My name is Horatio and she is nuts!

"Everywhere she goes she takes that blasted camera, and all I want to do is sleep........

















................if I just hide my eyes maybe she will go away.................



















.......really really hide my eyes she might go away! Pleeeeeeeeeeease!"

Thomas the labourer and the girls did afternoon tea!

Thomas unloaded some trailers for Uncle Ged today so the builders had them empty for the morning load up. He was right in his element slugging away out back with hunks of wood etc, I might send him up here every holidays to work! It did him good as he has spent a lot of the holiday while here at the house reading his new 700 page book "Brisingr" and is 500 pages through it! He is determined to finish it before school goes back on Monday.

Line, Katie and I went to a lovely cafe on the way to Upper Moutere called Stoneridge for afternoon tea. It is an old church that has been rennovated and is in a lovely garden setting with a big macrocarpa Maze on the property. We will definitely have to check it out for lunch next time we are up.

Sheep and chooks with human tendancies!

So as soon as you head outside of an afternoon following along closely behind are 9 chooks. "Banty" is usually off under a bush scratching so she isn't part of the mob that is pecking around your feet! They crouch down with you and expect a pat on the back of the neck and if you don't pay them any attention they peck at your shoes until you do. They gurgle and warble back at you when you talk to them and I sometimes wonder if they really are communicating in a nice way or are just exclaiming to each other that this silly human thinks we are talking to her and if we carry on long enough it might produce food! I made the mistake of digging over some dirt for them a few days back and they probably think that is my sole purpose every time I venture outside now! So long as they keep producing the eggs they are friends of mine!













Then if you head anywhere near the fence at the side of the house the 4 sheep and 1 lamb come running over to see if you have any bread for them today! Of course I don't, that is Katie's job, but they come over anyway for a chat and a pat. The lamb is only 7 weeks old and he is almost as big as his mother and eats everything in sight! They talk back when you talk to them just like the chooks do.

Richmond's Sundial Square - Nelson. For you Ayden!

The Tasman district council have rennovated the old square in Richmond township that used to have just a gazebo and some flower beds and two way traffic.

It is now a one way street and fountains have been laid into the ground that go on timers with lights of different colours in the sequence and put a sundial monument up at the end of it. It looks very pretty at night.

Very upmarket for little old Richmond!

Journey to the centre of New Zealand!

After all of these years of coming to Nelson, I have just learned that there is a walk from the city up to a monument on the hill that is the geographical centre of New Zealand! Fancy that!

Al took the boys up there after my birthday lunch on Monday, but us girls couldn't go because we didn't have the right shoes on! What a shame......

Happy Birthday Continued!.....

We dined at Morrison Street Cafe in town for lunch. As you can see Al and Toby were there. They drove up to spend my birthday with me and flew home 7am Tuesday the 7th. They left me the car and I will drive home with Katie and Thomas.

Line had had a cake made for me and we had that for afternoon tea. It was a lovely chocolate and raspberry cake, very light and the most decadent icing ever!











We had a lovely dinner at The Tides restaurant with Line, Ged and my nephew Nath, and the chef made me a "happy birthday" dessert which was a lovely surprise.





































































It was a lovely day and the start of a great year as a 44 year old I'm sure.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today I am 44! Thomas made me french toast for breakfast and I got some lovely pressies including 2 beautiful charms for my pandora bracelet. A lovely smelly gift pack of Shower gel, soap and lip gloss from the body shop from Katie and a couple of lovely pieces of handmade fudge from Thomas. Line gave me some local berry chocolates and some Australian dollars to spend when I head over there in November, and my nephew Nath gave me a lotto ticket and some scratchy cards to hopefully win some more spending money!

Thank you everyone.

We are just about to head out for lunch somewhere in the sun and are booked to go out for dinner in town tonight so will be a day of sunshine and indulgence. Just the way I like it!

Digging at Rabbit Island

On Friday I took Thomas to Rabbit Island (our favourite beach up here, about a 5 minute drive from Aunty Lines, he loves to dig in the sand and asks every day until we go and get it out of his system. He must have been a labourer in the mines in a past life!

I assured him the tide was on its way out from being high when we arrived so he picked his spot accordingly and set to with his garden spade!


I settled in on a beach chair to watch rugged up as it wasn't the warmest day on the beach. Hence why we were the only ones there I guess!


After a while I decided to go and collect pine cones to take home as a way to warm up from sitting in the cool sea breeze.

As time progressed it was evident that the tide was actually on the way in, and his creation slowly got gobbled up by the waves!

We went home after about 2 hours, Thomas was happiness filled, soaking wet and covered in sand - just the way he likes it!

Life on the farm, and lamb chops in the holding pen.

Everywhere you go up here at my sister's house, you are never alone! Round lunch time she lets the chooks out of their house and they roam free pecking here there and everywhere. Thankfully they don't come in side, but not much goes on without them right behind you. Thomas spent ages digging over some dirt with the fork yesterday, and there were 6 of them right there with him waiting and waiting for each turn to 'grab' whatever came their way! There are 9 in total, and it is fun collecting the 6 or 7 eggs every day. I don't have to look far for an egg when I am cooking up here. They are such nice eggs too, much better than the ones we buy at home.
















On Saturday Line and I penned 5 of her 7 sheep trying to get the 2 that were going off to be made into lamb chops and roasts for the freezer but we sucked at that really, so just left the 5 of them penned for the man coming to get them the next day to get the 2 she wanted 'gone'. He did it in less than the time it took for me to get the camera and photograph the process!

Ha, I love surprises!

Thursday morning I managed to get Thomas and Katie up at 7am and told them we had to be on the road by 8am as they requested. At 7.50am I told them "hurry up, we have to be at the airport in 10 minutes" They said "What???" I had booked us flites to Nelson leaving at 8.40am and the final checkin was 8.10am. Al and Toby dropped us at the airport and we flew on up on a beautiful clear sunny day on a very calm flite. We arrived at 9.30am so we did in fact have 'the whole day in Nelson' My sister Caroline, "Aunty Line" was there to pick us up and by the end of the day we had already been shopping and managed to get in the first 'flat white' of many, I'm sure.

Katie and Thomas on the plane.

View of the Ranges.

Our plane, on the tarmac at Nelson Airport.