Matakana and our first real work of art

This weekend we ventured north of Auckland to Matakana, a small village famous for its farmer’s market, surrounding vineyards and proximity to beaches – including Omaha.  We travelled around the area exploring the beaches and the girls ensured we stopped at almost every playground we came across – in the pouring rain. 

Matakana has a few art galleries in and around it, and in one we found a beautiful painting of Omaha beach by local artist Judith Meakin.  The gallery owner told us that she has Parkinsons disease and is making the most of the remaining time she has left to paint, before the disease progresses to the point where painting is no longer possible.  The painting, oil on canvas, is simply surf breaking on the beach, under an overcast sky, but the longer one looks at it, the more the painting reveals.  

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The working mother debate – give us all a break

I’d like to grumble today, about the seemingly never-ending debate concerning the effect of working mothers on children’s development.  If I had a buck for every article I’ve read on this issue in the last six years, I’d have, well, a lot of bucks.  God knows, I don’t mind debate, but surely we could get a new perspective, some fresh points of view at some point?  

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Melting moments at the beach

It does seem slightly wrong to talk about stunning weather and trips to the beach, when a more extreme version of this weather has contributed to the deaths of hundreds of people in Australia.  I can’t quite get my head around how fires this horrific can exist, it is like a tsunami of flame, and it is hard to imagine that anyone in Australia who lives near the bush will sleep soundly again.

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We were blessed with a long holiday weekend and perfect weather all over New Zealand, and I and my little band of Auckland explorers made the most of it.  On Friday we went to see some buskers perform in the Buskers Festival, including Bendy Em, a contortionist who managed to fit her entire body into a 16″ square box..check out her website here: http://www.bendyem.com/

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I MUST relax, I MUST relax…

Its official: I’m so uptight that I’ve defeated medical science.  Last week I went to the dentist to see if I could get a new jaw splint made – I’m a night-time tooth grinder, and I put the splint in my mouth at night to stop me grinding them down to stumps.  I thought I must need a new one, because I’m back to waking in the morning with headaches and muscle pain. 

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Happy Birthday M-Girl!

Six years ago today, my eldest daughter Madeleine came into the world.  She came out screaming and cross, and has been fairly vocal ever since.  As a baby, she was about as collicky as they came, howling the house down for five or six hours a day, but suddenly at about three months she turned into a happy baby who slept 12 hours a night.  She was always high maintenance, and refused to countenance anything as dull as being propped in front on the TV with Baby Einstein on, but she was as sweet and cute as could be, and we just adored her. 

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