Well I have to start this next blog with an admission. Su and I are totally, completely and utterly, head over heals in love. And the lucky recipient of our love and affection is a wee 15-month-old boy named Stevie! Stevie came to visit us the weekend before last (sorry, I've been a little slack recently…) with his parents Ross and Helen, and once again charmed the socks off us! We spent the Friday that they were due to arrive anxiously looking out of the shed at the plants which were being blown around the nursery, worrying how they were going to be on the flight over from Wellington, a notoriously windy route anyway, on such a gusty day. But while Ross and Helen may not have enjoyed the flight particularly, little Stevie was so excited at being on a plane he thought the whole thing was one big game and giggled madly every time the plane lurched and rolled. And that just about sums up how happy he is. He has the most adorable giggle that is completely infectious, and he just wants to be happy all of the time.

They arrived just as Su and I had returned from our Friday afternoon shopping trip (it's so exciting to have a little routine again!) and were standing outside our cabin sipping tea, and there was the first little tug at our heartstrings as he instantly recognised us and looked pleased to see us. And that was the start of a lovely weekend. Ross, Helen & Stevie had booked a little motel on our campsite, a self-contained unit, which just so happened to be overlooking the Waimea Inlet and Rabbit Island, and as a welcome we had managed to arrange for a bonfire night display which was set up right outside, with a big red fire engine much to Stevie's delight, full of firemen in uniform much to ours (Ross excepting)! The little motel was sweet, but the layout slightly defeated the point of booking it - they had chosen this one especially because it had a separate room for Stevie to sleep in, while we could all have a meal and chat in the lounge, but while it did indeed have a separate room (where Stevie got to sleep in a big boy's bed for the first time) the tops of the walls were open, meaning that we had to talk in hushed whispers, and disappear outside with a glass of wine until he had fallen asleep so as not to disturb him! But this was no great problem - we sat, sipping an extremely nice bottle of Moana Park Syrah, watching the bonfire being built, then went in to eat a wonderful meal, prepared by Su, of meatballs on spaghetti accompanied by some delicious salad courtesy of Susie, followed by a scrumptious lime cheesecake, which caused some amusement and stifled laughs as the biscuit base was rather difficult to break apart quietly! This was hungrily devoured while watching the surprisingly good fireworks display outside. Sadly we couldn't arrange for a repeat of the fireworks for the second night, but we were more than satisfied with the smoked white warehou fish from the Mapua Smokehouse, with new potatoes and asparagus, accompanied by two extremely good wines, the second being a particular favourite of ours - an Alpha Domus Pinot Noir. Yes, Ross & Helen spoilt us by bringing down some well-chosen and much appreciated wines from their wine cabinet!

And that just about sums up the weekend perfectly, all very chilled with some excellent wines thrown in for good measure! We spent the days strolling on the beach at Mapua, with Stevie riding on his Mum's shoulders excitedly, or doing his one-leg shuffle along the sand (he is still resisting walking more than a couple of steps at a time) punctuated with trips to the Boatshed Café for us to enjoy hot chocolates with marshmallows or coffee; visiting Susie & Jamie at Dean's Nursery with their son Olli and his daughter Grace, who is a little younger than Stevie, but they had an attempt at playing together before we went out to the wildflower meadow where Stevie was simply transfixed by a bunch of brilliant orange poppies, he just sat and quietly studied them; and of course we did a few wine tastings! The first vineyard we visited was wonderful, Brightwater Vineyards, where the owner, Valley, gave us a wonderful tasting experience, even opening a bottle of $50 dessert wine, one of only 4 botrytised Sauvignon Blancs produced in New Zealand, just because Su expressed an interest (and by the way, it was stunning!). Valley was also extremely understanding of Stevie exploring the bottles under the tasting table, poking his head in the spittoon, and playing with her little Jack Russell outside. And being a child of Ross & Helen, Stevie already knows how to smell a wine properly, even if he couldn't taste the offerings! We also tasted some wines at Waimea Estates, not such a good experience as it was a larger winery so there was less personal attention and the staff were all eager for their staff lunch which was being dished up as we arrived, and Kahurangi, where Ross & Helen also treated us, very kindly, to a wonderful lunch, before we followed them to Nelson Airport to wave them off, on a hopefully calmer flight home. Thanks guys for a fabulous weekend.

