Mum's Here!

Last weekend mum arrived! Lloyd and I picked her up from Auckland then headed straight to Waiheke Island for a 2 night break. Mum had never been before so we thought it would be a nice treat.

Lloyd managed to get a wee sneaky pic of mum arriving! I think it would be fair to say we were happy to see eachother!

We visited our friend Rhona, this is her dog, Baxter.

Mum and Lloyd had to sample the local wine - it would be rude not to!

Outside Man o' War Winery

A 'selfie' taken by Lloyd - Mwahahaha!

Then it was my birthday - which was really lovely. I made myself some cakes! Well, I ate one and mum and Lloyd had one each too.

Big Yum!

Since arriving home we've been doing stuff every day. Today we went out with Nick and Sara on their boat and met up with Simon and Ali who were out on Roxi. Here we all are - having a rather lovely time.

Mum has gone home

We had such a brilliant time. but it was too short, as usual. She stayed for three weeks, but it still flew past. For her last couple of days the 2 of us went down to Auckland. We stayed at the Langham ( mum's treat!) and it was excellent as usual. On Tuesday evening we went to Euro for dinner. A week or so ago I read on Sue's blog that she and Joe had been and it looked amazing. It was. Lovely!

 We both had the duck to start, and I had an eye fillet for main and mum had a scallop risotto - but sadly after all this we were too full for one of their amazing looking deserts - ho hum, will just have to go back again!

There is a yacht race happening down in Auckland just now so the Viaduct has lots going on, the atmosphere was amazing. Lloyd is lucky enough to be sailing down tonight with friends and will spend the next 5 days living it up down there. I am staying at home to animal sit! There were even more spectacular yachts than usual in the marina.

We also did a wee bit of shopping and dropped in to Sabato, which has to be my almost all time favourite deli - only beaten into first place by Valvona and Corolla in Edinburgh.

I bought some spoils to keep me going while Lloyd is away and to cheer me up after mum left. She'll be back again in November, though!

It was my birthday, yesterday.

I'm forty..something... mumble, mumble..

 I feel like I had a 2 day celebration, as a friend of ours has his birthday the day before me, so we had a joint brunch with our joint friends. It was lovely, and Cafe Cinema ( where we went) made us a cake!Which was so kind of them.

 

Then, that evening we went out with some other friends who have just bought a yacht! How amazing is that! We have some rather lovely friends! 

Here's mum living the high life!

 This is us, sailing off into the sunset.

And it wasn't even my birthday yet.

So, yesterday, on my actual birthday, the sun was shining and we drove to Mangonoui to have my usual birthday treat of some fish and chips. As ever it was delicious.

So delicious, in fact, that this wee gull wanted some too.

 My smiley face - you can tell I really like fish and chips!

We stopped off at Te Ngare bay to say hi to Paula, then headed home

 Then in the evening, barely over our early lunch, Lloyd, mum and I headed over to Paihia to do Darryl's dinner cruise. We've heard lots of good things about it from people that have been before and it didn't disappoint. It was such good fun and the dinner was spectacular!
This is a wee pic of the three of us under Haruru Falls. ( mum has another one that we all have huge cheesy grins in, so I'll try to get it from her)

 

I have had such a great birthday.  Been spoiled rotten. Thanks everyone for all the birthday wishes. 

No storm here

it would seem that we got off very lightly in the 'weather bomb'. I woke up once last night when a gust blew something off the deck and rattled the bedroom window but that was it! Mum  slept over here last night, though, on the sofa! It would appear she had a guest...

He's all newly trimmed so obviously thought he was clean and shiny enough to curl up with her.
 (like that makes a difference!)

When I was out yesterday checking all the animals before the bad weather was supposed to come, the donkeys and alpacas were posing for photos! First one is Rachel!

Next we have Darjeeling and Earl Grey  who look like they are actually smiling for he camera!

And last but not least, Sheba!

Anyway, our original plans for today were snuggle up on the sofa, eat lots of rubbish and watch many films. However, as the weather is actually rather nice we'll do something else. Is it wrong that I'm a little disappointed?

Apologies for my lazy posting recently!

I've been making the most of the weather and cramming in a lot of scuba diving.
After 2 solid days of it,  I am now exhausted!

This wee guy hung around for ages, just pestering me to get his photo taken. I wish I could have shown it to him!

I'm also excited because mum arrives on Thursday. I'm going down to Auckland on Wednesday so I'm there bright and early to pick her up. Looking forward to her arriving immensely! Also mum is very lucky, as Lloyd has said it's ok for her to stay in the lovely woolshed!

A few things

Yesterday it was our wedding anniversary. We've been married for 8 years and I just can't believe how quickly they've flown past. I think mum summed it up for us when she said " You both make eachother so happy" and she's right!

Happy anniversary, my lovely.

I took mum down to Auckland on Wednesday so she could catch her flight home. This was the first time I'd ever driven to Auckland and home again by myself - thank goodness for sat nav! And even then I did get lost a wee bit. It was fun, we did a lot of shopping which is so unlike me it's unbelievable!! Maybe it was the excitement of being in a city or something! I did get some lovely fabric.

I can't believe mum has been and gone already. It seems to go faster each time she comes over. 

We stayed in the Quadrant again and went to Kermadec for dinner. I've been there once before and really liked it. They surpassed themselves this time. We had the most lovely waiter and the food was spectacular.

Mum treated us to the tasting menu.

 Southern ocean kingfish carpaccio, yuzu juice, mirin, soya bean, daikon, pink radish, fresh coppers folly wasabi

 Scallops, butter apple, toasted oats and milk, hazelnut butter, rosemary

 Wild Red deer, beetroot purée, Tarakan chocolate, Banyuls, shallot, raspberries

 Iced blueberry balloon, cassis, olive oil, cheesecake, baby sorrel

note the macaroon on the far left... oh yum!  These were actually mum's ~ they came with her coffee but she halved them with  me.

Such pretty food!

See you in April, mum.

Oh and while I was away the next lot of baby ducks were born. There are 6. They all look totally fine, but one is much smaller than the others. I'll make an attempt to catch them today and put them in the other 'safe house'. What a palaver!

And after that I may have a day of rest.

veggie garden

I've just been composting some borage that was well past its best. Even with thick gloves on some of the wee spikes went right through and into my hands. I am not liking wee spikey things in my hands!

 Brandywine tomato

 'the corn is as high as an elephants eye'

Our new irrigation system is working terrifically. Finally, with the warm weather things seem to be growing faster than they were. My alderman peas are already about 2 feet taller than me ( not hard as I'm 5ft 3) and have their first pods on them. I was so impressed that I planted another lot a couple of weeks ago.

Kopi cat the helper, garlic to the right of her, courgettes to the left...

The gem squash have their first flowers. Nothing yet on the cucumbers but at least they are growing. Tomatoes are all looking good with the exception of one which is at least half the size of the rest. I can see no reason for this as it look healthy enough.

 All in all I am delighted with how things are looking on the veggie front. I might have been a wee bit late getting them  in, but they're coming along nicely.

First hydrangeas

Mum only has one full day left up here, then the 2 of us head down to Auckland for a night then she's off home again. I just cannot believe how quickly her trip has gone. Anyone got any ideas on how to persuade a dad who has problems walking any distance to swallow his pride and get a chair at the airport? I would dearly love to see my dad over here again and it would mean they could stay for a couple of months rather than 2 weeks. ( Roll on April, eh Dad?) 

Oh yes I knew there was something else. Our dental practice got broken into yesterday... twice. Close your eyes now if you don't want to be offended by my bad language. Are they closed?  Yes?  Right.

FECKERS.

