Ground Force version 2

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As the end of July approaches, the weather hasn’t quite grasped that it is, in theory, still winter. It has been largely dry, just a few foggy starts, and warmer than would be expected. When the sun gets to shine, particularly in the afternoon, it has been noticeably warmer and our lounge has really benefited from the solar gain. We have had the ranch sliders open a couple of times, and even resorted to wearing shorts around the house some days!

Nicky has had a busy week. In addition to her regular activities of Seniors Church and volunteering at the West Auckland Research Centre, she and Steve have been working in Stella’s garden (their birthday gift to her). She has also added a new “membership” to her list - the BHB Historical Society, and attended her first event this week: the opening of the old school house up at the primary school, which turned out to be a great experience. This weekend she has done a couple of workshops at the library, one on knotting and the other on card making for adults. Neither turned out quite as she expected.

My week has been very quiet on the work front, but along with my usual shopping and laundry duties this has allowed me to get back to doing some morning walks, and quite a bit of cooking. The freezer is better stocked with meals than it has been for awhile. I set up Mary’s new iPad for her and throughly enjoyed some of the avocados which she gave us. I finished reading Lamentation, and much to my surprise Tombland arrived at the library only a couple of days after submitting my request. It is the last of CJ Sansom’s Shardlake series (unless her writes another), and so far just as good a read as the others.

In the evenings that Nicky has been home we have continued with our watching of all of the Harry Potter films, concluding on Saturday night. Stella and Steve came over for Scrabble Saturday morning, which was a different experience from their usual afternoon games. While Nicky was at church this morning I went out to Karekare. The sea was cold so I didn’t stay in long, but the cliffs of the Waitakere Ranges sheltered most of the beach from the easterly wind so it was very pleasant, especially while drinking my flask of coffee, post-“swim”.

We had an enjoyable excursion into town on Wednesday afternoon to look at foldaway beds (very impressed) and hobs, ovens and sinks for the kitchen (slightly overwhelming choice), for our prospective new home. However on Thursday afternoon we had a set-back with a phone call from our lawyer informing us that the vendor had rejected our modified sales agreement. We are now awaiting some additional costs from our builder before making a decision as to what we do next, but things don’t look as positive for the section which we had found.


Take care, Rick

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