Whakatane Trip

We had tied up the plane after we arrived thinking Dad wasn't there yet - meanwhile he was sitting in the car round the back of the shed on the field - looking out for us to fly over.

The day after Boxing Day we went for a walk along the riverbank to check out the new walkway/cycleway. Along Dads street are loads of lovely old trees.

Later we went to Ohope Beach and Dad went for swim (that's him in the blue and black togs)...

George just dipped his feet.

Here we all are, from Left to Right - Shawn, Sue, Dad, Tracey, George and I.

Dad's front garden...

Flying home again - we went from Matamata to Mercer to here then flew all the way up the west coast to Muriwai, across to our place for a photo (one of the best yet) and to Parakai.

Decorations

I really love unique Xmas tree decorations and try to add one each year, our tree is smaller this year (and I have lost my fairy lights!) but I was trying out the macro on my new camera...

Complete with green moth above!!

Pauanui

This is Pauanui - a very popular place in the holidays. Lots of baches (non-flash holiday homes). In the south island they are called "cribs". Awesome views we had on the flight hey!

Coromandel

This is the Coromandel - very popular in the holidays. In fact there were planes everywhere. The coasts of Nee Zealand are so beautiful - so different from East to West and so uniquely NZ!

Otama Bay

Isn't it amazing! The day we got married it was raining but it was warm and still amazing!

Trip to Whakatane.

We flew to Dads on Boxing Day after I fed the horses and did some poop picking. We flew over Otama Bay on the Corromandel which is the beach we got married on. It was a lovely flight. I'll add some pictures soon - just trialing this new software for blogging from my new iPhone which my darling husband got me for Christmas along with a cool pink Canon Ixus!

Xmas Day continued

I just found these on my old camera...

My slightly over-done Gingerbread trees - the oven does not cook evenly which is a pain for baking. They were all gone by 28th.

Dante looking after the table until 'Dad' gets home.

George with his haul.
Our lovely Xmas dinner - for those of you who wonder what us vegetarians eat!

Roasted asparagus in garlic and olive oil, Tuscan Bread Salad with Red wine vinegar and caper dressing, new potatoes and snapper oven baked with capers and parmesan.a

Xmas morning

This is the view that awaited me when I woke up.... I had woken up in the night and seen the really clear sky and bright stars...

The orchard and pittosporoms are looking fab!!

I was giving the boys their treats (and taking photos with the horse santa hat) and this little whirlwind came (twice) and blew all the post peelings up (you can see them twirling) - it's so still today - it was very freaky like someone else was there saying hi (who is no longer with us)... maybe it was Blue.

These are the treats the boys got for Xmas - just half the cookies (the rest are for tomorrow)... Blue would have adored these.

Happy Christmas everyone.

Xmas Eve ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪

I was busy tonight listening to Christmas songs (there was nothing on TV) and making stuff - firstly some horse treats for the boys tomorrow (above).

Then some chocolate dipped strawberries for tomorrow...

and some gingerbread tress (still to be iced)...

Hope everyone has a lovely Christmas.

Xmas Time

Well we don't have an inside Xmas tree but we have 6 NZ Christmas Trees outside!

These just popped up in the olive tree pot...

The veggie garden is looking great!

Just a shot of the grass that has been growing since I taped off the newly sown grass - this bit's in the middle so a good indicator as to the great mix of grasses we have.

And finally the Puriri tree is looking like a tree again.

Flooding

We had no flooding in the area all winter and now look! That's what happens when you get 63mm in two days!

After the rain

We had about 38mm of rain yesterday added to the 25 or so the day/night before but today the sun came out (only at our place - we drove to Kumeu for lunch and it was raining!)... and everything looked lovely and green. Even the lawn is starting to look a bit greener.

George took his plane for a fly today after not being able to fly it for a while due to the wind lately - but today was calm as.

We sprayed the orchard this morning and I caught up on the poo picking.

We had sushi for tea but last night we made a silverbeet and caper fritata with our own silverbeet!

Feijoa flower

Seems kind of early but it was nice to see a flower on one of my feijoa trees. Just goes to show you have to try pretty hard to not get these to grow!