Wednesday, February 15, 2012

This is the Town and These are the People...

I have been working for weeks now to get a post up about our neighborhood... It has taken me longer than I wanted to get photos ready, the weather here has been a bit nasty lately.   But finally today the sun was shining and the sky was blue and I was able to get a few pictures snapped and wrap it up! So, here ya go! There is a video at the end of the post, This is the Town by Harry Nilsson from the movie The Point... It's one of Grace's favorite movies, and ours as well, anyway, we watched the movie a while back and the tune has been in my head ever since.  I thought it was a nice addition to the post.

-this one is for you G-
Our little house sits halfway up a massive hill.  I would try to tell you that it is the steepest hill in the world, because I have to walk up it multiple times a day, but that street is five streets over... Baldwin Street, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is the steepest street in the world, and I believe it.  Standing at the bottom it doesn't look possible to drive up or even walk up without falling over backwards...
Baldwin Street...
I love our little house, we have a sweet little kitchen and a potbellied stove in the living room.  The walls are bright colors and the floors are beautiful old hardwood.  Grace's room has an old fireplace, which is not in working order but stuffed full of flowers, and a perfect little built in desk.  She has her pictures and drawings posted up all over her walls making it truly her space.  Our bedroom is nice and cozy, the walls are dark green and the window looks out into the garden in the backyard.  I have a wardrobe that I keep some of my clothes in, several times we have tried to find Narnia, but so far have been unsuccessful.  We hang our laundry on the line in our backyard to dry, I love the way they smell afterwards.  I like it, I have enjoyed very much the slower pace to life we have discovered down here, it suits me.
We get most of our produce from a fresh produce stand around the corner and our meat comes from the local butcher.  I love going to the butcher, he is a nice German man who is always so friendly when we enter.  We had Grace with us one day and he gave her a Cheerio, a tiny red sausage, which she loved.  Every couple of days we go in and get meat for the next few meals, it is much cheaper than the grocery and the quality is great.  The variety of sausages is amazing, I am like a kid in the candy store, so many to choose from.... Venison with sun dried tomato and black olives, or hot and spicy jalapeno beef.  Any given day there are at least six varieties to choose from.
One of my most favorite NEW things is Kumara.  A purple veggie that is quite possibly the most delicious thing on the planet.  It is basically like a purple sweet potato and I love them.  What's not to love about eating purple food!
Veggie Stand
                                                                         
Grace's school is three blocks over from our house, so each morning John walks her to the bottom of our hill and the rest of the way she rides her scooter.  All of the children in the neighborhood ride around on scooters, it is such a safe place.  It is nice to be in a place where they can have this type of freedom.  She comes home on her own and rides to her Brownies meetings on her own, their meetings are held at a church across the street.   She has a little friend, Echo, who lives one street over, they ride between our houses most afternoons.  Ahhh, how we love and appreciate her freedom of transportation.  She has been very responsible with it so far, only once has she come home late, to which we responded by getting her a watch.
North East Valley Normal School
              

I work at the small neighborhood pool during the week teaching Learn to Swim classes.  In New Zealand swimming is incorporated into the school curriculum, so Grace will be taking classes in learning all four strokes and survival swimming.  Which I think is awesome.  I love it so far, the kids are so eager to learn and love being in the water.  John has a short twenty minute walk to the University, he rides his bike most days.  It is nice having everything so close, the ability to leave our car parked for days.  My own two feet have become my main form of transportation and I love it.

Across from the pool is the Dunedin Botanical Garden.  It is absolutely beautiful, flowers like I've never seen before and massive trees.  People come from all over Dunedin to enjoy them and they are a short walk from our home.  We have spent several sunny afternoons there feeding the ducks and walking along the trails.
Grace and Tinkerbell, for Jojo



2 comments:

  1. You mean no 55inch T.V.'s with surround sound? Looks sweet Trembleys.

    ReplyDelete
  2. as they say around here... "sweet as, bro"

    ReplyDelete