home

whenever I refer to home, "the bach", "the cottage" I realise that you have no frame of reference to see the changes that have been made, I haven't been there for 2 years, we have been carrying out a renovation by remote control, and have just had to trust that what people have been telling us has been correct (luckily the process has been overseen by a darling, old school man whom we trust implicitly)

Photos arrived this morning from our rental agent, it is great to see the old rhododendren is still happy (drips with cerise blooms in season), that the sage colour I chose for the weatherboards is not too green, the rotten weatherboards have been replaced, all that is left to do on the house (lets not talk about the new fence etc here today) is to paint the trim (currently undercoated) and choose a colour for the door - which can wait until we return. The sky is typical of a Coromandel morning, full sun filling the front living room with golden light, and turning the front bedroom walls pink as it streams through the antique rose glass, ice blue sky turning singing blue by 10am, and cold enough to freeze the water in the cat's bowl.

Once again, we will not be living there fulltime - too far to make commuting feasible (why oh why did they get rid of the trains??) but I can't wait for those weekends, maybe I'll stay a couple of extra days, keep a machine there for swatching and experimenting with,some quiet time, with that extra space I yearn for, start a stitch and bitch in the cafe on the main street - the one with the open fire, actually having to wear that hat, scarf and mittens, and blessing those knitted socks.