Saturday, May 11, 2013

Wintery Reflections on a Sunday Morning


Its Mothers Day here in NZ. Its a good day to be a Mum. I have been thoroughly spoilt. Breakfast in bed and dinner out last night. It is also a gloriously sunny morning and sitting in bed eating my pancakes I thought it would be a good morning to take some photos.

It the kind of bright sunny morning that Wellington seems to be extremely good at. Unlike in the UK where you get days of grey wet cold and miserable weather, that seem to last interminably in winter. New Zealand will very rarely have more than one grey day at a time. Yesterday was cold wet and windy and today has awoken bright sunny and cheery.

My girls are busy tidying their rooms and my other half has given then instructions not to ask Mummy to do anything today as its my "special day". I think he is really raising the bar here, in preparation for Fathers Day. I have a while to prepare so I should be okay!

I decided to take advantage of some quiet time and took some photos of our beautiful new house in the sun.

I have lived in around fourteen or fifteen different houses in my lifetime and this house is my favourite. It is not the biggest or by any means in the best repair, but it is the cosiest, and the one that feels most like home.


My favourite room. I think it's all the light that streams in and all the wood which gives it the feeling of warmth.


My favourite spot in my favourite room. I can sit here and look out at the birds in the trees and have a good nose at anyone that happens to walk by.



For years and years we have wanted a wood burning stove and we have finally managed it. Central heating in NZ is very unusual. Unless you are a British expat and have it installed yourself. Most people over here seem to have heat pumps, little stand alone heaters or wood burners. We have a heat pump in this house but I don't like it. It's great if you are sitting directly underneath it, but otherwise fairly useless.

The wood burner can heat the whole house and the flames make you feel all warm and cosy just through visual effect alone. It is also smelly and dirty and will fill your house with smoke and dust (at least if you are as useless as lighting it as me!) but the whole rigmarole is worth it in the end once it is alight and glowing happily in your warm and cosy living room.


This is apparently my two girls tidying their rooms. I guess the floor is relatively clear so that's one achievement.

 
My eldest in her tidy-ish red room.


I like the way the kids bedrooms can easily extend onto the deck when the weather is good.


And when the winter sunshine penetrates the canopy the garden just looks magical.

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