My New Baby

When I got back from Denver this July, Duane said he had learned about a downtown space for lease.

I was kind of ready for a rest, but knew that this was a one of a kind opportunity. Attached to the Independent Theater and right by the cathedral, the location was fab.

Good location, great light, right price......

It was time to get to work.

After painting and cleaning, hanging lights and buying furniture, we now have Mockingbird Studio - named in honor of the state bird of Texas.

I open officially September 1. But, Friday I had a few drop-ins. One who kindly took my picture.

I even had my first NZ sale!

And, so the adventure begins.

This week I did lots of stuff. I went to the Nelson Mathix with my team since we won the Broadgreen Mathix (a math competition).

We were in the lead and then we got stuck on question 15. Eventually we got it with Finley's lucky number......?? The question was there are 41 heads and 130 legs on a farm. The farmers has turkeys and cows, how many turkeys are there? When we got it we were two questions behind the leading groups. In the end the other Broadgreen team got first and we got fifth.

On Thursday and Friday all the intermedite schools from the Top of the South Island met for winter tournament. I was on the school's soccer team and we played other good schools, but we had Sam Maxwell at forward. He and Corey scored two goals for a 2-0 lead over Boholly. It was the first time we'd won since 2004. We pretty much had a clean sweep over all of the events. We(Broadgreen) were the overall winners.

Finally, on Saturday my club soccer team had a practice playoff game vs our enemy the Bright field Bombers. the score was 4-4, but we lost in penalties.

“Actually, a small breeze of homesickness had been blowing over me for the last few days. I suspected, however, that I wasn’t homesick for anything I would find at home when I returned. The longing was for what I wouldn’t find: the past and all the people and places and cats that were lost to me. I’d been thinking a lot about that lately – the inevitability of separation, in one form or another, from all those we love, and, in a different way, from ourselves as we were in the past. “

Alice Steinbach, from Without Reservations

Just a little excerpt from a book I recently read. Alice’s keen observation articulated a familiar thought. Whether we move or not, we are often laying to rest a person we once were. It is only with a distance of space or time that we become acutely aware of that passage. And so it goes. We move, we change ……pieces of our old self dies, while new growth brings about yet another chapter.

When I first came here I was so obsessed with the future. How long will we stay? What will we do? Where will we return to, if and when we return? Somehow I’ve mellowed. I’ve met so many people who have lived and traveled the world. I’ve accepted the possibility of transience, the idea of being in a moment and letting go of the distant future and concrete answers. I am here and I am happy.

...…….what’s new? Well, Andrew’s lost a tooth. The daffodils are blooming - as are numerous other plants. (Quite frankly we’ve had flowers and foliage throughout the winter.) We've been invited to our first dinner. The days are once again getting longer (yeh!) and I smell spring in the air.




This Texas girl is ready for the heat!

Smoking House

It's winter, ok? And we are hunkered down inside the igloo. At night outside all around the house gets a layer of frost. Then the sun comes out and everything begins to steam. The entire car is steaming, the deck, the railings, the chairs. Here I'll give you a picture of what I'm talking about.

The whitish color on the lattice is frost. It'll be smoking soon as the sun hits.

Here's the deck chair:

That's what all the surfaces are doing. Pretty cool really, as long as you're inside where it's warm.

Last Wednesday we experienced what I believe would be called a gale. Purportedly the worst storm in thirty years with wind gusts between 75 - 90mph. I felt like I was back in Houston, TX in the middle of a hurricane. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtCzlZogjZQ "Severe Weather Nelson, NZ" and you'll see one of our locals escape fate......amazing. Sorry our video is sideways...if you know how to fix that let us know

When the rains and wind began I just thought we were having a bit of bad weather. When after about two hours I looked out and saw limbs flying through the air I realized this was much more than that.The kids were in school and the administration had the good sense to keep kids until parents picked them up. Primary kids who normally walked home alone and could not have a parent pick them up were driven home by a teacher. Duane and I parked under a stand of giant pine trees when we got Dean and Andrew. What were we thinking!!!! Later one of those trees became uprooted.

Our property lost at least five trees. Good news, not our problem Even better news, no one was hurt!