Ok got that out of my system, except to say Claire ~ lovely dental nurse and Debbie ~ lovely receptionist...thank you and we love you.

ok what else?

Loyd has made tiramisu for dinner tonight, well not the whole dinner, but the desert part - so soon we'll all be stuffing our faces

JOY.

A wee jaunt over to Russell

It's scorching today, the hottest day of the year so far, I reckon, so perfect for a wee outing to Russell for lunch at the Duke of Malborough.

We decided to take the car ferry over from Opua which is really sweet. Once when we were going over the ferry had just left when we drove up so they reversed it back to pick us up!

We had a wander around when we arrived as Russell is so pretty, especially on a day like this, and as it's not really summer yet it's not filled with people and all busy, so it was lovely.

The Duke has been bought by new owners and they've started doing it up and are making a really great job of it.

You can't beat a nice shandy on a hot day!

View from the Duke.

A few hours were spent soaking up the atmosphere then we headed back for the ferry and home. Off to the cinema tonight to see Red.

Mum had a wee rest in preparation

Tomorrow I'm going to make some soap for the first time so stay tuned! Oh and remember this ~ The Great Macaroon Disaster ? Well Lloyd and I were watching Australian Masterchef, as usual, last night and they made macaroons. Somehow Lloyd has persuaded me to try again, he said we could do it together, so sometime in the not too distant future I'm going to get my pinny on and give them another try. Oh yes!

Bad day/Good day

Yesterday was not the best day. I fed all the animals in the morning, mum and I went out for about an hour and when we came home the young ducklings - the 2 I kept -  were nowhere to be seen. They are 4 weeks old and really pretty large and were out free ranging with their mum. She was here but there was nothing to be seen of the ducklings, not even a feather. Most people reckon it was a hawk and I suppose that's probably all it could have been, but I have never seen a hawk over the house part of the farm and would it have got 2 at the same time? Anyway I fear they are gone and it's really sad.

Then the next disaster. Joseph, our ancient donkey is now blind in one eye and when I was leaving to pick mum up from the hairdresser I noticed that he was standing on the wrong side of the electric fence leaning on it, getting a shock every second. He would have been like this for at least an hour and I don't know what even made me look backwards when I was leaving. I ran to his paddock hoping to lead him out, but when I touched him I got a shock from his bridle. I ran as fast as I could back to the woolshed and turned off the electric fence then ran back to him. He was just standing there, sweating. Then he laid down. I patted him and gave him some water. Zoomed to get mum then came straight back to him. He was still just lying down on top of the, now not electric, wire. This could not have been very comfy so I thought Ah stuff it, I'm cutting this wire than at least he'll be comfy. So I cut the fence and he stood up. Still looking very dazed. We checked on him lots but he was sort of the same for the evening. This morning we got up thinking we'll have to phone the vet, however he has perked up and seems back to normal ( normal is a very, very old donkey) We are having a think over the weekend about what we're going to do, but it's a quality of life thing, really isn't it. I fear we are going to be making a very hard decision soon.

So all in all yesterday could have been better.

Today dawned clear and hot. It's the day of the A&P show which I love. We got there for about 9am and wandered around. I love the 'petting tent' I'm sure it's really for children, but its filled with baby animals of all sorts. It's lovely.

 By the time we left the grass in the front of this photo was filled with cars, we've never seen it so busy, and wasn't the weather good to us.

My favorite were the baby alpacas. Too much cuteness.

We spent the morning there then came back home, checked on the dogs and Jojo then went out for lunch to somewhere rather special. Kauri Cliffs. We thought it would be a lovely surprise for mum. It was an amazing lunch.

It's a stunning place.

We had a tasting menu which was totally lovely.

Lloyd and mum had rather a lot of wine :)

We had such a good time, which made up for yesterday a bit.

 this is all that was left of the salad!

Home again now. Sun is still shining, Lloyd has had to go for a lie down and mum is collapsed on a bean bag outside reading a good book.

I think I'll join her.