Rainbows, winter and cuddles on a Martinborough weekend

We nipped away to Martinborough this Saturday and Sunday. The winter weather wasn’t too harsh, milder than it has been, but there were still plenty of showers between the sunny moments. The lambs in the fields and rainbows in the sky definitely hinted a change in the seasons. Spring is coming… (just hurry up already!).

It was great for us to have a change of scene and be out in the expanse of the Wairarapa countryside. Our youngest daughter, Alice, was very poorly and slept most of the weekend. Meanwhile, her nine year old sister, Sophie, played with a friend and our dog enjoyed running in the lush green grass amongst the winter flowers and daffodils.

There were moments when young Alice woke and was momentarily alert, before returning to a healing slumber. She had come across a video about the water cycle on ‘Wonder Quest‘ and wanted to do the experiment (it seemed very timely with all the rain showers!).

We found this simple method, using an old plastic bottle (with the lid), the best. We would have used blue food colouring, but didn’t have any – so opted for red, for fun (Alice called it ‘blood rain’!). We put warm water in the bottom (with the food colouring), and then placed the top half of the cut bottle in the top (with the lid on) and filled it with ice cubes (like the clouds). After a little while we started to see condensation forming and then ‘rain’!

Alice’s water cycle experiment

All that drawing and experimenting soon tired her out again and she cuddled up in my arms for a rest. Sophie and her friend alternated between playing Minecraft through the rain showers, and shooting bows and arrows when the rain stopped!

Monsieur Cocoa, our Cavoodle puppy, was more than happy to take a nap, between his bursts of play, too.

I was happy to enjoy the beautiful scenery and wonder at the flowers in the garden. I felt inspired to write a poem too. I am so ready for spring and longer days!

Whilst we relaxed in the countryside our oldest daughter, now 12, stayed at home in Wellington, enjoying a sleep-over with our neighbour’s daughter. She is poorly with this virus too and home from school this week, coughing and sleeping on and off. Ah well, no chance of much running for me this week, but it’s nice to enjoy a slower pace at home too (and it’s raining again anyway!).

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