When we lived in London, we rented an attic flat in West Hampstead that I absolutely loved. It was small but bright and I liked that there were distinct spaces, rather than open plan living. We rarely cooked at home, preferring to eat out or order in. When our friend Ruthie came to stay with us once, she bought us a tea towel that captured our philosophy perfectly – Fork this, let’s just go out for dinner.

It always surprises me that while we’re in the height of summer and enjoying blazing sunshine in the day, that come February the mornings are already so dark. I have the privilege of being woken before 6am most mornings by little voices and hands. In the last week I’ve noticed how much longer it takes for the sun to lighten the sky in the morning.

Most Sundays you’ll find our little whānau at the beach. We’re spoilt for choice in Whangārei Heads. When our little ones wake up before 6am and we’re struggling to open our eyes, sometimes the best way to kick start the day is to get into the Hilux and head for Ocean Beach.

Mark and I have been using AI tools like ChatGPT, Bard and Midjourney more and more to help us in both our work and personal lives. In our day jobs we create training content for people in the tech industry and AI is a big focus. Things are changing so quickly that we’re less concerned about trying to keep up with all the new AI tools and companies, and more interested in getting good at asking questions and defining problems that AI tools can help us solve.

Since we planted our tree a few years ago I’ve been looking forward to being able to make a Bellini with homegrown peaches. The Bellini is a delightfully simple cocktail made by combining peach puree with Prosecco. The sweetness from the peaches pairs with light Italian sparkling wine to create a refreshing drink that’s perfect for brunch or early afternoon.

When I was at university, I had a very short-lived part time job as a barista. I spent an hour shadowing the outgoing barista and then the title was passed to me. I was a terrible barista, and I’ve often thought I should issue a general apology to anyone who bought a coffee from me. It couldn’t have tasted very nice. I wouldn’t know, because at the time, I didn’t drink coffee.

Mark put up a post in our local Facebook group recently that sparked some concern for Robbie, our robot lawnmower.

His post asked for assistance with lawn care, specifically looking for someone to scarify our mainly kikuyu lawn. A few minutes after he asked the question, I got a message asking what happened to Robbie.

Last week we got another exciting delivery of plants for our burgeoning food forest from our friends at Twin Falls Nursery. Amongst them were six lady finger banana corms (they look a bit like pork knuckles), the part of the plant that produces offshoots that will become our first banana palms.

Minecraft was one of the ways Mark stayed connected with his son, Connor, while we were living overseas. Mark set up a virtual server that Connor and his mates could use whenever they wanted to play. When we lived in a high-rise apartment in the middle of Sydney, Mark also used to use Minecraft as an escape.

One of the ‘to-dos’ that makes the list most weekends is to sort through one of our sheds or cupboards and pile up the things we don’t use so we can sell them or give them away. A few months ago, after a cupboard sort, I came across an unusual device that I couldn’t remember us ever using. It took a little bit to figure out how to fit the pieces together, but when I looked up the brand on the glass ‘Hario’ I found out it was a Japanese coffee syphon.

No one likes to live with a dodgy internet connection. We are so used to being connected constantly that we don’t have much patience for slow internet speeds or dropped connections.

A reliable internet connection is a challenge for a lot of people who live rurally. It has taken us a lot of research and experimentation to create a set up that provides the connectivity that we need.

An espresso martini is a dangerously delicious drink. The first time Mark and I tried them at Opera Bar on the Sydney Harbour, we liked them so much they became our drink of choice for the evening. While, at the time, it wasn’t unusual for us to have half a dozen drinks over an evening, it was unheard of for us to have six espresso shots.

I’m getting so used to treating our garden like a supermarket, sometimes I forget how many failures we’ve had on our journey learning to grow our own food. There’s been so many hard lessons, we’ve had issues with soil quality, wind, pests, too much water, not enough water.

Going off-grid is one of our long-term sustainability goals. For now we’ve put it in our “someday” idea bucket, but we’re following the technology closely. It’s always exciting to talk to people who are living off-grid and hear about their set ups. Several of our close neighbours are off-grid and rely on solar power.

Last year I joined the Board for Oke Charity, an inspiring organisation that create outdoor classrooms for schools in Aotearoa New Zealand. I hadn’t heard of Oke before I saw the board role but the more I read, the more I wanted to get involved.

I’ve fallen in love with courgettes this season. Thankfully ours are growing well this year since we gave each plant a stake to climb. Last year we had several plants in our garden, but I feel like I wasted them. I’d regularly forget to go and check for fruit under the huge, spikey zucchini leaves.

Over the summer we have made a conscious effort to slow down and enjoy time with our friends and whānau. We also wanted to enjoy our place, Āhuru Mōwai, the sheltered haven we’ve worked so hard to create.

Sustainable fabric grow bags are one of the easiest ways to create more growing space.

While our property has lots of space for us to turn into growing areas, it can be a bit of effort to set up new spaces. We experimented with planting rambling crops like potatoes, kūmara and pumpkins on a mulched bank but found that they struggled in poor quality clay soil that lacked nutrients and couldn’t hold moisture.

Fresh raspberries have to be one of my favourite luxuries. I look forward to raspberry season every year and try to wait until the prices for the little punnets come down a bit before I indulge. The Clover Club is the very best way to use fresh raspberries.

Mark grew up on a farm that relied on bore and tank water. Water was a vital resource. Showers were quick, and if anyone took too long his dad would turn off the tap from the wetback to the hot water cylinder to cut off the flow of hot water and cut short the person’s shower.