Finishing Touches

James Snr fixes the new rimu skirting boards.

Curtains

Tracy and her mum made these fantastic dinosaur print curtains.

HMNZS Canterbury

After swim class I take James for a drive round the port hills so he can sleep. By chance as we arrived in Lyttelton so did the newest addition to New Zealand's Navy, the Canterbury. This ship was only launched a couple of weeks ago so it was cool to see it.

A Small Step For A Man...

Big news: James took his first steps yesterday!

Big news 2: Today James held his breath for 5 seconds underwater which means he graduates from the tiny turtles swim class and is now in the pipis class!! (that's a pipi in the picture). He celebrated by walking from one side of the pool to the other (with a foam ring round his waist for support), then he climbed out of the pool, crawled around the edge and then crawled back in via the disabled ramp.

That's my boy!

Almost There

Well that's the room painted. This afternoon the floor gets sanded. Time is tight, my sister arrives next week so this room has to be finished and James moved in so that she can sleep in his old room.

New Brighton Pier From Godley Head

Tracy and her mum are making curtains for James's room. They needed some peace and quiet to get them finished so I took James for a drive to Godley Head. I took this photo while the sun was setting. I like the curve of the beach and the colour of the waves.

Chuckle

Murals are quite common in New Zealand and this is one of my favourites. It can be found on the side of Bronski's Dairy on Ferry Rd in Christchurch. These two old dears make me smile every time I drive past them. My other favourite mural is here.

James Helps Mum

Can You Tell What It Is Yet?

Home Straight

After 8 weekends work, things are shaping up nicely, the walls are up and plastered. Now we just need to paint, and sand the floors and install the skirting, architraves, curtains and a light.

Coving

Yesterday we put the coving up, I think it looks great. Up till now every step has taken longer than expected or we ran into snags. This was the first job where everything just worked first time. Now I can't wait to get the roller out and start painting.

Kaikoura

Far across the sea, the mountains of Kaikoura could be seen in the setting sun.

Well that's enough nice pictures, back to DIY next weekend.

Christchurch From The Port Hills

To send James to sleep we went for a drive along the port hills. The view across the city to the alps was stunning. We have just had the warmest May on record, clear skies and warm nor'west winds most days. Lovely, but some snow for skiing would be nice.

Here be Monsters

I love the huge fish at the bottom of the fountain. They look like something from Captain Pugwash

Fountain

The peacock fountain at the entrance to the park has just had a very nice paint job. I love the colours in this photo, the low winter sun really brings them alive.

Leaves

With leaves all over the ground this piece of sculpture looks very seasonal.

Cheers Liz!

Today is the Queens birthday (her New Zealand one that is). That doesn't mean much to a staunch republican like myself but it is a public holiday so I guess 'happy birthday ma'am! Anyway it is a good excuse to say hang the DIY and have a family day so Tracy and I took James for a swim and then a stroll round the botannic gardens. It was a cool, bright winters day but the temperature in the glasshouse was nice and warm (see picture). There are some very strange plants in there, palms pitcher plants etc. The giant leaf in the centre of the picture is from a banana tree.

Plastered

This weekend we stated plastering. Actually I should not say we since Grandad did most of the work. I have never plastered before but luckily James Snr is a past master at it. It's quite tricky and most of (my) plaster ended up on the floor.