Glorious start to spring

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 The terrorist attack at the Countdown supermarket in Lynnmall appears to be have been reported by much of the international media, so I am sure you will all be aware of the tragic and appalling event. Lynnmall is the oldest shopping mall in New Zealand, and was “our local” when we lived in Auckland. While I did most of our food shopping in other locations around New Lynn, we did use the mall for the cinema, restaurants and some of the shops from time to time. We also have friends of Nicky’s and customers of mine who live in Glen Eden, the suburb where the attacker lived. These associations have made the attack more alarming to Nicky and I, even though we no longer live in Auckland.

The other major preoccupation in Aotearoa at the moment is the current Covid Delta situation. Like most of the country, Whanganui woke to a drop in restrictions on Wednesday morning. Level 3 enables contactless shopping so I was able to get a pail of fence paint in the correct colour (Ebony, ie: almost black). I will use the Ironsand (which is grey) as undercoat. Other than that, things haven’t changed for us.


Wednesday was also the first day of meteorological spring (which I assume is opposed to the “real spring”), but the weather came to the party big time anyway, with three glorious days of clear blue skies and warm sunshine. The weekend has seen some cloud and cool wind, but it’s been a promising start:






The weather has enabled Nicky to spend much time in the garden, and I have filled another “fence gap” with correctly painted wood. The biggest challenge turned out to be figuring out how to fit the blade on the circular saw which I purchased before lockdown. Not only have I not owned one before, I have never used one. The third attempt saw the blade fitted and it made cutting and shaping the wood to fill the gap much easier. I am now out of supplies until we go down to a lockdown level where Mitre 10 are properly open for business again. The challenge then will be stock!


Friday was also a slightly significant day for us. It was exactly one year since we had witnessed the first frames being erected for our new home. I am very pleased that we are a year further on.


We learned this week that the lockdown has lead to the postponement of the Whanganui Heritage Festival from September this year to October next year. Understandable but a little disappointing, as we were looking forward to it.


Using the north patios to enjoy the sun and consume tea, coffee and light meals has been enjoyable, and enabled some physically distanced visits to happen. As a result we have gained avocados from Frances Taylor, so I took her some lemon curd and empty egg boxes (she has chooks) this morning. We had coffee while sitting at opposite ends of her long outside table.


I made iron bread for tea yesterday and Nicky is currently working on lemon and raisin scones, so our Covid kilo maintaining efforts are going well.


Take care, Rick

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