The girls can’t resist getting into the garden when we are away from home.

Tree huggers!

Loving Autumn…

Can’t say I’m EVER so well co-ordinated with my garden as these girls are…

A pumpkin!  Or it’s probably actually a squash!

I love autumn, and pumpkins are so very autumn.  The best ones are those that come up by accident, out of garden compost…  this one is in the soon to be garlic bed.  If there’s room.

Ramona’s pretty excited too.

Isobel and Iris.

The girls have been hanging out with me in the sewing room for a few days, between outings of course.

Iris and Ramona next to Nana Shirley.

Ramona is such a summer girl!

Audrey, by the tin of needles… and Isobel, happy as always.

How could she resist?

A beautiful sunny morning, some of the purplest of purple hydrangeas in the world…

Pretty pretty, and Isobel had to join in too…

Loving it!

The day the sun came out!

Got a few nice snaps of the girls looking at some delicate fungi on our last day in Katikati…

Ramona and Audrey..  ”These are so ephemeral are they not?”

“Why, yes!”

“Wohoo!  Sunshine!”

“Look at these ones, tiny aren’t they?”

From us all, “Good bye Katikati, hello sunny Auckland!”

What did you do on boxing day?

We went to the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki!

Come on!  Lets go!

Stop messing around Nancy and Iris!

The girls are all into gardening and flowers, so this work was a BIG hit.  Red, by Choi Jeong Hwa, who is also the artist behind Flower Chandelier, is a stunning piece and looks great outside the new entrance.  Fragile and bright in contrast to the city architecture and all that concrete.

There is also a cool art station for kids, you can play around with some fun stuff along side a sparkling Reuben Patterson wall…

Choice!

Luna checking out Len Lye’s Universe.  So cool to have her experience works I’ve come to know so well.

Before all the renovation work even began there was a lot of talk about making our art gallery a ‘world class’ art space and a destination. That phrase got bandied around a lot – particularly as the cost of the project grew.

But this is a world class gallery and so worth a visit, so get along over the summer holidays while it’s quieter than usual.

I thought this was very Abbey Road.

Above the girls/kids as Luna calls them are relaxing on their beach towels, the beach is a piece of felt, and there is a piece of ocean near by, but no-one is swimming just now…

We had a few days of stormy weather after we had started heading out to the beach ourselves, so this was nice for Luna, I hemmed up some ‘towels’ for them and we packed their bag.  Kept Luna busy for ages.

Then everyone got tucked into bed, more cuteness.

I scored this little baby a while back, the vintage Starwberry Shortcake Garden House and I’ve been wanting one for AGES.  This one was a steal!  And it’s totally mint, came with a rough old box and instructions…  It took an extra long nap for the kiddees and some Star Trek on while my little bro visited for me to pull it out (cause it would have been rude to lock myself in the sewing room of course.)

Austin is not one to be left out of anything….

Stella, says, ‘Come on over!’

Ramona is such a wild one!  Check out that hair.

Don’t often see Nina and her sister Colleen out together.

Cheers!

Nancy and Audrey love a glass of homemade berry wine on a long weekend…

Isobel and Colleen

Colleen and Nancy say pets are welcome!

Beach?

Audrey hanging out.

Stella and Ramona, hey lets get going!

Love these two!

Besties.

Now, they’re not usually all this disheveled…  but it was exciting!  Clothes…

Might have to get the Berry Bake Shoppe out next time…

Audrey, Isobel and Nancy hanging out after the big beach day…

Audrey enjoying the view.

Good times!

A stunning winter day at Muriwai today, the girls had a great time, it almost felt like summer.

Come and sit down!

Beautiful!  Isobel and Audrey love it.

Seaweed and sea shells.  Still pretty chilly in the shade.