The first week of a new term is never without a hitch. We only had a two week school holiday to enjoy together, after a long, 11-week, first term. We were just getting into our stride, and really enjoying ourselves, when the end of the holidays hit us with a bang. It felt premature that…
Tag: autumn
Things I’m Loving… from the Easter school holidays
It’s the end of the Easter school holidays here in New Zealand and what a way to finish up – with a royal wedding and all! It really was such a gorgeous wedding. A wonderful celebration of hope and optimism. So lovely to see London awash with the colour of flags and the sounds of…
You know it’s the school holidays when the weather does this…
It’s that time of year when the weather toys with us and we flit from board games and bagels to ice-creams and boules at the speed of a flying frisbee in a southerly gale. Last night the chest of board games was dusted off, hardly touched since last winter. Charlotte and Sophie reveled in the…
Things I’m Loving… this last week of daylight saving
The clocks have turned back. This morning when the girls awoke at 7am I wearily acknowledged the fact it was actually 6am. Tonight darkness will fall at 6.30pm. The long summer nights will, for a while, be but a memory. We shall rug up, play board games, watch sunsets and admire starlit skies before bed-time….
Seasons: Shhhh! It’s Autumn!
Officially we are in the season of Autumn in New Zealand. But it rarely feels like Autumn until the clocks change at the beginning of April. We have noticed the evenings creeping in, but we still have plenty of daylight hours to play after school. Earlier nightfall makes for fractionally earlier bedtimes and a chance…
SkyWatch Friday: Last of the sun before the rains
This was the sky on Sunday, as we ran in the last hours of the setting sun. It’s now Thursday and we’ve been corked in with an oppressive grey sky, incessant rain and now the wind has started to throw its weight around. Few parts of the country have escaped and there is flooding in…
Autumn sunshine
‘Let’s go for a walk,’ Charlotte said. Saturday morning and the sun was winking down on us with a nod to get outdoors and be grateful. Winter is beckoning, throwing us the occasional warning day of rain and wind, so each day of sunshine is one of grace. Time to put the baking, the board…
Wisdom of Autumn
My friend, Rachel, sent me this beautiful piece of Buddhist inspired writing: Wildflower Saints There are so many (leaves). Piles of them. I take pleasure in their abundance. More saints than you could ever dream of. Each one singular. Each one itself. Yellow, red, orange, parchment. They sail down in the autumn air like fearless…
Crystal Clear
The brightness of colour in Autumn here isn’t one of blazing autumnal leaves in fall (unless you journey to the South Island). Most of the native trees are evergreen. But the sun sitting lower in the sky brings about an incredible clarity to the light reflecting off every surface. Morning and evening the temperatures are…
Autumn colours
Autumn has descended and there is no place like the Wellington Botanical Gardens to soak up the colours of the changing season. Most of Wellington’s native trees are evergreen and so the change of colours associated with a British autumn is not found across the city. In the South Island there are plenty of beautiful…
Urban Sanctuary
This morning I was treated to ‘Green Coffee Body Wrap‘ at the ‘Urban Sanctuary‘ in town. I’m not ashamed to admit to being a little nervous about what the experience would be like; but was very quickly put at ease and found it blissful beyond words. As I listened to gentle nature music and felt…
Harvest the Kumara
‘In bygone days, Tohunga Maori (Maori wise men and women) with a special knowledge of the stars spent much time studying the stars. The movement of the nga whetu (the eternal shining ones) followed a seasonal cycle, as did the Earth below, so that their rising and setting marked the progression of the seasons. Certain…
Autumn Sunshine
Incoming…
Rainbows and farm animals
Autumn is here and we’ve been trying to catch rainbows and visiting animals.