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| Bird of Paradise |
Monday, September 30, 2013
Spring Time
I just love this time of year, when all the flowers are stretching themselves skywards and showing us their true colours.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
5 Years
No that is not the number of years I have been blogging (been doing that for the last 8 years!)
No, this number is the amount of years hubby and I celebrated for our anniversary last week.
Yes we are just mere fledglings when it comes to this marriage lark, well we have been together just coming up 14 years, so maybe not fledglings anymore!
We were lucky enough to have Grandma come look after the boys whilst we escaped for the night.
We went out for dinner, stayed the night in a cute little B&B and then had breakfast in a quaint cafe and then finally came home in time to collect the boys from school.
I just had to show you my dessert from our dinner out......
That is a white chocolate mousse, with dark chocolate ganache coating the inside of the glass topped with raspberry coulis and some sprinkled pistachio nuts.
Let's just put it this way, as hard as I tried there was still some left at the end!!
No, this number is the amount of years hubby and I celebrated for our anniversary last week.
Yes we are just mere fledglings when it comes to this marriage lark, well we have been together just coming up 14 years, so maybe not fledglings anymore!
We were lucky enough to have Grandma come look after the boys whilst we escaped for the night.
We went out for dinner, stayed the night in a cute little B&B and then had breakfast in a quaint cafe and then finally came home in time to collect the boys from school.
I just had to show you my dessert from our dinner out......
That is a white chocolate mousse, with dark chocolate ganache coating the inside of the glass topped with raspberry coulis and some sprinkled pistachio nuts.
Let's just put it this way, as hard as I tried there was still some left at the end!!
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Month in Numbers for August
Another month has gone by and I almost missed out on my month in numbers for August.
Julie over at Notes on Paper is probably just finalising her post for a few days time for her September numbers and here I am only just doing August, but hey, better late than never!
I managed to capture only 2/3 of the communal counts:
How many people visited your house this month = 1
How many usually live here = 4 people + 2 cats
You too can join in with this data collection for yourself each month if you are interested. Julie has an amazing page over on her blog that explains all about what we are insanely doing each month.
It doesn't have to be anything huge, you could even just start with the communal count that Julie has started each month in conjunction with MiN.
For September we have to consider counting the following:
Julie over at Notes on Paper is probably just finalising her post for a few days time for her September numbers and here I am only just doing August, but hey, better late than never!
I managed to capture only 2/3 of the communal counts:
How many people visited your house this month = 1
How many usually live here = 4 people + 2 cats
You too can join in with this data collection for yourself each month if you are interested. Julie has an amazing page over on her blog that explains all about what we are insanely doing each month.
It doesn't have to be anything huge, you could even just start with the communal count that Julie has started each month in conjunction with MiN.
For September we have to consider counting the following:
- How far do you now live from the first school you attended?
- How much does a pint/litre of milk cost where you live? How much did you buy this month?
It really is quite easy to count your month, just keep a little note book near the diary in the kitchen or on a notice board in your home communal area and add things to it throughout the month. You will be surprised the information you consider counting!
Friday, September 27, 2013
Tea Time Catch Up
Wow, where does life go??
1 minute we were catching up in July and now suddenly it is September.
I am so glad Abi reminds us about this little monthly catch up otherwise another month would have just slipped on by for me.
The clocks go forward for us here in New Zealand on Sunday and I am not sure I am ready for summer yet? Where did winter go? Was that it? Are we in for some rough weather before we start getting all those nice summer days? That is the typical way things seem to pan out down here.
So many questions and the only thing I can do is sit tight in my house and go with the flow!
Welcome to my part of the world, how is life with you?
I just made some chocolate brownie, please feel free to have a piece whilst I tell you what has been happening here.
I firstly want to say sorry for having not visited your place in the last month or so, but then I haven't even been keeping my blog up to date as it has not been on the top part of my priority list, which is a shame as I do love catching up with people but I do have to keep my family flowing first.
Life has been really odd since I went back to work after my surgery. Thanks for asking all is well and I am all recovered.
However I have found that life just hasn't flowed well in the last 6 weeks. I had to look after some students who were half way through a placement and I found it very difficult to make it work well.
I am glad that placement has now finished and I am on to a new set of students right from the start of their placement and so far it is all flowing nicely and I feel more in control.
