Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

 The main event this week has been Parish Weekend Away for Nicky. It happens every year around this time, but this is the first time that Nicky has been able to go. The rest of the week has been quite routine. With winter coming to an end today the weather reminded us of the season (beginning on Friday) with cold, wet and windy weather for the weekend. This the replaced the lovely sunshine from the beginning of the week that enabled us to do laundry and weeding. When our green waste wheelie bin was collected this week it was overflowing. We had a good FaceTime chat with my sister Gill on Tuesday morning with her having just celebrated her birthday. In the evening Frances came over for dinner, or should I say food with gravy and custard. Roast pork and roast veg were cooked to go with the gravy, and apple (provided by Frances) and blueberry crumble took care of the custard. We had a really good natter. It was lovely. Also at the beginning of the week it was plenty warm enough to hav...

 There was an interview with a lady from the MetService on TV earlier this week. The interviewers were asking when spring would start. The lady provided three answers: September 1st (official meteorological start of spring, though the weather doesn’t know this); September 23rd (apparently halfway between winter and summer equinoxes); when the daffodils start to flower. Spring is here then: I took this on Tuesday when in town doing the shopping. The angled parking bays on Victoria Avenue are punctuated with flower beds, and the one Luna and I parked next to, had these flowering daffodils. It is not entirely surprising as we have had another high pressure system for much of the week, bringing clear skies, morning frosts and lovely warming sunshine, especially in the afternoons. My own answer to the question is spring is here during the day, but it is still winter overnight. Dinner on Tuesday evening was a real treat for us. Mike, to whom we give a lift home from the quiz and who we u...

 In the late 1960’s when I was in my last years at Primary School and my sister was in her first years at Secondary School, the Apollo space programme was in full swing. My sister and I would watch everything we could on TV that related to the quest to put a man on the moon, and would plead with our parents to allow us to watch launches and other significant events in the middle of the night, not always successfully. In my perception two men stand out from that time as household names: Neil Armstrong and Jim Lovell. Neil Armstrong died in 2012, and Jim Lovell just over a week ago.   It seemed appropriate to me that the next film in the sequence for Nicky and my Friday Night Film viewing was Ron Howard’s “Apollo 13”. As Gene Kranz said, “possibly NASA’s finest hour.” When we see news reports of the dwindling number of veterans from wars of the last century, I am reminded that there won’t be many people who worked on the Apollo programme still living. Such a significant event in...

 We have had another week of largely dry, sunny weather. The rain came on Friday and lasted into Saturday. The wind moved round to the south so our weekend has been much colder. The first layer of mega mulch on the CBD was completed on Monday: It will probably need topping up in the coming week or two, but we still have some of our last delivery in stock. A young man by the name of Nahum came to see us on Tuesday to take a look at our floor. Some of the corners of the vinyl planks have risen enough for slivers of the top surface to come off. We had kept them so he was able to glue them back in place. The section by the living room ranch sliders is more of an issue, as the planks expanded and didn’t settle properly when they cooled. He is going to talk to Dan at BuildTechNZ about a way forward. Luna was back at the garage for her last visit in the current round of maintenance. A new cam sensor was fitted as the old one had started leaking oil. After delivering her to the garage I ha...

 As we move from July to August, life for us continues on at its usual un-frenetic pace. Luna was back at the garage on Monday to have a new rack fitted for the steering system and be granted her Warrant of Fitness for another 12 months. I dropped off Nicky at church for vestry cleaning with Dale on the way, and then did some security camera research. I currently don’t think that cameras are as important as physical security for the replacement power tools, as and when I buy them. Dale and Bob needed a little technology assistance in the afternoon, so Bob came and collected me. After resolving the issue for them I collected Luna. Tuesday was milder. I dropped Nicky at the hairdressers and then did the shopping. After her appointment she walked up to New World to meet me and got quite cold in the bitter breeze on the way. When we got home she finished the ironing before going to Home Group. Wednesday started quite damp but it was drying up by the time I was in town returning the rat...