Last week...

Just a few images I shot the other evening to document the current state of the build. Steven is outside now working on the roof. Tomorrow the roofers are coming to have a chat and arrange when they'll come in to do the steel work.











(all those huge beams were hoisted up by hand!)









We were originally going to have a skylight above where our bed will be upstairs, so that we could lie in bed and look up at the stars. Sounds very romantic! But actually, when we did a test (by lying on some plywood on the upstairs rafters), it will be a bit too bright and overwhelming in the daylight. And we can see the stars out of the other windows anyway. So that's one less window to bother with. Hopefully that will speed things up!!

Elmer and I are home sick, we both have colds. We've read his favourite tractor book about three million times, and here he is now at my desk to let me know it's time to go again. Yey!

When we passed through Wellington last week on the way home from Taranaki, I managed to visit the Brian Brake Exhibition at the Te Papa Museum. I hadn't heard of Brake before, but I found his work inspirational, especially his early black and white documentary images.



(image from Te Papa website)

We've had such a busy few weeks with my parents here. Elmer's had a couple of plane rides, been on a bus (a rarity for us in NZ!), stayed in a few different holiday homes, thrown stones in Lakes, been for long, boring walks, climbed stairs, fallen over a couple of times, eaten all sorts of exotic food, read tons of books, been licked by strange dogs, visited Wanaka, Hawea, New Plymouth, Wellington, Oamaru, Queenstown and Arrowtown! Busy baby.

I have a number of things to blog, but I'm all over the place at the moment! We just got back from Taranaki where me, Elmer and my parents spent 5 days in a beach-side cottage (first proper relaxing I've done in months - bliss), and are off again in the morning for a trip that will feature Natalie and Lawrence's wedding in Tekapo - the little church on the lake. It's one of the most stunning places to get married so I hope I can do it justice.

News in the meantime is that I have learned how to knit. My mum taught me during our stay in the cottage. I'm knitting Elmer a scarf that will go with a cute new coat we bought him. It's all going to look very Harry Potter (not deliberate), with red and blue stripes.

Elmer is walking along using the furniture loads, but still not branching out to take his first steps. Oh and I cut his hair! First time. Today whilst he played with his toy garage. It's a pretty good hair cut since he didn't exactly sit still. He looks YEARS older, which is cute but also a little heartbreaking. I must post a photograph.

Once he's walking he won't be a baby anymore, but I've had a good baby-innings since he's now almost 19 months. He's babbling lots, and every second word is 'tractor' - an obsession.

Here are his fat little toes on the beach in Taranaki. Black sand!