"And then spring became the summer..." from Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond keeps running through my head now. I think this is in part because of everything we are growing for the summer: the baby to be, plants in our yard, and plants out at the little farm.
The little farm is our community garden plot at Eleanor Pardee Garden - plot G60. After a year on the wait list, the week after our wedding, the coordinator called us up and offered us a plot.
The plot started out filled with weeds...it was not looking good, but still had a lot of potential. Arne worked over Memorial weekend to clear the garden, while I bought plants.
Finally it was all cleared!
Now Arne has filled the garden with lots of plants. We have a row of blueberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, sunflowers, and lots of seeds.
The seeds are amazing. In only a week there are shoots of watermelon,
beans,
and corn!
Arne tells me the heat and the good soil that retains moisture is helping our garden really take off.
I am looking forward to all the good foods we will have from the little farm. Until then, it is nice to walk over with the dogs and meet up with Arne and just enjoy seeing everything get bigger, even my belly with baby to be!
On May 15th, Arne and I started on one of life's bigger adventures - marriage. We created a magical day to share the love we have for each other with family and friends. Many family members and friends joined us at the Mountain Terrace for a day in the sun.
The ceremony was at noon, officiated by one of my college friends, Lance Savitsky, who put together a lovely ceremony. My sister was my attendant, Arne's friend Justin was his, and our niece Erika was the flower girl. Our mom's did readings, we listened to the Pathetique Adagio in remembrance of those who were not there, and then after the vows, we got to KISS!
It was great to see all our friends and their kids. One of my favorite pictures from my friends is me with Tracy's daughter Sage:
The reception was like a garden party, with a host of fun kid activities (my favorite was the bouncy house), yummy food, and then cupcakes for dessert. Our first dance was, "Can't help falling in love." It was a wonderful day, the only mild issue was that when we came home our dog Bogey was sick, and we had to do a wedding night trip to the vet. For those who are wondering, we are both keeping our names the same.
The following weekend, we headed up to the Russian River Valley and had a mini-moon, staying at the Farmhouse Inn. It was a lovely and relaxing time to explore the area, pamper ourselves, and just enjoy each other. In February, we did the real big honeymoon to New Zealand. Why do the honeymoon early? Well, we have done quite a few things backwards, and if you look closely at the wedding pictures, yes, I do look a little big, and that is because we are expecting our first baby July 3rd (sex to be learned when baby is born)!
For some reason, a month before the wedding date, I decided that I needed new windows and sliding glass doors. After two and a half years, I did not want to feel a draft at night anymore and this was clearly the right time to do this project!
I had 3 workmen come out and install vinyl double pained Energy Star windows and doors. It was cool to see them bring everything in and cut some of the outer layers to spec.
Upstairs Green Room Windows
The big window, old:
Now empty, for bringing in the bedroom sliding doors!
Now new, and actually closes!
The small window, old:
In Transition:
Now new, and opens and closes!
Bedroom Sliding Doors
This had to be brought in through the front upstairs windows, because the door was so big. Old:
Empty:
New and no more draft:
Downstairs Sliding Doors
I started off with this:
Then some work was done on the open space:
Now new, with an integrated dog door:
Kitchen Little Window
From old,
to new, with a fancy pattern:
It is nice to have everything new and working for the summer...hopefully this will help the heating bill!
This weekend, in the rain, Arne created a strawberry garden for our back yard. First he had to spend some time preparing the plants and the area. Arne has a little seedling farm he created.
Some of the seedlings come from lupine seeds we brought back from New Zealand. They are currently growing and getting bigger along with the other plants on the "incubator" table.
After preparing all the plants, Arne needed to dig out the area for the plants and create a fence to keep out the dogs.
Right now the garden is filled with strawberry plants and herbs. Once the plants are all big, then I will be able to make strawberry jam with our own plants! This weekend I made jam with strawberries from the farmer's market.
We had a lovely domestic weekend, working in the garden and kitchen!
Arne and I headed off in mid-February for a "Summer Vacation" in New Zealand. It was an amazing trip.
Day 1: Travel to New Zealand and Queenstown
Arne and I left Friday night for New Zealand and arrived early Sunday morning. Our first stop was Queenstown. The decent to Queenstown airport was exciting - a big jet plane flying down a narrow canyon, snowy mountains in the distance.
After checking into the hotel, we had a lovely breakfast and then took the noontime sailing of the 1912 TSS Earnslaw to Walter Peak farm tour.
Arne loved seeing the steam engines working, hearing the loud steam whistle / horn. I loved the animals on the farm tour, watching the sheep dog work, seeing sheep shorn and getting to hold a baby lamb!
After a lovely afternoon nap, we went out for a Valentine's dinner of fish and chips and ice cream - it was the perfect end to the day.
