Feilding Rhododendron Gardens

It's spring time - the rhodos, camellias, magnolias, daffodils are out in full bloom.  So, we decided to take a day off from the house renovations and tidying and wedding organisation and go to Feilding for the day.  Although, not all the trees were in full bloom, the weather was warm and there was enough colour and birdlife to keep us enthralled for a while.  On the way up we enjoyed the snow capped mountains and even got a glimpse of Mount Ruapehu - I jokingly said to Harry 'Lets go up the mountain for the day' and although he agreed, pointed the car back towards Wellington.  In the evenings it is getting lighter and so we're coming home and doing a bit in the garden before it gets dark.  It seems to be getting less weedier and resembling order a bit more which is good news.

Otaki

One weekend we went shoe shopping in Otaki - lots of great shoes - but none the right colour or size.  I never could wear really high heels and now I find I'm limited to almost flat ones - not a brilliant outcome for someone so short.  The upside of going shopping is going to the beach afterwards as a reward.  We had a picnic of hot bread and coffee buns and a lovely walk along a nearly deserted beach.  We've seen Kapiti from so many perspectives lately and here's another to add to the album.

Evening on Petone Beach

It's been a really busy few weeks and my blog writing has suffered.  Sharon and Aaron have moved in, and so we helped clean and move stuff over here.  Thank heavens for new knees - they survived pretty well.  We finished most of the redecorating in the bathroom and ensuite and now both rooms are the same pretty shade of green - we liked it so much.  We've  now got some decluttering to do in the garage - Trade Me here we come!!  We've enjoyed spending time with friends over coffee, brunch and pot luck dinners and now it is 'getting' ready for wedding.  The 'things to do' list is very long, but we are doing a few things every week and so it is getting better.  Things are falling into place which is great news.  We've been to the movies a few times, and went to Hairspray with Sharon and Aaron which was quite a lot of fun.  In the weekend we went to see Hope Springs (wouldn't really recommend it to anyone), had dinner at my favourite little Italian restaurant (I took Harry to Istanbul the previous week and it was great - we reminisced about our time in Turkey and wished we were there), and then went and listened to the Beat Girls for a while.  Saturday we went to the Settlers festival at Petone - had a nice walk along the beach looking for shells (of which there were few) and then sat with chips and coffee on the sea wall watching the bonfires being lit and the fireworks display. Wouldn't you know it we forgot our camera!! but here's a photo from the web with Wellington in the background. Sunday was a slow start and then a walk around Paekak rocks looking for more shells (decided having shells as table settings are a bad idea), but even so we enjoyed the walk and our picnic (sausages and bread) - took us back to our time in the UK.