Indecisive weather

I know that last time I was here I was predicting the arrival of winter, but I have to say despite the temperatures being a smidge cooler this past week, I'm struggling to believe my own prediction.

Look at these gorgeous flowers which brighten my days at work from the garden outside the window. They don't seem to think it is going to be winter anytime soon.

And then look at this !! 

Pohutukawa in flower in late May - what has happened to our native Christmas tree ? Isn't December "the time" to bloom ? Has anyone told the jolly fellow in red ?

We need to cool our wee planet down  I reckon !

Winter is coming....apparently

Well we've been at our new place almost a month - I know this because we have our first inspection coming up,  There are still boxes in places there shouldn't be, but never mind. We will get there in the end.

Today we decided to go for a drive and see if we could find some autumn colours. There are some around up here, but not en masse like you get in other parts of the country. So we decided to go to Hamilton and do a spot of shopping on the way. Chartwell Square Farmers - I don't like the way your floor moves for no apparent reason - we both thought it was an earthquake or five, until we remembered that we were in Hamilton and not actually in a seismic zone.

Anyway shopping done we headed for the Hamilton Gardens which I ashamed to say I have never visited before, despite having spent the first 13 years of my life and then a couple more later on in that city. To be fair when I was younger the site was still a quarry, and the gardens themselves were just getting started. We didn't find as much autumn as we had hoped, there were patches but often in hard to stop and photograph spots. However I enjoyed the wander around the gardens and we didn't see everything, so I am sure there'll be another trip sometime soon.

I have just made a spectacular jump in technological accessories and purchased an iphone. So there is lots of learning happening there. I took the opportunity today to start getting to grips with it as a camera in readiness for our upcoming holiday.

Settling In

Well, it has been about three weeks now since the move north, to the other side of the harbour. I'm enjoying it. For the first two weeks my commute was 10 minutes each way ! Quite a difference to 45-90 minutes each way. School holidays made a difference, but even so most days last week were less than 20 minutes each way.

The boxes are slowly being dealt with and it is looking more like home. This weekend I spent an afternoon picking my way through the boxes that had got wet and started disintegrating at the old place. Dry basement indeed ! The movers had done such a wonderful job packing initially that most things just needed to be placed into a new box. Some things needed to be re-wrapped before packing though. Some things mostly wooden bowls were pretty gross, so they have been washed in water so hot it was hard to keep my hands in it, or put through the dishwasher. I'll keep them inside for a bit to make sure they are all well dried out before going back into boxes.

I also discovered all the linen we hadn't seen since Christchurch and some of mine which had been packed around bits and pieces in Wellington. So that has all been washed and aired. Some of it will go back into boxes over the next few weeks. I'm still looking for duvet covers and blankets though - who knows where they got put in Wellington ! 

The weather is still not very autumn-ish so I cant see that I will be needing blankets anytime soon anyway. But if I do, there is the one I had to buy last winter in Christchurch and a couple of others which could be put to use. BUT I really would like to know where my nice woollen Onkaparinga blanket is.

Then, today was Mothers' Day. I had the yummiest breakfast home made for me. Waffles with fresh SUMMER berries, edible flowers and maple syrup. Who would have thought summer berries would still be in the shops in May !! Very spoilt, despite having given strict instructions not to buy me anything - rather save the money and buy me something while we are on holiday. Terribly disobedient ! But much appreciated at the same time.

In other news - we have a pretty good spot to check out sunsets at our new home too.