Gratitude…

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My Chatham Island Forget-me-not has finally flowered. I put it in a couple of years ago and hoped for the best, it has been worth the wait!

The next school term has started, it is a short one and Luca is counting down the days until his 14th birthday!!!

Over the holidays I generally give a couple of extra chores on top of his usual, for Luca to complete. I am a big believer in chores. I think kids need to know a family is a system, and everyone can help that system thrive in a healthy way. These past holidays it was the car and all the house windows (inside and out)….

It is always nice to look through crystal clean glass, to be honest they rarely get done, so when they do the difference is very noticeable 🙂
The car comes up beautifully as well!!!

Last weekend I took Luca and Aria riding. It was Aria’s 20th birthday and I wanted to do something different for it. I was there when Aria was born , so funny how things have worked out, and here we are living in the same place for the her 20th birthday!

We have hiked around this area, so nice to see it from horse back…..

Luca, me and Aria

Luca always happy to get back up on a horse….

The roofing for the deck finally came in. We had had to special order it. It was worth the wait!

It has become a real extension of our living area, we spent a lot of time there sheltered from the sun and rain…

Luca and Ted claimed the area for the continuation of their electronic “business” over the last part of the holidays :).

Our oven went on the blink , the parts needed for it took a couple of months to sort. In the meantime Rich became a dab hand at doing roasts etc on the BBQ. In fact we like roasts done this way so much now, that he continues to do them this way, they are truly delicious, so tender and moist!!!!

It is Labour Weekend here. Yesterday was a glorious day , ideal for a long hike. We headed up the coast to a little village called Herbert. It is about 15 minutes out of Oamaru, I pass it every time I go up there for work. We love the area and want to discover it more. There is a Forrest, aptly call Herbert Forest and I had heard through a colleague ,(thank you Wendy!!) ,about the trails and how great they are. We had an incredible day…

We got there early and so could do the entire loop.
Some caving on the way….

Tight squeeze!!!!!!!!!

but he made it 🙂

Pica so happy with all the water and rocks!!!!!
Luca is fast catching up to his Dad in height!!!
Luca and Rich carrying Pica down, way too steep for her to do it herself.

We emerged from the bush in afternoon and headed into Oamaru for an early dinner at the Scott’s Brewery, then an ice cream for the trip home. What a perfect day. Pica and Luca still sound asleep as I write this, Pica, as always, did about 3 times the miles we did so is exhausted. So happy we did it yesterday as today not such a nice day, it is however ideal for chilling 🙂

The girls have started hiding their eggs from me, I discovered 9 this morning! This means they will start going broody. Bramble already is, but she is not such great Mum material so I will wait until one of the others go that way and will put some fertile eggs under her. Luca wants to do the inside wood basket/in the house thing again, but getting one of the hens to do it is way less work for me 🙂

Tui Cottage is coming together bit by bit, we are looking forward to another summer full of adventure, fun and being together.

Rich took this photo below on one of our regular walks, it fills me full of gratitude, we are so lucky to be living this life with each other.