herb bundles

speaking of bundles, my sister annabel & her fiance nick had their baby boy theo on monday, i was honoured to be a part of that as i was in auckland for the occasion. bells is coping amazingly well with everything, i am proud of her. it is EXciting to see them taking on the mantle of parenthood, they are both already so devoted & loving. i feel quite attached to their munchkin & am looking forward to seeing him again very soon. wow! somehow it is easier to appreciate the joy of new life when it is not your huge responsiblity to meet the immediate needs of the precious bundle, those little legs, big black eyes, perfect features. aaaarrrr just gorgeous gorgeousness.

stormy wellington settled wellington

tom & i had a fine time in wellington, g'dang that place is cool. we had a lovely meal at the ortega fish bar, i liked the decor alot & the food (& cocktails) were delic'. we had breakfast at the maranui surf club one day & the next day we had breakfast burritos at sweet mama's kitchen so, lots of yummy food & welly people watching. it was beautiful weather other than the first night which was a cracking thunder & flashing lightening storm. i had a freak out morning when i woke up on sunday to gretchen & geoffery's alarm, which was dialed into national radio - just in time to hear the presenter talking in an extremely serious voice about keeping safe & then following it up with 'there has been an earthquake in christchurch, mary wilson will follow with a special programme.' then unbelievably, they put some music on! my heart was racing with concern for family & friends, it was a great relief to hear soon after that there were no casualties. even so, christchurch people have been having an unimaginably tense time with the aftershocks so my thoughts go out to them.

birds & sticks

flying fantails & winter branches

fudge brownie

we're off to wellington tomorrow for 3 days on our own, too exciting. this is our beloved neighbour maggie's fudge brownie, made today to share with my class tonight.

chick pea & yellow flavoured day

yesterday i made my favourite winter soup 'Minestra di Ceci e Porri' for lunch - mmm it's so good with all those chick peas, leeks, spinach & what not. there were some chick peas left so i made them into hummus, i was pleased about that because i then got to use the little turkish bowls i bought from the dump shop. these daffodils were for mum to give to her aunty margie who sadly is living in a demetia unit here in nelson, i do hope they brightened her day.

silver birch bark

i haven't been updating my blog regularly enough i don't think, maybe it will have to just be a weekly blog? it feels odd to me sometimes to be writing about myself & detailing everything i do, kind of self involved or egotistical or boring or something...
these flowers were for nana's birthday yesterday & the card stand warren cut for me from silver birch branches we found when were in st arnaud. i actually made a birthday cake for mum last weekend for st arnaud, i was quite proud of it but somehow didn't get around to taking a photo. it was called celebration cake & i did sugared pansies to decorate it with, they looked very pretty but were quite fiddly to make as you have to paint them with watered down egg white, then sprinkle them with caster sugar. louis was fascinated with them as it was such a novelty to eat flowers that tasted like lollies.

mamario's birthday

it was mum's 60th birthday yesterday & i made her these flowers with love from robin & her brother john. the colours look a little washed out in the photos unfortunately as i haven't yet mastered my camera, i'm looking forward to knowing how to saturate the colours much more than this. we are celebrating ma's birthday this weekend at st arnaud with all of us 4 children/adults & our respective partners, i'm looking forward to it very much. the studio-like photo of eliza, louis & celeste was taken as part of a school fund raiser, we framed it & gave it to nan anne for her Bee-day also.