Thursday, October 29, 2015

I got my Medal in the post...............

....for 25 years good service 
being married to Himself, the Joe.
We got married on the 27th October 1990.

We had intended to go away for the week but I said I'd rather have a new deck! So that's what I'm getting....soooooon. There's some preparation to do first and things have been set in motion for that to be done. We have some boards on the outside of the house to be replaced and new stringer boards being delivered tomorrow. The pricing for other timber such as posts, joists, bearers and decking has been done and we might just have enough to finish it at long last. 
So watch this space, it's going to be exciting!!
But back to the anniversary, as we had decided not to go away we thought....'day trip, go some nice for the day'......then we thought 'timber yard and Hamilton gardens for lunch instead!' It was such a nice start to the day and the sun shone at Thompsons timber yard in Whatawhata.....
the picnic benches looked particularly lovely I thought...
'We're not getting one' said Joe.
We then went to another place for more pricing and whilst Joe was in there I went in one of my favourite shops,  
'You're not getting anything from there' said Joe.
Pfffrrrtt! said me!

After Joe got a haircut we headed out to Hamilton Gardens which never gets boring.
In was lunch time by then and they also have a cafe which does lovely food

View from the cafe



Check out the menu here
I had the smoked salmon salad
 and Joe had the prime beef burger

Next... a walk around some of the gardens, it has recently opened a couple of new gardens which we had yet to see finished so we planned to check them out, but first some of the old favourites. It's still early yet for all the beautiful plants to be in full bloom but they promise to put on a good show in a few weeks time.















And running through Hamilton and behind the gardens is the Waikato river

Tudor garden one of the recently finished gardens




This was lovely and reminded us of our Island holidays






And lastly the Rhodendron lawn where there is a giant eucalyptus tree.
We might have to take a picnic or two in the summer and sit under it's shady branches.

Back home we set about sorting out our evening meal, roast lamb with a Moroccan spiced rub, a salad which was my re-creation of my lunch and a potato salad.
There was of course a few bottles of bubbly involved
We obviously dragged Michael up okay, he drank his Waikato draught beer out of a champagne glass 
 The still happy couple
 The good stuff about to be popped!
 After we ate we watched our wedding video, we haven't watched it for years, in fact we nearly never saw it that night either because we couldn't find it. 
Crisis averted however, it was found, in a box in the attic!
It was lovely to watch again, such a great day spent with family and friends. There were a few tears after noticing some guests who are now no longer with us and a few tears more for such happy memories. 
I've often said since over the years that if I were to do it again I would just run away and do it quietly without all the fuss. But now having watched our day again I thought nah bugger it, I'd do it all again exactly the same because memories like that are just far too precious.
After Michael and Tash left we looked through our wedding photo album

Here we are on the day, looking so young....and thin!! Sigh!

Today after we got home from running a few errands in town we found a box on our doorstep. It was full of some wonderful goodies from my family back in the UK. 
Two days  late but that's NZ post for you!





So thank you all back in Blighty.
XXXXXX

Joe's been off all this week and we've done absolutely loads in the garden and it's looking fab
Back with photos soon 


11 comments:

  1. A lovely read Sue...happy anniversary and I was well impressed with the gardens down there in Hamilton :)

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  2. Congratulations Sue! A marriage and a happy one is something to truely celebrate, take it from someone who has come from a broken one.......treasure it, nurture it!

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  3. Thank you Leeanne, yeah I wouldn't change him for anything really even though I sometimes want to smash his head in with a mallet! hahha

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  4. Hiya Sue - I laughed at your reply to Leeanne - we all feel like that somedays. Wanted to congratulate you & say happy anniversary to you both !!! Your wedding pic is just gorgeous - werent we all so young & stupid back then !!! And we thought we knew it all :-) I love the Hamilton Gardens, your photos have reminded me how much I love them - its time I took another picnic & the family along. And yes the Italian Rennaisance is my fave also.

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    1. hahah I know but they get you like that sometimes! Good job we live rurally too, they can't hear you scream in the country haha :D

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  5. Happy Anniversary!!! Hope the next twenty five are just as much of an adventure as the first twenty five!

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    1. Thank you ;-D Me too but with less DIY involved hahha

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  6. Sorry I am late - Happy Anniversary!!!

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    1. No worries matey, thank you xx Life gets a bit busy sometimes eh, I've not had chance to read any blogs lately :(

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  7. How are you? Been a while since you've been here...are you in England :)

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