Is this a cloud I see before me?

By -

 The MetService have lost the plot this week, with each day’s forecast  proving to being a work of fiction. We have been using the much more accurate (but shorter term) technique for weather prediction: looking out of the window.


Nicky started her week in the usual fashion with cleaning at church with Dale, though I think more nattering occurred than cleaning. Due to the school holidays there was no Home Group, but a number of the ladies including Nicky went to the cinema to see Downton Abbey: the grand finale. It was thoroughly enjoyed, again. She had a good session with Dr Rose on Thursday before staffing the Aramoho Library, and enjoyed the Fashion Talk at the Whanganui Museum on Friday lunchtime. This time an 1880’s wedding ensemble worn during the marriage of local farmers at the Episcopalian Matarawa church. A forerunner to the current St John’s. It was sewn in self striped cream silk, with a brushed cotton lining to the jacket, and a cotton muslin lining and pocket to the skirt. The rest of Nicky’s time has been filled with sewing, laundry, ironing, reading, and looking after me.


I got quite a bit of weeding done in the early part of the week, and did my first of the month cleaning tasks on Wednesday. I also managed to loose all the contacts on my computer. A very helpful chat with Apple for 45 minutes recovered them. On Thursday morning I had my second shingles vaccination. After suffering from side effects for 8 days after the first one, the nurse wasn’t able to predict if I would fare any better this time. Thursday evening was when the aching and the fever began. Friday required regular doses of paracetamol. By yesterday I was much improved and feel almost back to normal today. The only lingering effect is tiredness. I did have a gentle amble down to the benches on the corner of the river on Friday and the water was looking very calm:



I have enjoyed watching the Waimarie paddle by our home this weekend, but don’t feel any desire to be part of the crew again. 


We quizzed on Wednesday with a fuller team than last week and came 3rd with 90 points. Very pleased to be in the money again. The Community Kai at the marae wasn’t very busy this month so it was much easier to have conversations. Nicky took rice pudding (lovely) and I took spud and lentil curry (OK).


We did a jigsaw yesterday of Australia and completed it with it only being 500 pieces. In the evening we started watching Season 3 of The Twelve. Nicky had made us scrambled eggs and tomatoes with bacon on toast for dinner, which was just lovely.


After church today Nicky ironed and sewed. She is making place mats as a wedding gift, but learned today that the wedding has been postponed. When the rain stopped and the sun returned I did the trenching and cut the berm. Nicky is planning pancakes for dinner and there are date and orange scones left from yesterday for afternoon tea. I’m a lucky lad.


Take care, Rick and Nicky.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Short List

By -
Image
Our list of things to be done to finish the house build has become much shorter this week, due to visits from various tradies every day except for Wednesday, when we won the America’s Cup again. Coincidence? On Monday Caleb came and did the tiling of the window sill behind the gas hob to make it legal. He also tiled splash backs for us in the downstairs loo, shower room and laundry. This was partially to use up the one whole black tile and three sections of grey tile that we had left over from the original tiling in the shower room. However, due to the way they had to buy the extra tiles, we now have four whole tiles and bit of another left over! Hey-ho. All the tiling looks really good and works well. Tuesday was Bert’s turn. He finished the balustrade and built a retaining wall by the drive to stop the gravel disappearing in the rain. This has produced a nice “boxed” area which Nicky is looking forward to planting. He did a couple of other minor fixes too. Thursday was the “big”...
Read more

Weeds and lurgy

By -
Image
 Nicky’s week again began with a Monday morning funeral at Christ Church. Jill was very popular and well liked, and the service was very well attended.   With a Vestry meeting next week Louise came over for lunch on Tuesday to discuss the Pastoral Care report that Nicky will submit. We had tomato soup with the walnut bread that I had made on Sunday. I also bought a farmhouse loaf while shopping but we didn’t break into that. Nicky and I have been enjoying it through the week. Home group was in the afternoon over at Josie’s. I cooked us some chicken for dinner, but just as we finished eating Nicky started vomiting. Nicky seemed to be alright on Wednesday morning as we both worked in the garden, but by the afternoon she was starting to feel like she was coming down with a cold. She wore a mask while we attended the Candidates meeting for the upcoming Local Elections, which was very useful on helping us make our decisions for voting. The event was unusually running ahead of sched...
Read more

Fair enough

By -
Image
 While we at one of the ceramics studios last Sunday, we were told about the Otaki Pottery Club “Festival of Pots and Garden Art”. This is held every January. After we had packed and cleaned the PSA unit in Raumati on Monday morning, and acquired mini quiches and raspberry and almond tarts from the patisserie for dinner, we started our journey home. On the way we decided we would take a short diversion into Otaki (population slightly under 4000) just to see what was there. Roadworks it turned out, but behind the roadworks a row of shops, one of which was a Bendon Outlet. Neither of the Bendon Outlets we had tried to get to in Auckland in September were operational, a little like the state of some of Nicky’s foundation garments. We parked the car so that Nicky could investigate some new unmentionables, but between us and the Outlet there was a bookshop… On the face of it you wouldn’t think a wee rural town would even have a bookshop, let alone lone a stunningly brilliant one. Along ...
Read more