April 2022….

The sign I had commissioned for our front door area arrived, and we are very happy with it. It was made in the North Island, in a tiny little village that I spent a lot of time in as a child, I lived in the neighboring village ,(even tinier), for a little while. I recognized the name of the road when I got the invoice, such a coincidence. We enjoy naming our properties, it is part of the creative process for us, transforming an unloved house, into a warm and inviting home. We have had, La Casita, Koru Acres , River Cottage and now Tui Cottage, I wonder what will be next .

It is another day in paradise here, very early as daylight savings has kicked in overnight, but not with our body clocks. Oh well, we will get to enjoy more of the day. Yesterday we went on a lovely walk together, we love this one and do it 3-4 times a week, it takes about an hour, it is Pica’s favorite, she considers it hers, no doubt about it!

Speaking of Pica it was her 7th birthday last month! We got her when she was 9 months old, she was born in Georgia, came to us in Nova Scotia, (where we were living at the time) , then moved with us to Newfoundland and Costa Rica. As you may recall she had to go to Vancouver for 9 months before she was allowed to come to us in NZ, and now here she is, living her best life !

The season of falling leaves has arrived and the harvesting is ramped up so that I can begin my winter garden. For the first year our peach trees have produced amazing fruit

Our plum trees on the other hand are not quite old enough, they produced this one juicy, delicious plum between them all, (there are 4!), the potential is there , fingers crossed for next year..

It is the first time I have grown pumpkins here and having had success, I will grow more next year, love pumpkin!

Tomatoes wise, it has been a great year and we collect a bowl like this most days

We use them in all sorts of things, last weekend I made up a pasta sauce recipe , I just threw in what I could find in the garden and fridge, it was a roaring success. Rich is a recipe follower, me on the other hand not so much, so recreating a dish sometimes is impossible 🙂

I do a harvest every weekend to get us through the week

The girls are trying hard to have babies and are finding more sneaky places to hide their eggs. It is way too late in the season, so I track them down and take them much to their displeasure!

I have promised them they can have some babies in the spring!

Luca has taken to making breakfast on the weekends, the eggs are used up fast!

We decided the bank needed to be expanded more to complete the look….

As usual Rich has done a great job, perfect!!!! He is finishing off the other end today, photos of that in next post. The plants I have put in are mostly native as they will deal better with the poor soil and coastal conditions, so far they are thriving.

Luca has 9 days of school left before the first term of high school is over, hard to believe! Latin continues to be a highlight for him and I find evidence of this in various places…

He will be glad to get to the holidays, he is tired. He said to me the other day it is really quite a step up work wise from primary school isn’t it!! Every week, as I have mentioned, we get a school report on how things are going, he is doing really well, we are so proud of him . The idea of the weekly report is to identify any issues for kids quickly, so they can be solved before getting out of hand. We really appreciate the input from the school, and the effort the teachers put into it for each student, as you can imagine, it adds to their already high work load!

I do mourn ,(and I know Luca does too), the easy days of primary school where Luca would run about each recess and lunch time with his mates making up imaginary games, climbing trees, building forts etc. Luca said to me the other day , if I did that now the other kids would think I am crazy! It makes me sad, I know Luca can’t be the only one that still wants to do that, but they are all bowing to perceived peer pressure 🙁 . Luca makes up for it a bit at home, he and Ted were outside yesterday running about playing some made up game and the same today, I hope they don’t forgo it anytime soon, it makes them so happy. Rich and I love to see them enjoying themselves doing something so imaginative, carefree and non device related!!!!!

At the same time , we see how grown up Luca is getting. He and Mahe went in the city by themselves a couple of weekends ago to go shopping and hang out in the mall. One of the reasons we brought this property is the easy access to the public bus service, we wanted Luca to have freedom to be able to do things by himself and not have to rely on us as a taxi service. We are now seeing this happening, the independence and confidence it is giving him is great. It is the same with his finances. Last year we gave him complete access to his accounts, he has his own card and does as he sees fit, (he can manage it all from his phone). Of course we can see via our online what he is doing, but so far have not needed to interfere, he is managing them really well. He has an everyday account that his card is linked to for what is his spending money, then has a savings account, ( that he has set up an automatic payment into every month), and what is known here as a kiwi saver account, which is a long term savings account that the government contributes to for your first home or retirement. I am really big on financial literacy and have always made it a focus. Better to make mistakes when you are young and learn from them, than it to happen when there is more at stake. Luca gets an allowance of $10 a fortnight for doing his chores,(another thing I am big on), I know he is going to read this later at some point and complain loudly about the amount, but for now he is happy and not having a lot it makes him really think about what he is spending money on 🙂

Cleaning the car one of the chores….

Rich, Ted and Luca went to the rugby last weekend at the stadium. It has been months since large gatherings like that have been allowed. They all enjoy it, (Ted usually goes with them), and make an evening out of it. First it is off to Sal’s for pizza ,( their favorite pizza diner), then onto the game to soak up the atmosphere and cheer the local team on, they eat lots of junk food, and then home via the bus. They always get home tired, a little high from the sugar rush, and very happy, with stories to tell.

So we are now into April, this year like last, is flying by. Until next time xx