Family portraits

Going home today, but in the meantime I managed to fit a lot into the last few days of my holiday. (Note to vegetarians, vegans, and those of a delicate constitution, you probably want to skip this first paragraph).  First was a hunting expedition on Saturday night. During dinner I’d mentioned to Brother that it…

Random pie picture

The internet is fixed, but I didn’t end up having time to go through my pictures to pick out representatives for the year, because Mum got an unexpected visitor, the son of old friends of hers.  I haven’t seen him since we were about 12, so we spent a long afternoon catching up on each…

Luging

It was the boys’ turn to claim their Christmas adventure today, so Dad offered to drive us up to Queenstown.  Queenstown is *the* place to be for New Year’s, so the town was totally packed (yeah, probably should have thought of that before we picked today to go up there…), and we had to queue…

Bread, peas, and sparkles

For Christmas, instead of giving Niece and Nephews more stuff, I decided to take the opportunity of being down here to give them something more intangible instead. So I made them each a certificate promising them a day doing whatever activity they wanted with me (as well as a little cash to go towards it…

Tagged

As predicted, I spent most of yesterday mucking around in Mum’s craft room – she has so many fun toys to play with!  My plan originally was just to make a few little simple gift tags (because we’re having our Christmas tonight, with Brother and family, now that they’re back from Middlemarch, and I’d forgotten…

Butcher's

Yesterday was another day packed with activities.  I went up to visit Dad in the morning, and he suggested we take a drive out to Butcher’s Dam, a scenic spot just down the road from Alexandra.  DOC have put in walking tracks around the Dam (which apparently was originally built as a reservoir to provide…

No spoilers!

o. The new Star Wars movie came out last week.  The film I’ve been waiting for forever (I’d almost say since 1983, except back then I was waiting for Episode I.  And yeah, we all know what happened there.)  And I didn’t go and see it.  Not because I was scared it wouldn’t be good…

Assorted things

I think Mum is having as much fun with my new patchwork/quilting obsession as I am – she keeps sending me little packages of fabric to feed my ever-growing stash.  Yesterday a parcel arrived from her via Trademe, with this fantastic selection: None of the pieces are huge, but they don’t need to be for…

Storing up sunshine

Seven jars of apricots bottled this morning.  That hadn’t been the plan for the day, but Dad and Stepmother stopped in on their way through town this morning and dropped off a box of fruit. It’s been really hot again, so the apricots obviously weren’t going to last long enough to be eaten fresh, so…