More gardening

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 We started this week with a public holiday for Labour Day. I had Paddle Steamer sailings on Monday and Tuesday which gave me five consecutive days on the boat. This has really helped with getting to grips with handling the ropes and steering the vessel. On Tuesday morning Nicky went to see “Mrs. Harris goes to Paris” at the cinema, and thoroughly enjoyed the heartwarming plot, exquisite Dior clothes and post-war nostalgia.


In the garden Nicky finished planting the grasses and the trailing fuchsias, which we had purchased from Frances last weekend, in the north-west bed by the retaining wall, and it is looking good:



She has also been working hard on rooting out the pioneering plants (aka weeding). Meanwhile, I have started installing our back garden irrigation system. We bought a couple of 15m irrigation pipes last year but we didn’t have an adjacent water supply with which to connect them. Connecting the additional outside tap, which our water softener plumber installed for us, I have now added a distribution box, and second hose pipe so that we have always have one available in the back garden:



The next step is to bury a couple of pipes to connect the irrigation pipes to the distribution box.


I have done a little MacOnSite work this week, along with regular outdoor maintenance tasks. Nicky has been to Home Group and done her regular volunteering at the Aramoho Community Library. We were the warmest place in Aotearoa on Friday hitting 26ºC. The humidity on Friday and Saturday felt quite oppressive, but the sunshine was nice. Even though we have also had some rain, the temperatures rising towards the end of the week are suggestive of summer being on the way.


“This England” (about the 2020 Covid pandemic in the UK and the government’s response to it) is screening here on TV at the moment. We watched the second double length episode on Tuesday. It was quite harrowing with the depiction of the impact of the virus on the general public. We will watch the concluding episodes tonight.


Nicky swapped jigsaws at the Jigsaw Exchange yesterday. It was very windy in the morning, especially as the PS Waimarie came into dock. The wind made it very difficult, and the boat crashed into the wharf a number of times, resulting in a small amount of damage to the the boat. The weather was not forecast to improve during the afternoon, so the chartered sailing was cancelled. The people attending were already on their way from various locations, so they gathered, ate and drank on-board anyway. Apparently it all went quite amicably, despite the gusting wind. We had egg and chips for tea which was brilliant.


Today the weather was completely different - calm, dull and with a light drizzle to start with. Nicky was on the hospitality team at church and it turned out to be fortuitous that she arrived an hour early as there was so much to do. She had to leave the post-service Parish Update meeting early to come and collect me. By the time we got back to church, it had concluded, and the church kitchen made spick and span. We have had a gentle afternoon and the expected rain has now arrived. We thoroughly enjoyed our tea of LOBS and feel sustained and ready for the evening’s viewing.


Take care, Rick and Nicky.

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