Mihiwaka
The apple and blackberry pie turned out well…
Luca’s homeroom has regular “Cake Friday’s” so he and Rich have been practicing for when it is his turn to take one in. This one lasted about 2 seconds….
They are baking again today…..
Good thing with all the goodies we are doing lots of exercise. A couple of weekends ago we did a hike up Mihiwaka and then went on to do The Kettle, we had done part of it before but never the whole thing. Quite the challenging climb, we all felt so good after it! The views look back on the peninsular we live on, it is really so incredibly beautiful….
The path is not well used and sometimes we lost it but eventually found our way, it was quite the adventure! Our shoes looked well walked in by the end of it 🙂
At home the Bonsai seeds that Luca planted earlier in the year are coming along well…
and the edible mushrooms that I started growing awhile back are taking off, they started slowly and then
suddenly exploded!
I am part of a mushroom group so will go to them for ideas on how to prepare for eating!
The garden too continues to feed us well…
Luca’s snacks are picked fresh daily, lucky boy!
Speaking of Luca….
he has got into the rhythm of high school, (which is always an adjustment), and managing really well. There are lots of opportunities to try different activities during the year. He has joined Kendo, a Japanese martial art, and has become a librarian for the school. So far his favourite class is Latin, as the basis of all European languages he sees similarities to Spanish and seems to be picking it up fast. His new laptop is getting a whole lot of use.
Rich and I thought long and hard about getting him a laptop and phone for school this year and wondered if it was really necessary. Turns out that it would be very difficult without both, so much is done online and messages sent to phones about agendas etc. This is another thing that bothers me, a lot of caregivers are not in the position to be able to afford these and further marginalizes their kids. During these intense times it adds more pressures on families.
Speaking of “these times”, unfortunately, as expected, Omicron has taken a hold in NZ with the cases rising daily. We were almost at 2000 new cases yesterday which is unprecedented for NZ since this whole pandemic started. The cases rising steadily in Dunedin. At work we have spit into two teams so if one team is off then hopefully we can keep the clinic open and continue to see patients. I think it is inevitable that I get it, I have to get so close to my patients and I see all (masked, unmasked, vaccinated and unvaccinated), I am vigilant with my PPE and hygiene but my biggest concern is passing it on . My risk of getting really sick with this current variant is low, but a good majority of my patients are high risk ,(elderly, immuocompromised or multiple co morbidities), their anxiety is high and they are scared. It is a highly emotive time and sadly we are seeing ,(as with the rest of the world), fear turning to anger , time will tell how this all plays out. A colleague gave me these recently and the lilly smell has greeted me each evening as I come through the door, it is the little things that help keep the spirits up 🙂
I recently came across a couple of old photos, this one was taken in 1910. If you look at the tip of the church steeple, to the left is the graveyard ,(you can just make out some of the bigger headstones), and our property is right next to that. It is such a cool photo to have! The whole hill area behind has been regenerated with native bush but at that point in time it had all been logged. The majority of the buildings seen in the photo are still there.
Below is George Street, the main street in the village so wonderful the buildings have been kept and it still looks very much the same.
As I finish this the boys are pulling their cake out of the oven, smells divine! I am required for a taste test, happy weekend everyone xx