Mōrena everyone. Mānawatia a Matariki. ✨

This year’s New Zealand Garden Bird Survey Te Tatauranga o ngā Manu Māra o Aotearoa starts tomorrow. Birds are backyard barometers and tell us a lot about the health of the environment. To take part pick an hour to count the birds in your garden then upload your numbers to gardenbirdsurvey.nz

Time for an afternoon nap according to Mack and Stella. #CatsOfBsky #kittens

Looking at my thestorygraph.com reading stats for this year and need to find some more time to focus on reading for fun. Apparently the Easter break didn’t help my #reading in April at all

Post trees you’ve photographed

I do like a summary graphic and the 2025 books read one from StoryGraph is very pretty 😀

Whew. Made my StoryGraph reading goal this year, plus a bit more. I only got 1\2 through the “StoryGraph reads the world challenge” but because of the challenge my read list this year includes authors from Iceland, Kenya and Malaysia I wouldn’t have picked up otherwise, so I’m counting that as a win

And parcel #4 is full of yum. All three of us have had a piece each, but we are going to be good until after dinner for the rest. Well done Santa very well sleuthed, hit the mark every time, and so talented! Merry Christmas and I hope #SscretSantaAoNZ has brought you as much joy as it has me 💕

#3 is a parcel full of CRITTERS! Awesome. I love the little zines, they are so cute and with the poster on the reverse 💚. The bugs bookmarks and stickers are such a clever combo of critters and book themes. So pretty I’m reluctant to use them but I will find the right places! #SecretSantaAoNZ

Parcel #2 is a very cute bookmark from a local AoNZ maker. It’s going to get a lot of use - I always have several books on the go at once, and I love how it looks like a cat is grabbing the book to pull it down. #SecretSantaAoNZ

And parcel #1 answers that question. You are very clever Santa your explanation says you painted this and it’s amazing. I love it and it is going on my desk where she used to love to keep me company. Of course larger small says she can now have the larger print for her room :) #SecretSantaAoNZ

It’s my lovely Mina cat who we lost this year! She’s lovely, how did you manage that?! I do have two young assistants with my opening and the concerted “Aww” as the print came out of the box was very sweet. Older small immediately said “We HAVE to get a frame for that” #SecretSantaAoNZ

Oh my goodness Santa, you have been very busy and generous! The packages are numbered in order and so I will follow instructions and open thusly. Lovely Santa you weren’t late, the package arrived WELL before opening day, and the waiting is part of the fun :) #SecretSantaAoNZ

It’s OPENING TIME! Now I finally get to see what the husband spied when he looked in the box for me. Ooh, look at the pretty floral wrapping paper! #SecretSantaAoNZ

Being good and waiting til tea break to catch up on all the #SecretSantaAoNZ gift opening. Baby dinosaur is helping keep me out of trouble

#SecretSantaAoNZ my gift arrived! It came with some other parcels and wasn’t externally identifiable. But I suspected, so I got husband to open the outside layer and peek because I knew there was something naked alongside the wrapped gift. Identity confirmed it’s now resting under the tree.

New tea towels I have bought from birdandbeach.co.nz arrived and they’re lovely. I have gifting plans for them but so tempted to keep them. Did peel the cute sticker off the tissue to keep for me though!

Hey #SecretSantaAoNZ, I know we are all waiting on parcels so please be aware that there’s an active ongoing SMS scam sending messages pretending to be from NZ Post. Please don’t click the links. Got one today.

Do jingly Christmas earrings and red tops count? This is my carolling look (as worn yesterday while on our work carols crawl) #SecretSantaAoNZCostume

Ooh I do love a badge #SecretSantaAoNZ. and this one comes with a nice dose of smug. All wrapped and posted. I’m sure the “Oh no will they like it?” fretting can be put off til tomorrow 😂

I do love me a hebe.

I love sparkles #SecretSantaAoNZ, but I have a nickel allergy so only sterling silver gold or surgical steel for metal, not expecting that. 2 sets of lobe piercings but mostly wear silver sleepers. I do like to attach dangly earrings to the sleepers though. Pins and brooches and bold coloured beads

If you want something different #SecretSantaAoNZ I also slowly collect small vases from op shops. These are all under 10cm tall.

My team came back from #iPRES2025 with all sorts of sticker swag to share. I’m particularly fond of this one from  ‪@dpc-chat.digipres.club.ap.brid.gy‬ but can’t decide where to put it as I have too many things I want to stick it to! #digipres #libraries

I lost my 16 year old moggy last month, so I’m currently petless. She was lovely and I miss her but I can’t imagine it’ll be long into the New Year before the daughter-creatures are trying to talk us into new fur-companions

Excited to be playing #SecretSantaAoNZ again this year! Half my brain is saying “Argh too busy” but the other half is just going “Squeeeee!!!!”

First strawberries of the summer out of the garden! They smell amazing but we are saving them for after dinner. #gardening #TamakiMakaurau #Summer

Finished the second bag just in time for it to travel down to #iPRES2025 in Wellington with my team members. I’m sure they’ll have a great time and learn heaps! Looking forward to keeping an eye on the hashtag and hearing about the presentations.

Final version of #embroidery, now just needs a press to get those creases out and some felt for the back so it’s nice to hang. Hope they like it!

Working on a small #crossstitch kit project for a friend’s birthday. I’d forgotten how much fun small projects like this are and how quickly you make progress #embroidery #craft