Life with Miss A

My youngest child, my daughter - our Alice - has her own style of living. She's full of 'spunk' as my sister in law says.

 She knows her own mind and she's not afraid to voice her opinion.

 She is gentle and soft - her favourite way of cuddling is to tuck her head under my chin - something she has done since the minute she was born.

She's my only child to inherit my curly hair.
She's also my only child who has ever had temper tantrums in public. Alot. The grocery store is her favourite place to do this. She also has very set ideas on toilet training.

I can't remember what life was like before she came and joined us. She makes our household a busy, chatty, noisy, sweet place.

 She has the most amazing, beautiful blue eyes - inherited from her Dad.

She loves girly things. She gives new meaning to the need for parents to have eyes in the back of their heads.

When she knows she has to do something but doesn't want to, her favourite thing to say is, "oh. fine." Cracks us up everytime.

She absolutely adores her older brothers, but is very bossy.
Actually, she has them wrapped round her little finger. Her big sister is her ally.

We love that God chose us to be her parents. She sure is fun to have around, and life is never dull when Alice is in the house!

Sea Fever

We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch - we are going back from whence we came.  John F. Kennedy

"'People can't die along the coast,' said Mr Peggotty, 'except when the tide's pretty nigh out. They can't be born, unless it's pretty nigh in — not properly born, till flood. He's a going out with the tide.'"

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

We spent the long weekend by the sea. I love the sea. Do you? 

  

Sea Fever by John Masefield

I must down to the seas again,

to the lonely sea and the sky

and all I ask is a tall ship,

and a star to steer her by;

 

And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song

and the white sails shaking,

And the grey mist in the sea’s face,

and a grey dawn breaking. 

I must go down to the seas again,

for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call

that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day

with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume,

and the seagulls crying. 

I must go down to the seas again,

to the vagrant gypsy life,

To the gull’s way and the whale's way

where the wind’s like a whetted knife 

And all I ask is a merry yarn

From a laughing fellow rover,

and quiet sleep and a sweet dream

when ere the long trip’s over 

It rejuvenates my soul to be by the sea. We had a lovely weekend with family and friends and ourselves.

Proud

We are so proud of our eldest son, Hugh.
This week Bethlehem College had their own Hockey Prizegiving and our boy was awarded the trophy for Servant Leadership. The best one to get!

Here he is with his team and getting his trophy from the school head. The trophies that were given were, "most valuable player" and "most improved". They are such a lovely group of boys and the other two trophies were well deserved and well awarded.
We are so proud of Hugh. This is his first year at Bethlehem College and his first year playing hockey, so we reckon he is off to a good start.

Here he is with the trophy.

 

Hope you don't mind the brag. :o)

Who Judges The Judges?

I am not one for blogging about political or social issues. But I am truly outraged by this case, and so I am taking advantage of my right to free speech.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10841266

I have read Christie's letter to the judge, and I have read the letter written by the killer.
Christie's letter is rational, and uses plain speaking. We are in no doubt as to what this man put her through and how that impacted on her life.

His letter is emotional and weird and quite obviously manipulative.

I really have to ask the question...

Who judges the Judges?

All that is necessary for he triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.    Edmund Burke

And so I ask ....

Who is going to hold the judge in this case accountable for their part in this tragedy, and this travesity of justice?
Who is going to stand up for this sweet, kind-hearted young Kiwi girl who lost her life in such a terrifying and diabolical way.

What was that Judge thinking when they granted bail?
I am not a psychologist. I am not a doctor. I am not a policewoman and yet I would have had enough reason and enough common sense and life experience to not grant this man bail and return him to his place of residence less than a kilometre away from his victim's house! This is outrageous!

As women of a free country we should know without a doubt that if we make a complaint with the police when someone threatened rape and murder against us in a very obvious way that our laws and our judges should protect us!

How is that people like this Judge get put in positions of power in our land?
Why can our laws not protect us enough?
What if this were you or me or one of our daughters?
What if we had the bad luck of getting stuck with a judge like this in our case?
What if it meant our lives depended on them?

Tomato Growing in a Fertile Paradise

Ok, so maybe Tauranga isn't Paradise - afterall, I haven't forgotten about the cockroaches who are about to return with the onset of warmer weather. But everything here seems to grow fast. And I mean fast!

I suppose it's the semi-tropical climate - lots of rain, lots of sun. But three weeks ago I bought three tiny tomato plants from the gardening store with the intention of growing them in pots. We are renting a house and I don't know how long it will be for, so I hate to plant anything permanent at the moment.

And I go out to my little tomato plants this morning to water them after 3 days of neglect because of storms, and what do I find. That one is needing staking and that there are little yellow flowers on all the plants! Excitement! After battling the winds of Canterbury and my poor vegetable garden suffering and being stunted because of it, and giving up on tomato plants after the first year, I am so thrilled to see flowers, and the plants are not battered to bits!

And inside, I have heritage tomato seeds growing fast too in a little planter, hastening towards the day when I plant them out into their own, grown-up pot.
I'm looking forward to eating them and popping them into our salads this summer.

And my outside plants...

Flowers!

                         Patio Prize                                  Sunshine 100                     Sweet 100

          

Any hints or tips you have on growing tomatoes, or what I need to feed them with, or do to them, I would welcome any advice.

Vintage Sale Loveliness

One of the best things about moving to the Bay of Plenty are the friends I have made in such a short time.
I met this small group of ladies by chance when one of them lived down the road from us in our first rental house. She invited me to coffee get-togethers with her friends and sewing mornings that are not sewing mornings, and this group of 3-4 women have just embraced me into their own circle and made me feel so welcome. They're beautiful women; smart and funny and warm and caring.

