We set up this grey water recycling system in December last year, and it’s great.  Easy to use, and the only cost for us was the 220 litre drum.  I’ve used buckets off and on for years, to supplement rain water and the occasional hose, so this is a great step forward!  What has been a little shocking is the amount of water that would be going down the drain – it always bothered me, and seemed so wasteful, so to see that our old top loading washing machine, with non-existent efficiency rating, a full load almost fills the drum, just over the three quarter mark.

Now it all goes into the garden and the kids use the water too.  I use a laundry liquid that is gentle on the environment and low allergenic so it’s all good.  But look how easy it was?  Buy the used drum (or score yourself a free one..) drill a hole, add a tap, or just bucket it out from the top – Rob did all the cutting and drilling, and fitted the old tap he picked up, and built the little stand.  All conveniently located outside the washroom window.  Look at all that!

As romantic as ever.  I had the chance to search through a box of old photos at my mums, old photos from 1940s, and a handful of earlier ones, mostly of my great grandmother.

Two locals have befriended us, a couple of wandering Mallard ducks, Alice and Oscar started turning up at our place at 5pm on the dot for some bread crusts and fresh water.  I suspect they’ve been displaced due to the destruction of the football field and waterway access, down the road.  Though being so close to the harbour there is no shortage of water birds in the area.

Austin was pretty keen on these birds at first, but, now they have come to some kind of understanding, though Austin is frequently disgruntiled by the many liberties they are taking in his domain.  Sneaking in for his cat biscuits even!

A close encounter.  Cheeky things.  Quite a treat for the kids, and myself, they are interesting characters, we give them plenty of fresh water and watch them groom themselves fastidiously.  I’m hoping they’ll eat slugs and snails, we do find them fossiking in the rocket bed by the back door.  Otherwise, they mostly just hang out with us in the garden.  Sweet life.

One of Luna’s photos, early early morning out with the camera…

There are other things that keep me busy, other than sewing.   And the exciting developments in our vege garden are a constant distraction.  When we moved house we potted up the vege garden, purple sprouting brocoli, rubarb, silverbeet, flowering bulbs and even the garlic – so far most has taken to the new house and garden, bar some of the garlic, a few are not too happy about being transplanted, though there are some nice strong looking stems in there.

Above is a little surprise, I sprinkled some random seeds into a new bed, and this rich crop of red mustard appeared, it’s such a lovely colour, and I have used it in the last batch of kimchi.  Yum!

Can’t wait for these little babies to turn into feijoa’s!

Along with the beans, peas and brocoli plants, I decided to put in a bed of sweet corn, which is fun to watch grow, I’m sure it grows a few centimeters everyday, so good for that instant gratification gardening.  Lentils sprung up in this bed, which will be interesting to watch.

Above is the garden a month ago, some of the brocoli are out now, letting a little more light in.

I garden organically, and as low maintenance as possible, using a worm farm and digging kitchen food waste directly into the garden, as I dig it over, before planting out new seedlings.  It seems to work well, and we generate much too much organic waste for our worms to deal with!  I also use lawn clippings as a mulch, and dig in comfrey leave when I add new organic matter to the bed.  This probably sounds like more work than it is, I’m inspired by permaculture principles, I try and keep things close to the house, and accessible, and I practice companion planting, which is also fun when planning what goes in next.

Here is a look into the strawberry patch, between peas and a sage plant, all good friends apparently.

Friday morning we took an early morning wander to farewell our old house, and this was what awaited us.

This was number 17, and the wall that divided our flats.  This was the last one standing on our street.

Diggers crushing and loading.

This was earlier in the week, the neighbours home, which was a single story duplex state house.

We vacated our lovely old house in August, making way for the new way-of-the-future tunnel.  Sad days, saying goodbye, my first real sewing room, the best view I’ve had for a while from the bedroom, the bed even.  Our cool tree house, and the hut.  The best place for sun and moon rises.

Waking up to this was pretty special.

Got to have a few before and after photos…

Almost all the houses are being demolished, including our old house.  Admittely, some are in a pretty poor condition, but still, these old state houses have good bones.  You can see more old photos of state houses here, my grandfather worked for years on state houses.

It’s been interesting to see how creating this new tunnel connecting two sides of Auckland has impacted on this community.  Really unsettling, most of the houses that were/have been moved or demolished were ex state houses, and homes to renters.  The rest of Waterview, mostly home owners, is staying.  When we were looking for a house in the area we looked at a number of these properties, all previously state houses, and I was appalled by the condition some of them, actually, most of them, were in.  Peeling wallpaper, like our one, poor paint jobs, mould and mildew, one house had such a bad leak the wall and ceiling was soft.  Disappointing and shocking that government owned properties have not been maintained to a reasonable standard.

Goodbye to all these houses.  Pretty grim huh.

What I find even more shocking is that it seems all so thoughtless, we’ve been taking walks around, watching the works, seeing the process.  But it is so wasteful, not only are the houses being demolished, rather than moved, they don’t even seem to be recycling any parts, window frames, doors etc. piles of bricks and wood panels, dirt and curtains.  All gone now, it’s just such a waste, especially when you read articles like this one, Radical moves needed on housing.

There were houses here…  new ones even, one had just been completed the month we moved in, new house, demolished.

Of course, diggers next to the play ground is AWSOME for the littlees.

Lots of photos… not many words.  We’ve taken few days out to spend time with Rob’s parents and this time the weather has been kind to us!  Phew no ‘trapped-in-doors-with-small-children’ days.  Just warm sun, cool, cool nights and morning frost, as you have seen already.  Good times to get the girls out and take some happy snaps.

No shipping containers this time…  just icy water and warm sun.

Kids in bare feet can you believe it!  It was freezing today.

Wheel shells.

I just wish I had my sewing machine *sigh* it could be a tad unsociable though I suppose.

This morning, frost!

Freshly mowed lawn.

Yes, it was cold, yes it was beautiful.

Winter is pretty mild just now, we’ve enjoyed the fire most days, just to take the chill off, and we’ve seen a couple of mornings like this one.

So far I’ve been hard pressed to get myself and the small ones dressed in time to run around on the field…

How about this for a view in the morning?  Beautiful Kawau Bay.

Fun times at nana’s place, Luna and Blake put together this large nest on the back deck, I even got to try  it out myself while Blake snoozed.

Mum’s garden is a bit of a wild one, some veges and herbs self-seeding about the place (cat nip of course).  Some older trees, and plenty of flowers ready to be picked, and nana doesn’t mind a bit…  Quite a lot to explore if you’re small and like flowers and insects and stuff.

Slaters.

Blake loves bugs on him, even reaching out his hand for airplanes to land on.

And skinks!  Are there skinks?  Absolutely everywhere, I managed to catch a few so we could have some close looks, this little one was quite content to look at us as much as we were keen on checking him out.