Category: MOMENTS

These chilly overnight temperatures mean our log-burner continues to work hard at the centre of our old homestead, keeping the ... Read More

It’s been a little while since I last posted in this Moments section. And while the updates may have paused ... Read More

Level 4 lockdown: I’ve been immersed in the pages of my late grandmother’s handwritten memoirs and came across her recall ... Read More

With Spring just around the corner, I must say I will miss my wet Sunday afternoons. Best Cleaning Tip An ... Read More

If you are up for a great foodie weekend, be sure to pencil Feast Waikato in your calendar for next ... Read More

I am very proud of ‘seniors’ that inspire a generation half their age – a reminder that life is for ... Read More

Last week my Englishman and I stopped weeding to wed. A moment in time to pause, reflect, celebrate the adventures ... Read More

It has seemed like a very wet old winter in the Waikato. On the upside – cozy nights in front ... Read More

I think we laugh more since we’ve moved rural. We may have gone slightly mad, and while that is up ... Read More

Let’s prune a tree or two, she says. It’ll only take an hour or two, she says. Well. Ahem. Maybe ... Read More

Yes it’s that time of year. The cold snap has indeed snapped in the Waikato to the tune of a ... Read More

I know who my parents are, their parents and their parents. That is just a drop in the ocean in ... Read More

On our road to self-sufficiency, recycling and upcycling go with the territory. A disused tree hut in the branches of ... Read More

Our beautiful native Nikau palms are gorgeous.  While naturally their fronds fall onto the native forest floor adding to the ... Read More

If you know me well, that is one statement you would never have heard me mutter in my entire life ... Read More

You’ve heard the term ‘up at a sparrows fart’, well let me tell you, that didn’t come from thin air ... Read More

We made it! Seamlessly we packed up our life and transported it ‘down country’. Greeted by inquisitive neighbours of the ... Read More

Despite our earnest efforts to forge a self sufficient suburban lifestyle, we’re pushing the envelope further. We’re going rural. We’ve ... Read More

I’ve had more than a passing interesting the concept of ‘waste not, want not’, which was a saying my grandmother ... Read More

While well underway on a self-decreed Backyard Makeover, I am rapidly rediscovering that best-laid plans of mice and men need ... Read More

Well, it looks like no one is about to give me a free backyard make over any time soon…damn it, ... Read More

I was fortunate to have nomadic parents who were not fazed by change nor challenge. My parents, both teachers, decided ... Read More

Once upon a time in the early 1920’s, in a small New Zealand town near you, the uprising of the ... Read More

I found a hand-written poem. Blue, faded fountain ink in beautifully cursored lettering recounted a slice of life on parchment ... Read More

I can’t believe it! A 1929 Glaxo Baby Book literally fell out of my linen cupboard. It must have been ... Read More

Pick me! Pick me! I have been waiting weeks to introduce my vertical community fence garden to the world. Well, ... Read More

It’s madness I tell you. One minute I’m looking out my kitchen window and admiring the new season’s blossoms, next ... Read More

The next time you contemplate throwing a stale loaf to the sparrows, scraping onion skins into the compost or discarding ... Read More

As we peel back the layers we wind back the hands of time (forgive me for sounding twee). Despite renovations ... Read More

Our tramper’s hut is beginning to nicely take shape! Forever optimists, we are embracing the nakedness of sarking timber walls ... Read More

Our bungalow is about to get a whole bunch of loving, starting any minute now. Progress is taking hold! Today ... Read More

For all intents and purposes, a back door is just a back door, right? Not necessarily. We do giggle from ... Read More

If you thought the Kalettes were a marching band from Dannevirke, think again…although you may soon have these beauties dancing ... Read More

One of the many sayings my grandmother crooned with a smile was ‘waste not, want not’. Surviving two world wars, ... Read More

It seems only fitting for a wonderful old 1926 bungalow to have a 1920’s themed garden. The front garden was ... Read More

I’m celebrating tonight, on a warm summer’s evening, with a glass of mighty fine New Zealand bubbles.  Why? I  have ... Read More

While ripping off brittle linoleum to reveal matai floorboards we didn’t expect to find a time capsule! Literally, we’d rolled ... Read More

I am so excited. We are a week away from moving into our new home. It oozes personality and has ... Read More

For the past three months we have, voluntarily, for no political statement nor protest, for all good intents and purposes, ... Read More

There is a lot of rain in my neck of the woods. While we don’t have to fight battles with ... Read More

In a modest workshop nestled in the Karangahake Valley lay the works of Mike O’Donnell – sculptor, ecologist, spiritualist, activist ... Read More

The recession in Britain has seemingly put an end to the ‘greed is good’ culture. There’s a study just out ... Read More

While I appreciate it’s not quite like throwing the slops into the street, the upcoming kerbside food waste collection trials ... Read More

Talking about rediscovering the joys of digging your own spuds! Just 12 weeks ago it was just a concept – ... Read More

Our self-imposed challenge was to grow our own vegetables (from seed) successfully enough that we needn’t buy them at the ... Read More

Like an old classic car it pays to be pragmatic about buying something 50 years old and expecting it to ... Read More

Let’s get one thing straight. I have been personally responsible for killing every single household pot plant within a 10 ... Read More