Beautiful days….

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Spring is on the horizon , you can feel it in the air, see it in the bulbs poking their heads through the ground and buds breaking out on the trees. Even some early flowering….

The above flowers were picked at Long Beach on this amazing day!

There have been spectacular sunrises , turning into lovely days..

Taken from the front door just before going down to feed the chooks in the early morning, the harbor in the distance glass like .

The chooks have increased their laying , so I can start to give eggs to those I have promised them to. We have named this place Tui Cottage, (in honor of our resident Tui), hence the label on the egg cartons.

Some for eating, and some are to be hatched. I have had orders put in over winter for fertile eggs for hatching this spring.

The last week of the school holidays we made it up to central Otago and hit The Otago Central Rail Trail, it is a 150-kilometre walking, cycling and horse riding track in the South Island.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otago_Central_Rail_Trail

We started out at Hyde. It was beautiful day, but cold and with a slight wind it made for a very chilly ride. Definitely much colder in Central than where we are on the coast at this time of the year. We did a bit of riding and walking and it was enough for us all to agree, we need to go back when the weather is warmer and do an overnight ride.

Luca’s first real ride on his new bike, (well second hand, but new for him), he loves it, his first proper mountain bike
Hoar frost!!!!!! Have not seen a decent one like this since Canada
In the left hand photo Luca was attempting to start a fire to warm up using 2 rocks, no spark was made 🙂
The old train tunnels very cool to go through.
Snow capped mountains surrounded us.

Then it was time for school again. Kids always happy to all be back together. Luca’s group has taken up Dungeons and Dragons. Luca and his friends are also reading the Wings of Fire series so the two things fit well together. Luca has always had a strong imagination and this does not seem to be diminishing as the years go by , he had even got me reading the series because he wants me to understand “how cool” it is. I have to admit I do see the appeal 🙂

A Dungeon and Dragons game in progress….

The school also had its first assembly in months and the kids got to play the marimba’s, it sounded fantastic ! Luca loves playing!

We had been trying to get to a rock pool area we had been told about. It is very much tide related, you have to wait until the tide is way out to be able to climb around to them. We finally made it, the kids had so much fun exploring and climbing. It was quite treacherous to get there, even with the tide out but really worth it. We spent so much time there that we just made it out in time, the tide comes in fast when you are having fun! We will go back, Rich says it will be great for snorkeling in the summer.

Tucked in around the cliffs was a large Spotted Shag colony, in full breeding plumage Luca informed us, they did not seem at all bothered by us.

At home the jigsaw obsession and easy weekend mornings continue 🙂

This last weekend we did the Organ Pipe hike again, it had been a while and although quite the climb, such amazing views! The kids always talk so much they barely notice they are climbing 🙂

The Organ Pipes are hexagonal basalt columns which rise out of the ground in abundance, pretty cool eh?!!!!

Sitting on top of the Pipes! They made me nervous, that is a very long drop below them, of course that is where they chose to have their snack!

When you try and buy as much as you can second hand it means patience, lots of patience until what you want comes along, projects sometimes have to be put on hold, or you have to make do until the right thing comes along. I came across this recently in the Hospice Op Shop ,(what a find,and brought it home for Rich, he had been wanting one since beginning bread making. Weighing flour ,(instead of measuring as he previously did), means he used less and baking time was reduced .

This was the result, a lighter, fluffier loaf – delicious!