Here we are at Ingrid's. Everyone is recovering from colds. Long walks along the lake shore help, as does green ginger wine and manuka honey. I don't want to use up all Nick's email server file transfer allowance, so you can see more photos over at Rex Parker in addition to these two.
Having a lazy day yesterday seems to have paid off because we're all feeling better. Today we're leaving Wanaka and heading over to Hawea to stay with Ingrid. It's a long 15 minute drive...
Somehow we all got colds before, during, or after the trip, so we're taking it easy today. But yesterday we went to Puzzling World, then for an awesome walk through the woods and down to the lake. I was planning to post only the best photo from each day, but I'm about to break that rule...
40 something hours after leaving our house, we finally touch down in Queenstown, and Michael insisted on a photo in front of The Remarkables (those are the mountains in the background, but I never think they're as remarkable as any of the other ranges surrounding us). Now it is the next day, and we're sitting at TIm's drinking coffee and relaxing. The boys are eating the American candy I got them. Jelly Bellies and Blow Pops are the favorites so far.
What is cuter than one puppy? Two puppies! We're baby sitting Gabby's brother Baxter.
I'm going to try to make sure this blog doesn't turn into puppy central, but it's going to be hard.
Be ready for many many puppy shots, because Gabby has come to live with us. We have been talking about another dog for while, even went to the pound to see if we could replicate the finding of Dutchess. Then when Michael found out that Donna was getting a puppy and there were litter mates available, how could he say no? She'll be staying with Donna while we're in NZ. There's a reason puppies are so darn cute, because otherwise how would they get people to take care of them?
PS: This morning at work we were sharing various puppy stories, and one gentleman, whose wife is 7 months pregnant, casually commented that he didn't know how they would cope when the baby arrived because they have 12 (T-W-E-L-V-E) Bernese Mountain Dogs.
Apparently the descendants of Arthur Seppings Harper and Maud Mary Innes (seated) are planning a reunion in New Plymouth next Easter. I won't be able to be there, but I wish I could, because how much of a blast would that be? They were my great-grandparents, and are pictured here with their children at their Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary in 1959. Maybe one of my brothers could go, and compare family bunions in my stead. That's my Grandpop, Jack Harper, in the middle at the back. He looks so . . . young.
I finished with students a week or so ago, but had to wait until today for my last day of work. One of the things I did in the meantime was grade Regents exams. If you're not in NY, you don't know about the relatively rigorous standardized tests students need to pass in order to graduate high school, named after State Ed's Board of Regents. I'm not opposed to standardized tests outright, (if you can pass the Regents US History and Government test, you've got a reasonable grasp of what a citizen needs to know, and tests can be one way to focus and consolidate learning), but in the climate of the federal No Child Left Behind policy, the tests have become the be-all and end-all, and everyone is reduced to teaching to the test and not much else. I could go on, but I won't, but so you know, I'm in favor of Leaving Some Children Behind.
The tests we grade up at BOCES are from all the alternative high schools in the area, so we get the insanely smart kids from the Oak Tree autism program,
This weekend Diane, Pam, and I went on a tour of local area gardens, a fund raiser for the Preservation Association of the Southern Tier. The gardens were of mixed quality, but it was lots of fun, and we ended up back at Pam's, admiring her hillside "jardin savage" in the wilds of Vestal.
Now, Pam and I have had friends in common for a long time, but didn't meet until last year, at Diane's "Introduce Pam and Penelope" BBQ. Why would Diane host such an event? Because Pam seems to be the only other
Kiwi in town. At that party, Pam suggested we get all the "who do we know in common" stuff out of the way. The first person we came up with was Di. So now I have to send Di a little note and tell her that two people she knew in Dunedin 20 years ago have ended up in the same little upstate NY town and take the same yoga class.
While on the tour I took photos of things I liked to give me ideas:
