Easter 2021

Happy Easter everyone! It is early morning here on Good Friday, I woke early and opened the door, the wind was warm and rain ,(which we desperately need), was in the air, as I write this raindrops have begun as you can see on our kitchen window above.

It is very cozy in here, everyone else still in bed making the most of the holiday…

It has been almost a month since I last posted, I have been remiss! The month of March went by in a flash with a lot happening! It was Pica’s 6th birthday on the 21st, Luca brought her a present which she is totally in love with 🙂

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Aria has become a member of the family and spends the weekends with us, Luca calls her his “weekend sister” and adores her 🙂 We all enjoy her company a lot. Luca and his mates are really good at going outside to play while she does her study and then they all relax in the evenings.

On the warm days Aria does her work outside and the chicks attempt to help, though not too sure how helpful they actually are 🙂

Rich took Luca and Mahe to the annual Edge of the World event ,(like Comic-Con for those of you in North America), the kids went last year and had a blast again this year. They are really into Dungeons and Dragons and The Magic Gathering etc so a perfect place to indulge in all that, and make connections in the Dunedin area, there is a large community here that are into all that sort of thing.

Boating has started again at school so Rich helping out with that again and the work continues on the tree house. It is coming together beautifully, he even found some lovely Rimu cladding to go on the outside, he is becoming rather attached to it and considering claiming it as his open space, the kids had a word or two to say about that as you can imagine 🙂

Our fall has been so lovely and we have been able to make the most of our outdoor space each weekend with friends coming over for BBQ’s and drinks etc. Our strawberries have been producing in abundance, always a surprise to me that they grow so well down here at the bottom of the world!

I think this time of the year is my favorite, so pretty and the weather although a bit cooler is settled and sunny. I have planted more fruit trees in our orchard and they are coming along nicely. Tomorrow we turn the clocks back. The darker mornings mean I am a bit later getting to the chooks, this is what happens if the door is left open, they come looking for me!

Work for me has a been super busy, but in a good way and I am enjoying the challenge of it. The PTA is up and running again for the year and we have big plans for the school. It will be my last year on the PTA, I have been doing this since Luca started school back in Mahone Bay, at high school level there does not seem to be the same need, so I will make the most of this last year. It is bitter sweet, I love the connection it has given our family to the school and will miss that, it is a lot of work, so not doing it will give me time of other things 🙂

A big announcement happened this month, my brother and family have decided to move to Dunedin! They are moving from Auckland ,(NZ’s biggest city). It is quite the change, but who can blame them, this is a VERY cool place to live and so great for kids! It has meant Rich and I have been going to open homes for them so they have an idea of the market. It has been quite the eye opener. The housing market in NZ has exploded since COVID with the average price now in NZ over $800 000, ( in our bigger cities the average much higher), this is unprecedented and of concern to many. For us, we feel so grateful to have got in when we did as would not have been able to afford this property if we were trying to buy it now.

So that has been March, as we head into another month we look forward to what it brings……..