Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

 Our week has been bookended by sunny weather. The rain came on Wednesday and Thursday. This has enabled us to spend quite a bit of time in the garden, planting, weeding and cutting the grass. The CBD (Central Bindweed District) is looking less lush with weeds as a result. Steve and Louise came over for lunch on Monday, ostensively to put together the Pastoral Care report for the next vestry meeting. Nicky prepared tuna and salad, and apricot and almond scones which went down very well with some good conversation. On Tuesday she hosted home group and all went well, apart from me having a few words with one the participants who doesn’t always know when to be quiet. Other than not winning, we don’t know how we did at the quiz this week as the scoreboard system has gone “into the cloud” and isn’t as easy to access as it could be. I omitted to mention that we were the top scoring team the week before. I fitted one of the fly screens that we bought awhile back to see how we got on with ...

 Nicky has just pointed out that I forget to mention in yesterdays blog post that we came first at the quiz this week with 90 points. Must be an age thing. R

 I didn’t think my memory was failing me, and now I know that it wasn’t. My recollection was that buying eggs was much cheaper just before we moved to Whanganui than it is now. The weekly item in The NZ Listener from Statistics NZ confirmed this fact this week: My assumption is that the bulk of the increase in cost is the changes in farming methods forced upon the famers by the animal rights folks. The new methods for raising chooks are more expensive and less productive. I just hope the chooks are twice as happy as they were, because the eggs are not twice as good. Our week has been quite a sociable one. On Tuesday after Home Group at Dale and Bob’s new home in central Whanganui, everybody stayed for a cuppa and piece of banana cake. I joined them, as I was collecting Nicky after doing the shopping. On Wednesday morning Nicky’s book club, Decibelles met for morning tea in a Upokongaro cafe. In the afternoon she undertook her monthly Hospital visiting of Anglican patients. On Thurs...

 We have made National News this week - not Nicky and I, but Whanganui. The Sarjeant Gallery re-opened on Saturday, a little behind schedule and a big smidge over budget, but it is fantastic. When we first came to Whanganui 2019 looking for our retirement location, checking out the local library was part of the routine. We saw the building site next to the Davis Library and learned that it was the gallery, due to re-open late 2020 or early 2021. It ended up being yesterday. The old 1930’s building has been completely refurbished and brought up to current earthquake standards. In addition, a whole new building has been added more than doubling the exhibition space. The opening date was announced a few months ago and Nicky immediately said that she wanted to attend. I didn’t expect to do so with it being a Saturday morning, but we didn’t sail this weekend as I will explain later. Shortly before 9.30am we ambled up the hill to the new gallery entrance along with quite a few other loca...

 Our week started with a Public Holiday for Labour Day. The morning was suitable for laundry and ambling while Nicky cleaned at church, but I was rained off from working in the garden in the afternoon. I made some wholemeal pasta for the lasagne that I was preparing for dinner, but it wasn’t what I would call a success. Back to refined flour next time. Libby (from Nicky’s book group) and Graham came over for morning tea on Tuesday, so Nicky made muffins. She didn’t go to the Vestry meeting in the evening because just after dinner she started vomiting. We haven’t figured out the cause, but 24 hours later Nicky was feeling fine and helped us achieve 11th place at the quiz with 77 points. However yesterday she met two others who’d had the same complaint, over the same time span. Much of Nicky’s week has been taken up by helping prepare for the Parish Fair at church, punctuated with her usual commitments. My week has been one of working in the garden, laundry in Nicky’s absence, and so...