Icky but amazing...

Just another pair of bare feet? No, these belong to Ron Mueck's Pregnant Woman. I was lucky enough to go to the preview this morning at the Christchurch Art Gallery of the exhibition which opens this weekend. It was amazing, and icky. He makes such life-like sculptures of people of all scales - some gigantic, some tiny, some dead, some alive, some old and some young.


Photos don't do it justice. If you are in Christchurch then go. Please.


Although I was particularly impressed with the feet, it was the sheer scale of some of the works that blew me away....


...and I was quite taken by the big hairy man with a big hairy back who had such a realistic pimple on his back I just wanted to reach out and squeeze it...it didn't feel right to take a photo of a pimple so I didn't, but now I regret it.

I took Clem - he wasn't as impressed as I had hoped he'd be. He was more interested in my companion...giant babies? Enormous bearded men? No thanks, I'll take the real life lady in the bright blue cardigan.

Christchurch morning

I had a mammoth 11.5 hours day working yesterday during which I was tending a very sick rat and a very scared Labrador amongst other things. Somehow I managed to stab a steel tooth extractor through my thumbnail and into my thumb while I was trying to take a dog's tooth out too which was pretty silly and now very sore...

Anyway, we stayed in town last night which meant Boo got to have a walk in Hagley Park this morning - there was frost on the ground and it was very chilly but the sunshine made it all seem not too bad...

We followed it up with a coffee at Underground where she bumped into her new best friend - I think her name is Winona, and her favourite phrase right now is "I love you Boo".

Now I'm back on the farm enjoying a sunny Friday afternoon, I'm going to crack out the gin soon, but before I go I thought I'd share a photo of some winter garden action:

A broad bean shoot. Yay! The garden has been dormant for a few weeks and I thought these little guys woud never stick their heads up but they're all growing well.

I'm off to make a courgette and rice gratin for dinner now (while enjoying a gin). We really know how to party on a Friday night in Sefton.

Happy 100th post!

Yes that's right, this is post number 100 for The Good Life, a milestone which I am understandably proud of. I can't think of anything special to blog about in honor of this grand event, so I thought I'd just share some of our adventures of late.

This weekend surprised us with what was possibly the last hot summery day for several months...so we took Boo to the Ashley Gorge for a picnic - it is a truly lovely spot which I will definitely miss having such easy access to when we eventually make our move to Christchurch (more of that later)...


After a picnic in the grass, Boo went for a dip in the water:


On Friday night we were cunning enough to get into the opening of the Christchurch Art Gallery's exhibition on Sir Miles Warren (actually cunning had nothing to do with it, it was more about being with the right person).... in our search for our perfect house we have looked at a couple designed by Sir Miles, and would be pretty smug if we could find someone who would sell us theirs. In fact, we visited one on Sunday (not for sale of course) which is potentially the loveliest we've seen yet, and I am quietly optimistic that it could be The One. I took the owner some warm home made gingernuts which I'm sure will have helped. We'll see.

In other goings on around town, the Ellerslie Flower Show goes ahead this week for the first time in Christchurch - it's a pretty big deal, the city is getting quite excited. There has been a window display competition to celebrate the event - I didn't actually see too many entrants, but of the ones I saw, the window of Dusk in Poplar Lane was definitely my fave:

Matt and I are lucky enough to be going to the VIP Garden Party (again, luck actually had nothing to do with it....) which is on the night before the show is open to the public... I am having difficulty choosing a frock, Matt will be wearing a suit, and I've got my fingers crossed that there will be some Pimms available on the night. Will let you know.