick - both from Germany but traveling separately.

She somehow managed to fit them & all the gear all on the back of the truck around the quadbike.

 

It was a very hot norwesterley day which got hotter and hotter the further north we drove.

Marah & I were not coping at all well with the heat.

I insisted on stopping for lunch at Raeward's Cafe as we drove past Christchurch.

It was so good to get out of the car and into some air-conditioning!

But we had to keep moving so as soon as we had eaten we were back inside the oven and driving again.

I tried to drive a couple of times to help Tim but I kept going to sleep so had to hand the wheel back to him.

We stopped again at Oaro and went for a walk to see the baby seals.

There were only two but they were very cute and delightful as they frolicked in the waterfall pool.

 

We finally arrived in Blenheim around dinner time.

Stopped to zip through the supermarket, couldn't get too much cuz we were already full to the roof.

Then it was another quick stop at Domino's for pizza to eat as we drove home.

We arrived at Anson & Marah's at around 10pm, unloaded them and then headed home.

We pretty much fell into bed.

So incredibly good to be home.

It had been a very long arduous 12 hour drive

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were all very slow to start our day.

Sharon cooked us up a delicious breakfast and then we all got ourselves into our glad rags and finally headed off into Waimate around midday.

We called into visit an old friend of Tim's for an hour before the wedding.

She was delighted to see us and despite being quite elderly, insisted on making us all morning tea.

We did justice to her cream & jammed pikelets

We did the finishing touches to our clothes and shoes and left just a few minutes before 2pm.

I didn't want to arrive after the bride like we did when her eldest sister got married!

But thankfully the bride was late.

 The St Patrick's Basilica in Waimate is a fine piece of architecture and apparently the stained glass windows are renown far and wide.

Congratulations Mr & Mrs David Sutherland

Olivia & Genevieve are the youngest of the family and are especially close.

I love the look between them I have caught in this photo.

 The proud mothers (sister's of the bride)

taking photos of their gorgeous darlings

Louisa is the eldest of the family.

I was very happy to take a photo of her, Roger and the children.

George, Oliver & Madeline have played a very big part in the lives of our children as they have grown up.

 

Edward (Olivia's brother) hamming it up with Tim

Tim & Anson got the job of transporting the peonies from the church to the venue.

The reception was held at Centrewood Estate.

It was a gorgeous venue.

Funnily enough if is owned by the brother of Tim's cousin's daughter-in-law, so we made ourselves known to Johnny & Jo before we left.

They run a really great business.

Thoroughly recommend them!

The grounds are stunning.

This is my most favourite photo of the day.

 

The 1st of November is also the wedding anniversary of Olivia's parents.

It was their Golden Wedding Anniversary so we had a wee celebration with them while the bride & groom were away having their photos taken.

Congratulations Les & Christine

We were served drinks and canapés as we milled around outside and chatted among ourselves.

Then the happy couple arrived back.

 Some more family photos were taken.

Olivia with her two bros and bros-in-law & father

The Outlaws!

 

Les & Christine with all their children and spouses.

The inside of the marque before we all ventured in for the evening.

 

The meal was lovely.

It was interspersed by speeches.

Then the music began and the dancing.

It was a fun night.

Marah reckons she was splitting her sides as she videoed me and Anson dancing to 'Gangnam Style'

So I guess that was the highlight of the evening

We finally called it a night around 11:30pm and headed off back to Inglewood.

Sharon was still up so we had a chat and then fell into bed.

Some fell quicker than others!

Let's just say Anson had enjoyed his night

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was up early and packed ready and waiting to get a call from Tim.

I had asked him to cal me when he was leaving Waipara so I would be able to meet him at Bri & Nick's.

He didn't do that though, he called me when he got there.

So it took me a while to pack the car and get across town to Linwood.

When I arrived I discovered he had no RUC's on the truck so I whizzed off to the nearby mall and found a Post Office and bought some.

He had tried to buy them on the way down but couldn't get his cards to work

 

We left all the gear we didn't need in the truck and parked it in Bri's garage.

Well as far in as he could get it!

Townie shed's are not made to fit kayaks and trucks in at the same time!

 

We had an appointment at midday in Bryndwyr so I knew we would have to keep moving to get there in time.

We dropped some mussels off in Roger's freezer, then I ran into get a frappe from Gloria Jeans before heading to the appointment.

I hadn't had any breakfast so I was desperately needing a 'fix'.

Meeting lasted an hour.

It went okay although I was feeling quite stressed and anxious about it.

Left not feeling terribly good and couldn't make rational decision as to where to meet Nicky for lunch.

So we ended up meandering somewhat before deciding to head over to Raewards Cafe near the airport.

Nicky soon arrived and we had a lovely hour together.

Anson called up to say he and Marah had landed and were through customs and ready to go.

We said a quick goodbye to Nicky and zipped to the airport to pick them up.

Took a few minutes to find them as they went to a different area than where we were.

Finally loaded them and all their gear on board and headed south.

We stopped off to have a break at Ashburton then carried on to Timaru.

Decided we really needed to stop and have dinner.

We parked up and walked into town and then back again and finally found the Monteiths Bay 54 Restaurant & Bar.

We sat outside to eat despite it being a bit cool.

It was more pleasant there than inside as it was very busy.

I got a call from Shoshannah.

She was very upset and crying.

I managed to establish that she had taken two of the dogs for a walk and they had gone in opposite directions and tripped her up with their leads.

She had fallen flat on her back and concussed herself.

I was very worried about her.

She had walked on up to see Graham and talked with him and then come home and put herself to bed.

She had vomited and had a really bad headache so I called up Graham and asked him to go down and check on her until Seb & Phoebe arrived.

They were slow getting in as they were towing a heavy trailer.

They arrived around 8:30pm so all was good then.

We piled into the Terrano and drove the rest of the way to Waimate.

Felt like we would never get there!

But we were welcomed by Sharon & Jamie at Inglewood Farmstay and made to feel very comfortable.

They have a wonderful 1903 villa which Sharon has decorated beautifully.

They were great hosts, the guys enjoyed farm talk and Sharon looked after us so well and really fussed over Marah.

We were all very ready to fall into bed as soon as we had had a cuppa.