2014

Well life does go on and a lovely 2013/14 summer holiday has been had by me and mine. Some time in Hector (3 times) some time at Wakaretu Bay (2 times) and some time home in Nelson (rest of times). Work is bringing me back to reality and a nice one at that with the return of my trusted and sincere colleague and principal - Tonnie. This year began with allsorts of 'stuff' to do with Smith Family Circus (Lesleys whanau) which was mainly to do with Mama Jacquie and this aint the 'arf of it. Suffice to say 'and we thought 2013 was hard and bad?' Jacquie has ben diagnosed terminal and we are looking at 1-2 years with her. Meanwhile she is A-Mazing! Planning s few things and living life as per daily usual. The thing is we have almost lost her several times over over the past 2 years and now she simply has a timeframe to live by. Tiz very strange indeed. Oh and then there's Tortellina. We lost her to an 'orrible car on The Ridgeway on 8/02/14. Life has changed so much. I know there's some Mum and Dad grief popping in for a party but never-the-less - I'm struggling. Tortellina was a spesh mussin. She got in deep and had her wicked way. I flip from anger to sadnss a lot.

Holiday Breathing

Just enjoyed a few days getting my breath back in the home of me - Hector. It's end of Term 2 and I chose to do a big brave thing and spend some days on my own @ #16  - just me with Mama and Papa. I felt scared, relieved, anticipatory, anxious and curious all at the same time. I took supplies and oxygen mask material and away I went. I was blessed with stunning weather which wasn't necessarily necessary but quite nice just the same. My first captured moment was the Ngakawau River upon my arrival home....

Therein and soon after came the continuation of this wee beach patch

Some days later I had the pleasure of being joined by my beloved cuzzbros from Tokoroa. Twoz a huge biggie for Rob who'd been with us several times over the past couple of years either to do with Uncle Dud being sick and dying or the same for Mum and Dad. So this trip was largely for both of us about reclaiming the space and taking another step towards creating this so-called 'normal'.

The most incredible Shepherds Pie concocted by the one and only Bazza helped us immensely.

Look at those dinky wee cherry toms and what a lashing of parsley we were blessed with from the Noelo's garden!

We did a few proverbials while we were there - collected truckloads of wood from The Point, trudged over to Gentle Annie with a beer at The Mohikinui on the way home. We called in to see Steve and Gaylene who were decidedly compromised healthwise so a fleeting visit was the best thing there.

See here the pix of GA and the view from S & G's

I missed out on enjoying time at The Leaner and was comforted with knowing that R & B were there representing us all and buying copious raffle tickets and winning summit - ho hum!

Since being back in Nelson I've stretched out my holiday in a similarly slothful mode. Bike riding with some nice sights,

walking, reading, lounging and enjoying stuff for me. A loaf of bread made headlines and Tortellina - the box on legs - endaevoured to muscle in on the scene - love her I do.

This pic is entitled 'Buxom Bread' by the way.

                                                                 
                                                                    Who da Sloth?                                                                                       Tortellina da Sloth!

New Life

Well dear world, here I am back again after a massive few weeks / couple of months in the life of caring for Dad.He finally crossed the finish line on Sunday evening 19 February to hurtle into the arms of Mum who was waving the checkered flag and holding her arms wide open. This just so happened to be six months to the day that she'd actually run and won the race but we know that life aint a race and it is kind of about winning so not really sure who's to be applauded here.What the hell - they are together again after a wee spell apart. Whatever our respective beliefs they absolutely are together s'there! We have had a pretty incredibly unbelievable year of it. First Mum, then Dad, now us - aint that the way it's sposed to be? Far out Dad gave 'life after Helen' his best shot for sure and did a sterling job. His poor sore broken heart got the better of him though and off he went on a wild west coast day playing his harmonica and searching for animals in his soup. And now I'm back in Nelson again, as are siblings John, Steve and Lis, after a massive few weeks. In fact this week I think has been my first 5 day week at school this year and this weekend yippeeeee is one of my few weekends here in Nelson when I'm not spinning off along the Buller Gorge road to the Coast to tend and attend and fend and be with someone spesh. Meanwhile thanks and love to my beautiful group of kids who have been waiting for me - in fact half of them have been waiting to get to know me! Here they are gathered around a gorgeous display of flowers that they brought into school upon my return XX
My next few posts will be about snippets of joy I have had along the way on this journey to my new life XX

Grunt grunt wheeeeeee!!!!!

What a bikey hikey adventure bigbro John and I embarked on, exhilarated over and proudly suffered upon.
We mounted our trusty rusty steeds and off we went up hill down dale all the way to Millerton and Stockton. Having 'doneded it' the day before I was totally sorted cos I knew the script and what was round the jolly corner so BIG TICK off my bucket list - I did the 'Grand Canyon'!! Big ta to our smiley support crew - Les and Chris who stopped frequently to check on us and even offered a tow (and obliged when the offer was accepted!) Up the new road which has been created all in the name of Solid Energy and down the old road which is kind of out-of-bounds, overgrown and a tad treacherous which made it all the more appealing. What a wheeee-y whizzzzzy zing ding ride down we enjoyed. Cold beer and bubbly cider was definitely in order upon our arrival home. The picture on the right shows how damn high we actually did get.

Rockin' Robin

Further to our charming adventure up the Charming Creek Walkway - we happened upon a cute wee bush robin baby that just didn't quite have the birdy nous to stay away from me and besides that just couldn't resist me so here she strutted right up to my footsie and fossicked a bit.

Charming walk..........

Charming Creek is an iconic wee jaunt up the road from #16 that we often partake of either partially or completely. This day we - me and cuzbro's from Tokoroa way - got us dropped off up 8 kms infield of Seddonville to trek through the wild west bush southwards for another 8kms (give or take) to Ngakawau and a cool beer at - yes you got it - The Charming Creek tavern. Bloody nice time!

See the Cam doing the limbo rock? 

And check out the Mangatini Falls and the adjacent swingbridge YESSSS!!!