Then There Were Two.

So nearly finished. We're all going to be fighting to stay in it, it's so beautiful! The beds are all hand made, the glass beads in the  mobile are hand made, the mobile is hand made actually the whole building is hand made and is a testament to the theory of 'many hands make light work'

 

 

 

 

While the adults were putting the finishing touches to the hut, the children were doing what children do best...

''Barn Raising'' at the beach

RandV are making a new hut down at the beach so a bunch of us headed down to help. It was brilliant, young and old all mucking in together to make something. I can't explain the technical stuff in the photos as I just did what I was told! Like hammering and painting - easy stuff really.

It's amazing to think that this morning there was nothing there and by late this afternoon there''s  a hut. Ok we are back again tomorrow but I think by the end of the weekend it'll be finished!

We had a huge sausage sizzle at lunch time then just got right back to work. What you can't tell from the photos is how hot it was! We were all sweltering!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alex contemplating life!

The internal walls going in after being whitewashed

Lloyd admiring the french doors

 

And last but most definitely not least - Reef, painter extrordinaire!

A lovely couple of days
We've been lucky enough to be basking in the most glorious spring weather. We headed down to Crayfish Cottage for an impromptu lunch yesterday. It was just the 4 of us so we nipped in to the the Gourmet Grocer to pick up some cheeses, panchetta and a french stick, then drove over to Richard and Ness. They've been redoing the inside of the cottage to make it more practical to use. Please note the lovely curtain below the work bench...I made that!


yummy lunch

Today the sun is still beaming down ( as could be seen from Lloyd's glowing face!) We've spent the day working like, well, hard working things!
We started off by feeding the veggie beds with donkey poo fertilizer and putting a lot of dolomite on them. We have amazing volcanic soil, but the good things leech out of it as it is so well draining.
We worked all morning then stopped for a bacon sandwich, we fed the rind and the fat
( after it was hard) the the chooks - and they went mad for it!!


then needed a big drink to clean their faces.
There's a tiny bit of blossom out on the peach tree on the right and on the left the elderflower is just about to burst into leaf!

After that we decided the time was right for a bit of chainsawing. We've had three pongas right outside our kitchen window since we moved in. They've grown and grown and even though Lloyd machetes branches off they still block a lot of light and our view. We've been loathe to cut them down as they are beautiful, but just in the wrong place. They also fill our gutters with fluff and dead branches, not good if rainwater is all you have as your water supply!

So we decided they had to go.
(note the washing - brilliant drying day!)



We took this and dug a hole and stuck it in - who knows!
We also took the trunks and laid them flat down beside the wall on the drive and one down at The Acorn. We've seen them laid like this before and they start to grow from the sides, so fingers crossed.

And the best part
let there be light!

Delicious Dinner
It was Sara and Judy's birthday so we all met for breakfast at the Bakehouse.
In the afternoon Paul was cooking for us all. It was supposed to be that the girls would hunter gather for a change and the men would cook, but for the most part the hunter gathering meant going to New World with a list of ingredients we'd been told to get! Sara did get mussels though.

Anyway, Paul cooked us all an amazing meal and it was just one of those lovely evenings.


Dinner


Lloyd and a huge cleaver



the scallop shuckers

Happy New Year
Well, since we arrived in NZ this is the hottest it's ever been at this time of year.
To celebrate hogmany everyone went out on their boats to Deep Water Cove. Even though it was scorchingly hot and not windy there was a fair chop and swell so we had to go slowly. It took an hour and a half to get back to Waitangi on the way home!!
There were dives and crays caught, in fact a huge amount of crays!
The evening was spent at Crayfish Cottage as is our tradition, 4 years already.
There were the 6 of us and a few others, Rhona and Marcel, Beena and Brin, Archie and Frank - all friends of Rhona's and lovely folk.this is the new tractor!!

We ate most of the crays, had fireworks and generally just had a lovely time.


This year, if all goes well, we will become NZ citizens. The application is away and they've cashed our cheque!

Here's to 2009!

Vanessa's 40th


It was Vanessa's birthday today, it was a biggie - hint..I celebrated mine in March.
We all went down to Crayfish cottage for an amazing birthday feast. There were the usual suspects and Carol. The sun came out a lot and more and more wine was consumed as the day wore on. The place looked totally brilliant. Don't know if afternoon drinking agrees with everyone though!

Reef was an angel!



The table was gorgeous

even the chicken was invited!



and the guys were .....happy!

MMmmm don't ask!