Cold snap

The weather has been making its presence felt this week. According to the MetService at 7am on Friday the temperature was 1º but felt like -4º. It certainly did. The cold antarctic blast has brought snow further south:

©CED 2022

The clear skies have also given us some lovely views of the river and sunsets:

We had some very heavy rain, and some clear sunny days. Even out of the breeze and in the sun, the air was still cold. Consequently another jigsaw has been completed this week (yippee!). The weather warmed up at the weekend and on the sunny days we have got things done in the garden, primarily weeding and strimming. I think the strimming is going to be much more frequent now as spring continues. This is a shame, as I broke the strimmer today. I may be able to effect a repair but a replacement part would be ideal if available. Nicky has moved some of the dark/burgundy coloured flax from the front garden, to the bed on the south side of retaining wall number 2 (the one I built). They look very good against the wood.

We have had a few commitments this week. Nicky had her hair cut and did her Thursday voluntary hours at Aramoho Library. I had my annual blood test. On Thursday evening we had a shared community dinner at the marae. Nicky made a layered apple custard meringue and I made a chicken and rosemary pie. Both dishes were cleared by the attendees and we had another good evening meeting more new locals and chatting with others we had met previously. We were given a some locally grown vegetables and salad from Piwakwaka Farm, 10 km north east of Papaiti, so have eaten two very good cheese salads for dinner on Friday and Saturday. It was the first time we’ve eaten rainbow chard.

The Local Election Results were announced yesterday. A poor turnout (40%) and resulting in 10 new mayors - Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch Dunedin, Invercargill and Whanganui among them. Some of the candidates for council that we voted for were elected, and some not. Mixed “success”. A decided swing to the political right.

My term as probationary Deckhand on the PS Waimarie continued, with two sailings yesterday (first time for me) and another today. Yesterday was challenging. I made a number of mistakes with the ropes, the canister I attached to the homing pigeon fell off as they took flight, and I made the same steering mistake twice at a bend in the river. I’m not managing the change in the current as we round the bend, so the bosun is going to try and help me. In addition, we only had 30 minutes between docking at the end of the first sailing, and boarding for the second sailing. In that time we had to refuel with another 450kg of coal, clean the heads and have some lunch. I didn’t have time to finish mine. I was decidedly tired at the end of my working day.

The first sailing had been very busy and ran 30 minutes later than usual to coincide withe the opening of Whanganui Heritage month. We had a flotilla of small boats on the river, bunting on the boat, and good crowds on-shore to send us off and greet us on return. Even though we had even more passengers on the boat today than yesterday morning, I had a better day with the ropes (on the whole), the pigeons, and didn’t have to steer, because even the experienced helmsmen were finding the river currents challenging.

Last night we binged watched The Suspect, and UK production of the book by Michael Robotham. We realised while watching the first episode on Friday evening that we had listened to the audio book at some point in and had thoroughly enjoyed it. The TV adaptation was very good and we had to watch the remaining four episodes last night, as we couldn’t quite remember how it concluded.

Nicky is just about to make pancakes for tea. The sun is streaming across the ceiling of our living room, peppered with colours and textures from the stained glass windows. Spring is on its way. Much green foliage starting to block our view of the river.

Take care, Rick and Nicky