Ann & Peter in New Zealand:

Kia Ora and Happy New Year

January has been very dry - not a drop of rain apart from a session overnight and one afternoon - the lawns are looking very brown and dusty.

Ann has been sorting through all her school stuff as she has to take it all over to her new classroom.
	This is four car loads.
The new building works at base school are coming along.

Ann has been getting more exercise - she's been going for a walk with Maxie in the mornings.

Half way through the month Ann told Peter that she and Maxie had been talking and they thought it was about time Maxie had a younger sister - so off to the SPCA in Hamilton we went - where we met Honey. Honey is a 2 year old Staffie crossed with Shar Pei. After introducing Maxie to her we went for a long walk together and the girls seemed to get on fine together. Before we could bring Honey home we had to be inspected by the SPCA as suitable owners with good fencing and dog play areas. When the inspector arrived she said our garden was lovely and could we please take another 10 dogs!
	She's settled in very well and started getting into our routines such as apple before bedtime. She's also learned to sit then gets rewarded with a treat. The only problem is when we walk Honey will sit every 30 seconds waiting for a treat - which makes for a slow walk.
Honey's very much a townie - the first time she saw a horse she just sat and stared at it. She's also wary of the sheep and cows around the village.
	With all this hot, humid weather we got a shell pool for the girls. Honey will stand in it to drink but Maxie wont put her paws anywhere near the water yet!
	Maxie is slowly getting to like Honey, and now that we're both back in work we're sure that Maxie will like having Honey to play with during the day.
Despite the lack of rain our sunflowers are doing well - the birds will have lots of seeds in autumn.