A month of loss…

It has been a month since my last post, a difficult month. It took about 3 weeks to get over covid in this house and still there is a residual cough hanging in there. During this time our dear friends lost their eldest son, (18), in a devastating set of events that ended in him being shot and killed. We are all still in shock, he was the gentlest, kindest, most thoughtful kid and this senseless killing has shaken us all to the core. There is nothing to say that will help make sense of it, we hold each other a little closer and wish we were with our friends and their 2 other children, able to hold them close too. When the kids were little, we spent every week together for years going between each others homes, sharing meals, holidays and adventures, Luca thought for the longest time they were his cousins and they are indeed family in all but blood, our hearts are broken for them. Then 2 weeks later Luca’s principal died suddenly of a heart attack at her home. This has completely devastated the community, she was young , warm, passionate, nurturing and led the school in unprecedented ways. She will be so missed, everyone is in mourning and it will be a struggle finding a way forward for the school without her.

Life has gone on, as it does, but the sadness resides…

The build has had many setbacks again, we have accepted that we will be at this much longer than anticipated, by summer things should be completed. However it is moving along, we are now completely insulated and weatherproof. A lot of effort and money has gone into systems to make this home as warm and energy efficient as possible. It has been worth it. We could set this down in the arctic now and be cozy.

Rich is spending his days covered in gibstopping, it is difficult, dirty, tedious work but saving us at least 4-5 thousand…

To the left is our room and right is Luca’s. That door is temporary so we don’t have to enter from the current living space (to minimize dust and dirt coming into our living space, it is kinda working, but I have accepted the reality that we will need to live in chaos and mess for a few months more 🙂 ).

Looking out through that door from our room…

Our room looking from the wardrobe…

Looking down the hall from our room, the temporary barrier at the end opens to our current living space, Luca’s room to the right and the other bedroom (which we are turning into a TV room) the to left. Plus there is large closet to the right (in that open space). We currently have no storage in the house, so have added 2 large cupboards (in addition to wardrobes in the bedrooms). The other cupboard is going where the old sliding down used to be (see the photo below). What are we going to do with all this space!!!!!! 🙂

The TV room

Luca’s bedroom above and below. The 3 doors have gone in beautifully, a bargain second hand buy that saved us a couple of thousand.

Here is another angle looking from the deck. The first window is the TV room and the second is our bedroom.

The winter blooming flowers help to brighten the short dark days

This cyclamen was given to me by a patient a couple of years ago and each winter has come back to life

Daphne has always been a favourite of mine , cuttings smell divine on the kitchen windowsill…

The cosmos and calendula flowers at the beginning of this post just keep blooming in the garden with no real care at all, they are very cheerful to see dotted about.

The olive trees Luca and I planted almost 4 years ago are coming to life as well. This is all a bit of an experiment as I really have no idea what I am doing, but the fruit look very good so far, up until now they have never got to this fully developed point …

The vege garden is down to the staple winter stock, I have done a lot more staggered planting this year and it has proved worthwhile

I came across this in a “sale bin” and could not go past it as knew Rich and Luca would love it..

They spent many hours putting it together…

It was worth it, so cool! Will look great on his desk in his room 🙂

This month was my birthday, we went up to Moeraki, a little village about an hour away for lunch, my brother joined us. It was a perfect day for a road trip, we took the scenic route up.

We went for a wander around after lunch, it is such a lovely setting…

This is the front door to Fleurs Place, closed currently, but world renown in the foodie world for its fine cuisine It is set in the old whaling station. Chef Rick Stein put it on the map when he was offered anywhere in the world to eat and chose Fleurs.

Last weekend my brother hosted Sunday Roast at his. He and the kids are in love with their kittens, such lovely additions to the family. Tiger chose to join Luca for his meal, he did not touch just looked on with interest 🙂

In between building Rich has been baking and cooking up a storm.

Luca has sat his exams, at the end of this week term 2 ends, then he is on holiday for 2 weeks. He has just given his subject choices for NCEA starting next year, (this is the system here in NZ for senior high school), the choices are amazing, (so many, many more than in my day), he is excited about it, having more control over his own learning I think is a wonderful thing. There have been a lot of strike action this year by the teachers, so lots of days not at school. Luckily Luca switches back into home school mode pretty quickly. He is already doing online learning for one of his classes, German, he wanted to take it and it was only offered online, so far that seems to be working out well and a good experience for him. The teachers are now in arbitration so everyone is hoping an agreement can be met. We are totally behind the teachers on this, for too long they have been under resourced and under paid.

Communication methods have changed so much since when we were this age, but teenagers still spend hours talking to their friends 🙂

Another loss this past month has been 2 of our chooks, they mysteriously just disappeared. No sign of trauma, a stoat or weasel a likely candidate, but there was no indication of this, and they appeared very healthy up until the disappearance. I initially thought they had gone broody, but we have searched high and low without success. It is a bit perplexing, needless to say, we need to increase the flock for sure this year.

Last night was the Midwinter Festival. Last time we went was 2 years ago, it was raining last year so gave it a miss. Luca and his mate went off as soon as we got there, disappearing into the immense crowds. It was so busy! So busy in fact Rich and I went off had dinner, (which was rather nice!), and then went back just before closing to get a better look. I managed to get a few photos…

We met a few others we knew by chance, was good to catch up and by the time we caught up with the kids there was a gaggle of them and we had a car full of teenagers to deliver to their respective homes. We are more than happy to set the precedence of being the “go to” taxi for the kids, the legal drinking age is 18 in NZ and that is fast approaching. None of these kids are at this point yet, but we are not naive and want to be the ones they all know they can call on.

With the winter holidays coming up the Science Festival happens again, Rich and Luca already booking in spots to do various things. We had planned a winter holiday this year, but with the build as it is, this needs to be put on hold, so will make the most of what is on around here. We are about to open our 10th clinic at work so I really need to be around for that too. I am training another nurse to run the Queenstown clinic, as moving the current nurse there over to the new clinic in Wanaka. The new clinic in Balclutha is doing great, it is a busy but productive time. The need keeps growing, I never feel we meet it entirely, but we are trying.

The shortest day has come and gone and we are heading back into lengthening days. I am so happy about this, currently I don’t see the daylight during the week as come and go in the dark, it is hard on the soul 🙂 Until next time…x