Quiet Christmas week

The New Zealand Christmas Tree - Pohutakawa in bloom in our front yard

It never really feels like Christmas in the southern hemisphere.As a result we never really do very much in the way of celebration. This year was no exception to this rule. We were invited over for a bbq with some friends on Christmas Day, and the one traditional thing we did was eat too much of the yummy food.

The rest of the Christmas week we have been trying to catch up on lots of chores and finish projects at home. We have made some progress in the garden by pulling out the weeds that were taking over one side of our house. We also finished off several wood working projects with the final sanding, staining and waxing of the wood.


Helen's cook book stand (pictures to follow)

It wasn't all work - we did get out mountain biking and we did a lot of relaxing around the house - recovering from our exertions.

Biking with Dan and Bec at Rotorua and Taupo

Dan came to visit from Canberra and was keen to do some mountain biking at some of the well known biking mecca's on the north island. So we picked him up from the airport and headed straight up to Taupo. We warmed up on the W2K track around the edge of Lake Taupo, with awesome views across the lake. Although the volcanoes were hiding in the clouds.

On Sunday we headed up to Rotorua. The weather was warm and it threatened to rain, but we only got a few spots. We did a big loop around the forest, riding all of Aaron's favourite tracks. This took about 4 and a half hours! After which Helen was stuffed. However, Dan was keen to get some photos in the forest, so Aaron, Dan and Bec headed back in for a couple of photo shoots with Dan's new SLR camera. There are no decent photos of Dan as he rode to fast and was the only one who could really work the camera correctly!


Drop in on Rollercoaster


Playing on a jump on the Challenge Track

On Monday we did a short loop around the Wairakei bike park at Taupo and then headed back to Wellington, through some rather fierce rain storms. The weather had been very kind to us while we were riding, we had timed it all perfectly!


Helen in Wairakei Forest Park

Thanksgiving

Aaron had a craving to have turkey and a proper Thanksgiving this year (he hasn't had Thanksgiving for >5years). Unfortunately we don't get thanksgiving off as a public holiday and when it takes a couple of hours to cook a turkey we would have been eating at midnight. So we cheated slightly and had a little celebration on Saturday instead. The weather was even appropriate - grey, cool and rainy! Excellent weather for spending half the day cooking and then eating lots!

We bought a small turkey (7lbs), then we invited a few people over to help Aaron eat it. I was a little worried that it wasn't going to be defrosted in time and then it wasn't going to be cooked. I did some research on the web before hand and had about 5 different sets of instructions and then modified them to suit. It turned out just fine and fortunately we invited our friend Carolyn who wasn't scared to carve/attack it! I even made stuffing and gravy to go with it. We then finished the meal off with pumpkin pie and brownies. An almost perfect thanksgiving feast - apart from the fact that it was on Saturday.

However, our friends didn't do a very good job of eating the turkey - so Aaron will have a lot of turkey sandwiches to eat in the next week!

Woods Hole, MA, again!

After only just visiting Laura in September I found out that I got funding to go to a workshop in Woods Hole. I arrived on the weekend, which also coincided with Gill visiting from Canada. So we had a fun weekend catching up and hanging out - the first time the three of us have spent together (without partners) for the last 10 years. Laura, Gill and a couple of Laura's friends did a fun run from Woods Hole to Falmouth. They did a 7.1 mile run in an hour - very respectable.


Kate Hendry (Laura's postdoc), Laura and Gill

The workshop was great. Two weeks of lectures, lab-work and computer stuff about Ocean Acidification. It was rather intense - but we learnt a lot and I met lots of people. We were very lucky with the weather during the two weeks and we regularly went for walks around the village and up to the Woods Hole campus on the bike path. Laura also kindly lent me a bike - so I could ride back and forth to Falmouth and her house. It was really nice to catch up with her several times during the weeks and have a home away from home!

Unfortunately my visits to Cape Cod/New England missed the best of the autumn/fall colours. There were a few leaves still left on the trees and they ranged in colour from yellow, orange to bright red. There were plenty of leaves on the ground that made a great satisfying crunching noise as you walked through them.


The beautiful autumn/fall leaves


Most of the leaves on the ground

Woods Hole village was quiet when we were there. I am told it is very busy in summer. It is a very pretty place with lots of boats in the harbour. Although I think I left at the right time - the weather turned just on the last day with a cold wintery storm.... It was good to get back to summer in New Zealand.


Boats on the Eel Pond


Sunset over the harbour

Guy Fawkes Night

Last night was Guy Fawkes night. For those of you without an English (or Australian or Kiwi) background, Guy Fawkes became famous when he was caught in an attempt assassinate King James I by blowing up the English Houses of Parliament during the state opening on the 5th of November 1605.

Details of the plot were leaked due to concerns over the safety off others who would be present at the opening of parliament. Fawkes and several other conspirators were captured before they were able to detonate the gunpowder they had stockpiled in a ground-floor flat beneath the House of Lords.

Each year the people of England celebrate the foiling of the plot by lighting bonfires or setting off fireworks. In Wellington, last night, we had a 20 minute fireworks display set off from three boats in the harbour. I find it pretty odd that the Australians don't celebrate Guy Fawkes really at all, but the Kiwis really seem to get into it. I guess any excuse to light fireworks...


Fireworks in Wellington Harbour

I think this a fascinating bit of history. A really good movie to rent if you haven't seen it is V for Vendetta. It borrows many ideas from Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,

I know of no reason

Why the Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

Domestic weekends

It was nice to get back home after several weeks of travelling. However, the garden was completely overgrown with the grass a good foot/30 cm high. So we have spent the last two weekends trying to get back on top of the grass, weeds etc.. My seedlings that I had planted before we went away are making good progress, so I have put some of them in. Labour weekend (this weekend) is traditionally the time when everyone plants their vegetable gardens and the weather has cooperated with a beautiful weekend. However, there are a few more southerly storms forecast for the next week - so I think I will wait a few more weeks for summer to start and before I plant out the tomatoes seedlings.

I have been harvesting the cabbages, silver beet, broad beans, rocket and lettuce. The cabbages and rocket had bolted, so they were pulled out to make some more room for the new seedlings. I will have to pull out some of the broad beans as well as they have grown out of control. My 3 compost bins have also finally composted down and have some nice looking compost which I have been dumping on the garden, ready for the rest of the seedlings.

Aaron has become very good at destructive gardening! He has been pulling out some of the lavender that was taking over the front garden.

On top of gardening I also enjoyed doing some cooking for the first time in several weeks. I made some sour dough bread and some mascapone cheese. I then used the cheese to make canneloni, and tiramisu - yum!

I think the cats are also happy we are home. They have been very cuddly and attention seeking for the last couple of weeks.

Gill and Mike's wedding in the Cotswolds

We spent Friday afternoon in Oxford catching up with Sam Burgess and meeting her lovely new guy Ed before the last event on our whistle stop tour, and the main excuse for the trip which was to attend Gill and Mike's wedding in the Cotswolds. It was held in a lovely little village - Bibury. Very traditional and cute.

It was a very fun day and Gill and Laura both looked great in their dresses.


Laura, Gill and Helen


Aaron and Helen

Gill and Mike had thought of everything - including providing toys for the kids to play with. This was a great giant Jenga game!


Playing Jenga in the garden