Interactive Poppies

By -

According to the Whanganui Chronicle, we had the second wettest September on record this year, with twice the expected rainfall. I thought I had seen it raining. It has certainly had an impact on the garden, and Nicky is very pleased that some of the poppies have started to appear:



She is also quite tickled at how they interact with the sun, opening up their petals in its presence.


We have had a much more “indoors” week due to the weather (but this is October rain not September rain). This has slowed Nikcy’s progress in the garden, but she has got some work done on the path that she is planting, and lots of seedlings have gone into the ground. I have made slow but steady progress with filling the fence gaps, and now only have three more to go and am in need of some more materials.


I was quite busy with MacOnSite work at the beginning of the week. Nicky had a meeting about the Church Fair, and we started on another puzzle from the Jigsaw Exchange.


We had a chat with Mike and Elaine, the new owners of 414, as I had discovered a drainage pipe that went under our fence and onto their property. It didn’t look like anything had come out of it but we wanted to appraise them of the situation and find out how they felt about it. They were not overly concerned but seemed pleased that I planned to contact Bert the Project Manager to find out from where it came. When he replied to my email, I discovered that the pipe was draining from behind the retaining wall.  I shortening the corrugated pipe so that it’s length stayed on our side of the fence.


When Mike and Elaine had their house warming, we met Cherie, who was interested in our house as she is planning a small build herself. Cherie came round this week to take a look at what we had done, and to ask about our experience. We had an interesting couple of hours.


We had another good chat on Friday, this time with Fiona down the road who invited us for morning coffee. We walked there without getting wet and walked home in sunshine, which was an unexpected treat.


Yesterday was mainly dry, but chilly until the sun came out in the afternoon. I painted planks for the fence gaps while Nicky gardened. Most of the planks have been used to fill the biggest gap today, and Nicky has had a quiet day with not feeling 100%. She feels like she is starting with a lurgy, and is still suffering with a continual headache from her new blood pressure medication.


Wednesday evening was dry and pleasant, so we drove over to Virginia Lake Park and had an amble around Lake Rotokawau.  Nicky was delighted to see Clivia planted en masse in red, yellow and orange colours.  We finished our walk with sitting and watching the illuminated fountain.




Take care, Rick

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Challenging week

By -
Image
 It has been a challenging week. At the beginning of the week Nicky was still getting worse, so she arranged an appointment with the GP on Tuesday afternoon. The GP confirmed that Nicky had bronchitis and sinusitis, but that her chest sounded clear. With the infection being viral, there was no medication that could be prescribed, but some additional painkillers were in order to manage the symptoms and assist with the pain caused by congestion, coughing and vomiting. As the week progressed Nicky started to improve slowly. The periods of incessant coughing and coughing induced vomiting started to subside yesterday. She was able get a little more sleep and keep a little more food down. The washing machine has been very busy with regular changes of PJ’s, dressing gowns and bedding. Some of the laundry has been dried outside but the winter weather has deteriorated over the last couple of days. While Nicky has been unwell she has cancelled all her commitments. I have been running errands...
Read more

Tea and Tissues

By -
Image
 We have had a quiet week at home, doing jigsaws and listening to Harry Potter. Nicky seemed to be getting better at the beginning of the week but it was short lived. As the week has drawn to a close she has actually started getting brighter and felt like doing some things round the house. Nicky got dressed for the first time this week on Friday to go to the hospital for a blood test, and we did a little shopping on the way home. Yesterday she made a couple of lemon cakes and delivered one to Eleanor for her birthday. Nicky found the few minutes walk there and back exhausting. Meanwhile, I gradually got worse through the week until Friday. On Wednesday and Thursday I ploughed through a whole box of 240 tissues, and most of a packet of throat lozenges. Paracetamol helped with the general aches and temperature fluctuations. This weekend is the first time I have done my morning exercises in over a week, and I even managed a short amble this morning in the lovely (almost spiring-like) ...
Read more

Easter

By -
Image
 Steve continued his convalescing with us at the beginning of the week, and continued to improve each day. He decided to start the journey home on Tuesday by driving to Te Kuiti. As Monday was going to be his last evening with us he provided another take-away dinner from the Spice Guru, which we enjoyed as much as the previous one. Steve and I were a little early collecting it, so while we were waiting I was having a look at the buildings at the bottom end of Victoria Avenue and spotted this: I think Whanganui rivals Napier for the quality of its Art Deco architecture. Before Steve left on Tuesday morning, he and Nicky went to the Splash Centre to have a wallow in the thermal pool. This had been recommended by Nicky’s physio when she had seen her on Monday. Nicky had a short swim too and they both enjoyed their time. We were very pleased that Steve felt sufficiently recovered to start his journey home, as it was not good seeing him in as much pain, as when he first arrived. It was ...
Read more