I left my laptop cord in Raglan

It did what I wished I could do - stay longer.   It had a few peaceful days down in my favourite place with nothing much to do. 

I came back to a freshly painted house, bags that needed unpacking, and school and kindy routines to whip myself into.  Then after that there was the enourmous pile of summer clothes that needed sorting and putting away till next time (sigh) which was immediately replaced by an enourmous pile of winter clothes that needed sorting and putting away in drawers for wearing (sigh.)   Then life happened.  Which is code for I spent at least a week angsting (again) about how to get anywhere on time without yelling and swearing at the children, or leaving them behind.  (If it was up to me I'd take the second option any day.)   Then more life happened.  Which is code for I can't remember but I know it was a busy blur of cleaning and tidying and trying to keep on top of general household admin so that the phone didn't get completely lost under the pile of bills and letters and school notices and other extrememly important stuff sitting on the table.  And also so that the power didn't get cut off.  Oh and there was more trying to get places on time.   After that there was a short period I will call the "when I knew my laptop was going to crash and did nothing about it" period.  After which proceeded the period of time I am now in, which I call "my laptop has crashed."

So here I am sitting in what was the playroom and is now (for the second time) the study.  That is very exciting.   I'm tapping away on mum's old computer which we managed to acquire just at the end of the "when I knew my laptop was going to crash" period.   The aquisition of this computer came about in the same way as my laptop crashed, unplanned yet seemingly inevitable.  

So I have no photos for you.  No photos of Karioi Mountain presiding over the harbour where the kids ran across the bridge and jumped and splashed in the water.  No photos of the harbour entrance, that wide wild mouth of churning sea where the kite surfers trip and sing over the currents.   No photos of the girls playing at the park and the beach, so happy to be in Raglan, living in their "Raglan home" and visiting their "Raglan friends" and talking about their "Raglan cousins".   I have some photos, but right now they are on the computer in the lounge (yes, technology gets complicated doesn't it) and not right here.  Will I get back all of my lovely Raglan photos?  We'll have to see how clever our computer guy is.

But that's not all that has been going on.  There are so many things I can't write about.  Things that are too difficult to write neatly in this box here, or are simply just not mine to tell.   Even now, a second ago as I was writing this, the phone rang, with such sad news I don't know what to do with it.
And that's how a month goes by in a moment.