The Great Netting of ‘21

We have had a whole week with fibre internet now, and have we got used to it! Woe betide a technical failure that should remove its presence - the  Spud Murphy of the household is not to be trifled with.

With Anzac Day falling on a Sunday this year, Monday was a public holiday. It was a cool bright start so Nicky did two loads of washing, I did a little remote support work and had a Skype call with Maria (friend from Deep & Meaningful), and the sheep wandered up to see what was happening.

We had a restful afternoon and played some games. In the evening we watched Peter Jackson’s film “They shall not grow old”, restored film from WW1 with voiceovers of participants recorded by oral historians. Again (as with his Gallipoli exhibition), Peter’s storytelling ability brought a new insight to the events which unfolded and their impact.

Heavy overnight rain on Monday continued into Tuesday. Nicky washed all our glassware and the glass shelves in the glass cupboard and I raided the supermarkets. While she was at Life Group in the afternoon I made citrus curd and a dozen pastry cases. I was going to make lemon curd but it turned out that two of the lemons were oranges (they had quite yellow skins). It had stopped raining by the time we went into town after dinner for the Science Forum lecture. This month it was “Did we survive Trump?” which turned out to be a very interesting analysis of the paranoia within the Republican Party by a politics professor from Massey University. It did not make for easy listening.

We had arranged to visit the Hanlon Adventures on Wednesday while they had a few days in a converted church (toilet in the confessional) at Waitarere Beach. Nicky made spicy corn muffins to take with us, and I filled some wraps and used the pastry cases and citrus curd to make individual tarts. We stopped at Viv’s Kitchen in Sanson on the way so that Nicky could see the place and what they offer, but it was very busy (school holidays) so we didn’t stay for tea and coffee. It was great to see Milly and the crew, catch up, play games, go to the beach, and then have fish and chips with Tim’s arrival in the evening. A grand day out.

We were quite late (for us) home on Wednesday so were feeling quite jaded on Thursday as we wandered round Mitre 10. We purchased netting and another garden green waste Flexi-bin and then had a quiet afternoon.

I wanted to get some netting to put up in the car port roof, as we are getting birds sitting on the joists and crapping on the car and the driveway. Friday and Saturday saw me tacking it up with staples. We will see if it works.

Nicky had a busy Saturday morning. She had four commitments but only expected to get to two of them. However, she managed all four! First was Ladies Breakfast with a hint of bible study at the Yellow House Café, then onto Cotton On Quilters Open Day (lovely bunch apparently so membership is in the wind). Next was assisting with the cleaning team at All Saints in East Whanganui, and then finally calling in at the Jigsaw Exchange and selecting a couple for us to do. We had a late-ish lunch outside in the sunshine and Nicky made omelettes for tea.

After church at St John’s this morning, Nicky attended the Friends of St John’s AGM, joined the committee and plans to become a friend of the church ($100 for life membership). Lunch at The Brick House afterwards turned out to be a bit of a shambles with half the people in the group (Nicky included) not getting their lunches. After an hour we departed and Nicky ate at home, again out in the sun, which we stayed in for a leisurely pot of tea and Nicky had a chat with Elaine.

We have just had our last packet of hot cross buns for tea, and will be entertained by the multi-coloured box in the corner for the evening.

We are noticing as autumn progresses that we can see more and more of the river from our home, presumably as the foliage thins. While walking into town today to meet Nicky for lunch I took this picture of the Dublin Street bridge:

Take care, Rick