Greetings from a wet and windy New Zealand

We're just a few weeks away until Spring, oh bring it on, please. It's this time of year, when winter is almost over, that the season seems, to me, to drag. We've needed rain but now it's just taking the piss! And for the last week we've had constant strong winds, they've buffeted the house and blown things around. The gazebo Michael built for the wedding, which was unused because of the bad weather, has slid off it's platform, at least it's in one piece.....for now.

The Waipa river, which goes through Whatawhata, snaking it's way almost parallel to our road, until it finally reaches the Waikato in Ngaruawahia, has risen and is threatening to burst it's banks. It was almost level with the paddocks at one point down our road. It's done this of course before, many times and means nothing really at this stage, except for maybe the farmers whose land may sit under water soon.
As I type this, and to make me out a liar, the sun has come out. It's good to see you sun, stay awhile would ya? At least long enough to dry the towels that have been on the line all week, and are wetter now than when I put them out!

If I remember later, I might manage to get the in dry after all, the sun has stayed out

So apart from the weather, what else has been happening here? Well, Joe has been working, working, working and sleeping, sleeping, sleeping, it's what he does best. Winter is his busy time, that should be easing off this week and some kind of normality should resume, if normality actually exists in this house.
I've made the most of this gloomy weather by reading and crafting, eating and drinking too much wine, probably. I had a couple of special projects to work on, those I will reveal at a later date, because as of this evening they will be winging their way to the UK. Check out older posts for book reviews.
Michael and Natasha are finally off on their honeymoon, so they're laden with goodies from me and Joe, they might have room for clothes in their suitcases once they're packed. Saved me heaps of postage! They'll be meeting up with family and friends, they're having a bit of a do this Saturday, another wedding celebration, then at the end of the month traveling around Europe. Back home to NZ at the beginning of October. We've got Astrix, their dog for that time, it's going to be interesting, it's taken Dot quite a while to get used to him, she's rather nervous around other dogs. They were all here on Sunday and things were okay, after six weeks she should be used to him by then. I'll keep you posted.

Astrix, our house guest for the next six weeks

Some of you may already know that I belong to a book group, which is a member of the Book Discussion Scheme, it operates out of Christchurch. For ten months of the year we receive a book a month, our group of eight all read the same book. On the fourth Thursday of each month, we meet at our conveners house, in Te Pahu, where we have a shared tea and lashings of hot tea in china cups,we're all very civilised. The books come with a set of notes with questions which we discuss after tea. It's a great group and I love it.
It's a small group really but works well and currently there are no plans to add to it. Which leads me on to the start of another group, which I've started for friends and neighbours in my road. One of those friends really wanted to join our Te Pahu group, so I thought, well, I'll just start another group, and I did! I run a Facebook page for our road and put out some feelers, I had a good response,
Our inaugural Karakariki Road book club starts tonight, here. I have resisted all requests to say what book we have.There may be wine involved, we may be a lot less "civilised" than Te Pahu. So I'm looking forward to that, being a member of two groups means that I read at least twenty books a year! Leaving thirty two weeks to read books from my ever growing read list. Like I need an excuse to read more books.
I'll come back and share how that went another time.
August is Hamilton's Book Month, yes, more books 😋and this is something I'll come back and share, so far the events I've been to have been really enjoyable and interesting. Purchases have been made, of course, did you ever doubt me for one moment.
For now though I shall leave you with some photos of my garden today, the sun is still out and things needed photographing.

Seville orange, I have marmalade for Africa already, so new recipes will need to be tried

 

Pops of colour all around the garden

Navel orange, for eating

Bulbs have been popping up for weeks

Buds are beginning to appear

 

New leaf growth is happening

There is even one solitary plum blossom

More to come

 

New leaf buds on the Pohutukawa

and on the hydrangeas

 

The camellia is flowering profusely, such a shame they are so short lived

 

The roses haven't stopped flowering, they will get pruned soon.

Echo and Evie say "Hello"

 

Echo

Evie

 

 

 

Buds on the bay tree

Limes in need of picking, they go yellow if you don't pick them soon enough

Bees are enjoying the rosemary flowers

A couple of bumble bees joined the party too

 

  

And that's it for today, things to do, dinner is in the slow cooker, saves me rushing around later. 

Spaghetti bolognese

I've got a few snacks to make for book club later, 

I thought cream cheese and salmon on toasted french bread slice.

 

I had better go check that these three aren't killing each other

Miss Scaredy Cat and Miss Pissy Pants, two aliases she is known by. Usually called Dot

 

Following the leader, the leader, the leader.......