First cicada

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 Monday turned into a lovely sunny day after a cloudy start, as you can see from the photo below. I was sailing in the morning, a charter for Alzheimers sufferers and their helpers. Nicky wanted to attend a heritage Blue Plaque unveiling at St. Mary’s Church in Upokongaro at 2pm. I realised with the amount of time it took to board our passengers that I would not get back home with the car in time for her to drive to the unveiling. However, it is only about 5k from where we live, so when I rang Nicky to explain what was happening, she replied that she would walk up to Upokongaro. I offered to come and collect her. After finishing work I drove up to Upokongaro and met Nicky just as she walked off the footbridge over the river. So I joined her at the unveiling, still in my Waimarie uniform. The unveiling went well. We both had some good conversations with other attendees, both inside the church where afternoon tea was served, and out in the grounds. When we got home we had a pot of tea while doing the crossword in The Listener, followed by catching up with some telly after dinner.



After Home Group on Tuesday afternoon, Nicky had a frustrating visit to Springvale Garden Centre, who were having a sale. Frances joined us for dinner. Then they went to the Bible Friends Christmas play performed by intellectually disabled adults, which they greatly enjoyed.


We had a shopping trip to Mitre 10 on Wednesday morning, with which we followed by time in the garden. I needed to have my second B12 injection on Thursday morning. Nicky started the laundry before going to the Aramoho Library, as the rest of the week was forecast to be wet. I continued with the laundry and did some more weeding of the haha. When I was tidying up I heard my first cicada of the summer season chirping away. 


Friday turned out to be dry and sunny in the afternoon, which was nice for me as I was sailing. Nicky, along with a number of others, had an enjoyable birthday morning tea at the Columbus café at Mitre 10, for Sarah from church. Late afternoon we went to Laurie and Alton’s for drinks as part of the church Advent events. It was good to catch up with them and some of the other guests.


Saturday wasn’t anywhere nearly as wet as forecast, which again pleased me as we had two sailings. Nicky had a morning waffles for a church thank you to hospitality team volunteers. This was hosted by the co-vicars Billie and Caleb. Nicky spent the rest of the day weeding in the front garden.


After rain overnight, today has again been dry, and sometimes sunny. I was sailing again this morning. One of the things I do while getting the boat ready, is put our two homing pigeons into their transport box to take them on the boat. As I climbed out of the pigeon coop with the first bird in my hand, the other one took advantage of the door being ajar and absconded. The second pigeon hadn’t returned by the time we finished sailing. Nicky attended church and collected me after work. We had planned an afternoon High Tea at the Bushy Park Homestead, to celebrate Claire’s birthday, and as part of Nicky’s birthday celebration. However, due to miscommunication regarding booking/not booking, we just had a cup of tea with some very nice shortbread (for free). We enjoyed the drive and this heritage house and grounds are interesting with a range of attractive bush walks and wetlands. I expect we will return.


Shame about Englands departure from the World Cup, especially to France. Hey-ho.


Take care, Rick and Nicky.

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