Of Families, Birthdays and Balance...

I've been doing a bit of a project lately, attempting to capture Kapiti Island at sunset... What a difference a day makes eh? And amazing to think that if an island can change that much, at least aethetically, how much more can we change, in equally as short periods. The antithesis to this thought, is of the relative permanence of the island. It has sat there, protecting the coastline from the strong surges of the Tasman Sea for many thousands of years, and provided a home and a haven for the myraid of different birds and animals that have lived there over that period. And it's an impressive sight. Despite having grown up for a period of my childhood on the Kapiti Coast, i've never actually been out to Kapiti Island. Only ever admired it from a distance. Though it's on my list of goals for the next couple of years.

A lot can happen in a month. And yet when you're in the middle of it all, it can seem like the cogs of life are turning rather slowly. Particularly when life is out of balance. I find when things are in balance i hardly notice the passage of time. Probably because i'm lost in the moment. But at present i feel like life is a little out of sync. Too much emphasis being placed on working and earning money and paying bills and the like. As such it appears that Father time has a funny way about him. I've got a song on my ipod that says: "Father time steals our days like a thief. There's no price that I haven't paid to get some relief. I've become the shell of a man. I can't begin to even understand. Have I forgotten who I am? Come on and resurrect me." (Jon Foreman) I can identify with the sentiment of the song, that staring at your life as an observer, incredulous at the lack of balance you've allowed to creep in. It's easy to think that you're paying every price you can to try and backpedal, but to no avail. Perhaps what's needed is nothing short of a resurrection? Dictionary.com gives me this definition of resurrect: to bring to life again. To bring back into use, practice. hmmmm. hmmmm. Kind of apt I think. The bits of life that were being neglected needed to be brought back into their rightful prioritised place. So the last couple of weeks in particular that's what i've been trying to do. About a month ago Joelle and Tane arrived from Brisbane for a fleeting week long visit. It's never enough time when it's a visit from people you love. And yet whatever time you get is precious. We had a great family celebration all together under one roof which was cool. Mez got to see a bit more of Jo than I managed (see life being out of balance, above!) Our beautiful Lucy has gone from a wannabe crawler just mastering four point, to proving that an important part of her character is her determination. in this case to be mobile. She's mastered crawling and can get from one end of the house to the other. In the last week we noticed she was getting up onto her knees using furniture, and just yesterday she managed to get herself up onto her feet and stood there holding onto the couch and surveying the chaos around her as I chased Abbey around and around the kitchen and lounge. Impressive determination for sure. I'm hoping it will take her a bit longer to master the walking bit as she's still pretty reluctant to change her weight from side to side when she is up on her feet. Somehow I think she'll be quicker than either Mez or I would like... Mez has celebrated the 27th year of her life. My present to her were a pair of rimu bedside cabinets which my brother and I made, with wood from Dad's woodstore. So it was really a present from most of our family. Especially brother Tony who put in a load of hours with me, and a load more expertise than me! I am ever grateful for being in a family with lots of practical skills! Cousin Sam came to stay with us for a few days over the holidays which was cool - and great for the cousies to have some time to play together - though there was an interesting power play between Abbey and Sam - both eldest children used to things going their way! Sam is a wonderful young man that we've missed over the past few years while we've been overseas, so it's nice to reconnect now that we're back...Two weekends ago we celebrated the event of having had Abbey with us for the last two years. It was an awesome occasion over at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Featherston. All the family were there along with some friends of ours from Belgium who live just across the road and whose daughter, Emily, Abbey enjoys playing with. All in all 18 adults, and 7 kids. Good times. I have to say though, that the highlight was quite unexpected - my sister Tracey announcing her engagement to long time partner (and now betrothed) William. And we're thrilled for them both - and for little Frankie! So awesome family times all over the show! Really good for us to get away for the weekend, and managed to get out and do some gorse clearing for a couple of hours with Vince which is good for the soul. Abbey loves the farm and the chance to get out and feed the cows and walk around in her gumboots. One day i'd love for her to have a wee farm of her own to stroll around on, but i suspect that by the time I can afford such a property, she'll be beyond the age where she will benefit from having access to such animals. Having a grandma and grandpa with a farm is easily the next best thing though.There's something about clearing noxious weeds from (otherwise) productive land that is very metaphorical and great for contemplation with each spiky prickle. Hard work too. We've managed a beaut second birthday present in Abbey's new table and chair set which has seen constant use since it arrived for tea parties such as this one out on the deck in the sun. Abbey is really into imaginative play games and i get regular cups of imaginary tea now from her tea set. She makes gooooood tea! Too cute! The next event on the calendar was a weekend away to celebrate Nick and Madeline's birthday's... This involved tramping into the Orongoronga's for a night in a hut there. Lots of people (20 in a hut with 18 beds - just as well 5 of them were kids!), Lots of wine, Stunning weather both days and a clear starry night under the milkyway in God's own, a great bonfire with marshmellows to boot, time to throw stones in the river and even to have a bit of fun with an axe. To be fair, if heaven is something like that - it's a place i wanna go! Awesome weekend and great to stretch the legs in the great outdoors - gave me that NZ bush experience I had been craving as well as a hankering for more, and more, and more!!! Also proved that such ventures are doable even when you have a couple of small children. Was lots and lots of fun really. We were very grateful to Jim who kindly lent us some pack space for a few extra bits and bobs we couldn't fit on our two respective backs! We might need to get another kiddy pack if we're serious about doing a whole load more of the same though as Lucy is really on the borderline of being too big for the front pack. On the flipside of that, Abbey is little miss independent and would have walked given half the chance. I suspect the hour long walk may well have taken three had that been the case though! Maybe next time! For our little jaunt in the Orongarongas we needed to get young Abbey her first ever sleeping bag. Proved a good move too as she's now taken to having her midday sleep in it, under Lucy's cot (see below) again, very cute... Maybe i'll need to build those bunks sooner than I had expected! Last weekend we made our way up a hill at Waikanae in the Hemi Matenga scenic reserve. The track itself winds through a load of beautiful kohekohe forest before coming out on the below pictured views of Kapiti Island... and that's only about half way up the 514m - unfortunately that's all we had time for (not such a bad thing as i'm not sure we would have had the legs for much more than that!!!) great walk though - not quite alongside the route to Mueller hut on mount Olivier (about 1800m), but in the same vein. Anyone who's done that walk will know what i'm talking about. For those that don't... think the shortest route up a very steep hill (straight up!) and that's not a bad impression. Glad to have given the chicken sticks a bit of a warm up in the preceding weekends! Needless to say we'll be back to knock the bugger off on the next fine day!

And that's about us... in summary: Started noticing I was lacking balance. Not enough fun being had. Have since had fun. Restored balance. Now i need to do some more work! Wherever you're at I hope it's good. Ka kite ano, Ryan