I know it has been forever...

but it is hard to get back into it all again. There was of course Xmas which was great. We (me) had three weeks off work this year, which ironically I moaned about, not wanting to take all that leave, but then the three weeks came and went and I did not want to go back again!!!!!

So the first week Mel and Jase came to visit, which was fantastic. It is so long ago that we saw them that I can't remember what we did. All I can remember was eating far to much and Ralf and Jase drinking and drinking!!!

A nice picture of Jade almost climbing into her santa sack to see if there was anything else - nope all out!

Then the second week we did not much at all, just hung out at home. One day Jade and I went for a walk up through the Mt Bruce walking track, nice track, funny though all the sign posts and markers through the track were so old you could read nothing, so it was, "oh there is another sign post telling us what that tree is, must be something fasinating".

Then in the third week Jade was in Dunedin with Gran (get to that later) and Ralf, Gundi, Deb and I went to Rotorua for a couple of nights. Busy time for the boys playing far to much golf for anyone sane. So Deb and I shopped and just cruised around. The first night we had dinner at the top of the gondala which was great, although I hate this photo, I think I was thinking that it was about time I had a photo taken with a wonderful fat neck and twenty chins on display!!!

So back to the story of Jade. She went to Dunedin to hang out with her gran for 3 weeks which went very fast for them by the sounds of it.

First of all they went up to Te Anau and walked into the first hut on the Kepler Track, stayed the night at the hut and then walked out again the next day. 6km each way, my wee girl did really well, and she really enjoyed it.

After that they went to see the Takaha at a reserve where they are kept and you can see them up close which was great.

Then back to Dunedin for one night and then off to Tarras again for the yearly camping trip, I think they were there for almost a week. Nice and hot weather, sounds as though they really had a great time, with many a trip down the river on inner tubes, with gran falling out lots so I am told.

On the way back to Dunedin, they did the normal stopping to pick fruit, apricots and cherries, I even got a box of cherries couriered up to me - yum I ate them all in one day :-)

Back in Dunedin they were busy again. A week of going to art school in the afternoon where miss Jade made some wonderful clay "things" and some pots, masks and general art work. Also a bike ride along the harbour.

And then gran brought a new Vespa, which she took Jade for a quick ride on along to the end of the street.

I wonder what that is on gran's leg - well that is another story!!

So here we are with less than a week left before Jade goes back to school. Ralf is still on leave, he has built another of our fences which looks fantastic, so really we only have about 10 metres of fencing to go before we are finshed with it all. Jade is waiting oh so patiently to see that complete, I think the thought of having a wee puppy is keeping her going!