As for our other news, at Dean's Nursery we have finally finished grafting! Yes, over the last 7 or 8 weeks we have grafted 90,660 vines, with 3 people grafting and 2 packing, and the grafting machines have now been put away for another year. Our final two weeks at work are a mixture of waxing and planting out vines, and bagging up cuttings into larger pots, a job we are both really enjoying! And at every possible opportunity Su and I are dashing into the wildflower meadow to eat lunch surrounded by the vivid, beautiful flowers. We love that field so much that I've added a new photo album, dedicated just to work and wildflowers, with just a few of the pictures we've been taking (we were waiting until after Mum's birthday to add these to the blog as we used them to make her birthday card!) so you can all see how stunning it is. Enjoy!

Those of you who may have been slightly put out at our boasting of hot weather for the next year or so, may be a touch amused when I say that we're actually having quite a cold, wet spring, compared to previous years - most people are complaining that they haven't had a swim yet, and the weather is an issue at weekends as the final two walks that we really want to do in this area both really require good weather, so we have everything crossed for next weekend and are doing a little sundance in the evenings willing the sun to shine for us! To be fair, we are seeing a lot of the sun, and when it's out it is hot, but it can be quite windy and there is still a fair bit of rain, though I think the weather is just confused - today while planting out we had hot sun, mixed with cold winds, rain and even a touch of hail, while the sun was still shining on us! Typical New Zealand! But we are seeing some wonderful sunsets now (which we have enjoyed with fish & chips and a Ross & Helen feijoa wine on the beach at Mapua), as well as some magnificent night skies, and the recent full moon was a particularly good one, with the moon and surrounding glow taking on a green hue. Meanwhile our little cabin is increasingly surrounded by birds, as we have taken to feeding them whatever scraps we have, much to their delight, and we have a regular group of friends, including blackbirds, song thrush, sparrows, a pair of Californian Quail, a friendly chaffinch who is always trying to come in our cabin, and a recent addition to our wild family is a gorgeous little hedgehog who found some peanuts chopped up for the birds, and who we are now regularly feeding with anything we have, just so we can stand outside and listen to him snuffle in that cute hedgehog way, which of course reminds us of our hedgehog friends back home, nesting under Mum & Dad's shed.

One slightly less appealing encounter with the local wildlife is the spiders that appear to have taken over our car! To be fair they've been there for some time, probably having settled in while Shadowfax was parked at Ross & Helen's while we were in Wellington, and I've been trying my hardest to love those little 8-legged creatures, as I'm going to have to face some bigger ones while in Southeast Asia - I've even been saying goodnight to the ones in the toilet block every night in an attempt to cure my dislike, but all good intentions went out the window the other morning when one of Shadowfax's little friends started crawling down the inside of the car towards my hand as I was driving and I was frantically turning my hand away, while still on the wheel, almost taking us off the side of the road in the process! So now I've declared war, borrowed the hoover from the campsite and found some spray for spiders (sorry fellas) which has got rid of some, but there are still new cobwebs every morning on the bodywork! So if anybody has any bright ideas of how to rid your car of spiders, then please let us know, asap!

Well, I think it is fair to say that as much as we have loved staying here in Mapua, and working at Dean's Nursery, we are really ready to move on now and have some new adventures - Su has started singing along with the crap local radio. It was the rendition of Wired for Sound by Cliff Richard that got me really worried, a sure sign of madness, so I need to get her out of here fast! We will finish work on 28th November, have a day to pack up, then move up the coast to Golden Bay for a couple of days, before heading down the West Coast to hopefully do a WWOOF for a week or so, before hitting the Southern Lakes (at least that's the current plan…)

But one final thing before I sign off for the night. I have to say that we both love and adore not having a tv, and most of the time we don't miss it one little bit. In fact, with the American elections looming we were actually incredibly grateful not to have one. After all, the American presidential elections usually drive me insane and I get so bored of the constant campaigning which UK news programmes seem to think we want to watch all of the time. But a strange thing happened to us this year and you know what, this year I really cared, and we both wanted a tv for that historic moment. We arrived home from work just as John McCain was conceding, and we sat around our radio waiting for Barack's acceptance speech, which had me in tears and us both cheering as he addressed 'those huddled around a radio in far away places' (i.e. us!) What a fantastic result!

And with that, I think I must sign off. Take care everybody, lots of love Jo & Su, xxxxx