Back!!

There has been a lot of cake eating (thanks to my mother-in-law, the marvellous and magical Maureen).

And lots of crocheting...

But most of all, lots and lots of sitting and chatting since Mum and I have been back in Tauranga. Still a bit tuckered out but definitely filled with the glow of having a mini holiday in Christchurch. Off to bed. So nice to be back. Kisses and hugs xxooxxooxx.

Time for a little jaunt.

Tomorrow will be a big adventure. I am setting off all by myself and flying down to the South Island to stay with my brother and see my Mama. And then when my brother is not looking, I am going to secretly mumnap her and bring her back up to North Island. Sneaky-like... The boys are bursting at the seams to see their 'Gaga' and so, are very happy for me to be holidaying without them for a couple of days. I can't wait to be up in the air with my feet up(ish) and a really, really trashy magazine. There just seems to be so many things to do before I go though, like make sure I really did organise someone to look after the boys for me and switch off the iron and not the freezer. Uh oh, I had better go and check again. See you soon. xxooxxooxxooxx

Another book and a house full of hair cuts...

I am beginning to have a somewhat furtive relationship with this book. I notice that every time I walk past, it stops me in its track and makes me sit down, flick through pages and sadly like our (actually I think he belonged to Lucy) old, deceased, overweight ginger tom, Ginger, dribble until my whiskers droop. The idea of hiding it in a cupboard somewhere has occurred to me but it is a library book and I don't want to lose it. I also don't want to return it, never ever, ever and am thinking about taking out library subscriptions on each family member's behalf so that I can keep it forever. It is just soo good.... soo good.
The other thing going on in this house at the moment is rather unfortunate. Half the members of the household are looking very awkward with new haircuts. Those two people happen to be Hugo and myself. Jonno and Archie are happy with their glorious heads of hair, swaggering around the house with a faint whiff of freshly shampooed superiority whilst Hugo and I, well, we are wearing lots of hats.

I have to say the hairdresser did a great job with my hair. It is very short and choppy, however, without any product (I hate the way it coats my hands whenever I self-consciously give it a ruffle) it goes into a kind of puff where I look like a monkey-headed girl. So farewell to the last haircut of scary dragon-gallery lady and hello to the 'one who lives with monkeys'... the colony has been so accepting of me fortunately.

Hugo's haircutting adventures have been quite a different story. It turned out he was not quite so enamoured by his blond curly locks and didn't think the whole sweeping fringe thing was as cute as I did. In fact, he felt it stopped him from being able to see. In fact, it did. BUT, he looked so cute.

The other night he trotted downstairs and told me that he cut his hair which he considered as a very good and practical thing to do because now he can see. It was very hard logic to argue with and he looked sososososooso funny, there was nothing in me left to firmly parent him with. Those long curly sides and the very short, hacked top was punishment enough. Jonno couldn't control his laughter and so had to leave the room.

The next morning I neatened up the sides but as I don't want his whole head to look as though a lawn mower went cyber-mad (you know what I mean, when they become slightly digital and slightly human and try to take over the world), we have to wait a couple of weeks before a general cohesion of lengths can be reached. I will post photos but first need Jonno to take a photo of me at my most monkey-like just to be fair to my smallest son.

I still exist.... I promise.

Missing in action is a terrible thing in the blogging world... but lean in closely and listen, I will tell you why there was nothing but a big greedy silence. On a wild and blustery night last week, a Tuesday if I recall rightly, a gigantic thunder storm lashed the Bay of Plenty with a dark and vengeful fury. Above our cowering house, a big blade of lightening cracked down upon us, blowing out our vulnerable little modem and plunging our home into an Internet free zone. It was such a big boom that Archie (the unwakable) sat up and cried out for me, fearing we were in the middle of an earthquake (not an uncommon situation in New Zealand).

The bright cold and hard light of day met us on Wednesday, I shall never forget it. I went to check on all of the previous night's international blog activity and... nothing, just a page that kept telling me to check my IP provider. No sorrys, no "I know this is hard for you", nothing.

For the first day I alternated between sweating and chills, the second day I had an urgent and unquenchable thirst to know what all of my blogging friends were doing, the third day I managed to potter around the house a bit but was still overcome hourly to check the computer and by the fourth day, I looked around and discovered my house was looking much tidier than it had done for months. By the seventh day I decided that cleanliness is the most overrated past time in the world.

So hurrah for the first day of Spring but more importantly ("Than Spring?" I hear the blossoms on our tree ask indignantly), hurray for being back online. So much to catch up on with all of the cup of tea reads which will be so much more interesting than any magazine.

I posted a few photos above of things that I have been doing in my computer-free week, just a few snippets including my super-rubbery new gumboots which make for the most wonderful pair I have ever worn in my life. I would give them names but I don't want them to get too conceited as I intend to walk all over them.... ba boom chi. Yes, that would be me in showing-off mode.

By the way, just 7 more sleeps until my Mama flies over to New Zealand. I have never grown out of the whole jumping into bed with her in the morning act, I just now have a couple of young puppy like creatures who also join in and we find this incredibly hard to do with an ocean in the way. The best thing is she has learnt to crochet so I am imagining lots of hooking (the more polite version) and copious amounts of tea.

Anyway, I had better go and cook something, sadly the family became very used to dinner over the last week. Honk honk.

Little Friends Waiting.

A tiny feathered friend avidly watching and waiting for the Dogwood tree to unfurl its strawberry pink flowers.
Little baby Russian dolls waiting patiently for me to build a legion for them. I am actually thinking about turning you into pendants sorry girls, I am just not the person to make an army.

Spring Cleaning

Looking out across the farm from our balcony, I couldn't help but notice that for all intents and purposes, it is Spring. And an odd thing happened, an electrical current flooded my body and rewired it all to Spring cleaning setting. Which means that I am now kinda looking forward to going through the house and dealing with the mountains of stuff we have everywhere.

I am going to curb the impulse that causes me to see things as individually interesting and instead...

Remind myself that it all mounts up to something unintelligible and rather frightening.
To take that scary image out of your mind, here is a little parcel before it was sent away all wrapped up like a peachy, freshly swaddled new baby.

Projects with a cutting edge and food thoughts...

Life has changed a lot since I bought my Fiskar shape cutter (by the way, this is not in any way a paid advertisement for Fiskars). It is just better. Life is better when you realise any shape you ever wanted to cut will just flow from your hands like birds from a magician.

I am gathering all of the the random and left over balls of wool,

To make pom pom packs and my Fiskars whisker cutter has been helping me. Look at all the templates they so lovingly included for me...

I'm thinking Christmas labels, I'm thinking about attaching fancy tags to the boys, I'm thinking, well, in fact I am thinking about dinner. Risotto - chicken and streaky bacon and mushrooms and Parmesan cheese.

In fact, I think this weekend will be all about food. A festival of cakes and scones and stews and apple pies and cups of tea. Because Jonno is busy on the farm and is working every day, food seems to be the distinguishing marker for us between week days and the weekend (oh and of course Archie being home from school). There is nothing like having a bit of time to enjoy cooking at a slower pace rather than cramming it all into the moments between baths and homework.