July Holidays

Term 2 is now done and dusted. It's scary to think that I'm now half-way through the school year. Quite a bit more than half if I think about it, considering Term 1 was a whopper at 12 weeks long, and this term was 9 weeks. Next Term is 9 weeks again, then Term 4 is pretty much 8 weeks, although all my senior classes will be gone after 3, leaving me just 1 class to teach... It's probably a bit too far out to be counting down to that!

Our garden looked lovely this autumn with our Cleopatra magnolia especially stunning. Here are a couple more pics. Unfortunately the blooms don't seem to stick around long, maybe it's the Wellington wind...

 

 

The camellias have also been very pretty...

 

The cherry tree put on a nice autumn display for us, as did the stellar magnolia to a lesser extent. The magnolia was a bit confused by the extra warm June weather and had quite a few 'spring' flowers before the leaves changed colour and eventually dropped. A lot of our spring bulbs have also come up early.

 

Here are a couple of chook pics; Florence amongst the autumn leaves followed by Daphne who has just scoffed down a feed. Will is bit of a soft touch and when he has his porridge in the morning he will often put out a container of oats 'for the girls'.... Often they will be all lined up on the back doorstep waiting for him!

Speaking of chooks, last weekend we picked up our 2 new ones. They are SO tiny, about 8 weeks old! I don't remember our existing ones being so little. They still 'cheep' too which is cute. We try to name them all after redheads... Will is holding 'Amy Adams' named after my friend Geoff's celebrity crush, and I have 'Sassy Red', which is actually a Macs brewery beer.

 

 

The new girls are very flighty so hopefully they'll calm down soon as they get used to their new home. I'll try to spend a bit of time with them over these holidays as life is much easier when they are tame and happy to be handled as needed! Our original 3 chooks don't quite know what to make of the new arrivals, they appear to be terrified of them! Hopefully they'll quickly get used to each other. The newbies are enjoying exploring their new surroundings.

 

 

 

Here's a pic of our tamarillo tree which is absolutely laden this year. Apparently tamarillo trees have quite a short life-span for producing fruit. Will grew this tree from seed about 3 years ago from a fruit from the existing tree which you can see just to the right of the new one. It's a good thing that he did because the old tree didn't produce anything this year, so could well have done its dash.

 

 

As I mentioned earlier, June was unseasonably warm, one of the warmest on record. In our greenhouse we have loads of tomato seedlings which have self-seeded. Some of them are starting to get quite big! I'm not convinced that they will survive the winter, but we shall wait and see. 

 

My school gets 3 weeks off for these July holidays which is lovely. I don't have a huge amount plannned which is also lovely! Will is away for the first 2 weeks of my holiday at conferences in Beijing and Vancouver. I could have gone with him, but decided not to as I've already spent a bit of time in both of those cities. Originally the Vancouver conference was meant to be in New York which I was excited about as I've never been, but unfortunately it got changed... The day before he left he bought me some beautiful lilies which should last the time he is gone.

 

The holiday got off to a great start with a gorgeous weekend. Lots of blue skies and sunshine. Not bad considering it's meant to be winter! I spent most of Saturday tidying up bits and pieces in the garden. On Sunday my new HOD Paul and his family came for lunch. They were keen to meet the chickens as they have had them in the past. I also have lunch dates planned for this Thursday and Friday which will be nice. Today I took advantage of another beautiful day and walked to the gym and did a good session. I'll try to make it a regular event during my time off (the gym that is, the walking part will be weather dependent. I also spent a bit of time round at my friend (and mixed doubles partner) Geoff's place. He is heading back to the UK and has decided to sell his house, so has loads of stuff to sort! I'll help him in any way I can. It'll be nice spending some time with him before he heads off. Now I just need to find myself a new mixed doubles partner...