Brigitte’s autumn hideaway

Posts Tagged ‘Jonas’

We had a great day at the ocean today.

It was amazing to watch the sea water come in in waves and flooding back the river.

The waves were quite high and so beautiful. It sounds as if the ocean is a big living thing breathing in and out with every wave.

David wasn’t afraid and had fun to chase the waves which were as high as him self (yes, David is VERY fast ;- )

Aileen of course wanted to go into the water, but wasn’t allowed since the waves were to forceful.

Jonas had his fun too

And Christoph of course went fishing

I was happy to find some green treasures. I just love the stones which contain green minerals. They remind me of moss agate a stone which combines my love of herbs and mother earth.

Since the waves were to forceful and Christoph came empty handed we girls enjoyed our pick-nick which we luckily brought with us

Croco even brewed a coffee on the burner and we enjoyed good food and the beach of course

It was an awesome day and we hope to go again soon.

On the way back I made a pic of Lake Ferry…

… and the Tasman sea.

We also saw this beautiful ‘Haunted house’

And I was so lucky to find a big patch of cattails!

Yesterday we drove over the Pass to visit Mitre 10 Mega again. This time not to bring back a broken tool, but to buy a shredder

The kids had fun at the beautiful indoor playground.

Aileen gave a performance of an Irish step dance (she is fascinated of the DVD ‘Lord of the dance’ with Mikel Flatley)

After that everyone enjoyed something sweet from the Mitre 10 Cafe

Christoph found some goodies for the future…

He couldn’t resist to buy some plants… this time he bought three different Feijoa’s

The flower looks amazing! I am excited to see another exotic plant in our garden.

At home the boys build their ‘machine’…

… and everyone watched excited (but in a save distance) when Daddy started to ‘feed’ the shredder.

When he started to feed big sticks…

… it got really loud.

And yeah, the shredder is still working

It was fun to see the whole family work together
This was better then roasting chestnuts or doing something inside. Here we had the clean New Zealand air and a lot of fun with the ‘machine’ who did a fascinating job

Some of the shredded stuff went around my berry shrubs and some is for the raised bed, which still is in production.

We have been very surprised to find an awesome plant under all the twigs.

This plant survived maybe years under this pile of twigs and other stuff.

We were happy to have a plant for the empty space in the front of our house (I already made fuchsia cuttings, but they will need some time…)

After we planted this amazing flower I went on searching and found out it is a Renga-Renga (Arthropodium cirrhatum)
Maori used to cook the fleshy root as food.

Morning is the only time you like to bake because as you know we have summer here in New Zealand.

A few days ago Jonas and David started to make ‘Vanillekipferl’ (Vanilla crescents)

Yummy treats which bring back memories of my Mum and the songs we sang while baking…

Today I was making Davids favorite cake…

… yeah, he just loves mushrooms

Now we are waiting for Aileen and Daddy to come home…

Yesterday we went over the pass to my friend’s place.

She gifted me with a lot of herbs…

… and David was picking some red clover for Benny

From Hana I also got a lot of herbs to dry and I’m just over the top to see them hanging  from the beam.

Her friend has huge lavender bushes with the longest lavender spikes I have ever seen.

How very different a New Zealand December can be if you are used to snow, ice and minus temperatures…

… here the only cold thing is my ice-tea with lemon balm and fresh lemons from the garden

This week we got a surprise parcel from Oma (Granny) of Austria!

It was a Nikolaus parcel! Something traditional in Austria where we celebrate the 6th December.

Oma sent us delicious ‘Buemmel’ which David calls ‘gingerbread doors’
On this picture Aileen is working on the removing of a Nikolo picture…

David loves airplanes and look what Oma sent! An airplane cookie cutter!

My friend Heidi also sent us a parcel with delicious ‘Milka’ chocolate!

Christmas time is such a beautiful time with all the surprises and treats
Thank you so much to everyone!

Last Friday night my husband and Jonas made the last trip to Tawa to get the final things to our new home.

With the plants they also brought a secret passenger!

We are living surrounded of a forest so this stick insect shouldn’t be lonely very long

We have a big garden.

I was so surprised to find this lovely fairy ring of mushrooms.
Now David goes into the garden every day to see his beloved mushrooms

The lawn and garden around our house is awesome.

I love the many European trees. Here my beloved maple.

And of course the tree ferns are cool too!

I never ever dreamed to have such a beautiful little forest in my backyard! Now I can enjoy my morning tea in the middle of a forest

Christoph surprised me on Sunday with this lovely elder! It was the first tree we planted into our garden.

He also bought a Macadamia tree! What an awesome place! You can have exotic as well as common plants outside!

I guess my husband has over done some work…

…and I was really surprised to hear him with a tiny saw! What was he up to do now??? Break the saw?

OH MY GOD! He was just felling the Robinia!!! And do you see this ‘I’ve done nothing’ look in his face?

I am glad the weekend has an end so I can hide saw, spade and all! I need a secret place to lock it up or Christoph will kill some more trees…

… hm, the Robinia made place for an orange tree… maybe this wasn’t so bad…

While my husband was cutting a tree I was planting our first things into the garden. The three sisters corn, pumpkin and beans have a nice place in this spot. I love gardening and I am looking forward for many veggies in our little plot