At home

Cuddling up by the fire... who do you think's the alpha dog? Mum always gets the closest spot to warmth, which actually suits him to a tee because he heats up pretty fast compared to her. His coat is so thick- like a lamb. Kaiya was spade last week so had to wear her collar for a very long ten days.

Cuddling up with a shower poofball. This is the hall of our new house. Can you see how the floor slopes down in the kitchen in the background? Makes for good conversation.

Kaiya definately appreciates the cuddles as much as he does!

Rimu's always two steps behind mama

I didn't realize how big he was getting until I looked at him in the mirror while holding him. He's not even three months yet!

An action shot- trying to get him to sit still for a photo proves a difficult task.

"just look into my eyes and do as I say.. cuddle me..cuddle me...cuddle me"

This is a rare shot as he doesn't get to lick my face very often.. really ever if I can avoid it. No matter how cute and cuddley he is I can't get into the licking my face thing.

The reluctant sharer

Cabbage tree and digger oh and a sunrise

This is me with the Westland District Youth Council, the mayor of our district, high school principal and a teacher all wearing our hoodies as part of National Youth Week in NZ. It was in the local paper- pretty exciting! One of my jobs is a Youth Activities Officer (YAO if ya wanna be down wit it) for Westland District. I was employed to start a youth council for 12-24 year olds who want to get more involved with their community. It's been a bit of a slow start getting young people interested- amazing aye because it sounds so cool! We're organizing a Trolley Derby for August and after that hopefully the momentum will take off, but I'm not too sure really. At the moment I have about 4 part time jobs all having to do with youth, some that I'm more interested in than others. By the end of the year I'll hopefully have narrowed it down to one or two that I can put all my energy and enthusiasm into. I've been really lucky though in the sense that there is space for me in the youth work scene where we've moved to... almost like they were waiting for me without sounding arrogant. It's one of those things that when it's meant to be everything falls into place with ease and the only hard part is to remain patient for the process.

Introducing... Rimu!

This is the pup we kept, the rest have all been rehomed. He was bigger than all the others and the most mellow and cuddly. We named him Rimu after a native New Zealand tree that's awfully big. He's pretty cute I reckon. He's 10 weeks old and oh so smart, and cute and fun and yeah hard work!


Rimu's big day out- wearing his first collar to visit the vet. He doesn't like it very much- prefers to be free and unrestrained like his mama, or rather grandma...

A Winter's Morn'

We call this area the "top dam"- pretty inspiring aye? It's a reservoir about ten minutes drive north of here that's a good place unwind and take it all in. This area reminds me of Kathadin a bit.