Benched

 We started the week with a continuation of last week’s showers. While the north of the country received some very heavy rainfall, we didn’t get the deluges that we were expecting. The rain to the north of us ended up in the Whanganui River as usual, so it was quite high and fast flowing for a couple of days.

The weather dried up from Thursday, and we have been able to get into the garden for the first time in what seems like ages (at least a week!). Nicky has continued weeding and planting vegetables and herb seedlings. I have built a garden bench and started “topping out” the posts of the retaining wall. The inspiration for the bench came from a combination of a book of outdoor furniture projects that Nicky brought home from the library, and watching “Your Garden Made Perfect” where they recycled some wood to make some outdoor furniture. I realised we could use some of our surplus supplies to make a bench:

As you can see, the design aesthetic and construction quality of the bench is on a par with Chippendale, Dennis Chippendale that is, cousin of the other more famous one. We have plans for a number of benches around the garden, and it’s good to have our first in one of the “sweet spots” that give an enjoyable diagonal view of the garden.

Our local timber supplier delivered the wood on Friday for finishing the top of the retaining wall. It’s not quite completed yet as I have come up against an unexpected engineering problem, but I’m getting there:

I have done a reasonable amount of MacOnSite work, and Nicky has completed another issue of the roster for St. John’s Church. On Monday we went to Louise and Steve Rostron’s for lunch (which was very nice) and for Nicky to get a Pastoral Care update. Steve gave a us a pumpkin from their garden which will be put to good use this week.

We were awake very early yesterday morning and while having a pot of tea I checked my email and found that Jancis (in England) was in need of a phone call. We had a FaceTime chat for awhile and then Jancis went off to have her dinner before she and I knuckled down to dealing with her technology issues. Nicky and I then had our breakfast, followed by major washing machine use (N) and a trip to Mitre 10 (R) for a sander and some more screws. I made a Winter Pudding. This is almost identical to Christmas Pudding but uses beer in place of brandy. I cleaned (as best as I could) the top four windows at the north end of the living area. (Quick aside: Nicky has brought home an American book of log cabin plans, where they refer to the living area in the open plan designs as “the Great Room”. I might adopt that moniker.)

Kat, a Russian friend of mine from Deep & Meaningful, and her squeeze Israel had invited us over to dinner at their place in Palmerston North (hence the making of the Winter Pudding). Israel is Mexican and a great cook. He produced some wonderful traditional Mexican food. First course was a tortilla tomato based soup with cheese and sour cream and herbs. Very tasty, and with a sweet and sour theme. The main course was capsicum stuffed with beef mince and more sweet and sour ingredients, and served coated in a walnut cream sauce and garnished with pomegranate seeds. The green, white and red colours in the dish represent the Mexican flag. It tasted wonderful and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We provided custard to go with the Winter Pudding which went down very well. Not all the pudding (a big one) was eaten so we left the excess with Kat and Israel. By the time we got home they had finished it off! It was a very good evening.

Things were a little disorganised for Nicky at church this morning, as a replacement officiant was unaware that he was supposed to collect the service sheets from Christ Church before driving out to Matarawa. Following the service Nicky had booked lunch at The Yellow House Cafe, as there have been so many problems with their usual venue recently. However this wasn’t appreciated by everyone. She returned discouraged, but having enjoyed the food.

Today has been dull and cold so we are having soup for tea, and will exercise our fingers on the TV remote control this evening to make sure our cardiovascular systems are up to optimal performance.

Take care, Rick and Nicky.