The weather is heating up in my little city, and this makes me endlessly happy.

When the sun is shining down and there is absolutely no breeze in sight, sometimes the best thing to do is to strip down to your coolest dress and go in search of shade. For us, this meant an afternoon spent picking buttercups under the cover the enormous park-side trees. I was so amazed by the sub-climate caused by the trees – an hour before these photographs were taken I literally had make up running off my face. It has just been so hot! I get even happier when I realize that the sunny weather is meant to last for the next three months – yippee! I love snowy days, but winter here is generally more drizzle and grey skies than anything else. I always feel a bit miserable near the end of winter, and long to feel the warm rays on my skin again. I may have lived in Brunei for twelve years, but let me tell you, the New Zealand summer is a whole new level of heat! I can deal with humidity, no problem at all, but when there are temperatures of upwards of 30 degrees Celsius with no breeze in sight, I overheat rather quickly. I spent a huge portion of my day yesterday searching through boxes in the garage, trying to find my swimsuits. Now I’ve found three out of four (who even know I had so many?! I certainly didn’t!) I am completely prepared for beach-side antics. Bring on another sunny day and I’ll be all set – beach, here I come!