Brass monkeys

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 While change has not been momentous this week, it has happened. The shorts have been put away for the winter, as the weather has turned very cold by our standards. I have changed how I am making my porridge - don’t all gasp at once.


At the beginning of the week the weather was still quite mild with lots of sunshine. Steve and Louise came over for lunch on Monday. Nicky did tomato soup with some lovely stuffed bread she had bought. I hadn’t seen them for about a year so it was good to catch up.


Wednesday morning was a shock to the system with a cold and frosty start. Nicky had been late to bed Tuesday night (Wednesday morning actually) and needed the car for going to her morning book group and hospital visiting. The book group call themselves the Decibelles as there were originally 12 readers participating. I needed to get to the wharf for an 11am sailing and was up early so decided to catch the 7.25am bus into town. While waiting at the bus stop I noticed that we had frost on our roof, something which I don’t think I have seen before:



In order not to wake Nicky I also decided to make my porridge on the hob (cook top) as we used to years ago, as opposed to in the microwave. The catch on the door is quite loud when it closes. I was surprised in the improvement of the consistency, and the lovely “skin” on the top. Members of my family have been known to fight for the the skin on custard, so it’s in my genes.


In the evening we quizzed, coming second with 96 points in a very close finish. Each of the top four teams were only separated by 1 point between each place.


Thursday started cloudy and while having out first pot of tea of the day we were greeted by this rainbow:



Nicky staffed the Aramoho library and I did some MacOnSite work before preparing dinner for ourselves and Mark and Krystyna. They are having their kitchen re-fitted at the moment so don’t have much in the way of cooking facilities. It was good to have an evening with them.


Friday was a very cold start, feeling like -5ºC according to the MetService. It was cold on the river while sailing, but the sun was welcome. It was our last weekday trip of the season. Nicky did laundry and baking. Dale and Bob came over for afternoon tea. They are moving house in a couple of weeks and enjoyed having a couple of hours downtime to relax and enjoy Nicky’s maple and walnut muffins.


I dropped Nicky at church just after 8am on Saturday morning to catch the parish mini-bus to the diocesan training day in Palmerston North. As she was off on a jolly and I didn’t have to be at the wharf until 10.30, I treated myself to breakfast at the Little Curious Bagels café. Breakfast was very tasty and enjoyable. On the way home from work I picked up a pizza from the supermarket, which we had for dinner with a salad. A couple of the workshops at the training day were very good.


Today has been really cold again, with a strong cold breeze and no sunshine. Nicky dropped me at the wharf before going to church to start preparing the Hospitality Team tea trollies. Her service was exuberant and the morning tea dishes quickly done. Nicky got away with time to visit a Church Banners exhibition at an art gallery run by a St John’s fellow parishioner, before she collected me again later. It was bitter on the boat, even on the way downstream with the wind behind us. Nicky invited our new Egyptian Australian neighbour, Safe-Ur, for afternoon tea. He is staying in Jacqui’s caravan for a few weeks, until the tenants move out of the house that he has bought in Aramoho.


Nicky made us a cottage pie for dinner, and we plan to play some Rummy-O shortly before watching some telly.


Take care, Rick and Nicky.

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