School…

Wow, February the 2nd, how did that happen?!!!!!!

Luca is back at school tomorrow for the start of the new school year. He will be in Year 7, hard to believe! Years 7 and 8 are considered the senior classes of primary school here, (some go to a separate school for it called Intermediate, Luca had that option, but he said he is happy where he is for the next 2 years). Either way it comes with more responsibility and a wider scope of classes to prepare them for high school, which goes from Year 9 to 13. The system has changed since I was at school, and different to the North American and UK systems, so I am still trying to get my head around things, especially at the high school level.

Here is Luca on his first day of school in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia (7 Sept 2013)..

When Luca was starting school I bought him this pillowcase, it came in black and white, with paint for it to be coloured in. Luca loved it, he spent ages colouring.

It has traveled the world with us, and even now is his pillowcase of choice .

We try hard to be mindful of every moment as the years disappear, but I find myself wishing often that we could stop time, just for a while. Rich and I so aware of how special these years are, and often remark to each other it is going by way too fast.

This last week of the school holidays has disappeared too of course. Rich took Ted and Luca to the salt water pool and they had a blast, all boys were exhausted when I came home 🙂 The salt water pool is such a great thing for Dunedin, we are lucky to have it. How incredible is this setting?

We have fitted in some more biking. We are going to have to look at getting Luca a bigger bike in the next few months, he is outgrowing this one fast!

The kids have to stop at every exercise stop on the way into the city of course!

The cycle way goes for about 3/4 of the way from Port Chalmers into Dunedin ,(a 15-20 car drive), and they have commenced the cycle path from Port to where it now currently begins. So exciting!! The road portion of the journey is just not safe especially for kids. We take the car to the path and then bike to the city, it is really cool we will soon be able to bike the entire distance. This will be great for the kids, as they will then have the option of biking into the city and to high school! 🙂

Luca has got a lot more confident and taking on more hilly terrain. I came home from work the other day and Luca came out to meet me with scratches all over and a big lump on his arm, he had gone down a hill on our property and hit a tree. It was all superficial and has not put him off, he and Rich will be off mountain biking in the not too distant future I suspect. Rich loves mountain biking, so will be cool for them to do it together.

All animals are happy and healthy. Luca had an interesting find recently, an egg laid by Diane….

I have not experienced this before, and had to look it up to confirm what it was. Apparently it happens occasionally , an egg laid that is tiny, and often yolk less ,(this one was), called a witch or fairy egg. Does not indicate anything is wrong just an anomaly, pretty cute really.

This is the Church, (Iona), we live just behind of, we cannot see it from our property, but….

it has bells that ring every hour, on the hour, I love it, it is not at all intrusive, just a gentle reminder of time as we go about our day. How lucky are we to have such amazing architecture around us?!

In 2012 Rich brought Luca his first Almanac, Luca was hooked! He has collected them all since ,(they put out one annually). These too have traveled the world with us and a constant source of information and entertainment for Luca.

He is very protective of them, and will tell the story of how, when he had friends over when he was 3, one wanted to look at them and he did not want them to. I overheard and sent him to his room to think about “sharing is caring”. The friend proceeded to deface his 2013 book, you can see it there in the picture, the one with partial green binding. Luca has very clear memories of it, me very little! Clearly a major parenting fail on my behalf! I have apologized often! 🙂

Blackberry season is upon us. We have a lot of blackberry on our property! We will be clearing it out to make way for pasture in the next couple of years, but in the meantime will make the most of them. I have planted thorn-less blackberry in our garden so we will continue to be able to have them in the future, just in a more accessible way.

Currently it is like this…

Still it is worth it…

and along with our apple laden trees, this can result…

Talking of food, as I mentioned in one of my comment sections, Luca has a huge problem with eating any of our animals. He gets very emotional about it and brings up some very good points when we discuss it. None of these current hens I had plans to eat as they are basis of the flock , but I had thought later on we would cull some for food, and the same with the sheep, pig etc.

I have always thought if you are going to eat meat, then you should, if possible, be involved in the process of getting meat to the table, including the growing of it. Hopefully this process gives you more compassion and respect for the animal while it is alive and during the killing process, making you mindful of the sacrifice made, which in turn gives you a deeper appreciation and understanding of all life in general.

It is a difficult one, especially for one that feels as deeply as our boy, and who pointed out in our last discussion, after reading some of the book “Sapiens, A brief History of Humankind” that we are all animals and so “eating our chooks is like eating our neighbors, what is the difference”?!

It is an ongoing discussion……. 🙂