Happy New Year 2026 ❤️

Greetings lovely friends & readers

Wishing you all a happy & healthy (& creative) 2026.

Today we have a jug full of Alstroemeria (Christmas Red) & white Penstemons. 

 

Well Christmas & New Year came & went for another year.  I hope it was a time of contentment for you all.  

Even though I got very organised early this year - it still felt busy as it drew closer.  

Sue came over one day & we visited the Lavender farm just around the road from me.  

Sue gifted me a piece of her gorgeous Daisy Chain Pottery & a wonderful fragrant candle.  I was most excited about the angel wrapped around the gift - Sue had made this from egg cartons & toilet roll wings  💓😇

The Sunday prior to Christmas day we had my Stepson & his family over for lunch.  My step grand-daughters Juno & Sadie opened their gifts & we all enjoyed a lovely time together. 

A rare photo taken in the garden - this is my stepson Jared, The Mr, myself & the two girls.

 

On Christmas Day itself, Sid & his family came for a roast lunch & he opened his stocking.  It is always special when they send me photos of what he has made using what I gift him - I enjoy this.

A little tradition that Sid's Mum has started is to give me a handmade card with a photo of Sid each Christmas & I have kept every single one.  The bottom right one is this year's.

  I hang these in my sewing room & enjoy them so much - he always writes me a message in the card.  It is wonderful to see how he grows each year. 

We have not seen (eldest grandson) Alec's family as yet but I hope to travel down to Kinloch in the next week & catch up with them all.  

I haven't taken any photos of my Christmas decor this year but if you are on Instagram  go * Here * & you can watch a video of my lounge that I uploaded.  It is over 2 minutes long.  

My decorating was very similar to previous years but my favorite this year was this wall in my dining room. 

Some of you may remember the Woodland Santa that I made back in this post in July.    He needed his own special place so I hung a vintage sieve on the wall & sat him on top of this.

Some days he was on a bit of a lean so I'm not sure if he had a hip flask hidden in his jacket (!!)  😳

The Angels beside him have all been handmade by myself over previous Christmas's. 

Christmas has all been packed away now for another year.

It took two weeks to set it all out to my satisfaction ... & two days to pack it all away.  

I think I could probably manage to pack it away in one day if a certain ginger fairy 😺 didn't insist on going to sleep in my storage containers (!!) 😖 

All that remains of the Kauri stump is the pale trunk broken off.

Four days after Christmas Day we had a nasty wind storm go through our area & lost power for 8 hours.  We had trees down between us & our depot yard, though this was not the cause of our power outage.

A large old tree simply uprooted & blew over & unfortunately broke a lovely native Kauri tree in its fall.

That is the Kauri lying to the right.

This saddened The Mr & I a great deal.  We have not begun the clean up down here as yet, though I have managed to clean up the damage up closer to the house.

While the storm raged for many hours the furry three took up residence inside - 2 in my sewing room & Little One on the bedside table ... The Mr put a blanket down for him.  

New Years Eve was spent drinking Christmas tea, eating fruit mince tarts & reading my book.  I was in bed by 10 & it was quiet all around as the weather was still nasty. 

I have been harvesting vegetables most days - I picked the last of my cauli & baby cabbages yesterday ... I will blanch the cauli & freeze it for winter stews.

This above was picked this morning - my tomatoes in the hothouse are growing well & we have had good success with cucumbers this year - The Mr prefers the apple variety.  I have been able to share a lot of produce with friends & family.

I wish you all the very best for the coming year dear friends.

Thank you for your ever welcome visits here today - I still really enjoy my blog after all these years & the friendships I have made,

Sending much love & friendship out to you all,