lost in the little corners of the garden....

There are loads of wee areas of the garden that are gorgeous and encourage 

you to stay a while.  

Lots of trees to wander around and under.

I'm easily distracted as you well know. How am I ever going to cope?

Carole x

Another nice day in paradise

The great outdoors calls. Shame I have to go to work!

Carole x

I need a little nap now....

You'll be very pleased to hear that my sewing room is starting to look more user friendly now.

Welcome to my sewing room. Of course there are still boxes to unpack, but I'm feeling like ignoring them for a while :)  I found the one that had all my cottons packed in it and the one that had all my sewing notions, which is most important.

I also have the t.v. and a large sofa in here so it's very comfy. Maybe too comfy? Never mind. I think there are going to be way too many distractions. Out the large picture window is a beautiful wee garden nook.

And if I look out the double doors, I'm confronted with this view...

See what I mean?!

Back soon,
Carole x

A little tree love...

tree love

Isn't this tree just magnificent? My little cottage is slowly coming together. This weekend my project will be setting up my sewing space. How exciting is that!

Carole x

Okay, so I'm probably boring you now!

But honestly there is so much to discover. 

There are lots of lovely places to play if you were a child. Under the large plane trees where it's darker and there's lots of leaf litter, there are secret places. 

Where the light filters through the leaves.

Where the birds flick through the leaf litter and then sit amongst the branches somewhere above my head and fill the air with song.

And then in a patch of sunlight a pretty fuchsia blossoms with delicate crimson flowers.

Okay, enough already. 

Need to do some stitching!

Carole x

I feel like I live in a park!

Chestnut tree

I want to say thank you to all those who sent me emails and left comments wishing us well with our shift. It was lovely to read them and I was touched at the lovely comments. I am thankful to have such lovely blogging friends. We are now settled in our wee cottage. Although it's been exciting all the way, it's been a hard shift, physically. I think I broke every fingernail at least once, every bone in my body ached, why on earth do I have so many boxes of books and magazines? Slowly the boxes are being unpacked and homes found for most things. Although I had a 'pre-throwout' I may also have to have a 'post-throwout'. :)

wood stacked by the old wood shed

 Every time I sit down I see something that needs to find a home and since I'm very easily side-tracked, I'm up and down and doing a multitude of tasks at the same time! Since we've been here we haven't eaten one meal inside yet, it's so nice to sit out on the deck and listen to the cicadas, their summer songs are deafening!

the old weather station

Slowly my sewing things are being unpacked too, can't wait to sort through everything. But for now I'm going to share a few photos with you that I've taken around the property.

Carole x

Goodbye Palmerston North, Hello Levin!

Goodbye Palmerston North. 

I will remember the gorgeous strawberries, and the sheep with the lovely personalities, 

and the time it snowed and the party for my 50th birthday. 

And I'll remember the days I spent hours of back-breaking work planting bulbs, cried over the death of a newborn lamb who didn't make it, and cried over the death of a mother ewe. 

There are lots of memories I'll take with me. And lots of those memories I've shared with you all along the way. 

But now it's time to make new memories.

Hello Levin!

Here's the driveway to our new cottage and I know it will be the home of many exciting and wonderful memory moments!

When I next post here it will be from our new home.

See you soon!

Carole x

Checking out our local hot spots....

Thirty minutes walk from our new home is the Kimberly Reserve which has a gorgeous river running through it, freedom camping facilities, bush walks and a lovely dog walking area.

In the other direction, thirty minutes by car is this little beauty, Waitarere Beach.

Be still my sea-loving heart! :)

Carole x

trying to keep my sanity.....

stitching.....

a few snatched minutes here and there, need to get it finished as I'm going to need loads of lovely cushions in my 

new cottage and on chairs outside in the garden.

home made focaccia bread.....

because I just can't live on love alone!

Carole x

As you can imagine.....

Things have been a little hectic round here as we prepare to shift.

Honestly, I'm totally over this packing business. We have so much clutter, -very important can't live without clutter that I am sure that we will never find space for it all in our new cottage. (Mr M&M would roll his eyes at this point and claim that it is I who have the clutter!)

I have been ruthless (as much as a hoarder can be) and have thrown out boxes of "junk" I have even packed my car to overflowing and taken lots of goodies to the local Hospice Store. I know it feels like I'm having a personal purge, if one can have a personal purge? lol

This is all that's left of my sewing room. It took me 3 full days to get to this stage! The most traumatic event was finding a new home for the sheep. There were a couple of very naughty, trouble-making sheep, who went for a wee ride to visit the butcher. But my gorgeous sweet little twins and their friends were not to be eaten. We wanted to find a good home for them where they would be able to graze away the rest of their days.

Eventually we were relieved to find lovely lady who owned a large orchard and wanted some sheep to keep in it so that she never had to mow it. We bundled them into the trailer and took them on a road trip to discover their new home.

Here they are finding their way around, checking out their new paddock and the lovely lush green grass. They look as though they hardly even remember me. Which I must admit, didn't help matters. I bawled my eyes out all the way there, while they were unloaded and all the way home. Made an absolute total fool of myself.

I'm fine today. There are too many empty boxes waiting!

Carole x