Chinese Cabbage flowers, of course

I bought an unusual cabbage at the Sunday market this week, which involved clipping off tiny buds of flowers at the top of the stem. Each blossom is less than 5mm across, but I couldn't bear to throw them away. So, they are happily blossoming on the kitchen windowsill, inside an antique glass jug which is 4cm high.

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May your life be filled with ukeleles.     Through a window on Cuba Street, Wellington

All the fun of the fair

One of the many delightful things about spring in New Zealand is the plethora of fairs being held at weekends. Schools, churches, craft guilds, you name it, they host the ultimate event to help you part with your cash, to buy yourself treats and generally indulge your creative side (or acquisitive, collecting of junk side).

Here are my "spoils of the day". The first photo is a collection of home/handmade goods and the ubiquitous "70's" clutter which my husband is beginning to dread. Quote "Oh look, you've bought another brown plate/lamp/set of glasses/yard of fabric". He has an acute case of retrophobia and does not want to be cured.

I'd like to think when I'm dead and gone, the poor soul who has to dispose of my creative world will appreciate my taste as "retrospective".

In a different league altogether, the second photo is a painting I bought from a lovely S. African friend. I have been admiring it for months on her website. Today I saw it at her art exhibition and simply had to have it. Check out the work of Gerda Smit on Facebook or etsy.

So, for now, good afternoon from your resident "Patron of the arts"

Showing his best side

Our beautiful 10 month old rescue kitten Ruppin. This adorable creature mustered two other furry reinforcements to batter down our CLOSED bedroom door at 3am this morning. They didn't succeed, although they were difficult to ignore. My husband fell over the three sleepy battering rams when he opened the door at 6 am, waiting hopefully for breakfast and for the cuddles they think they deserved. Humph!

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Yet another shop I had to resist going into - reflections of the pavement can be seen in the window. Cuba Street, Wellington

I love the contrast here between Art Deco and modern. Cuba Street Wellington

A subliminal invitation to my M.E. friends

Come over and visit - some of our cafes do a passable breakfast! Ahlan, welcome, baruch Ha'bar!

Greta Point, Wellington

View from an early morning balcony

Our wisteria has crept around the house and shouts "boo" to us through our bedroom curtains each morning.

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These staircases and doors are on a street which runs down the main tectonic fault line in Wellington, Tinakori Road. Weirdly, it is also one of the most expensive areas to live in the capital.

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I am a real "retro" '50s, '60's, '70's junkie - especially if the item concerned comes from Norway or Sweden. I believe it is common to have an attachment to the designs from the period one is raised in. I was born in the early 60's to a mother who was old enough to have served in WWII and a father with a attachment to musical theatre and the big band era. Hence I always seemed to be drawn to "stuff" which was deemed old fashioned by my contemporaries. And I've never been able to avoid this kind of shop as a result. Today I was good, I didn't buy!

"Unearthed" retro shop, Tinakori Road, Thorndon Wellington