Happiness Filled

Yesterday was such a great day. All four of us stayed home and pottered around, doing our hobbies. Ed was trawling the auctions looking for new seeds to grow, and planning the spring garden; Mr J set up the tent in the Loungeroom and turned it into Lego central; I spent the day sewing bibs in my new designs (stay tuned); and Roo played alongside me with her doll house & little dolls. Later the kids & I made cardboard dinosaurs (Roo's idea) followed by some baking. All this and beautiful sunny weather. Bliss! Amazingly, I managed to get a photo of Roo's dino with Mr J arms- fluke!

A Mild New Zealand Winter?

Eight days ago we were reflecting on how mild the weather had been. Sure a few wet days here and there but pretty warm for Winter, really. On the Sunday we went for a stroll on the beach. We weren't exactly wearing short sleeves like the fishermen pictured, but Mr J was happy to run around in shorts!
The last five days, however, have been pretty dismal- thunder and lightening grumbling every couple of hours and hefty winds hammering the lower north island. I'm glad all these hills were made to cope wit lots of rain. We've just heard to expect five more days of the same. Come back sunshine...!


Wai-iti Beach

Mt. Taranaki/ Mt. Egmont

Colourful Dinos

The View

Here's the view from our house on Tuesday morning. We have quite a few nice sunrises which our camera, or perhaps my lack of skills, can NEVER do justice, but I managed to catch the mist okay. We live on top of a (big) hill and have great views over the valleys towards Mt Ruapehu, which you can see on a clear day. The front of the house faces the Tasman Sea and I sometimes (ok, often) give a wave to the family across the ditch (but seriously, there's a good 2000km between Australia and New Zealand...).