Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

 We have been looking after Mrs Egg’s chooks this week, and feeding her moggie. This has entailed going and letting the chooks out of the hen houses first thing in the morning, then coaxing them back in again with food at the end of the afternoon. As soon as the moggie spots one of us, food is demanded with menaces. I’m lucky that I have still got all my digits and limbs. These are two of the chooks planning a flanking manoeuvre: Last week culminated with a 4.8 earthquake at 23.05 on Sunday, plus after shocks, which were reported but not felt by us. The epicentre was 65k south west of Whanganui. It woke me up so I stayed in bed, counting, while Nicky stood in the doorway of the shower room. Our front door didn’t rattle like it usually does with a quake, so I think the movement was in a different direction, but we didn’t have any damage. Much of the week has been dry, clear and sunny, so we have had some frosty starts: We have continued watching the World Cup footy, but have reduced...

 Our main exercise this week has been nipping to the loo during the footy match hydration breaks. At half time we top up with tea or coffee, ready for the second half hydration break, or de-hydration break as I think of them for us with them being more water-out than water-in. It has again been a bit of a wall-to-wall footy week, and the weather hasn’t really had the heart to tempt us outside much. Friday was particularly wet and very windy. Shortly after we first moved into our home, and probably before the furniture arrived, we put some Commando hooks up on the eastern kitchen wall. Commando hooks are ones that stick on and have a tab to pull them off in order to try and prevent them leaving a mark when you take them down. We used them for a clock and a couple of calendars. On Monday evening the hook holding the new red clock that we bought last year gave up the ghost, and the clock crashed into the kitchen bench, shattering the glass. Nothing else was damaged, and on the up-side...

 Nicky has invented a new custard. It’s called lemon curd. This came about because Frances (Mrs. Egg) gave us some end-of-season apples from her tree which I had stewed last Saturday. On Tuesday I used some of them to make an apple and Wensleydale pie, which even when served with custard was a bit boring. The apples had little flavour. I had made some lemon curd on Monday and Nicky suggested using it on the apple pie - Bingo! Absolutely transformed it. Our week has been dominated by the FIFA World Cup. I had picked the games that I wanted to watch, but we have ended up watching nearly all of them, and as a result encountering a gem or two, particularly the Austria-Jordan match. Frances (Mrs. Egg) joined us on Tuesday to watch the All Whites (NZ) match. Nicky watched too, so missed out on Home Group. On Thursday John and Mike came over to watch the England game. Afterwards John went off to work, Nicky went to staff the Aramoho Library (which has been cleaned and refurbished!!!). Mik...

 It has been finals week for us this week. The 2025 Great British Bake Off and Great British Sewing Bee finals screened here this week. We were very pleased that Jasmine won the Bake Off as she was both a lovely lass and a great baker. Very consistent. We were hoping that Orla would win the Sewing Bee, but it came down to the last made-to-messure and Caz created a stunning outfit and deserved the win. We have thoroughly enjoyed watching both of the competitions over the last 10 weeks. The competitors creativity, skill and determination is quite amazing. We have had a good week with the quiz team too. On Wednesday evening we won for only the second time in the last 18 months. We scored 104 points giving us a winning margin of 4. On Friday evening most of the quiz team (Mike, John, Mel & Danny and Margie) came to us for a games evening. Mike came early to watch The Chase with us and have dinner (lasagne) and also organised the now traditional quiz. His questions were varied in di...

 Officially it is now winter, and we have had some rain, but we have also had northerlies keeping the temperatures up, and sunshine keeping us smiling. The week began with birthday celebrations; Monday for the King’s official birthday and a public holiday here; Tuesday for my birthday and some low key and enjoyable celebrations. I started my birthday with a long FaceTime chat with my sister and brother-in law in England. Nicky joined us for awhile before popping into town to get croissants for breakfast (plain and almond). Even though I already had my official birthday gift (the framed lighthouse cards, see below), Nicky also presented me with a book and some bottles of stout. Lovely. A chat with Claire followed and we readied ourselves to go out for lunch. My plan for lunch was to go to the cafe in Upokongaro by driving a few kilometres up the road and walking over the footbridge. However, the heavy rain showers were discouraging and instead of driving into town and all the way up...

 Today is officially the last day of autumn, and the lovely settled weather has continued. I have grown rather used to it. A forecast for the winter which we saw on TV this week suggested it would be drier than usual. I guess that may mean there will be less cloud and therefore more sunshine. However, I am aware that the weather never looks at the forecast and just does its own thing, especially here in Whanganui with its own micro-climate. Taranaki shelters us taking the brunt of poor weather. Frances and Laurie came for dinner on Thursday, and we had a very enjoyable evening. I started making my version of the Hairy Biker’s Superb Steak and Ale pie on Tuesday. It is primarily beef casseroled with dark beer and stock, which is what I prepared, as it has to cool throughly, before being made into a pie. In the Hairy Bikers recipe they just add a puff pastry top, which I feel is wholly inadequate for such a substantial filling. I usually make a good shortcrust pasty and make a conven...

 Many of the people that I have spoken to this week have commented on the weather. Our high pressure system has continued to deliver sunny autumn days throughout the week, with cloud just sometimes overnight and into early morning. They have also recalled the lovely spell we had in November. It’s only been the time in-between, conventionally known as “summer”, which has been the disappointment. One of our camellia trees has been thoroughly enjoying the sunshine: It has been more challenging than usual this week to correctly figure out which day it is. Much of the time it has been a bit of a blur. This is possibly because we spent eight and half hours driving home from Auckland on Monday. It had taken us eight hours to drive up last Thursday. We used to do it in seven hours, and didn’t feel that we were rushing. I didn’t feel that we were loitering on this last trip, and our breaks didn’t seem to be more frequent or particularly longer. Nicky found driving during the mid afternoon s...