Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

The passing of the shortest day feels different here, to when I lived in England. Its significance always seemed crowded out by the approach of Christmas, followed by the cold, grey damp misery of the first quarter of the New Year. Here, even though the hardest of the winter weather is yet to come, it feels like turning a corner towards summer. Coincidentally, the equinox is also linked to a significant day for Nicky and I, our wedding anniversary. I don’t recall us planning it that way, the 22nd just happened to be the most suitable day or us to tie the knot 37 years ago. To celebrate the event on Wednesday we went to Lava Glass for lunch, as they have a very good café (we had been once before) and a sculpture garden which we had not visited. This may not sound like a significant thing to many of you, but Lava Glass is on SH5 on the northern side of Taupō, some 233 kms from Tiramaroa. We left home at about 9.30a.m. with water and snacks on the back seat, and a clear blue sky above us.

The wet, windy and stormy weather of last week has continued into this week, finally starting to abate on Thursday. Today has been our first dry day of the week, and we have had a little afternoon sunshine which has been welcome. Some of the plants seem to have got over excited with all the rain and had a bit of a growth spurt. The flax in the “almost lap pool” at the bottom of the garden have been holding their own: Last Sunday night I went to bed in considerable muscular back pain. I don’t know what I had been doing with my posture to cause this but I had been more sedentary than usual (yes, that is possible) due to the inclement weather. As a result, I have made a more concerted effort to have a walk each morning this week, and managed it more days than not. This has lead to two discoveries: another new build to keep an eye on, and a new bench on a grassy area just down the road from us: We had a very nice picnic on the “old” bench once, but I can’t remember when that was. I was a l

 Twice this week we have been visited by one of next-door’s chooks. It just seemed to be checking us out and left a non-egg deposit on the drive. It was a good size for our pie dish, so maybe third time lucky? It has been a much quieter week, largely because of the weather. It hasn’t rained all the time, but often when it has, “cats and dogs” has been an appropriate description. Whanganui river however, has kept itself in check, for now. To celebrate the Queen’s Birthday public holiday and her Platinum Jubilee, Nicky made Jubilee Muffins. She was aiming for red, white and blue. We didn’t have any blueberries or cherries in stock, but we did have cranberries, white chocolate, Philly cheese, and some peanuts for a bit of crunch. They turned out very well, though I had to stop eating them so that some could be gifted to neighbours (Jacqui and Frances). After dinner we started watching The Responder on TVNZ OnDemand. This is a UK production with Martin Freeman in the lead role (and Executi

It has been a tiring week. Nicky has been very busy at church with the Thy Kingdom Come vigil, attending in the wee small hours a number of times, along with Tuesday afternoon with Life Group. Wednesday was a short working bee at St. John’s due to inclement weather. Yesterday she attended a winter retreat at Christ Church which was good, and today was her usual service at St. John’s followed by lunch. But wait, there’s more! She also had a meeting with Louise about Pastoral Care, visited the hairdressers, and did lots of cooking. We had Jacqui, Mark and Elaine (our immediate neighbours) over for dinner on Wednesday evening. Nicky made a large and very tasty macaroni cheese (with bacon) and steamed some veg in the microwave. I sautéd the veg with almonds just to finish them off. Mark and Elaine also brought a dish of veg and Jacqui added a rotisserie chicken. We were not short of food. I had made two apple pies earlier in the day and one of them went down very well with some custard. It