Greetings from the future

Happy New Year y'all!  We got to 2017 before most of the world and can report that it's good so far -
in NZ at any rate.  Here's a round up of our recent Christmas events.

Christmas Day started with the traditional opening of Christmas stockings.

Reuben was bemused by the presence of a mandarin in his.  Just a joke, we said, because back in the day, you'd have had a mandarin and a lump of coal and you'd have been happy!

Harriet's carnival mask was a popular stocking filler.  It went on a trip to the beach















which is absolutely heaving at this time of year, as you can see

stayed on through present opening and didn't come off when Harriet crashed on the sofa for a mid-afternoon nap, while we were waiting for the now traditional beer-butt chicken to cook on the BBQ.

Although in fact this year, it was actually 'wine with bouquet garni-butt' chicken.



Aren't we posh?!

On Boxing Day, we went to Ambury Regional Park.  Why haven't we been here before?  There were farm animals to see, shady trees for good picnic spots



lots of space for a ramble down to the foreshore of the Manukau Harbour



and some fine views.



Plus good trees to climb with branches wide enough for sitting and reading.  Very important when your name is Reuben and you are rarely voluntarily without your nose in a book.

Yesterday we had time to kill in Auckland while Dave checked his patients at the hospital, so we explored part of Auckland Domain that we hadn't visited before. Reuben and I found this face in a rock carving

while Harriet was very affected by the statue of Cain and Abel.

"Oh no!" she was exclaiming as I took this shot, "a killed person!"

Meanwhile, Reuben had noticed something else interesting about the statue.  "Oh look," he said, "someone's stuck a flower up his bum."  Let it not be said that my children don't know how to appreciate Art. Just the kind of thing one of them would do, I was thinking, so trust them to notice it when someone else beats them to it.  Here's a close-up for you if you didn't spot it first time:

The pièce de résistance, I'm sure you'll agree.  Then we got back to our picnic spot.  "We saw a statue with a flower up its bum" said Reuben.  "That was ME!" exclaimed Tilly, beaming with pride.  Right, well - as I said, they sure know how to appreciate Art.

Then we headed down to the Viaduct for some less highbrow splashing in the pool in Silo Park and some ice cream in the Wynyard Quarter.

Good fun that was funny in the sun that was sunny, to misquote Dr. Seuss.