18 years

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 It is 18 years ago today that we arrived in Aotearoa after our long farewell to England and our trip across the USA. We started off in Auckland where most of Nicky’s family live. Claire now lives in Dunedin with Ryan, and Nicky and I have retired to the North Island Riviera of Whanganui. I think we all feel that we did the right thing in moving here.


Since we moved to Whanagnui there has been a walnut tree in the paddock behind us, either dead or close to it. This week it was finally taken down. This is what it looked like two years ago:



The toi toi still remains and is looking good:



Nicky’s health has slowly improved through the week, but she is not right yet. Her stamina is still to return and the cough is lingering. Apparently this is par for the course with this bug. She has done some sewing but didn’t start returning to her regular activities until Thursday when she staffed the Aramoho Library. If she had been with us at the quiz we might have come 3rd instead of 4th again, this time with 84 points. She went to the Small Group Leaders training yesterday and church this morning.


My week started with another four scoops of mega mulch being delivered. I had bought a new tarpaulin especially for it to be deposited onto. The holes in the one we inherited from the builders were getting very large and annoying. A good amount of the mulch went straight onto the garden:



The rest has filled our two storage bags. Monday was sunny but cool, so it was a good day to deal with the mulch, but I was tired when I had finished.


I installed a second security camera on Tuesday so that we now have coverage of the front door. A lovely young lass came to service our heat pump (for the first time!) on Wednesday morning and replace a couple of filters. Nicky and I were both pleased to see her in what we perceive as a male-dominated profession. The grass got cut on Thursday even though it was a little damp. The possum trap loaned to us by the Horizons Regional Council was collected on Friday. We have had it for some months but it hasn’t caught anything. We suspect this is because a possum was dead in the road a day or two after its installation. In the evening we watched and thoroughly enjoyed Bend it Like Beckham. We still remember when we saw it at the cinema in Leicester. We were just a few of the white faces in a predominantly Indian audience, who got many more of the jokes than we did.


Yesterday was wet so I made good progress on the jigsaw which we had started on Friday. Yesterday the morning rain eased but the wind was terrific, gusting up to 90kms/hr. It only eased off this morning. We don’t appear to have suffered any damage though I checked the roof after dinner as I had seen something flying past the clerestory windows while we eating. Nicky reported many broken branches upon returning from church.


I finished the jigsaw puzzle this afternoon whilst Nicky was preparing dinner. Our temporary letter box, installed the first week that we were here, has finally been replaced today. The wine box wasn’t suited to outdoor use and has suffered. Mark (next door but one) has given us their old one which they replaced when having their gate fitted. Today I have spray painted it red, transferred the numbers that Nicky bought me for Christmas 2020, and fixed it to the post on the berm. Being metal it will hopefully last until we get what we actually want. We might even get some post!


Take care, Rick and Nicky.

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