Thirty-First

Loosing internet connection at home kind of put a stop to the August Break for a while for me. I carried on with the photos though, so have a selection from the last 6 days to end the month.

26th, at home, after work

27th, walk in the park before the night shift

29th, at the zoo with Poppy

29th, Adam enjoying his day at the zoo as much as Poppy

29th, another food stop. We snacked our way around the zoo!

29th, Poppy at the zoo

29th, Auckland Zoo

29th, at the zoo. 

29th, in the meerkat tunnels

29th, at the zoo

31st, at work. I walk to level 9 from level 3, just beacuse

Twenty-fifth

Twenty-fifth, originally uploaded by KTandCoffee.

I so wanted to get a photo of Adele and her cake, but I thrust it into her hand, we sang and then I carried on with the ward round. When I returned to the office this was all that was left. I had however been saved a piece just for me.

Twenty-forth

Those jobs I ignored here, did get done to some extent, but the best bit of the day was making a cake for tomorrows morning tea, a belated birthday cake for the lovely Adele. Thank you Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook.

Sugar, butter and poppyseeds in the mixer. Flour, baking powder and salt in the bowl

Milk mixing in with sugar and butter mixture. Eggs being separated

Full on action, egg whites being mixed

Egg whites being folded into cake mixture

Coming together 

And into the tin

Glaze on the pan

A few more minutes

Glazed cake cooling

Cooling and waiting for icing.........until tomorrow then

Twenty-third

Twenty-third, originally uploaded by KTandCoffee.

Having trouble walking after yesterdays activity, so finished work today and headed straight for a slap up meal at the Herne Bay Local. I think the plate speaks for itself.

Twenty-second

There is a pile of washing, a fair amount of housework and even more garden jobs to be done, so what do we do, we head out of Auckland, nip to the Coromandel and walk up the Pinnacles. Oh boy, it was tough. Tougher than I thought, with some rather scary, well out of my comfort zone bits thrown in. But we had the track to ourselves, stunning winter weather and those amazing views.  Number 18 maybe,  and while it was hard work and scary at times, each step I took and particularly those I struggled with, I appreciated the ability to be there, do it, to be alive and well.

While I get rather scared on a swing bridge, Adam loves them

I look up to distract myself from the constant never-ending uphill 

I keep looking and can't seem to work out how I can possibly climb to the top

The climbing is getting exciting now

Looking down

At the summit

On the way down

Twenty-first

Twenty-first, originally uploaded by KTandCoffee.

Twentieth

Twentieth, originally uploaded by KTandCoffee.

Works roster.

Nineteenth

Poppy mesmerised by the stingray encounter at Kelly Tarltons

Thanks to an earlier visit and the employment of my nursing skills I had free tickets to Kelly Tarltons, so my dear friend Rachel and her two kids and I head off for a few hours of watching the fish and the penguins. Oh the penguins are so cute.  

Eighteenth

Eighteenth, originally uploaded by KTandCoffee.

On the way to work this morning. Slowed slightly by the frost on the windscreen. A rare occurrence in Auckland. Good to see a lighter sky at this time in the morning though.

Seventeenth

The sun returned today, we walked in the Waitakere Ranges. I do feel so privileged to live so close to such an amazing area. We took an easy walk that we'd done before, the Upper Nihotupu Dam walk. A 5km easy track but you get a good work out is to be had from climbing the steps up the dam.

At the visitors centre

Bottom of the dam