Indian wall hanging

We got a beautiful Indian (we think) wall hanging from a charity shop. It's up in our dining room, which persuaded us to theme that room as our "world" room. We have lots of lovely things from all over the world - a hand carved aboriginal lizard that my Mamgu brought from the outback in Australia; some lovely Shiva and Ganesha  statues that I got from a lovely little hippy shop I used to work in; lanterns and frames and all sorts of things.

We're also going to make curtains out of recycled saris and scarves, to match the room.

The Nest Project

I’ve been reading about birds’ nests, they are fascinating.
Male bowerbirds make elaborate bowers that they decorate with brightly coloured objects. These can include shells, flowers, coins, pieces of broken glass and sweet wrappers. They make these to attract females, and the males with the best bowers are the ones who stand a chance of procreating. Some hummingbirds make nests that are only two or three centimetres across.
There are nine different types of nest: Scrape, mound, burrow, cavity, cup, saucer, platform, pendant and sphere. A cup nest is the one most people will be familiar with, and a model I’ll be following.
A nest is, by definition, a safe, warm place to keep your babies out of harm’s way. This can be extended to mean somewhere that you yourself feel warm and safe, almost like the Welsh word ‘cwtsh’ (which has no exact English translation. It can mean, variously: a hug or cuddle; a safe, warm place; as a verb – ‘cwtsh in’ means to wrap up warm in blankets or bed; it also means a dog’s basket or sleeping place. It rhymes with the English word ‘butch’).
I’ve made a list of all the houses and flats I’ve ever lived, and all the places I’ve ever called home, such as my grandparents’ houses. I plan to crochet a nest to represent every house, and take photographs of them with on a wooden floor or board, with printed labels - just like a Victorian ornithologist.

Last day

I won't pretend I'm not super happy to be going home, I can't wait to see Patrick, my friends, my house, my job and all that again, but I have to say goodbye to James and T again - and this is a big one. It will be years before I see them again.
I've had a wicked time, and seen some amazing places, and been to a fantastic wedding. I have loved it - but it's time to go home now, all inspired, creative and flowy of juices!

New Zealand is raining today, like it's sad we're going.

Last full day in NZ

Well here it is, the end of the holiday. We're going into Wellington tomorrow and dropping off the car by 5, then flying at about 8pm. It will take about 24 hours to fly home (via LA) and then I'll be back in Cardiff around 4pm on Friday. I am SO excited to see Patrick that I can hardly stop myself from crying. I've missed him so much, and that teary phone call on his bithday was horrible. He made me promise to never go anywhere, ever again. So I promised.