I think that was probably part of the problem, I wasn't in control for the last part of their placement and it was very frustrating.
Even if the clocks do change on Sunday we have had some nasty weather in the last week leading up to us officially accepting summertime ahead.
The wind was blowing and the rain was lashing down.
The windows were rattling and the house was shaking. I was so glad we were all snug in our beds last week when the weather turned nasty for a few hours.
Wish I could say the same for the tree we are now missing....!
We opened the curtains at the front on Wednesday morning and this is what we found!
Turns out it was rotten but we didn't know it at the time.
It sure was a fun way to spend an hour after school sawing and cutting up wood and leaves. The boys had great fun.
Of course it didn't take too long to clear everything away. The neighbour came round with his chain saw and made light work of the trunk of the tree.
Nice little pile of fire wood just a shame we don't have a fire to burn it on!
We put the pile beside the road and with a few hours it was gone. Glad someone somewhere is able to get use out of it. Always do love playing things forward and helping people if I can.
We are just heading into 2 weeks of school holidays here too, so I now have to use my imagination and come up with some interesting things to do to entertain 2 boys for the next week or so on the days they are not in care!
Good job we are not having this little catch up in 2 weeks time otherwise I might be telling a different story, one that starts with how I lost the boys and don't know where to find them!
Thanks so much for stopping by for a little chat, it has been fun catching up with you.
Till next month.......
1 minute we were catching up in July and now suddenly it is September.
I am so glad Abi reminds us about this little monthly catch up otherwise another month would have just slipped on by for me.
The clocks go forward for us here in New Zealand on Sunday and I am not sure I am ready for summer yet? Where did winter go? Was that it? Are we in for some rough weather before we start getting all those nice summer days? That is the typical way things seem to pan out down here.
So many questions and the only thing I can do is sit tight in my house and go with the flow!
Welcome to my part of the world, how is life with you?
I just made some chocolate brownie, please feel free to have a piece whilst I tell you what has been happening here.
I firstly want to say sorry for having not visited your place in the last month or so, but then I haven't even been keeping my blog up to date as it has not been on the top part of my priority list, which is a shame as I do love catching up with people but I do have to keep my family flowing first.
Life has been really odd since I went back to work after my surgery. Thanks for asking all is well and I am all recovered.
However I have found that life just hasn't flowed well in the last 6 weeks. I had to look after some students who were half way through a placement and I found it very difficult to make it work well.
I am glad that placement has now finished and I am on to a new set of students right from the start of their placement and so far it is all flowing nicely and I feel more in control.
I think that was probably part of the problem, I wasn't in control for the last part of their placement and it was very frustrating.
Even if the clocks do change on Sunday we have had some nasty weather in the last week leading up to us officially accepting summertime ahead.
The wind was blowing and the rain was lashing down.
The windows were rattling and the house was shaking. I was so glad we were all snug in our beds last week when the weather turned nasty for a few hours.
Wish I could say the same for the tree we are now missing....!
We opened the curtains at the front on Wednesday morning and this is what we found!
Turns out it was rotten but we didn't know it at the time.
It sure was a fun way to spend an hour after school sawing and cutting up wood and leaves. The boys had great fun.
Of course it didn't take too long to clear everything away. The neighbour came round with his chain saw and made light work of the trunk of the tree.
Nice little pile of fire wood just a shame we don't have a fire to burn it on!
We put the pile beside the road and with a few hours it was gone. Glad someone somewhere is able to get use out of it. Always do love playing things forward and helping people if I can.
We are just heading into 2 weeks of school holidays here too, so I now have to use my imagination and come up with some interesting things to do to entertain 2 boys for the next week or so on the days they are not in care!
Good job we are not having this little catch up in 2 weeks time otherwise I might be telling a different story, one that starts with how I lost the boys and don't know where to find them!
Thanks so much for stopping by for a little chat, it has been fun catching up with you.
Till next month.......
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Scavenger Hunt 2013 Final
I can not believe that September is here already and more over the fact that the hunt has now finished!!
Life has been hard the past 6 weeks and I feel like I have disappeared totally off the radar.
Blogging has sadly taken a very distant back seat, but then so has most things if it doesn't come into the day to day running of life. However things are easing and I feel like I am getting on top again, so here's hoping things can start over and bloom towards the end of the year.
I have still been searching for my remaining scavenger hunt items but they have just not managed to make it up on the computer.
