It was a rare Saturday, in the recent spring school holidays, when my husband and I had an afternoon completely to ourselves, that we headed out to the beautiful native forest in the Orongorongo Valley, in the southern Remutaka Ranges of the North Island of New Zealand. It’s not that we don’t walk together often […]
I first stumbled across the enticing play areas of the Matairangi Nature Trail, along the ridge line of Mt Victoria, on one of my long runs. I couldn’t wait to grab an opportunity to bring my two youngest children to explore, climb and play. I’ve always loved walking and running the town belt trails of […]
It’s been a busy weekend here of ‘spring cleaning’ in Wellington, New Zealand. The children have been busy playing with their neighbourhood friends, leaving hubby and I with plenty of time to sort out, declutter, get the garden ready for summer and so on and so on… however, it hasn’t all been work and no […]
When I read that ‘The Prompt‘ this week was the word ‘Paint’ I knew exactly what to write about. This past month my dear parents have been staying with us in New Zealand, visiting from their home in England. My dearest Mum loves to paint with watercolours and has been taking classes for a couple […]
‘One Word’ is this week’s theme over on ‘The Photo Gallery‘ at Sticky Fingers blog and I’m going with ‘Metamorphosis’, after a magical visit to the recently opened ‘Butterflies Alive!’ exhibit at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. I visited on with my youngest daughter, age four. She entered the magical world of the […]
I don’t enjoy seeing elephants in small enclosures. I’m thankful that the majority of zoos across the world are no longer breeding elephants. The ones that remain in zoos, are hopefully the last. They belong in the wild, or in large landscapes of protected land. They belong with their kin. When I do come across […]
The biggest gift my parents bestowed to me was a love of nature. No matter where I am, what my life’s circumstances are, there is always nature to marvel and amaze. As a young girl the mantra, ‘No matter the weather, we’ll have a good time,’ was drummed into my subconscious. We would wrap up […]
It has been a week of celebrating the beauty of nature. ♥ Loved learning of New Zealand’s native trees and the amazing variety of different trees the world over. ♥ Loved identifying different tree species in our garden at home and in Wellington’s Botanical Garden with Sophie and Alice. Sophie worked so enthusiastically and wrote […]
The wind ruffled our feathers wildly, whilst the sun teased us with blue sky, oyster clouds and dashing streaks of white. A sky that if painted wouldn’t look real. A day that held promise but so easily could have been spent hidden, sheltering from the gale force winds. Not a day for being whipped by […]
It was perfect walking weather – mild, a slight refreshing breeze, a touch of rain and plenty of cloud cover to shelter from the strong sun. And with a tired family (Charlotte was performing in a dance show the night before) and a bit too much morning television on waking up, we were getting that […]
Beautiful nikau palms growing in a safe reserve on the Kapiti coast. The nikau is very slow-growing. Research conducted in lowland forests near Auckland found it takes 40-50 years to begin to form a trunk and about 200 years to reach 10 metres tall (ref. DoC). These beautiful palms, with rich green fronds and brightly coloured […]
Charlotte came back from a school trip to the Petone Settlers Museum on Wednesday and taught us something special that she had learned… She had learned how the early settlers made brushes from Harakeke (flax), using a shell to gently scrape back the end of the flax. Charlotte taught Sophie and they spent an hour […]
As I strolled through Zealandia with Alice this morning, I reminisced on the pre-school days when I used to bring Charlotte and Sophie to explore. I watched their little sister noticing words for the first time and so eager to learn in nature’s beautiful surrounds. Nature really is the best place to nurture. And as […]
‘Penguins!’ we squealed as we ran over to the viewing window at Kelly Tarltons. ‘Daddy, Daddy, put your hand in here,’ Charlotte and Sophie dared with mischievous glee. The sign read, ‘See if you can last 30 seconds,’ and the water was freezing. We watched in awe as Daddy did it! We only lasted a […]