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Category: Life in New Zealand

August 14, 2016 The Green Garden

Golden.

June 24, 2016February 10, 2018 The Green Garden

Autumn: Anchor Me

April 1, 2016March 28, 2018 The Green Garden

Albie’s piratey 5th birthday party

February 20, 2016February 10, 2018 The Green Garden

Malaysia: The long way home

June 2, 2014January 24, 2015 The Green Garden

Tally ho

May 7, 2014January 24, 2015 The Green Garden

Speed demon

January 22, 2014February 10, 2018 The Green Garden

Summer in NZ: one to remember

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Prize for the most fragrant harvest of the year goes to........... BASIL! 🏆 Well done Basil! . And now, let’s make some pesto! 🥳

Figalicious.

Gratitude is thick and unctuous for this mara kai. . Tomatoes, chillis, capsicums, courgette. kale and chard. Organic, fresh and whenever we need. 🌱🙏👌🍅

Love for low-tide and the welcome walk that it heralds, has already reached stratospheric levels - and we’ve only just begun.

It’s a strange and uncertain time, and I know without a doubt that I want to shepherd my boys through this pandemic with no problems. . Albie has severe pulmonary stenosis, so with COVID-19 now spreading in New Zealand, we’re in isolation. . Today we took our isolation to the hills behind where we live and in the breezy breezy breeze we blew all the tension away. . Absolutely glorious.

Our collective course is being re- routed to a destination that is unknown. . “Hey” we say, “I thought we were heading over here, on this well worn road - the way we’ve always gone?” Aren’t we meant to be going this way guys?!” . And the feelings of worry, as our shared bus turns onto this unnamed, unused and unknown road are real. Those feelings need acknowledgment and respect. The motorway we were on had a level of certainty that this detour certainly does not. . But take a moment too, as we begin to travel this dusty road together, to look out your metaphorical window. Because there is beauty here as well. In fact, there may be more beauty on this detour than we’ve seen in a long time. A chance to slow our wheels. A chance to rest our heads. A chance to stop and care for those around us who need it. A chance to practice physical distance but social solidarity. A chance, perhaps too, to enact the very things that this planet so desperately needs. Because despite the challenges, and there will be oh-so-many ugly and nasty challenges ahead on this route, you can guarantee that beauty will turn up here too. . If we lean in. . I remember when Albie was super sick as a baby, and I tried wishing it was different, I tried wishing it right away. . But I can tell you that is a hiding to nowhere my friends. We can’t wish this away. . That is one thing that is certain. . I remember instead focusing on thriving, not despite Albie’s broken heart, but through and because of it. . That if this is where we are at, and it is, than let’s live the shit out of it. . . So, please, instead of trawling the panic stations, let’s turn to the ground we stand on and the people we love and ask ourselves, what can we do to thrive through this and because of this? . Maybe one day, our bus will get back on the motorway we left and we’ll look back at these days as a curious kink in our time. Or maybe our bus will stay on this slower road now for ever more - and the trees and the seas and the animals and the air will rejoice. But either way, we are in this together. And I Spy Beauty Is a wonderful game. Photo: A Love Bomb, from Fred, aged 6. May we all drop them profusely.

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