Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

 I think we had a first this week: the first time we have completed The Listener Quizword as it is called, though we just call it the crossword, without seeking assistance from Mrs. Google or any of our reference tombs. If we have achieved this before, it’s so long ago that we can’t remember. Our quiz evening was a little different this week, due to technology issues. Pete, the Quiz Master, could only get the questions to display on two of the 10 or so monitors, which meant that some teams couldn’t easily see them. After a 15 minute delay and problems with the first two rounds and the Ponderous, Pete decided on a different approach (a bit more fiddling with the laptop) and awarded us all with 50 points (10 for each of the first two rounds, doubled with our jokers, and 10 full marks for the Ponderous). The rest of the evening went reasonably well from a technology perspective, and we ended up 8th with 102 points. The weather has been changeable, with the return of winter temperature...

 I think it was last week, not this week, that Fiona called in to give us a couple of Bird of Paradise flowers, as she knows that I like them. On Thursday Mrs. Egg called in and gave us some lovely orange Lillies which Nicky has arranged with aplomb in the same vase: There were strings attached however: moggie feeding over the weekend. Unusually Frances didn’t stay for a coffee, as she had washing out and suspected rain was on the way. For the same reason I had brought ours in just a few minutes earlier, so because of the weather we missed out on a good chat. We will catch up another time I expect. It has been a different sort of week for Nicky. She was summoned for jury service this week, so headed off to the Court House on Monday morning. She was back home by lunchtime having not been drawn from the ballot and with instructions to check the website in the evening to see if she should attend again on Tuesday. The information on the website was ambiguous, and differed from the Jury...

 Monday was wet. Very wet. The rain started on Sunday evening, continued through the night and into the day, and didn’t let up until sometime Monday evening. It was never torrential, but steady and determined. We have been seeing the effects in the river all week - higher levels and brown with silt. The rowers and canoeists are usually only heard (instructors tutoring them via megaphones), but this week the river level has been high enough for us to see them from our bedroom window.   Nicky was the only one to ventured out to do the church cleaning. We had a lovely video chat with Maria in the afternoon, and I started on our map jigsaw of Loughborough, where we used to live in England. In the evening we watched the first two episodes of Vigil season 3. As good as expected, as were the following two episodes which we watched on Tuesday evening. The weather for the rest of the week has been mainly dry and sunny with a cool breeze. I went for an amble round Virgina Lake on Wednes...

 Spring officially began on Tuesday, and it was another sunny September the 1st: I mention this because I noticed earlier in the week when browsing through my photos that a previous couple of September the 1st’s have also been sunny days. The long term forecast for our spring is “windier than usual”. I am inclined to believe this as the long term forecast for winter was “drier than usual”, and for us I think it has been. When they say windier, they don’t mean a nice gentle breeze. More like blow your hat off even with chin straps in use, or as it as known in this household, Piglet Ears weather. Hopefully the wind will hold off for a while as the damson tree is just starting to blossom. We finished watching the latest series of Ridley on Monday evening, a gentle crime drama without being cosy. I have cut the grass again this week, done some weeding in the CBD, and trimmed some of the flaxes. I don’t think it will be long before the grass will need cutting more frequently. On Wednesd...