A rainy Sunday afternoon in February

A rainy day provides a good opportunity for some computer catch-up, don't you think? Tomorrow, we leave for Queenstown on the west coast for three days. This will be Ciara's first trip and her mother is presently packing the clothing and equipment needed for the occasion.
I've been baking a little ... almost smoked us out of the house yesterday, though. That's because of the carrot cake I had made for Katie's birthday last Monday. There was leakage ... lots of leakage ... from the baking dish onto the oven floor and when I put the oven on yesterday to do a little baking, the smoke came billowing out with a speed and thickness that were hard to ignore or avoid! I've now cleaned the oven and used it today to make some tarts and banana bread ... the latter is the kids' favourite, I would say. No smoke in evidence today, I'm happy to report :-).
By the way, it's almost autumn here. I was told that it begins around the end of February. No big deal. As long as those days continue to be long, I don't care about the weather. I love the extra hours of daylight though.
Here's another short clip of Ciara. By the way, Ciara calls me 'Grandmere' and she calls Eithne 'Granny.'