Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

It has been another warm, hot and sunny week, until the weekend arrived. We had rain yesterday, taking the recored longest period without meaningful rain to 47 days, and a little more this morning, but today has been noticeable for its cooler temperature and wind. It has generally been a quiet week. Nicky had her usual three church events, and life group on Wednesday evening. She has been dealing with the upsetting email she received last week about the prison outreach volunteer work, but has made progress in a positive way. She has also managed to squeeze some reading in-between the house chores. Her foot still isn’t back to normal and has started to be concerning again this weekend, so we have had a quick trip down to the White Cross clinic this evening and she has been given some more antibiotics. My work week has been quiet, with just one on-site job and a little remote support. I spent most of Wednesday building a Keynote presentation with Jancis, and had a good discussio...

At times it has felt like a funny old week (to paraphrase Arkwright yet again), but the weather has been gorgeous. Apart from Saturday (which was a bit of a relief) and this morning, it has been sunny, hot, very hot and dry all week. Gorgeous summer weather. It has been very pleasant popping out to The Rattigan for a little while to drink or eat, and then come back into the relative cool of the house. We have reached 30º a couple of times according to Luna, and 29º officially. It was reported on the Saturday evening news that Auckland has now had its longest period without meaningful rain since records began - 40 days. I guess it’s 41 by now. This makes me wonder how do you know if the rain means it or not, or does it just appear by accident? Nicky has had another week of antibiotics and leg elevation, and things in the foot department have improved, but another visit to the GP tomorrow may be in order as it is not yet quite back to “normal”. Seniors Church, Holy Communion and uku...

It has been a summery week. On Tuesday we reached 31ºC in Auckland. It was warm. I have had a busy week, not all of it occupied with income related activity. Quite a bit of work admin seems to have been necessary this week, but I have also done a range of on-site and remote work, and had a long session helping Jancis on Monday. I took Luna over to Henderson late Tuesday afternoon for her new windscreen - it already needs a wash! I had Thursday evening in town for a Deep and Meaningful conversation, and Friday evening up at The Block as we decided not to go down to the Music in the Parks concert. Nicky has had a mixed week. Two lots of Seniors Church and a Book Chat for variety. She saw the GP on Monday and the assessment was that her foot is improving but to finish the course of antibiotics, which happened on Wednesday. She was back to the GP again on Friday afternoon as her foot had started feeling hot and itchy and swelling again, so another course of antibiotics and elevati...

Well Dear Reader, here is a new departure for me, writing the blog al fresco (accompanied by a cup of tea and my favourite seamstress). Our week has been dominated by another trip south to see the breaking of the ground at our section (it still doesn’t seem quite real to me). We spent Wednesday driving down after Nicky had come back from the Doctor’s. During the night her foot had swollen up where she had been stung by a bee a few days ago, and as it was a change in the wrong direction, so she sensibly sought medical advice. She has cellulitis so the GP prescribed antibiotics, antihistamines, and keeping her foot elevated. This was primarily achieved by her doing less of the driving. Nicky had arranged a Blessing at the site for 9.30 Thursday morning, and Lee (a lovely retired clergywoman) was already there when we arrived. After the simple but touching service, we chatted for awhile and had a good wander round the section. Lee had meet our neighbour and vendor Paul on arrival...