Time flies when you're having fun...

It is hard to believe that all of February and most of March has passed by since I last wrote a post. I know I've said it before, but I really must remember to update this more often! Since the last post Will's holiday beard has come off. I really do love how it looks on him, just not so much how it feels...

 

Early February I went back to the Abel Tasman on Year 11 school camp. This was my 4th year in a row doing this camp and it was as awesome as ever. The girls were great, the other staff members in my group were cool, and the weather played its part too. I'm certainly getting to know that part of the national park pretty well! Here are a couple of pics... The first one is dusk at Bark Bay and the second is taken during our lunch stop at Torrent Bay.

 

The weekend before camp Will and I had a trip to Martinborough for the Classic Hits Winery Tour. It has become bit of an annual fixture camping with our friends Elvie and Mike. This year they had also invited another couple of their friends along so their was a good group of us. Despite the soggy weather we had a really enjoyable night. The line-up started with Breaks Co-op whose chilled laid-back summer tunes didn't really suit the weather! Next up was Stan Walker. He is someone who I wouldn't necessarily pay to go to see by himself, but it was nice seeing him live. He was a real hard case performer who looked like he was having a ball. Headlining the show were classic kiwi band The Exponents. These guys belied their (rather advanced) age and totally rocked the show. The weather had cleared up enough by then to leave the sanctuary of our waterproof shelter and get up for bit of a boogie.

 

Will and celebrated our February birthdays with a much more sedate BBQ than what we usually hold. It was mostly a few people from work and was a nice relaxed quiet evening. Next year we might return to a big bash, we shall wait and see... My birthday present was a very nice and shiny new Baby G watch to replace the bright blue sporty number I've been wearing for the last 12 years or so. I liked this one because it was still sporty, but just a bit more classy than my previous one. We found it in the UK for about half the price we could get it for in NZ and Will's brother Andy kindly sent it over for me.

 

Around the time of our birthdays my friend Rose from school who is an avid diver kindly donated us a couple of crayfish  from a successful dive. It was a real treat and as fresh as can be, having gone from the sea to our dinner plates in a matter of hours. Not a bad birthday meal!

 

 

In early March Wellington hosted its Biannual NZ Festival of the Arts. The only event that Will and I made it to was Powerplant which was a light and sound installation in the Botanic Gardens. I thought it was very cool, totally my cup of tea. It started with the trip up to the gardens in the cable car where one of the tunnels had been pimped up.

 

The focus in the photos below might be a bit all over the place, but I like the sense of atmosphere they portray.

 

 

 

The 'show' itself was really cool, once we managed to get to the start... You booked in 10 minute slots and it was utter chaos at the top of the cable car with the poor old festival workers trying to sort out and organise 100's of people into the right place. It was a good workout, talking well over an hour to get around on sometimes steep terrain. Here are a couple more pics.

 

 

And finally, a couple of very short videos.

 

 

Our own garden continues to go well. This year I planted a small flower garden around the birdbath our nana gave us when we moved into our house. We've managed to stop the chickens decimating it too much!

The pic below shows Will digging up the last of the potatoes with some 'help' from a feathered friend.

 

The cape gooseberries this year have been the best they've ever been. They grow like weeds around our place and unfortunately the best specimen of the lot has decided to put down roots in our roses bed! We've tolerated it there because it has been so prolific.

 It has also been an exceptional year for our tomatoes and cucumber. I can't believe how many cucumber we got from just 2 plants!

 

 

 

It really is lovely being able to go out to the garden and pick a whole lot of food for dinner that night. Tonight Will and I enjoyed a mighty tasty salmon salad for dinner complete with cos lettuce, capsicum, tomatoes, cucumber, spring onion and lemon from the garden.

 

 

 

Recently Will and I heard an almighty 'thunk' on our lounge window. When we went to investigate we saw the cutest wee wax-eye recovering on our picnic table. It was quite distressed so we gave it some water and took the opportunity while it was still stunned for a couple of close-up pics. We then left it to its own devices and thankfully it was gone when we checked later. 

 

A few weekends ago we had dad stay the weekend with us in Wellington. Every now and then he comes down our way when he has meetings at head office, but it has been a while since he has been able to stay. I picked him up Sunday morning and we had a lovely day chilling out, reading the newspapers and watching lots of sport. Quality father/daughter (and son-in-law!) time... He headed back up to Hamilton after his Monday afternoon meeting.

That is more than enough for this post. I'll leave you with a pic that Will took of an interesting sunset. My husband is quite taken with dragons and reckoned this looked like a winged beast straining to take off.