Week 26: Keep on running...

We are halfway through the year - which means we have passed the shortest day in this hemisphere. Things will get brighter and the nights will get lighter, which all sounds good to me. Meanwhile, one of the chaps at work has developed a sort of lamb cartel. He goes down to the market and buys a side of lamb, then gets it butchered into bits and weighs it up in the staffroom. By the looks of things, it's man's work!

The Harbour Capital Marathon was run in near perfect conditions - relatively still, for Wellington, and the temperatures remained cool without being bitterly cold.

I cycled round the bays (on a wonderfully closed-to-cars road) to the turnaround point for the half marathon. I got there before the runners came through so it was peaceful. The marshals from the Wellington Marathon Clinic were friendly and cheerful, and when the runners did come through, they were full of enthusiastic support.

The runners came first in a trickle which mounted to a flood. I cheered for Him Outdoors, friends, colleagues, and complete strangers.

I love the expressions of commitment and focus from these runners. As I cycled home, I passed people at the back of the marathon who were on the homeward stretch. I acknowledged all of them because they deserve support. From the winners to the ones who set PBs; to everyone who tried and trained and pulled on a number and completed a race, congratulations!

If you feature in any of these photos and would like a copy, leave me a comment and I'll get the image to you.

Week 25: Scary Poppins

My big sister visited for a week. It was lovely to see her as she lives so far away, or maybe it's me that does that. In between working and rehearsals, I managed to snatch a few hours with her for walks and conversation. The weather was pretty grim, but even the sun came to out to play as we walked round to Scorching Bay for brunch.

I call her scary sis - you can probably tell why from this photo (oh yes, and her name is Sarah). She frequently looked after my other sister's (The Weevil) children and said she felt like she was calling upon her inner Mary Poppins to entertain them. Here she is teaching nephew to play draughts.

Judging by the looks she has taught him too well and he has just captured her king or something.

She is equally at home nurturing a balloon...

...which frees the Weevil up to lavish some much appreciated attention on the cat.

Nephew had a birthday party, which of course involves a birthday cake. Peter Pan is all the rage at present, so Mummy Weevil made a pirate ship. Aunties helped out by making a giant crocodile (half the size of the ship - we're teaching them about perspective). Scary Poppins did all the hard work with the icing, while I just laughed a lot and made the clock.

There were black skies over Karori for the party, but once again, the sun was struggling through.

Week 24: Martinborough

Last weekend we made up for the previous lack of activity and headed over to Martinborough for a day and a half. As you can see, we were extremely active.

We stayed at Haythornthwaite Cottage (Him Outdoors likes the name) which has its own vineyard attached.

Unfortunately that was closed for tastings, but we didn't have too far to look for other fruits from the vines.

All that wine tasting can take it's toll - the next day we headed out to the windswept coast of Cape Palliser to clear a few cobwebs.

The brisk walk up the (250) very steep steps to the lighthouse certainly kicked us back into action.

Our new friends are wary of us, but then, they have other fish to fry...

...such as sleeping, posing, courting and fighting - just like a night on Courtenay Place.

The fence at Ngawi is decorated with buoys, which is a much prettier sight than the manky bras at Cardrona.

The tractors and graders sit by waiting to haul the fishing boats in and out of the sea.

I wonder if this one spear-tackles them into the water.

Week 23: Impressions of Wellington waterfront

On a very rare, still day, I took my camera out to take some floating reflections on the waterfront. I love the look of clouds in the water - they always remind me of impressionist paintings. I wonder what Monet would have made of Wellington harbour?

There are some curious edifices in this part of town.

There are ways to get around the waterfront...

Or you can just sit and watch the world go by.