Cultivate versus vegetate

This is my favourite pic from our holidays. It 'feels' so tranquil.

I am BACK! But where do I begin ?!

It has been a whirlwind since we returned home from our gallivanting around the central and lower North Island of NZ.
We were greeted with a huge pile of parcels, mail, and other evidences of Christmas and birthday occasions!
And the email folder looks truly daunting (from my very brief perusal of it this morning).
In less than 48 hrs, we have made a birthday cake, celebrated L’s birthday with family, and been to a wonderful farewell BBQ. In amongst everything else.

Perhaps I will begin with our return.

We asked L how he would like to spend his birthday.
His reply was, “I want to spend the day with grandpa and grandma…..I want to carve pumice (see later posts), and I want to do something that doesn’t cost a lot of money..!”
So we returned home, baked a cake and decorated it in family tradition (our family birthday cakes all have a secret compartment, designed and engineered by K!), celebrated it with the grandies and family….and our boy turned 8.
He is very happy about being 8….

unlike his mother who is resisting the passing of each calendar year!

Speaking of which, I think I have had more than enough ‘celebrating’ of the ‘you know what’ ! What with having had a surprise party in Dec, and having to flee the city for the actual event, I was hoping for a ‘quieter’ time this year. Nonetheless, I was very touched by all the messages of love and concern at my passing of years! I felt totally overwhelmed and inundated with all the phone calls, texts, mail etc etc etc which came through on and around The Day!
Over and above the call of duty, methinks.
Time to move on.

The lad turneth 8 !

And last night signalled the end of an era.

We had a farewell BBQ for Sally & Andrew, and Eunice & Evan, and their wonderful families.
It was a fun night, made even better by the ease of comfortable friendship.

And the food! Oh, the food! This group has a reputation for having amazing food every time we get together, and last night was no exception!

Dave’s BBQ’d garlic pita will be remembered for (days! burp!) years to come!
But I’m going to miss these guys heaps! And I don’t like change.
Still, we do know that it is for the best for each of these families that they move onwards, and they do go with all our love and heartfelt blessings.
And I remind myself again, that good friendships don’t die –

they just mature over time and distance, like a good wine…
Little 4-year old Heather’s response to our cuddle was just awesome –

“Bye bye Mrs P. Don’t worry, I will see you again in heaven!”

Hopefully before then, wee Heather!

Good kai & good company

Thanks so much for continuing to post wonderful blogs whilst I was away, Ange of the North! You’re just wonderful.
Whilst you were ‘cultivating’, alas, I was ‘vegetating’ !

We did take well over 1000 photos on our hols but I think even you would balk at having to sit through all those photos! So I am having great difficulty to know which ones to post. For today though, here are just some random shots to add to your beautiful shots from today (it’s so nice that you’ve had a glorious day over yonder!).
Blue was the predominant colour of our entire trip. We had perfect weather every day, except for one cool day in Wellington! The rest was hot, clear, and sunny.

That is the beauty of NZ in summertime.

And that is where I have to leave you today.

I will try to post the ‘summarised version’ of our trip (and a few photos) before we head away again for the long weekend. Nice to be back (albeit for a short time)!