We have just had a family weekend to celebrate Mum's 60th Birthday.

Here are a few pics:

Got a great shot of Mt. Ruapehu on the drive up.

Eeuwe took the girls to the Trout Hatchery in Turangi.  The is near Lake Taupo where a lot of fishing goes on, so the Hatchery replenishes the lake's supply of trout.

The girls watched a video at the Visitor's Centre about how the Hatchery works, but I stayed home with Thomas, so I'm not sure how it all works...maybe I could get one of the girls to give a narration ;-)

After visiting the Hatchery, Eeuwe took the girls to Kuratau Beach, on the shores of Lake Taupo, and they collected pumice.  Lake Taupo was once a volcano.

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We have been enjoying some beautiful Autumn weather lately.  It has been warming up during the day, cool air some days, but there's been plenty of sunshine.  At night it is getting quite chilly, so we light the fire now.

We talk a walk through out local park this week...

some fun...

some nature study...

and even some poetry...

This poem about one of our native birds, the tui, was carved on the plaque:

The Tahe Tui

The tahe tui at Kowhai Park

mimics what he hears.

His repertoire of favourite words

brings unbelieving stares.

"I love you" he confides

and fluffs his feathers on his chest.

"I love you too" then echoes

from his iridescent breast.

He gives a raucous cry and then

he hisses like a cat.

His intonation clearly means -

"Now get a load of that!"

Perhaps he'll "Beg your pardon"

or "Hello" he'll sweetly say.

This friendly feathered creature

cannot fail to make your day.

Audrey Bismarck

Disclaimer:  I tried in vain to google Audrey Bismarck, but I cannot find out anything about this poem, other than what was on the plaque.

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After several moves during out married life, we are finally settled (for now) in a place of our own.  Last year we got our garden in too late for salad veges (well, fruit actually) but this year we have managed to get tomatoes, cucumbers, capsicum, lettuces & strawberries underway.  We lost a few plants due to drowning during our very wet spring, but we were given some replacements from a friend with a very large garden!  The remaining plants are doing very well.

We had to cage the strawberries to stop the blackbirds getting them!

the strawberries are beautiful!

A clematis from last year that we thought had died!

The vege/fruit patch. 

First baby cherry tomatoes!

Extra tomato plants in buckets.

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We have a fortnightly group at church for children ages 8 - 14.  A couple of months ago Bethany made this little garden:

A few weeks later, after faithfully watering every day, it looks like this:

A truly lasting craft!

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We live in a small town called Feilding.  Every Sunday we drive 20 minutes into the nearby city of Palmerston North to go to church.  On one of the country roads we drive down, there is a deer farm.  It's always interesting for the girls to look at the deer and with Spring being here there have been lots of beautiful daffodils on the side of the road.  But one day driving down this particular road we saw something a little bit different!  The first Sunday there was just the one 'deer'  by the fence...the next Sunday his friend appeared, evidently trying to escape too...

 Finally, this morning, I remembered to take the camera to get a photo of the pair!

This week we have had some beautiful, warm,  sunny days.  The girls have spent most of each day outside.  On Monday they set up a "Polly Pocket Paradise" on the picnic table:

Ruby gave her farm animals a bath!

The girls and I recently spent a week in Auckland at my parents' place.  We managed to get to the beach one fine afternoon before the torrential rain struck.

My parents were staying with us a little while ago.  We went for a walk through some native bush just down the road from our house.  Dad was quizzing the girls on the different native trees.  Hopefully some of it will stick!!  Here's a pic of us sitting on a little bench along the walkway.  Mum is with us.

Here are the girls on a log.