Although only nine weeks on paper, the amount of activities, outings, and deviations from the norm had this term stretching way,way beyond that in real life.
Where usually we paddle our little waka down the bubbling brook of the school term to be gently tumbled out onto the idyllic beach of a fortnight off, this term has left us dumped, wild haired and blinking, half way up a rain lashed stony beach, surrounded by the splintered remnants of the good ship Homestead. Ending the term with a short week is the ultimate sting in the tail and we managed to up the ante even more by scheduling a couple of high stakes, all hands on deck meetings into it as well. By home time on Thursday all we were up to was fish and chips in front of the TV and early to bed. Still, that’s over now. We can breathe again and it’s nothing that a couple of good lie ins and a happy stretch of no time commitments can’t fix.
Yay! It’s the holidays.
Not that they started in the most auspicious manner with The Bean Counter falling foul of a dastardly 24 hour stomach bug (luckily for him it departed prior to Easter Bunny’s arrival), every chore finishing at the brick wall of Unable-to-Complete, The Goat Herd and Farm Girl’s attempt at Easter egg manufacture ending in messy, teary disaster, and learning our lovely friends at the dairy across the road had been subjected to a mindless, horrific and terrifying robbery while we grumbled and grumped through what we deemed “a bad day”. For a while there, it felt like the world was a pretty awful place. Even the promised blood moon chose to hide behind the clouds.
But today the sun came up, chores fell into place, Easter Bunny hopped by and, across the road,it was back to business as usual for Christina and family.
The wily old Easter Bunny had set a batch of head scratching clues which Farm Girl decoded with the assistance of The Milk Maid, The Farmer and (for some unknown reason) a reprieved rooster.
The clues led to a stockpile of goodies of which the deconstructed Easter eggs of yesterday paired perfectly with the All Black themed (again, no idea why) store bought rabbit offerings to provide a cal-horrific but traditional Easter Sunday breakfast.
Which fuelled the last little, stubborn, horrid patch of sanding of the North Wall (which had to be taken back to bare wood due to the inferior paint and sloppy preparation by previous occupants…grr)…
and a first coat of the new look.
So after a mediocre kick off, the holidays are looking pretty rosy. I’m now off outside to join the happy throng slapping on the second coating of paint to the Homestead’s North Wall and then I’m proposing we trot across the road to offer the dairy folk our condolences…and a round of ice creams as well.
Happy Easter to you all.
Union Homestead 
Sorry things went so pear shaped for you and glad that all is now calm sailing. How awful that the dairy was subjected to such a nasty experience, hope they aren’t too traumatised. Happy belated Easter.
Sometimes it feels like things are conspiring against you, and then suddenly you’re back on track again. We are so lucky to have Christina and her family in the dairy across the road – they swear they are fine and their smiles are bright, but I wonder how much something like that plays on your mind.
Happy Easter to all you Homesteaders. All Black bunnies – wow, kind of mind boggling. My boss (the one who just got back from 5 weeks in NZ) brought me home one of those little teapot shaped saucers for putting teabags on – and it’s All Black. Perfect. For the staff room, she also brought back a huge back of Cadbury treats from her visit to the factory in Dunedin – so we celebrated Easter earlier in the week at work. More perfect -yum. You get bars down there that are not even thought of up here. It will be a happy day when you are done with the house painting – that will certainly be worth celebrating, and ice cream sounds about right – hokey poky, maybe? We don’t have that here, either. Your description of the past term was wonderful – we have so been there once in a while. Brilliant idea laying clues for the Easter treats – I thought of something similar this morning (it’s Easter morning for me – the date line, right?), but not yet having had any caffeine, lacked the cleverness required to draft up the clues. Easter treat making was supposed to be happening in my kitchen last night, but eldest daughter and her Dad got into a comparison of the greatest ever summer rock songs – it was a battle of the phones that could no doubt be heard out at the chicken house. And no chocolate was involved, I can tell by the clean state of my kitchen. So…even your resurrected Easter treats are miles better than what got produced here :). Enjoy the weekend!
