The parents are here!

They landed safely and within 48 hours we are playing scrabble.  Life is good.





 

The parents are coming, the parents are coming

And so I checked the weather on my phone - something I never do.

Boy does it look like an exciting week!

Weekend moments

I'll keep it simple...

I drove down my hill


I bought $35 worth of fruit and veg and the new local market


I went to a party on a farm with alpacas just outside the city.


At the party I discovered that I like archery. 

It was a good, albeit short, weekend.

Venturing out

I also should mention that my wonderful friend Susan and her family ventured to our place last weekend for mad games of Guess Who, feeding horses, trampoline jumping, and yummy (albeit square) quesadillas.

She is also venturing out here this morning to play violin with me.  I am really excited.  This will be our view while we play (except it will be in vibrant colour, which blogger seems to be omitting at the moment):

Venturing out

For the past few months I've been keeping to myself a bit.  I've just needed time to process somethings.  To heal.  I've been thinking of everyone, but its been too much to venture out into the world of large group gatherings.  Still is a bit.

But this last weekend was wonderful... people started coming to me.  We had so many wonderful people come round.  And we did what we love to do - we fed them.

There was the biscuit night with our friend Ulricka.






And a night of food and scrabble with our friend Eva who is heading to the States this week.



Do keep coming round everyone.. I know we live a bit further out, but it means the world to me at the moment. Ta!

Auckland

Work took me to Auckland recently.
It is such a different place from Wellington. Much more subtropical, with misty rains, rainbows, and yellow sunlight. It reminded me a bit of Costa Rica... just bits of it mind you... and a great place to have little adventures.

I kept myself entertained wandering about after the work obligations were complete:


It has a bit of everything.

Waiheke Island - part 1 ferry ride

I had a full day off in the Auckland area and I decided to take the ferry over to Waiheke island. I love the sense of journey when you are on a ferry. You don't really have to DO anything for the entire ride, and yet somehow I always feel like I am accomplishing something great while ride. A mix of purposeful to-do list compleation mixed with meditation and dreaming.

This ride was full of such things from the activities on the water (dredging, fishing), views, and destinations:

Waiheke Island - part 2: the island

The island was lovely. I took the bus down to this lovely beach. I even tried to take a nice nap, but the construction crew seemed to start packing the dirt on the shoreline road where ever I tried to sleep. Even though my bed of sand was a ways from it, the pounding and vibration was intense. I began to wonder about the impact on any sand life forms..... when I notice that sand fleas were biting me all over. I guess I was nicer than the trama of the sand vibrations.
Here is a friendly sign reminding drivers "cement splashes, wash car today"
I just loved this wall... but fear that my mother will try to create one if I show it to her:)

This is the second beach I went to and had a very lovely coffee on that very bench. Ah, it was a nice moment.
I ended up walking back to the ferry from town through the Atawhai Whenua Reserve. It is slowly regenerating. It was quiet though and not too hard on my weak ankles.

I did find this sign amusing... Perhaps this bridge is unsafe, but the small creak was very leapable.

Regardless I made my way down the path to the 'safer' bridge, which turned out to be a sticked laid across the stream!But my very favourite part was getting off the ferry and watching this man roll his semi-portable heater down the city streets... I can only wonder where he was planning to take it!
And my favourite accidental shot of the day while I was out exploring the city streets of Auckland!