Hi Everyone - good to have you visit our website ... welcome!

We are continuing to bask in the most stunning summer weather - it is 28oC as I write this and Colin has just come in to say that we need to find somewhere to go and have a swim! Too hot to be in the garden today.

We had a super trip down to Christchurch, got Gracie settled in at uni, caught up with lots of family and managed a wee side trip to Akaroa. I am now back into our latest series of Two Tarts cooking classes and loving the new menu and meeting lots of great people. We are having a run of overseas visitors booked into The Lofthouse at the moment and it is always really cool to share out little corner of paradise with them.

The house seems very quiet (and tidy) without Gracie here, but she has taken to uni life like the proverbial duck-to-water ... enjoying her lectures, really enjoying making lots of new friends and really really enjoying O week and all that it entails! It is a relief to us that she is doing so well, as she was diagnosed with glandular fever only three weeks before she was due to start at Lincoln. We are keeping everything crossed that she does not suffer a relapse.

Kirsty starts back at university tomorrow - she will miss her work at Equibreed, both from the earning point of view but also the healthy outdoors nature of it all. She gets a bit cranky when she has to sit in lecture theatres while the sun is shining!

As I write this I am listening to the radio with news of the huge earthquake in Chile and the subsequent tsunami warnings in the pacific. Many of our east coast beaches have been closed as a precaution. I feel very safe and 'Noah's ark' like perched up here on the hill miles from the sea!

I have just finished reading "The Messenger" by Markus Zusak ... same author that wrote "The Book Thief" - brilliant book and highly recommended.

Ok, enough from me. Looking forward to meeting you all one day.

"You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth."