Blooming

 The most noticeable thing about being back home this week has been doing a great deal less talking. We throughly enjoyed our trip to Auckland last week and catching up with everybody whom we met, but we did do a lot of talking. The experience and the driving was quite tiring, so we enjoyed our pace of life returning to “sedate Whanagnui”. Our first priority on Monday was getting through the laundry. I started on this while Nicky went off to clean the church and have her postponed hair cut. The weather assisted with getting the laundry dry so Nicky was able to get on with the ironing upon her return. Pat had given us some jigsaws, one of which I fancied doing, so it was started in the afternoon.

Restocking the pantry and fridge was first on my list for Tuesday morning. Nicky continued coping with the laundry, but the weather wasn’t  co-operative. After attending Home Group in the afternoon she had a bit of time at home before going to the cinema to see ‘Downton Abbey: the Grande Finale’ film. She thoroughly enjoyed it and is planning to see it again this week with some of the ladies from Home Group. I managed to get started on cutting the grass in the afternoon and doing some more of the jigsaw.

Wednesday started mild and damp but it wasn’t long before the rain came. I juiced some of the lemons which Jenny had given us and froze the juice and zest. I used some more of the lemons to make a batch of lemon curd. Reading and jigsaw were the main occupations during the day, and I made some walnut bread to go with some soup (bacon and veg) for dinner. We were thin on the ground at the quiz, just John, Mike, Nicky and myself. All the same we came 6th with 79 points and were quite pleased with that.

Nicky staffed the Aramoho Library on Thursday. I washed the towels and finished cutting the grass. When Laurie had called in last week we had arranged for her to come for dinner, so I spent the afternoon making lasagne and pumpkin flan. 6pm arrived but no Laurie. About twenty past Nicky texted her and we discovered she had forgotten. She arrived about 20 minutes later and we had a lovely evening. She brought us some gorgeous freesia’s from her garden:

Nicky strained her left thigh last week, and it was very painful on Friday as she was going up and down to the washing line, rescuing the laundry from the rain. We had a good lunchtime chat with Claire, and while Nicky sewed in the afternoon and I finished the jigsaw. We watched Quantum of Solace for our Friday evening film.

Saturday morning we went into town. First stop was the Jigsaw Exchange to return our loans and add the ones which Pat had given us to their collection. I dropped Nicky at the Repair Cafe where she had her blouse mended but no success with replacing the zips on her handbag. I did a quick supermarket shop. Nicky sewed and ironed in the afternoon and I weeded the areas where we have put down mega mulch. It should be much easier to keep the weeds at bay where we mulch, doing a regular sortie. The poppies in the front garden are really coming along:

We did the crossword in the back garden with mugs of tea, and after watching The Chase walked down to Mark and Krystyna’s for dinner. As usual they did us proud with paella followed by fresh fruit salad and we had a good evening. The day was concluded with putting the clocks forward an hour. 

Yesterday while we were doing the crossword we waved and got a whistle from the PS Waimarie as she sailed past. It looked like the training session, just crew, no passengers. This is done before the season starts to check that the boat is working properly after the winter maintenance and that the crew can still remember what to do. Her first public sailing of the season was today, and I walked down to the grass area on the corner of the river to take some pictures:

Nicky joined me on her way home from church (excellent timing). The gorgeous sunny morning (23º according to the car) turned into a mild but dull afternoon for awhile before late afternoon sun arrived. The spring blossoms continue to be a wonderful and enjoyable sight.

Take care, Rick and Nicky.