It was very hot and dry in January and we are still waiting for a decent drop of rain to fill the water tank on the island. Have swum at Surfdale Beach mainly though did have an ebullient swim at the more turbulent surf at Onetangi once, succeeding in getting myself bowled over by waves a couple of times!
Friends visited for the day a couple of times and with them we extended our range of usual activities, going to Rocky Bay, the Ostend Market, the museum and a long walk around Blackpool to the flash new library which is a delight, being open 7 days a week.
Good friend E from Perth was over for a couple of weeks and we spent the three weekends away on the island and up at Orewa, enjoying that pleasurable environment after not having the use of the house up there for getting on for three years.
I bought myself an iPhone before Christmas and have still to work out how to transfer photos from there to my blog via my iPad Air or my laptop all of which are relatively new pieces of technology with their challenging elements.
When everything gets to o much for me there is always a spot of jam therapy. There was an abundance of plums at Waiheke this year and they are now relegated to the freezer there , stewed and some bags of frozen whole ones for jam making or stewing later in the year. Made some plum and feijoa jam recently which turned out well. Also a batch of marmelade. 