So this week, we saw in the local paper that there was a charity sale of retro and vintage fabrics/clothing and other goods at the Historic Village Hall here in Tauranga, and we all agreed to get up early and be in first - as long queues were almost a given. We had a list of what we wanted and we'd grab stuff for each other, and text so we could queue jump, if necessary. We were after some bargains!

When yesterday morning dawned cold and rainy and windy, I wasn't surprised when two of them pulled out and left two of us to brave the weather and the crowds.

We were one of the first, but when we arrived, there were already a carpark full of cars and people swarming into the hall. By the time we left, the queues were snaking through the building and the room was hot and sweaty and noisy and crowded. But I grabbed me some good stuff. I have been revelling in my 'finds'.

I love these little embroidered linen squares. I'm going to turn them into serviettes.

I found several things with the daintiest lace. I love old-fashioned lace. I know it's a dying art and one that I'd love to learn how to do myself. Who can forget Queenie out of Lark Rise to Candleford making her lace for the market?

Look at this beautiful laundry bag. I love it! It's the sort of thing my grandmother would have had hanging in her 'wash house'.

 

Here is a sweet little doily.

And a dainty tea-cosy - more for looks I think, than to keep a teapot warm.

One of my favourite things is this beautiful linen cloth - bought for 50c! I think its purpose is a teatowel, but it is so crisp and unsullied that I think it has probably sat in a cupboard for most of its life. I love the colours.

These French cloths remind me of my Nana.

So many pretty things. It's almost heartbreaking to think some woman's hours of hard work and love ends up on an indifferent, crammed sale table.

I bought about 5 linen tablecloths, with a price tag averaging around $6 each. I know for a fact that antique shops sell these for around the $40 mark, so I was rather thrilled to get them.

I found a lovely baby's jacket in pure wool, still with the tag 'Made in Great Britain' on it. I had thoughts of cutting it up for my woolen baby hats, but now..... I don't know. And a sweet little doll's apron from Harrods. Look!

And I really wanted to get a crochet blanket - they had several there, but this one cuaght my eye. Alice has claimed it as her own already!

We finished off with a civilised morning tea of cake and coffee before we shared an umbrella to make the dash back to our cars. It was a lot of fun. I'm planning on doing a giveaway with something soon - if I can decide on what I can bear to part with!

I Go To A School Dance

Ten minutes before Hugh and I were due to leave for the school dance, I said to him,
"do you think anyone will notice if we don't turn up?"
We were both unsure about it, because we didn't know what to expect, just being new at the school, and I was just really, really tired as well, being the end of term and having had a lot of sickness this term.

But our sense of duty was more powerful, so we gathered ourselves together and left.

The Year 8 (Form 2-for all the oldies) dance is a special night that our school puts on for the students and their parents as a celebration of the end of the primary and intermediate school years.
They are special years. Once the children enter high school, they quickly lose that carefree childhood air as they are burdened with more and more responsibilities, and the serious business of doing well in their studies. As we try to explain to our children now, if they do well academically, it gives them the freedom and the choice to follow their passions when they leave school.

As we lined up with the other families at the door to the hall, it was explained that the children had to introduce their parents to the teachers. Hugh did a lovely job of introducing me to my old teacher and family friend from Blenheim, Mr. Mudge.

I was a little nervous about going, because I don't know many of the parents in Hugh's year. And the two people I did know - my sister in law, and a teacher aid - were both going to be away, so I was filled with a little trepidation, but I needn't have worried.

The week before I had gone and bought myself a dress. I love it! I found it at Repertoire here in Tauranga.

A real problem was shoes, as we were told not to wear stilletos, which is all I own for dressing up. I scoured the shoe shops, but in the end I found these at the Warehouse! And they were so comfortable.

As soon as I arrived I was waved at by Debbie, who is the school registrar, and probably one of the nicest people I've met here. She was on her own that night too, so we hooked up together and found Ivy, another mum on her own. We sat together and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

The children started off by showing us their dances that they have been learning all term during PE (physical education) class.

Here is Hugh with his partner - Poppy.

After they showed us the moves, we got to join in with them. The boys had to come and get their mums and lead us onto the dance floor - it was so sweet! I loved the dancing. It was so much fun. They were all probably dances from the 1930's-1950's - I think.

The above photo is from a competition waltz. They were given a theme per waltz, and when the music stopped they had to form a tableau that had already been predetermined. Hillarious things like: "a marriage proposal", "milking a cow", "wheelbarrow in the garden", that sort of thing. That's Hugh and his partner in the centre and they made it quite far into the competition - until his partner got the giggles - at the marriage proposal! LOL!

All the girls were so sweet in their pretty dresses. It wasn't over-the-top like you get with the Sixth Form Ball, but just really lovely and girlish for their age.

I thought the dance was a fantastic way of introducing the kids to dances and  balls that do become an important part of school life later on, and nice that we parents get to do the first one with them.

The Supper Dance was the last dance - where they start with one couple and when the music stops, those two have to go and choose another partner from the audience. This carries on like this until everyone is up dancing. Debbie said to me, "pray that the boys don't come and get us early.". Well, we were left laughing on the other side of our faces, because we sat and waited for our boys to come. And waited. And waited. And they didn't come.

Debbie laughed, "Well, Rachel. This is just a taste of things to come. They have much prettier fish to fry." We did get the giggles at that, and gave our boys a hard time later on for forgetting their mums.

Here is the start of the dance:

What a wonderful night it was. I'm so glad that I have 3 more children to go through the Year 8 dance. I can't wait for them.
Here is my old teacher, Mr. Mudge. As I was telling Debbie, he gave me and my childhood friends and classmates some very happy times and memories when we were in Intermediate school.

The dance was just one of those lovely times that you know you're going to remember for a very long time. I'm so glad I went!