Buckingham St - Melrose - Wellington

Spot the smallest house! Yes, that's us folks, with the wee red roof. We can see it from the bus coming home from work each day, being cute. You can just see the roof of the sleep out behind the house, and the section stretches further back. It's a lung busting 45 steps up to the door.....but all worth it, particularly when it's Christmas....

This Christmas we were joined by Mum, who arrived, slightly late but very chirpy on the 20th. She was our first proper visitor, and we'd managed to get what we had in place for her arrival - largely thanks to Trixie who sped around town the night before collecting beds, including a brass bed, tied to her roof. Jamie got a bit carried away with tying things down, I had to remind him were weren't about to plunge down class V rapids.

Our first Christmas under our own roof, this called for.........

A Christmas tree!!

With presents!! Mum came laden with pressies, and then Jamie and I added some more, so we put Mr Kiwi on guard - sporting his John McEnroe headband, for extra fear factor. Truffles, at the top of the tree, had a very uncomfortable Christmas, those reindeer ears have been trailing around with us since Christchurch - I KNEW they'd come in useful again.





To welcome Mum to a Johnston household Jamie got stuck into the kedgeree - yum. There are plenty of places to hang things up in the kitchen, we haven't quite worked out what goes where yet. but the ice-cream scoop hasn't moved staying well within (Jamie's) reach. Buying bowls with an ice cream fan is an interesting experience, only a certain depth will do. We went to an antique fair and got plates and coffee cups, but the bowls took another week.

The oven is a relic, but a very clean and well working one. We're really enjoying cooking on gas again - Lorraine that's your plant top right hand corner! Thanks!!



Mum and I enjoying the view....and the wine. Which hasn't stopped flowing since she arrived. MOst of our days have started lazily, often sitting in the sun. We've shown her all the major sites in Wellington - the hardware shop, a good place to buy cushions, a chinese furniture shop, a hard ware shop again, the shipping company, the library, the supermarket (she loved the vegetables!) - my office......and we've thrown in the odd gallery to keep things varied. She's been very amenable to being dragged off to complete household related shopping, the perfect guest.


The pickie above the tree in this one was painted by Nick's friend Ian, to commemorate our housesitting days. Truffles is holding up well...


Trixie in prime parking spot, the path going up behind her from the mailbox - see the last blog post for a closer look.

Buckingham Street.
This is the view of Lyall Bay that greets us every morning walking to work, taken from Buckingham street a few yards from the house, but unfortunately we can't see it from our place. The inter-islander ferry slips in between those two hills. It's a spectacular view, I hope we don't get used to it. There is a long sandy beach just in front of those houses.

One thing that is foxing us is the garden, so many plants that we've yet to identify......answers on a postcard please....


This is our Lemon tree - and below, plums, which the birds are enjoying, and our colourful Pahutakawa tree which flowers at Christmas, Welliington is covered in them.




A new aspect to life in Lyall Bay....waiting for buses. We're on our way out with Mum for a meal in town, Jamie bored already, which is surprising, because normally the thought of food perks him up.


Still on the subject of food....this is Bridget's house, who Mum went to school with. Last time we visited here Jamie polished off an entire loaf of bread, this time Bridget was better prepared with an entire rack of lamb, cheesecake and ice-cream. Her son Seifa, wife Rachael, son Ben and chocolate lab Wally were also there and we had a great day 'chattin awa', Mum managed to get some quilt chat out of her system.

We went for a walk on the beach after lunch, which, due to the Kiwi car on beach culture was not unlike walking in a watery supermarket car park, complete with toddlers legging it to the beach across the paths of SUV's and getting tied up in fishing lines....ah, those laidback New Zealanders.

Mum arrived with these T-shirts, which we're really enjoying - which is surprising now I think about it because normally Jamie Johnston says that 'matching garb' is NOT allowed. Walking back from the beach one day a woman pounced on Jamie wearing the t-shirt and said her brother was making a documentary about gingers and did we want to be interviewed? What with that and Jamie applying to be a Hobbit extra (or is that an extra on Hobbit....surely not, those big feet shouldn't go to waste..) he's fairly hitting the Wellington film scene.


No visit to us is complete without a visit to the Armstrong household, Molly here, creaming a ball into the top corner.
We had a great evening being entertained by a blushing singing Molly, scoffed some green lipped Mussels ($2.50 a kilo folks - divide by 3 for pounds!!), Nick's home-made bread and lots of chicken.

Speaking of Nick brings me to our next subject- DIY. Yes folks, the BEST DIY MAN competetion is on. Nick has already taken the lead with 'garden fence' and 'terraced vegetable patch', Jamie stumbled upon two large planks in the basement, and jumped at the opportunity to get some points on the scoreboard.


Stage One: splatter plank with paint to make the job look harder....sorry, find paint splatted plank.

Stage Two: entice assistant with edible goodies in a face mask, which need a long tongue to reach. Ask assistant to hold plank.

Stage three: the 'sand-sweat-breathe-sand-'should I have got a belt sander?' - sweat - but the guy in the shop said they were a waste of time - breathe - but then again he's not doing the sanding is he? - sand - sweat - out damn spot!! - breathe - sand - sweat - breathe - sand' cycle begins, throw on some white spirit and hey presto, one clean plank emerges. (left).

Stage four: top up goodies in assistant's face mask, provide them with wood oil and cloth. Point to plank. Hey presto, oiled plank emerges (right).

Stage five: repeat stages 1-4, with new paint splattered planks.

Stage six: build shelves.

Stage seven: Pour wine. Admire shelves. Move things around, move them back, admire again, satisfied that you have some points on the board in the DIY man competition. Remove face mask from assistant.


Stage eight: play with cat....oops no, Merlin has nothing to do with plank doing up, he probably slept through the whole thing. He's the next door neighbours cat, but he's decided we're a better bet. We've not fed him, but he sleeps on our bed every night, and hangs out a fair bit during the day. He's white. He's cute. He watches football...that really reminds me of someone but I just can't think.... He's the perfect cat, no money spent, no responsibility but all the rewards. Last seen upside down, chasing a dressing gown cord under the bed. He's vewy soft.


Although Mum really wanted to visit the DIY shop again we insisted that we visit the zoo, which is behind our house. We were followed by a photographer, who took some very pleasing shots...





And after that wee visit we returned to the house, poured some more wine, and wrote this blog. The giraffe's were my favourite, and Mum's too. We'll tuck into the left-over kedgeree soon, and tomorrow a nice French restaurant to complete her New Zealand experience, until the next time.

We're enjoying the sunshine, a house and Mum. And we can't wait until more and more of you make it out here to enjoy it with us. We offer free accommodation and full babysitting services, with fun filled activities such as 'name that plant' and 'plane spotting'.

Here is another example of the fine outdoor living New Zealand offers - Jamie's trip to the top of a mountain to see a panoramic view of the Wellington region is captured below.



And finally, just in case the babysitting services don't actually justify ludicrous planefares, here a small window into our world so you don't have to travel, and our new year's resolution is to talk to you all a lot more often!!