I’m so glad that all our travel this year is domestic. It’s lovely to live in a place where people like to holiday and the Banks Peninsula has so many places worth staying. I love Le Bons Bay, but it is hard to find accommodation there now, so Okains Bay was a good back up plan. Great bach, great beach and a general store that is well worth a look (even if I only bought enamel bowls for my pot plants).
Living in New Zealand: Working in the Studio What I Built!
After months of site preparation; tons of shifting bricks, rubble, concrete and timber; two day’s work with a builder (assembling the horribly-named SheShed) and weeks of finishing off inside and out (including a temporary deck) Sunflower Studio is ready.
It's a joy to work in the garden, with views of the harbour, but I have to be careful not to be distracted.
Living in New Zealand: Cartoonists Like Me Need a LOT of Tea
Working from home means being very close to the fridge. To keep myself on track, I distract my stomach with big mugs of tea. I’ve been borrowing the boyf’s Land Rover mug and that couldn’t continue, so the talented Coralie Winn, who works out of the gallery near Spooky Boogie, made me a big mug of my own.
Now I just have to resist the chocolate.
New Zealand Garden Diary: Rampant Rampicante Squash
The cucumbers planted nearby are still tiny, but the rampicante squash is rambling all over. Tastes pretty good (like a courgette/zucchini) when young, but I’m looking to store the big one.