We moved offices earlier this year, into The Arts Centre – we loved our old space but we wanted to be among the arts community. I ride to work each morning and I feel really grateful to live where I live.

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The office is made of two parts – they’re quite different, one is north facing and one is south. One is a row of desks along a long enclosed balcony – I have a little square window that looks out over what used to be the North Quad of the University of Canterbury. We look down and see all the weddings, and at the opposite end there’s a piano, which the music students play, and the sound drifts up to our office.

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The other side is called Classics – it was a sort of lecture hall. Underneath it there are rehearsal spaces and we hear it all. On any given day there might be opera or dance or jazz. It’s really special. 

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Then I ride home to this garden – it’s long and skinny, almost English, behind our old cottage. The extension was designed by my cousin Rich Naish – it’s inspired by our grandparents’ glasshouses at Kakanui – and the garden was designed by our neighbour Robert Watson. 

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I took this photo from our dining room in the old house. When we have dinner my husband Alistair and I both sit on the same side so we can look out at the garden. It’s a bit cute really. 

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The tractor? That’s our son Jim’s – it was given to us by our friend Wayne Youle. It makes a tractor noise and has a horn – thankfully it’s on loan to a friend at the moment. Jim really misses it.