Rain? Sun? Who knows?

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 You may recall Dear Reader, because I think that I have mentioned it before, that during the week I make notes about our activities. Looking through my notes for this past week it reads like a series of Blursdays. We have had a lovely peaceful week. This doesn’t mean that we haven’t done anything. Laundry, cleaning, ironing, shopping, cooking, reading and telly watching have all been completed with aplomb, style and cunning, which is required on the days when washing needs drying and the weather can’t decide what it’s going to do. We have also finally, finally, finished the Nursery Rhymes jigsaw:


It was a challenge, but we completed the tree at the top left of the puzzle on Saturday morning, and a few minutes later packed it away ready to return to the Jigsaw Exchange.


Nicky hosted Home Group on Tuesday afternoon for the last time until it is her turn again. Lee picks up the mantle next month. It was my sister’s 70th birthday on Monday and we had a very good FaceTime chat with her on Wednesday morning NZ time. We were very pleased to learn that she had been to see Harry Potter and The Cursed Child while it was still two parts of the play. The shortened version starts later this year. I hadn’t realised that it had been running for 10 years. We saw it in Melbourne in 2019 and thoroughly enjoyed both the play and our week there.


Some time ago I prepared a pumpkin cheesecake using a recipe which I invented and that came out well below average as far as I was concerned. I made a pumpkin pie on Wednesday afternoon which was much better. This also used a recipe of my own that I figured out a couple of years ago. We quizzed in the evening with a reduced team of five, coming 6th with 86 points.


On Friday morning I ambled down the riverside and into town to do a little shopping:



We had a good chat with Claire at lunchtime. She is still not fully recovered from her respiratory infection and will hopefully get her x-ray results next week. In the evening we watched The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and again bemoaned the fact that they didn’t make films of the other books by C. S. Lewis in the Chronicles of Narnia series.


On Saturday morning we returned jigsaws to the Exchange and picked up a couple of new ones. Nicky made sultana and orange scones for us to have for tea. We went back into town for the Saturday Sounds at the museum, which was warmer than when we went last time. There was now heating and blankets provided. The duo described their offerings as Retro Folk. They performed an eclectic range of folk-style songs accompanied by guitar and used a very interesting range of percussion instruments. One was a twelve string west African harp, a n’goni, which had a very sweet tone. An edu from central Africa was fashioned from a gourd-shaped pot, and produced a deep resonance when beaten like a drum. Another was a long tube which had both ends sealed and when gently tipped sounded like running water (I think it’s called a rainstick). This was used to great effect when performing a composition of their own about the Whanganui River. 


In the afternoon Nicky started making Audrey’s quillow, and we thoroughly enjoyed the scones. Audrey was born last week to our friends Kat and Israel who live in Palmerston North.


Today while Nicky was at church I did some Chemistry revision. Most week’s at the quiz there is a question relating to elements of the periodic table, and of course everybody looks at me hopefully. A couple of weeks ago, I requested a Dorling Kindersley book on the Periodic Table from the library so that I could improve my recollection, so I started working on that this morning. It has numerous fascinating information titbits to help illustrate each chemical.


This afternoon is sunny. Nicky is sewing Audrey’s quillow in the Sewing Room, whilst listening to an audiobook written by the Irish writer Andrea Mara.  I’ve been chuckling my way through Alexander McCall Smith’s “Bertie’s theory of ice-cream”. It is the latest in the 44 Scotland Street series. We are over to Mark and Krystyna’s for dinner this evening. Spring starts next week so things will be exactly the same - indecisive weather.


Take care, Rick and Nicky.

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