Glass and fish

Today was another one of those gorgeous days in the Bay. Although the leaves are starting to change and autumn is definitely here - colder nights and mornings! - the days have been stunning. We had a few bits and pieces to do today: the usual Saturday morning chores, made much more fun by us all working together to get everything done. Daughter and I cleaned the fish tank, which was getting a bit grubby: from the tragedy of earlier, we have now acquired a third fish to replace the two that died (one ate the other and then departed...). The third fish is a blackmoor, which daughter promptly christened Sirius (as in Sirius Black, from Harry Potter) - our tank is a literary one, with the original four fish being Thing 1 and Thing 2 (two goldfish, from The Cat in the Hat), The Lorax (from The Lorax - we were having a Dr Seuss phase when we got the fish originally), and Rainbow Fish (from the child's picture book of the same name). We now have Thing 1, The Lorax, and Sirius. 

After all the morning ablutions were finished, we headed down to Taupo to Lava Glass, one of our favourite glassblowing studios in NZ. Lynden Over is the main glass artist there and we love his work. I had dropped by on my way to Napier for work earlier in the week and discovered that they had just opened a glass sculpture garden, and I suggested to the family that they might like to go and see it. We did and it was wonderful. Really pushing the boundaries of what glass art can achieve with each piece. He also has some new work I was keen to see as well. After that, we had sushi at the park to celebrate daughter being the "star of the day" in her trampoline training session, daughter had a play at the playground, and we came home. 

And we have to remember to put the clocks back for the end of daylight savings tonight. At least that means we get a sleep in tomorrow!