Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

 I have to start with the highlight of our week: Bruce and Wendy’s visit. While over here from Salt Spring Island they had a trip down to Wellington and called into Whanganui on the way back. They stayed at the Top 10 Whanganui River Holiday Park just up the road from us, for three nights, so we were able to enjoy as much of their company as possible. Monday dawned cool and clear and soon turned warm and sunny. Bruce, Wendy and Nicky came for a ride on the Waimarie paddle steamer, while while I did my usual things with ropes and pigeons. After lunch at our place, snoozing at respective domiciles was followed by food preparation (salads to go with the steak) and dinner.   We had previously invited Mark and Krystina from across the road for an adult games evening, so we had six for Triominos and Scrabble. It was almost midnight before we got to bed. With Tuesday being my day off, Bruce and Wendy joined us for breakfast, bringing avocados with them to go with poached eggs and toa...

 The week began with us bracing for the cyclone Gabrielle, and finished with hot sunny days. Such a contrast. The air on Monday felt different, a distinct sense of the calm before the storm. Sailing for me was cancelled, so I attacked the back garden with the line trimmer, and cleaned the floor of the shower. Nicky went to church to clean brass and do vestry management. Steady rain started in the morning and gradually got heavier throughout the day. We started a jigsaw and watched the concluding episodes of Happy Valley series 3 and Line of Duty series 6. Both were excellent. The rain on Tuesday morning was still quite heavy, and it was light later than usual. In the afternoon the rain eased and the wind strengthened. I did some supermarket shopping and had a doctor’s appointment. I was prescribed some thicker drops for lubricating my eye and am being referred to the Eye Clinic. Some painkillers were also prescribed for my hand and I was given a form for an ultrasound to investigat...

 Our weather this week has been much more settled, though we expect that to soon change with cyclone Gabrielle approaching. Most days have been warm and sunny, with just some odd bits of rain. None of my sailings have been cancelled, and I think today was my 100th outing. My steering still needs some practice as I don’t always get us through the bridges in a straight line, but I haven’t hit anything. We had an evening sailing yesterday, with a Country & Western singer performing on the boat. Along with doing the household chores, Nicky has started with brass cleaning and vestry supplies management this week. She also had her usual clutch of borrowers at the Aramoho Community Library. On Tuesday we went to lunch at Reba & Imail’s home for a home group social to mark the beginning of the new “season”. This turned out to be a major meal, with a wide range of dishes primarily prepared by the hosts, and desserts provided by the visitors (Nicky made a lovely fruit salad). We both...

 It has been hot, sunny and wet this week, sometimes all at once. Nicky has worked in the garden as often as possible, but producing her final roster for St John’s has taken much of her time. She had a hairdressing appointment on Tuesday, and a meeting at church in the afternoon to go through Vestry Management. On Thursday she staffed the Community   Library and we reached 32ºC. In the early hours of Friday morning she was up, along with a number of others, to watch Reg’s funeral which was streamed from the UK. The pumpkin which Nicky planted a few weeks ago is now growing almost before our eyes, and the leaves are making quite a display against the fence: My sailings haver been curtailed this week. Monday was OK even though there was more water than usual in the river. Our Wednesday sailing was cancelled due to insufficient passengers. Our Saturday sailing was cancelled for safety, as the river was running very high and very fast with the rain coming down from the mountains. ...

 We began this week with the Arthritis Amble Open Garden Day. The cool clear start of the morning turned into a lovely sunny day with a cooling breeze. I helped with a bit of setting up before going off to work, and our three volunteers (Elaine, Lyn and Jacqui) were great. Jacqui stayed a little longer than her shift so that I could shower and change on my return from sailing. We had around 260 people view the garden, lots of good positive comments, and the day as a whole raised around $9400. We didn’t have a period between 9.45am and 4.15pm without at least one visitor. By the end of the event we were both very tired so sat down with a pot of tea, followed by a range of left-overs for tea. Today, along with most of the other garden owners and helpers, we have visited most of the ten gardens in the Whanganui Arthritis Amble as we did last year. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing the variety of gardens which people had created, and getting to see parts of town that we don’t know. One of t...

 Gardening and sailing have dominated our time again this week. All week our days have started cool and clear, and developed into hot and sunny weather. We have enjoyed some lovely sunsets: Along with her usual household duties, Nicky has squeezed as much time as possible into getting the garden ready for tomorrow’s Arthritis Amble Open Day. One of my contributions to tidying the garden has been trimming the grass. This came to an abrupt halt on Wednesday evening when the motor in the line trimmer died. I took it down to Mitre 10 on Thursday for repair, hopefully covered by the warranty. I have undertaken nine sailings this week. I have felt the regular rope management and steering tasks on an almost daily basis have really consolidated my knowledge and understanding. One sailing included a stop-over at Upokongaro for an hour, and we did two evening Jazz cruises. I arranged for Nicky, Jacqui and Frances to go on the Saturday Jazz cruise, and they really enjoyed themselves. The live...

 Our main activities this week have been gardening and sailing. Nicky has spent as much time as possible in the garden, weeding and tidying, ready for the Arthritis Amble on the 23rd. The impact on the garden is noticeable. I have also been out with the line trimmer, as the combination of warm sunshine and a couple of days with quite a bit of rain has encouraged growth, including the damsons which have begun to colour: I have sailed most days, apart from my day off on Tuesday, and Wednesday. It was too windy with edge of Hale wreaking havoc across Aotearoa. So far our summer has been pretty wet. Nicky had a routine doctors appointment, I had a B12 injection and also saw the optician. My left eye had been causing me some concern, but things are now improving naturally, as he thought they would. We went to the cinema on cheap Tuesday ($10) to see The Lost King. This was partially because it had a good review in The Listener but mainly because of us living near Leicester for many year...