Springy

By -

 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 Wednesday evening we came 6th at the quiz with 92 points.


Nicky is making good progress with Audrey’s quillow, in-between her usual weekly commitments. While she staffed the Aramoho Library on Thursday she met the new Whanagnui Libraries Manager, Rachel Hadfield. While at the library Rachel fixed a couple of technical issues for Nicky, for which she was grateful.


On Saturday there was a 4.9 quake at 6.34am which we felt while still in bed. I had an amble into town by the river and coffee at Article, and in the afternoon Frances dropped in for coffee and a chat. With the exception of Mike, the quiz team gathered at Mel and Mario’s in Gonville for a games evening. There were lots of nibbles to choose from. We took a lovely banana bread that Nicky had made and a tuna dip which I had put together. John did a very good quiz for us all themed on the names of the quiz members. We played Pictionary afterwards and had some very difficult words to draw which generated much hilarity.


We are noticing that the weather is getting milder, and the daylight hours longer. While there was snow in Dunedin on Monday, here warmer weather does seem to be getting closer. There are now numerous trees in blossom.


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

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

Tidying

By -
Image
 As I sit down to write this week’s post, it is just turned half past four in the afternoon and we have finished the bulk of the clearing up after hosting a shared lunch for around 28 people. Just the dishwasher to empty now. We are putting up our feet with a pot of tea in the lounge, where the temperature is 28º, same as in the shade outside. The ranch sliders have been open all day, but the hot sun has been out all day too, accompanied by a warm northerly wind from Oz. The shared Parish lunch went very well. I made pork pies yesterday, and Nicky converted two loaves of bread into sandwiches this morning. We added gluten free muffins from the freezer and thick slices of watermelon. Everybody brought something with them, some quite a lot, and we ended up with masses of food. It felt like a banquet. There was quite a bit left over, but not an excessive amount. We had laid out the food and drinks inside and put most of the seating outside in the shade under the car port. With most pa...
Read more