These boots were made for walking…

This year Luca is not in school uniform.

We are an op shop family as most of you know, (thrift store), rarely buying new if we can help it. These days secondhand shopping is really thriving; vintage or retro is sought after. Being a student town, these types of stores are plentiful and full of everything you need to set up a home and clothe yourself. Luca and his friends know all the great ones in Dunedin.

I had not been shopping with him for ages, 18 months maybe longer, so offered to go with him to help set up his wardrobe for the year. To my delight he agreed, and we spent an amazing day together finding all sorts of treasures, including the above ostrich cowboy boots, Luca’s nominated top find 👢.

Dunedin is also known for its incredible second-hand bookstores, books are something else this family loves! Luca and I both found something at the Dead Souls Bookshop, an institution here and a place you could spend days and days in and still discover something new.

Walking into it, you are transported to another place entirely, somewhere mystical and mysterious, we love it!

During the bout of terrible weather NZ experienced in January we all hunkered down for a couple of days, I altered the clothing Luca had brought, and we settled in watching classic movies together that Luca had not seen and were on his “to see list”; think Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill etc.

It is not often these days that we get to do things with Luca; he is so busy with life. When we watch movies together or I get invited to go shopping with him, or he comes on a trip with us it makes us happy. Luca and his mates spontaneously picked me up from work the other day, (held an umbrella over me because it was raining and I was carrying work stuff), we all caught the bus home together and I was invited to sit in the back seat with them (like a cool kid 😉), it was bliss.

Rich and I truly treasure these moments, and we want to jump for joy when they happen, but on the outside, we remain cool, as don’t want to scare him off 😂

Below is Luca and his crew, there are a few missing, but I love this shot of them being goofy. Luca is in another favorite op shop find!

I came across this awesome shot of Dunedin recently. The yellow arrow marks the kids’ school and the red arrow marks where we live. The beauty of where we live is still breathtaking to me.

I am aware more than ever, things are changing, all the little day to day things I want to remember, including Luca’s haven, his bedroom! This room embodies who he is, totally of his own making and taste, we encouraged him to turn it into what he wanted, and this is the result. It’s very him and most importantly he loves it, his own oasis ❤️

Finally, the weather has changed back to summer, and we are back to have meals on the deck, it is ridiculous how joyful this makes me, but it really does!

Produce is coming thick and fast, I thought the below depicted me aptly, every moment I can I am outside looking just like this 🙂

We are currently in Christchurch, tomorrow we pick up the piglets! More on that in the next post…