Seeing as today is the official last day of the hunt then today is the day they have to be completed.
Have I managed them all, yes I think I have, and I will be the first to admit that I have had to use a substitute item for 1 of them too.
Without further delay here are the remaining items that I had yet to post about, all be it a short quick description of the item, usually I would give each item its own post but life is just not playing that way at present, so I am doing the best I can!
I have written out the scavenger hunt list. Those items already found during the summer/winter I have linked too, those being shown for the first time today are completed below.
#1 - Open Air Market
The local Farmer's Market on a Sunday morning is always worth a visit.
#2 - Theatre for performing arts
#3 - City Hall, Capitol or similar Civic Building
Would you believe Hamilton does not have a City Hall or Capitol. So I give you our Court House.
#4 Airplane
#5 A Sunset
Of all the ones to have not completed yet this was a weird one as the sun has been setting everyday of the hunt and I have just not remembered to get a shot.
On the night I successfully got a shot I also got a picture of the reflection in the window of a neighbour's window, I just loved how it looked.
#6 - Someone or something taking a nap
#7 - A sign that is intentionally or unintentionally funny
I still love this sign as we have both children and cats, and believe me sometimes I really do want to get rid of the children and keep the cats!!
#8 - A tower
#9 - A photo with someone or something that is clearly out of place
This was a difficult one for me, I just never seemed to see anything that I felt was not meant to be!
Until I saw this entrance way into the local park.....beautiful archway however not sure who thought to grow daffodils on the top of it!
#10 - A bench that is outside
#11 - An animal in a zoo, aquarium or nature reserve
#12 - A cloud in the shape of something
I have to admit defeat on this item and bring in the substitute card....!
Instead I give you a sundial
This dial had many sides to it. Each side measuring a different aspect.
East and west vertical dial. North vertical dial, a south equatorial dial and even a polar dial.
I think you could have this sundial at sea and navigate the world, although bags not being the one to try that!
#13 - A fence
#14 - A stained glass object or mosaic
#15 - A fire truck or police car
#16 - A windmill
#17 - Candles
#18 - Your local pub/bar, coffee house or tea shop
There is just one place in Hamilton that I love to go for my hot chocolates and that is Scott's Epicurean. They do the best I have found in the whole city and the reason why? They use a chocolate syrup that they have created by melting chocolate and adding sugar etc to. It is divine and well worth a visit.
#19 - A fisherman
Usually something like this would be easy to find, wander down by the estuary at the caravan or wander along the Waikato River but alas it was not meant to be.
My son and I raided all their story books to find a fisherman but alas this was not meant to be either!
Finally I remembered that in my computer game 'Sims' (which I had been playing a lot whilst recovering) I had the ability to make them fish in the pond, so as a last resort that is what I offer up as a picture of a fisherman...!
#20 - A dinosaur
#21 - A photograph of you with an artistic tool or craft supply
Now do I take a picture of the computer, my ever faithful craft tool or do I use my pen and paper! How about some stickers I have to decorate things with?? So many choices but I finally went with a picture of me with my cross stitching
This stitching is a slow, very slow work in progress, but I love picking it up and just doing a little bit every now and then.
Conclusion
I was hanging out for this hunt this year, I was ready for it on June 1 and I got all the family involved.
My first item to find was #11 'an animal in the zoo' as we visited Auckland Zoo on June 1 and we didn't even know what was on the hunt list at that point! Something made me take several pictures that day as I had a feeling an animal would be on the list.
My favorite item for the hunt was #4 an airplane as we got to hang around the observation area at Auckland airport, something that we use to do a lot when the boys were little and it was fun to see their faces again watching the planes come and go. Something we haven't done for over 6 years now because we moved towns.
My hardest item was probably the one several people will admit defeat to and that was #12 a cloud in a shape! I searched and searched the sky but with no luck. Seems winter skies in New Zealand just don't play well with finding shapes in the clouds!
Thank you Rinda for running this awesome scavenger hunt for us once again. As always it has been a pleasure, if what sometimes frustrating, but always a pleasure and I so hope you run it again next year as myself and the family need this to get us through the winter months here in New Zealand.
Life has been hard the past 6 weeks and I feel like I have disappeared totally off the radar.
