Much baking in the kitchen

By -

 It has been another largely routine week, but there have been some highlights. One of them has been this pink lily flowering in the front garden, gaining flowers as the week progressed:


Nicky’s regular commitments of Life Group, Alpha and staffing the Aramoho Community Library were expanded by a visit to the hairdresser and it being her turn to produce dessert for Alpha. She shopped on Monday and baked for most of Wednesday, making a very large hummingbird cake, and a large tray of lemon and coconut slices. All dairy free and gluten free to accommodate dietary intolerances.


I have been quite busy with MacOnSite work, and have been strimming the grass in the back garden and on the berm, when the weather has allowed. A trip to Mitre 10 to get some more sanding pads enabled me to complete our second garden bench:



On Friday evening we had some “new” neighbours over for dinner. They bought a house just up the road at the beginning of the year and we met them at the shared meal at the marae recently. I made a smoked fish pie and Krystina brought a fruit crumble and real custard (made with A2 milk for me!). They moved here from the East Midlands a year ago, though Mark has lived in NZ for many years after his family emigrated when he was a child. It was a good evening, only marred by eating too much.


We had a quiet day yesterday even though the weather was fine. It was cold out, with the possibility of rain. After running errands in town, we settled down to a new jigsaw from the Jigsaw Exchange, with music and pots of tea to lubricate our afternoon.


Today Nicky has been touring the ten Whanganui Anglican churches with Vestry, to see first hand the earthquake strengthening and housing plans for each of the sites. It was a five hour long, chilly minibus tour, but very informative. I did laundry and trenching and had an amble in the afternoon. Nicky made us omelettes for tea and the evening will probably be taken up with telly and the jigsaw.


Take care, Rick and Nicky.

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