Kaitoke

We also went up to Kaitoke for a walk with our visiting friend Emma recently.
There are few places left near here with big trees. Oh how I love and miss big trees.

I love this place .. it is like a NZ version of the mossy forests I grew up in back in Oregon
Then it was time for lunch

Which always leads to wading and playing in the water... just like any school trip as a kid where they let us eat by the water and then tried, with little success, to keep us out of it.

sick sick sick

As if the swine flu wasn't enough. Nor was the second flu I had. No I had to get another virus, one that sent me to bed for nearly 3 weeks, and then reduced me to a fatigued pile of tears after four hours of work each day. Two weeks of 4 hour days four days a week, and I could just barely manage to go back to full time work.
One day in there I took a vacation from my bed and went for a ten minute walk on the beach at the bottom of our hill. There was a wee fort someone had built and I just wanted to curl in and hid away for a bit.



And a tree that I even stopped to photograph... too bad I didn't remember it when we were racing the pair along the beach and we nearly SMASHED into it a few weeks later. Oops. Driving backwards in a boat is not my forte.

I was one sick girl. Fever, infection, glassy eyes, but I was most impressed with my neck. Do notice the swollen neck. My lymph nodes took almost 5 weeks to return to normal!

Signs of Christmas

Although a huge part of my heart is longing to be home with my family and friends in Oregon who are enjoying a white Chirstmas and a bit of extra time off from school,

I also am enjoying the signs that Christmas is coming to Wellington.

The poutakawa trees are in bloom.

The road crews are out.

Kirks and Stains's windows are decorated, although I am a bit confused by the upside down tree...

I was thinking of creating Christmas cards of Trav and I hanging upside with a greeting of Holiday Wishes from Down Under.  Perhaps they were thinking along the same lines.  Except they clearly have more energy that I do this year as they actually followed through with their idea, whatever the reason behind the upside trees.

After rowing today I finally went and got myself a tree.  It wasn't as romatic of an experience as in years past.  I went to a Petrol station near Pak N Save, handed over $15, and helped myself to  a tree from the pile leaning against the wall.  But I tossed it on the car by myself and tied it down all BY MYSELF.  It was a different kind of good feeling, but just as memorable as previous years.  

Once home, I needed to cut off a bit of my tree to help it drink.  Really it is just a cheaper subsitute for the cut flower bouquets I've been treating myself to lately, but a lot harder to trim. 

For a Christmas stand I filled a paint bucket with water and gravel.

I also had my friends E and D over who kindly helped me decorate.  Dai came down too to admire it and get in the season's spirit a bit.  

Then to really celebrate life, I treated myself to a present. I paid off one of my student loans.  It was pretty small one to start with, but 7 years later I no long have to look at this screen.  

Too bad the Sallie Mae screen will be part of my life each month for many years to come.  Oh well, baby steps.