Spot the sea dog!

We spent a long weekend out on a REALLY remote island. It was so lovely to be somewhere quiet and not surrounded by people.

The weather was spectacular on one of the days. So warm.

Not to mention the man who helped us out with the house was so awesome. He came and brought us some traditional Korean Luna New Year food and then later tried to get us to drink soju with him and his pals down by the water.

All in all a sweet adventure.

Man, look at that ocean. 

The cafe GRI:M (which means picture in Korean I think) was awesome, owned by a girl who lived in NZ for a year! And awesome coffee and grapefruit-ade.

It looks like I'm pashing that dog, and maybe I was, it's none of your business.

For my birthday (again, way back in March...God I'm a terrible blogger) we went down to Busan and had a wee part time. We also went to the Aquarium, which was totally choice...though I've since found out that Korea doesn't exactly have a great mind set when it comes to this kind of stuff. Their biggest aquarium, on Jeju island, recently (this year) captured 2 whale sharks, shortly after their capture one of the whale sharks died. One o their Manta Rays also died. This place only opened this year. That's not a good running record. So as much as I enjoyed my time, and boy I'm glad I was oblivious then, I regret supporting such activities.

My last weekend in Wellington I had the most lovely picnic with some girlfriends. It was so sunny and I found the perfect secret garden.  Which we took over and napped under the trees.

My friend Alice was down, which was tops and we played many games of cards and drank many ciders in the sun.

And, how could I forget, cuddled with the cutest wee dog, Jimmy. 

(also, there's a cat in that mass of flowers in the third photo down. Little Girl Cat. She was becoming our new best friend just as we left.)

In Wellington. Toast and cake. The cutest cat (who moved just before we did, mush to my relief!). Brian the Pryon with the hurt wing. Plants, plants, plants, which all died when we went home for christmas. 

Hopefully we can get some of these kinds of things for our wee house soon.

Mum and Dad's farm has the most amazing trees. They look incredible whatever the season, catching the sun's setting and rising lights with the most perfect beauty. The view out the kitchen is always a winner but I thought it might be interesting to catch them from an angle they aren't normally seen from.

These photos definitely capture the magic that seems to be sifting around the farm.

Of course, they also have the most adorable black lab, Toby. He used to love sitting in the boot of our car, until we sold it, much to Toby's disappointment. 

A couple of sneaky Georgia snaps.

The two dogs at Jacobs host families. They had no names but Jacob called them Black and White. But in Georgian. I forget what the words are, oh well. The Black one went through a bit of strife while Jacob was there. It broke it's leg and the bone was protruding out. Noone seemed to think this was important, let along worth even noticing, so it went unattended. In the end it healed itself and by the time I got there Black dog was bounding around with only a mild limp. And really that just made him look jollier.

Pretty sure the second one is in Borjomi. Which is wear the spring for the water that taste like rain on asphalt and the beginning of the hike we went on started from. You can see more of Borjomi here, and photos from the hike here and here.

Home.

At home I frolic and rollick with the dog, which never comes to my calls. (I'm calling him in the first photo, he just sat there with his head tilted to one side). I eat soup in the sun and never have to wear my coat. There are babies and chickens. And we listen to vinyls in the garage drinking coffee.

It's pretty nice. 

Can't wait for our next visit.

From the very beginning of Lyon. 

Super jealous of my friend Alice at the moment who is whipping over to California to meet up with a frenchy, a canadian and one of the aussies. 

Like stupidly jealous.

Might even have a cry about it.

p.s. all those deer are alive

We went up to the Waikato to see the families this weekend. 

We encountered a pretty mighty storm on the drive up. But we were in no hurry so it was fine. 

It was so lovely, just chilling out, mostly on Jacob's parents farm, cuddling babies and preparing for the next Wickerman burning.

It's anticipated that this Wickerman will burn longer and not fall down. It's going to be wicked. Hah hah.

Snow, snow, snow. 

And in other news: This happpened, which is great.