No trip to Dunedin is complete without loading up with swag at the Cadbury factory. We are as keen to learn which chocolate bars had your senses reeling as to which song won the greatest summer rock song battle.
Don’t tell anyone, but we’re not really the hugest rugby fans here. The Bean Counter keeps up with it all, but for the rest…still, the All Black bunnies were good 🙂
No hokey pokey ice cream for us this time…we opted for trumpets and Memphis meltdowns https://www.tiptop.co.nz/product-category/
Final coat of paint now on the North Wall plus first coat on the trim…and now it’s pouring down outside so maybe we will get the day off tomorrow 🙂
Always a silver lining behind every rain cloud 🙂
Ice cream. Of the varieties on the Tip Top website, I’d definitely go for the trumpets every time. Caramel, mmm True story, though – I’m not crazy about ice cream. Once in a blue moon maybe, like about 3 or 4 times a year, and that’s about it. Blame my boarding school years – we had ice cream three times a week (Mon, Wed, Fri) two different flavours each time, so quite a variety. I ate ice cream pretty enthusiastically the first year, less so the second, and by my final year was pretty much done with ice cream forever. What a terrible school,eh?
Rugby. I just like the fern on the black background :). I barely understand the game itself – I’ve watched maybe half a dozen games in my life. The game is quite popular in this part of Canada, but not country wide, hence no pro league. I have an All Black tea towel (NZ really goes to town on marketing that team) – which suits my kitchen perfectly, and of course, doesn’t show stains too badly :)..
Greatest summer rock song battle – there wasn’t a clear winner in the end. Here were our finalists – Elton John with Crocodile Rock, Bryan Adams with Summer of 69, Beatles with Twist and Shout, and (gags from all but the contributor), One Direction with Night Changes. What would the Homestead classify as greatest summer rock song?
Hmmm…I’ll put it to them tonight round the dinner table but I doubt we will be any better at coming up with a clear winner 🙂
I’m not a huge ice cream fan either, it’s more the idea of it rather than the consumption if that makes sense. But when we do the ice cream thing, it’s trumpet for me everytime 🙂
After much debate (after it was decided “greatest summer rock song” was determined to be the sort of song you blast out, car windows down, mid summer) we got it down to The Stranglers “Peaches” (The Bean Counter is a punk at heart), Smashmouth’s “Walking on the Sun”, Midnight OIl’s “Beds are Burning” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejorQVy3m8E&index=2&list=RDOfrqm6-LCqs Creedance Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising” (Farm Girl’s contribution), and “Why Does Love Do this to Me” by the Exponents https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FR7ut_u02E because this song IS New Years Eve in NZ ( and the video was shot just down the road from our Rotorua home).
OK, I’ve listened to all those. CCR’s Bad Moon Rising should have been on our list, since that’s one that hubby likes. Your criteria were similar to ours. I have to admit, I’m not familiar with Midnight Oil, Smash Mouth, or the Exponents (please don’t tell FG) – not that that means much, since my musical tastes stopped developing back in the pre-kid days (about 20 years ago). However, having reviewed all the Homestead picks, I think Beds are Burning is the one that would find me with the windows down and the volume cranked.
I meant to say too, how awful for the shop across the road – it’s so difficult to get back to feeling safe and normal after something like that.
Almost forgot – Cadburys – she brought back a variety box – some of which don’t seem to be on their website. The one I liked best had nuts, caramel and nougat. Was it called Good something?
Hmmm…you have us stumped. Maybe Time Out? Or Moro? Or Picnic?
Yes! Time Out – I knew it had “good” in it somewhere :)…
Any chance of putting your feet up for a moment or two of peace perfect peace?
I’m listening to the rain hammering down outside and hoping that it be on the cards for tomorrow 🙂
What good bounce back! Ice creams for ever indeed…but I really feel sorry for your neighbors!! How terrifying!
I loooove the image of the comfortable rooster…he seems to say: “that is what we all need to do sometimes…seek a little rest and comfort in someones arms” Have only lovely times and your home looks more beautiful with every brush stroke! xo Johanna