Alex turns one

This was a few months ago so he started walking and talking since then.


Enjoying his cake.


Presents; still a little young to really enjoy them but his sister is always willing to help open them.


Flying Claire

Pumpkins

Always wanted to grow a few pumpkins as it is pretty easy if you have the space, although a bit more rain at times would not have hurt.

Anyway here is about a quarter of the total, sadly the little green ones do not store as well as the rest and since that was mostly what I got a lot of them will probably go rotten before I get around to eating them.



The good thing about growing pumpkins as badly as I do is all the nice little Illeis galbula ladybirds that come to eat the powdery mildew.

NZ 2014

Every few years it is time for the obligatory trip back home, and it is getting trickier now with a few children, luckily it is a short flight although air NZ managed to add a couple of unnecessary hours of sitting on the runway due to their incompetence.

Anyway when we finally got there everyone was violently sick for a few weeks with various horrible diseases so we should probably have stayed home anyway. Nonetheless onece everyone recovered we managed to get out and it was not too bad.


Claire catching her first fish.


First horse ride.


First and probably last sack race judging by that effort.


First sparkler


There were alot of hedgehogs everywhere.


My family adopted some kittens for a few weeks.


A very cold and windy day at the beach in Raglan.


Having lunch with some of her cousins.


Visiting great Nana


Admiring the grash in a country where it is actually green and lush.


Fairly mediocre sheep.


Claire's favourite toy.

Birthday party & halloween

Some photos from Claire's birthday party and halloween.


She wanted a dinosaur, it was close enough.


Beheading the cake.


Make sure you have a colossal lollie bag so you don't run out of space.


Lawn needs some work.

Reptile park

A while back I decided to take Claire up to the reptile park. She really liked the playground and was interested in the animals but dissapointed she could not get in the pool with the crocodile as it was rather warm.


A very bored kangaroo.






Could have just stayed at home and played with the parrots.


A orchid in the bush near the house, my guess is Dipodium punctatum but I may be wrong.

Garden critters

Heck I am nearly as far behind on my blog as Allan. Not much of great excitement has been happening as I have mostly just being kept busy in the garden or working on the house. The garden is slowly getting there and I have done reasonably well with the garlic, tomatoes, pumpkins and brocoli. The brussel sprots were a miserable failure though and my rhubarb keeps getting eaten by the possums.


Some corn, leeks and tomatoes.


A connoisseur of fine tomatoes.


A green grocer cicada Cyclochila australasiae




Getting bigger.