Our Week

This week we finally got Madeleine's Canadian passport and citizenship applications sent away. On Monday, we had her passport photo taken, and she was interested enough in the white screens and bright flash to stay calm for the entire process. Needless to say, it's not her cutest shot, but it certainly meets the requirements. We should get her passport in a few weeks, and then we can apply for her NZ visitor visa, which will require her to have a medical. Thankfully, they don't require bloodwork, urine samples, or chest x-rays for babies.

The local and national headlines this past week have all focused heavily on the "arrival of winter" - several cold and blustery storms have come over the country, and it certainly does feel colder. The storms have brought some beautiful rainbows though, like this one that I saw from our house.
Yesterday we had an unexpected visitor to our house. Barry, a 78 year old Kiwi now living in Australia, came to see the house he lived in until he was 10 years old. I saw him walk down the driveway, so went out to meet him, and he got quite emotional as the memories came back to him. I invited him in to see how the house has changed, which he thoroughly enjoyed, and he shared all sorts of stories with me. The toilet was an improvement from their "dunny" down in the bush, there was another bedroom in the now open-area lounge (to accommodate the five of them), and there was a woodburner in the middle of the lounge. There was no deck, and he said most of the bush and forest were 'new' - it had been mostly gorse and the kids regularly played in the now overgrown gully. It was fun to hear his stories, and he asked if I would mail him some of the pictures I took of him and the house.
It may be cooler, but we still get some beautiful clear days, so today Madeleine and I bundled up and went for a walk on some of the trails near us. We stayed nice and warm, and she even woke up for half of the walk - partly to let me know she was getting hungry, and partly to watch all the new surroundings. On our way back down the track, we came across a retired couple who were clearing a grass weed from the side of the track, to let the natural bushes grow better and live longer. The woman admired Madeleine, but quickly said "oh, it's too cold to have a little bubba outside!" I assured her we were quite warm.