Devil of a brew?

A better class of molotov cocktail?:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/local/3977154/Guard-doused-Government-House-fire-with-water-bottle

More holiday fun

Stuff my kids did at home....



Playing pirates. Possibly the first pirate game where massage was a vital component.





Escaping onto the deck to romp in the washing when Mummy wasn't looking.



Playing "chess". (Not standard rules!).




Purchasing hair product.

Our holiday in pictures

All aboard on a lovely winter's morning.



Our charger awaits.





Goodbye Wellington!



There are lollipops and balloon animals onboard.




The ubiquitous colouring competition.




Hello South Island!





Kaikoura has a playground.



The inevitable roadworks.




The inevitable nudey butts!




Dancing with cuzzies at parties.




Driving towards snow-covered mountains.




Walking to the lake.




Cracks? What cracks?




Orla and assorted family members.





Orla whizzing across the ice.




Aidan shows how thick the ice is. (And if it had cracked, we would have been plunged into icy cold water up to our...knees! Or maybe shins).



Ewan wanted to try the earth raisins.




Across the lake.



Perfect morning for an outside coffee! (Yes, the bottom number was the temperature).




Cart ride in the frost.




Soccer.




Never too young to learn to drive!




Going home. The only thing that made Orla smile was me saying "fake farts". Must have been the alliteration.



Tunnels.



The obligatory fuzzy shot of seals.

Teeth

Today it was Orla's turn to go to the dental therapist.




Teeth were OK! There were stickers for feet and hands, glitter for hands, and a crocodile necklace. Even big brother (and big sister) got some feet stickers.



After asking how to pronounce her name, the therapist said that she had two different spellings on her computer. I said "Orla", and, to my surprise, Orla said "O, R, L, A". I think I knew that she knew how to spell her name, but I was interested to see her confidence in spelling it out unasked to an unknown adult. More than that really - she understood what "spelling" meant. It was not just a rote response to someone asking a direct question.

Bird survey 2010

Once again, we have completed the New Zealand garden bird survey. Once again, we left it until the last day!

It was sunny and still this morning, and it seemed as though there weren't many birds around. This year's results were:

Black billed gulls 20
Blackbird 1
Dunnock 2
Fantail 1
Greenfinch 1
Goldfinch 2
House Sparrow 1
Silvereye 1
Tui 1

The stand-out result this year is the flock of gulls that passed close overhead - close enough that I'm confident they were not the red-billed variety. Not many silvereyes or sparrows at all.

Compared with our previous results, we have seen more species. However, I think that our average number of birds per species is down.

Here's our 2008 results

Blackbird 3
Chaffinch 2
Fantail 2
Goldfinch 3
House Sparrow 6
Kereru 1
Silvereye 3
Tui 2

And our 2009 results

Blackbird 1
Chaffinch 1
Eastern Rosella 1
House Sparrow 2
Silvereye 5
Song thrush 1
Tui 2