Summertime

I'm pretty excited that my passionfruit vine actually grew some passionfruit, three of them, woohoo.  They taste good!  I ate them all and did not share (the man's away and the kids are too busy easting all the grapes to notice).

I feel so lucky living 5 minutes from the beach, if it's hot after school I can throw the kids in the water.  Last Monday was so warm even I went into the sea all the way up to my boobs, this does not happen often I swear that gorgeous blue water comes straight up from the Antarctic.

I'm also glad I don't live at either the bottom or the top of those cliffs - I can't stop seeing everything through earthquake eyes at the moment.  Trying not to look at this picture with earthquake eyes... 

The man and I escaped into town last Saturday night, and as we had a bit of time before our dinner booking we walked around the waterfront like we used to when we were "courting".  Just walking and talking on a late summer evening, enjoying the last of the sun and thinking how peaceful and beautiful it all is, and then you stumble onto something unexpected....

...a circus!  Nah, we didn't go, but I loved the tent.

The next day we stumbled onto something even more unexpected, a jousting tournament.  Yes, truly, honestly, a jousting tournament in a suburban park (where did you know they filmed part of the Lord of the Rings?).

Medieval enthusiasts in full armour or costumes of varying authenticity, jousting and doing hand to hand combat, spinning and grinding grain all on a stinky hot day in Upper Hutt.  The jousting was fun, and those horses are huge, the sword fighting was really fun, and the kids got to shoot bows and arrows, but I was disappointed that the food on offer was nothing more than the usual fair staples of hot dogs and Lil' Orbit donuts.  Lots of mead tasting though.

 We have a summer festival in our part of suburbia as well.  It's actually a pretty cool little festival, bands in park (in the band rotunda of course), the Blessing of the Boats, and a fair day, with the obligatory Clowns.  They still scare me a little, but my kids reckon they've got them sussed.

Being the hottest part of the year I of course spent an afternoon stacking wood so I will never be cold again.

And knitting a hat - in passionfruit and grape purple note!  (the Amanda Hat - I am  pathologically incapable of getting this lace pattern right).

And putting together a pretty in pink outfit at my local op shop: gorgeous embroidered skirt $6, like new red Country Road merino $7, 1970s "Sonny" cardy $5 (size 14, hooray for modern "flattery sizing", I do not want to be a size 14!), and a hot pink crochet scarf $2.  So uncannily co-ordinated I had to buy the lot.