Blogging has sadly taken a very distant back seat, but then so has most things if it doesn't come into the day to day running of life. However things are easing and I feel like I am getting on top again, so here's hoping things can start over and bloom towards the end of the year.
I have still been searching for my remaining scavenger hunt items but they have just not managed to make it up on the computer.
Seeing as today is the official last day of the hunt then today is the day they have to be completed.
Have I managed them all, yes I think I have, and I will be the first to admit that I have had to use a substitute item for 1 of them too.
Without further delay here are the remaining items that I had yet to post about, all be it a short quick description of the item, usually I would give each item its own post but life is just not playing that way at present, so I am doing the best I can!
I have written out the scavenger hunt list. Those items already found during the summer/winter I have linked too, those being shown for the first time today are completed below.
#1 - Open Air Market
The local Farmer's Market on a Sunday morning is always worth a visit.
#2 - Theatre for performing arts
#3 - City Hall, Capitol or similar Civic Building
Would you believe Hamilton does not have a City Hall or Capitol. So I give you our Court House.
#4 Airplane
#5 A Sunset
Of all the ones to have not completed yet this was a weird one as the sun has been setting everyday of the hunt and I have just not remembered to get a shot.
On the night I successfully got a shot I also got a picture of the reflection in the window of a neighbour's window, I just loved how it looked.
#6 - Someone or something taking a nap
#7 - A sign that is intentionally or unintentionally funny
I still love this sign as we have both children and cats, and believe me sometimes I really do want to get rid of the children and keep the cats!!
#8 - A tower
#9 - A photo with someone or something that is clearly out of place
This was a difficult one for me, I just never seemed to see anything that I felt was not meant to be!
Until I saw this entrance way into the local park.....beautiful archway however not sure who thought to grow daffodils on the top of it!
#10 - A bench that is outside
#11 - An animal in a zoo, aquarium or nature reserve
#12 - A cloud in the shape of something
I have to admit defeat on this item and bring in the substitute card....!
Instead I give you a sundial
This dial had many sides to it. Each side measuring a different aspect.
East and west vertical dial. North vertical dial, a south equatorial dial and even a polar dial.
I think you could have this sundial at sea and navigate the world, although bags not being the one to try that!
#13 - A fence
#14 - A stained glass object or mosaic
#15 - A fire truck or police car
#16 - A windmill
#17 - Candles
#18 - Your local pub/bar, coffee house or tea shop
There is just one place in Hamilton that I love to go for my hot chocolates and that is Scott's Epicurean. They do the best I have found in the whole city and the reason why? They use a chocolate syrup that they have created by melting chocolate and adding sugar etc to. It is divine and well worth a visit.
#19 - A fisherman
Usually something like this would be easy to find, wander down by the estuary at the caravan or wander along the Waikato River but alas it was not meant to be.
My son and I raided all their story books to find a fisherman but alas this was not meant to be either!
Finally I remembered that in my computer game 'Sims' (which I had been playing a lot whilst recovering) I had the ability to make them fish in the pond, so as a last resort that is what I offer up as a picture of a fisherman...!
#20 - A dinosaur
#21 - A photograph of you with an artistic tool or craft supply
Now do I take a picture of the computer, my ever faithful craft tool or do I use my pen and paper! How about some stickers I have to decorate things with?? So many choices but I finally went with a picture of me with my cross stitching
This stitching is a slow, very slow work in progress, but I love picking it up and just doing a little bit every now and then.
Conclusion
I was hanging out for this hunt this year, I was ready for it on June 1 and I got all the family involved.
My first item to find was #11 'an animal in the zoo' as we visited Auckland Zoo on June 1 and we didn't even know what was on the hunt list at that point! Something made me take several pictures that day as I had a feeling an animal would be on the list.
My favorite item for the hunt was #4 an airplane as we got to hang around the observation area at Auckland airport, something that we use to do a lot when the boys were little and it was fun to see their faces again watching the planes come and go. Something we haven't done for over 6 years now because we moved towns.
My hardest item was probably the one several people will admit defeat to and that was #12 a cloud in a shape! I searched and searched the sky but with no luck. Seems winter skies in New Zealand just don't play well with finding shapes in the clouds!
Thank you Rinda for running this awesome scavenger hunt for us once again. As always it has been a pleasure, if what sometimes frustrating, but always a pleasure and I so hope you run it again next year as myself and the family need this to get us through the winter months here in New Zealand.
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