Day 2: Milford Sound
We were up early for a bus ride to Milford Sound - with commentary the whole way there. Arne found the details on the difference between silage and hay fascinating. It turns out silage dries for 4-5 hours and hay dries for 2-3 days, and thus there are different storage means for each. One needs a plastic cover, the other doesn't - can you guess which goes with which? At the Te Anau we had a quick breakfast (egg and bacon pies, muesli and yogurt, OJ and a lemon shortbread cookie) and then we ran down to the water.
The scenery got more spectacular after Te Anau and I got to fill my water bottle with glacier runoff at the Monkey Creek stop, which one of the explorers named after his dog named Monkey.
Once in the sound we did a boat cruise around the sound (which is really a fjord) and saw seals, waterfalls, and lots of lovely scenery.
After the cruise we walked over to the airport, and flew back to Queenstown in a tiny plane with lovely views of the mountain tops right below us. We saw Walter Peak farm as we flew down lake Wakatipu and into Queenstown.
After the outing, we headed to the gondola for good views and a luge ride. The views were fantastic from the top. Arne created this amazing video of the day:
We woke up early and walked around town and had breakfast at Eichardt's Private Hotel. I had blueberry pancakes with fried bananas and cream, Arne had omelet with mushrooms, arugula and chevre. Then we walked around the botanic gardens that were just outside out hotel.
We picked up the rental car and it turned out to be a red Mazda 3, like Arne used to have, but made for driving on the left side of the road. When he tried to signal a turn, he ended up turning on the windshield wipers.
We headed north and stopped for a bit in Arrowtown and had a walk along the river.
The next big stop was Twizel, a little town before the turnoff to Mt. Cook, where we had a mince and cheese pie for lunch.
The weather was again beautiful, clear sky and the mountains looked gorgeous.
We had a lovely dinner in the fancy restaurant before bed.
Day 4: Mt. Cook and Glacier Explorer
It was a beautiful sunrise this morning. Then a kea flew in the room and landed by my feet. I clapped my hands and it flew out. This was an exciting start to the morning.
At 10:00 we went on the Glacier Explorers tour. A short bus ride took us to the adjacent valley. After a 30 minute walk over the terminal moraine, we boarded small boats to view the icebergs on the lake created by the retreat of the Tasman Glacier. Clouds were threatening rain, but it didn’t come until the evening.
In the evening, we went for a short walk in the Hooker valley, up to the Alpine memorial and the bridge and lake overlook.
Day 5: Travel to Christchurch
Thursday morning started off with RAIN and no good views of Mt. Cook. Even with the rain, Arne was excited to hike up to the waterfall we saw the day before, that was hidden by the clouds. The waterfall ends in glacier rocks, with no stream or lake below it - awesome.
We continued our drive to Christchurch through Geraldine and Ashburton, where we stopped at the Ashford Spinning Wheel factory. We then drove on to Lincoln, Arne's old NZ University. It was wonderful to have him show me around to his favorite places, including the library, which still has the box for gumboots by the door.
We stayed at the Classic Villa in Christchurch, just a block from the botanical gardens. For dinner it was my favorite, fish and chips.
Day 6: Christchurch and Travel to Auckland
Friday was a beautiful day. We started it off with several hours exploring the botanic gardens. Arne loved vegetable garden and I loved the begonias exhibit.
Then we drove out to Sumner, walked on the beach, and drove over the hill to Lyttleton (third largest port in New Zealand) for lunch, before heading out to the airport for our flight to Auckland. Arne's friend from Lincoln, Craig, picked us up at the airport and drove us back to his and his partner Michael's place. We had a wonderful BBQ dinner before bed.
Day 7: Waiheke & the Sky Tower
It was a sunny and warm Saturday, as we headed downtown to the ferry building for a ferry to the island of Waiheke.
We did a bush walk around part of the island, stopping off at the Cable Bay Winery for a drink and chips.
Then we walked on to Oneroa beach, had a swim, then lunch at Lazy Cafe. Then it was a power walk to catch the ferry by four (we made it with 3 minutes to spare).
That night we got dressed up and went to dinner at the Sky Tower. We had a view of all of town as the dining area rotated as we ate.
Day 8: Hangi & Long Bay
After an exhausting Saturday, Sunday was a day of rest for us. We slept in late and then headed down to south Auckland for a Maori style hangi cooked meal with Michael's relatives. The hangi reminded me of luau food - it was meats smoked with wood chips from the local "tea tree" the Manuka.
After the parted we headed out to Long Bay for a walk along the ocean and the cliff area before heading home to a final dinner in New Zealand.
Day 9: Rangitoto and the Flight Home
On our last day we woke up early to take a ferry to Rangitoto - a dormant volcano that created an island only 600 years ago! We took a tractor train ride up to the top area of the volcano, and then walked around the rim had a snack at the top, before hiking down to the ferry back to town.
Back in town we had wonderful ice cream before heading to the Cultural Museum to see a Maori performance and then have a picnic on the lawn. We loved the WinterGarden and Fernz Fernery.
Then we headed to the airport and home. More pictures can be found in our New Zealand 2010 Picasa Album Arne will be posting more videos soon!
