Holiday season…

Happy New Year everyone!!! Nothing says holidays and summer like BBQ ing 🙂

My colleague gave me these peonies, how gorgeous are they?! They lasted for weeks!

The last month has flown by!

I finished work on the 22nd of December and we flew out to Canada on the 23rd.

Here we are preparing ,(i.e. eating and relaxing hoping, (in vain), it will help us sleep!), about to get on the long haul flight from Auckland to Vancouver non stop…

We arrived in Vancouver at 0600 on the 24th, first stop was of course was the airport Tim Hortons, Luca has very fond memories and we desperately needed one of their coffees to help navigate the drive to the ferry. Rich and I had not slept,( unfortunately), getting to the ferry requires driving through downtown Vancouver, (quite a feat at the best of times), and of course driving is on the other side of the road, it was a challenge to say the least! Needless to say it was a stressful drive, I took 2 wrong turns, Rich had to re navigate ,(which he did wonderfully), and we made it to the ferry in plenty of time. This is important as at this time of the year, you need to book ahead and make it, or risk missing out altogether!

This is why I drive and Rich navigates, we have found after nearly 20 years of travel together this works best for us and keeps trauma to a minimum 🙂

The ferry trip takes a 1 1/2 hours and then it is about 30 minute drive to Rich’s folks place. Needless to say we were in a zombie state by the end, but we had made it intact!!!! The jet lag hit Rich the hardest, Luca had managed to sleep on the plane and car and slept well at nights during our time there and generally seemed pretty unaffected.

The next couple of weeks we spent catching up with family and friends interwoven with hiking, the beach, indulging in the season and lots of eating 🙂 We were incredibly fortunate with the weather, they are having a terrible time of it since we left. It was so good to see everyone!!!

What I am holding in this photo is my mum inlaws famous caramel corn. When we lived in Canada she would send some out each Christmas, it used to signify the start of season for us, we miss it and her other treats including her homemade jam which I made sure I had lots of while there 🙂

Flora, the latest addition to the Annable clan, and Luca with her sister Alice, how cute is this photo of them, will be one to look back on for sure 🙂

Even in winter, the Canadian wilderness and beaches are spectacular, was so good to get back into them…

Luca and one of his finds in the local Army surplus store, a gas mask. He, Forrest and Leif spent hours in that place! Getting the sword he also found there back into NZ added considerable stress to our customs declaration! The things we do for our kids, good thing we love them!!

We found going from the long summer days in NZ to the short dark days of winter in Canada a big shock to our systems. The Christmas lights at this time of the year in the northern hemisphere are welcome sight, people really go all out. It made me nostalgic for our Christmases when Luca was little.

Luca loves waffles and there is something about Canadian ones that are special, he was so happy to tuck back into them.

Then we blinked and it was time to go home. Luca wanted to take a ride on the sky train in Vancouver. We left Vancouver Island early in the morning, taking the train from the airport to the waterfront and spent some time in downtown Vancouver before flying out

The Steam Clock in the old historic area of Vancouver, very cool!

Canada Place (Vancouver Convention Centre)

The waterfront train station, a beautiful old building.

The flight home we all seemed to deal with better and the jet lag not nearly so bad. All the animals happy to have us home and we entered a week of amazing weather! The long sunny days very welcome, such a lovely way to start the day up at the fire pit with a book and coffee

With so much sun though, I finally got around to buying blinds for our bedrooms, which were brightly lit at 6am through until after 9pm. Rich and Luca put them up and they are working well!

Making the most of us all being home and the weather….

We hiked Orokunui Hill. Normally I take photos from the top but this gave a good view of what we climb. It is a good hike, close to home, Pica loves it and incredible views. We have never met anyone on it yet.

We went to my favorite beach at Purakanui, where we all swam! The boys shocked that I went in, the water usually too cold for me, but I really wanted a swim that day 🙂 The little cove to the bottom right is called Canoe Cove and is such a wonderful warm, sheltered, calm place to hang out for a few hours reading a book and taking a dip – bliss!

Luca took some driving lessons with Rich on a local quiet road, he is a cautious driver which we are very happy about. Long may that last!

The kids got the cart out yet again this year, one of the best $20 we have spent Rich and I reckon! We keep thinking this summer they wont use it and yet it keeps coming out….

My vege garden is producing prolifically. We had brussel sprouts for Christmas dinner, (delicious!), and our sprouts coincidentally were ready when we got home

Luca and I love brussel sprouts, I roasted these, Luca however prefers the way Grandma makes them, so the next lot I harvest, I will be cooking them Grandma’s way 🙂

Lettuce we have coming out our ears, we are eating a lot of it !

The chicks have grown up so much and the hens all laying well. Even River my oldest hen ,(7), is laying regularly. Such a beautiful old girl. One of the benefits of the heritage breed is they live and lay much longer than the hybird commercial breeds who generally don’t lay past 2 years.

For my birthday Rich gave me a horse ride voucher. Luca and I went on it yesterday. It was an incredible day, we took the horses to the beach and had such a wonderful few hours! We went out early so we could gallop the horses without bothering anyone, magical!

So here we are mid Jan 2024! I go back to work tomorrow, have had a few work related messages and visits this week, so know there is a bit to deal with upon return. Luca still has a few weeks of holiday left and his mates are in and out of this place, Rich has ongoing plans for around here. We are planning another short trip over the next little while but more on that later…..