sun down

Our lease on the River House is up, and unfortunately we don't have an option to renew as the people who truly own this place are coming back to live here. We can't begrudge them that.

Hayden and Lily and I are moving just down the road to a smaller, simpler dwelling. We will still be near the river, but it will no longer be in daily sight. Will we miss it? Or make more of an effort to stay in touch?

rise

With winter, the sunrises have swept back around to the north again and we can see them from the front porch. In the morning when I wave Hayden off to work, I often think of photographing the glorious colour. This morning, though, I actually did it.

roses

I trimmed the roses recently. OK, that's a lie on two counts. One, I was temporarily crippled in the hands so I just pointed at what I wanted cut, and Hayden did the rest. Two, we didn't trim them, we hacked into them. Quite brutally.

Really I was just following the instructions I had received from the Gardening Australia TV show which suggested that if you cut the rose stems down low, they will grow better from that point in the next growing season. I was thinking that the roses would be next be growing in Spring, and that they'd stay quiet until then. This morning I noticed that there are little red shoots pointing out in all directions. Ooh.

I hope I haven't jinxed the roses. I was really looking forward to seeing how they would grow into their pruning after winter. Now it seems that we won't get to see that. Our lease is up at the end of July, and we haven't been offered another lease.

Hope that wasn't because of the roses..?

cat and quilt

This quilt was made to match the cat, and definitely not the other way around.

Surely I'm not the only person to have done this ... to their cat?

Looking out to trees and hills

I really like this outlook from our dining room, out to the northern trees and sky. It is a beautiful illusion of trees and bush (really, suburbia is tucked just out of sight). The thin frame of trees curves around with the river, and as we are up nice and high we get to see all the way out to the blue hills. I feel lucky when I glance up from breakfast and I get to see that far.

Living Room

Tea time