i can't believe that tomorrow, after six weeks of living here(!), is our last full day at gilly and greg's. robin and i leave for our next farm, carolyn's, on the south island on friday. we plan to spend two nights on the road (halloween in wellington?!) and then catch the ferry to the south island on sunday, november 1st! we are excited to get to the south island but are so bummed to be leaving our picturesque life here. today we transplanted seedlings, made a new bed for the garden, fed the baby calves, and said many thank yous for our incredible fortune in finding the amazing shine family.

we have found such a routine of life here that it will be hard to break. saying goodbye will be almost like leaving home for yet another time. in the morning i wake up to come downstairs to everyone reading and drinking tea. lindsay out of the spider web mug, malcolm out of the kitty cat mug, my maori symbol mug is waiting out for me, and robin is sweet and uses whatever mug is available. we know these people, we have this life, it is filling and beautiful and right now i am sad to think of leaving it. pish posh, but what awaits us at carolyn's?

i am half excited/half scared of our drive to the south island. we hear the terrain is much more rugged and by some incredible new standard of beauty, much more stunning. the problem is is that our driving skills are fairly good for being on the different side of the road, but new zealand likes to provide each driving experience with a death-trap obstacle course. today, for example, going to get groceries, we dodged kids coming out of school. had today been rainy or had it been dark, i am afraid some of those near-toddlers (WHAT WERE THEY DOING WALKING ALONG THE SIDE OF THE ROAD?) would not have made it. gruesome, but true. tsk, tsk, i will get better. come visit! get in a car with me!

like all periods of my life that are extraordinarily peaceful and fun, time means nothing to us here. i know it is time to wake up when i am no longer sleepy. i know it is time for lunch when i am hungry. i know it is time to go to bed when i can hear the tui birds' crazy electronic song. a few weeks ago lindsay openly asked what day it was. robin, malcolm and i each responded with a different day of the week. we had no clue. not knowing the date or the time signifies vacation, or three-day weekends, or ghana, or camp, or farm life. and for this i am grateful.

today as we were giving the baby calves their milk bottle dinner the youngest one kept sucking on anything that protruded even a bit. including my finger, which i am worried will develop a baby-cow hickey and also including another (male) baby cow's downstairs bits. not an udder, my friend, not an udder.

baby everythings everywhere. cows, chicks, plants. i can't wait to come back to gilly and greg's sometime in 2010 and see everything all grown up. i will follow in typical old person fashion and reminisce about the past and question where the time has gone.

robin has put up pictures again! one i would like to draw particular attention to is a drawing of scout finch's costume of a ham with legs. this rendition of scout was composed by miss robin fail, who while drawing it on my cheek said "whoa, this looks kind of good." ask yourselves, at what point did she think it looked good?



love,
maggie