Rāhui - Day three

If truth be told this isn't really much different to what I usually do, it just has a different view! Although there could be more beach involved! There will be once this is over, as long as everyone sticks to the plan and stays home, the sooner we all do it the sooner we can leave our homes and go outside blinking into the sun, we might get to meet our neighbours. At the moment we are all just staying in touch by regular emails via our neighbourhood community watch thingie.

So what did we do today?

There was of course this first

View through the square window

  

You can glimpse the harbour from our deck, I got my proper camera out and popped the zoom lens on, I'll send Joe out tomorrow with the chainsaw and get him to cut down a few of those trees!

There was a bit of this going on today, this was taken at 12.45pm

My Dawn Hansen pottery from the Ugly Beautiful Studio says it's very happy to be at the beach

We have a few feijoa trees, feijoa cake tomorrow I think

As I had my camera out I took some photos of the plants in the garden

 This is at the front of the house, it's a bit messy really.
It will get a tidy up at some point, it's on a slope and the grass is non existent, might have to lose the grass here, I certainly don't want to be buggering about mowing around that lot!

Later in the afternoon Joe carried on with some more cupboards in the garage

My mate kept me company and sat on my lap for ages

Eyes closed Dot!! Dozy tart.

I have a new fridge,  a Samsung.

It does this!!

That'll do today
Stay safe y'all 

 

October 2019 round up

I've lots to share so I'll get on with it 😉👍

The weekend after my last post we drove out to Tamahere Artisan market, there was a good mix of arts, crafts and toiletries.

I could have bought so much more but I was restrained,  Joe was with me 😉

We bought a selection of soaps and a body butter, made with booze! Just had to....

The weather is definitely improving and the garden is starting to look great, the dogs have been enjoying the sunny days

We were lucky enough to have use of the Karakaraki Christian camp for three days of crafting. 

I've been crocheting too, I finished the scrappy big granny square and sewed in all the ends. Earlier in the year I finished the cross stitch tulip rug, there was loads of yarn left, so I used it to make a wall hanging, the rug will be hung too.

Sue brought over a crochet magazine with a couple of really nice projects, I bought some brights colours and made a start, it's still a work in progress, just the flowers to do. I had intended to make it longer to fit on my chair, I didn't like the dimensions of it as a throw, but when I worked on another square I thought sod it! and I left it as it was. It's bright and makes me eyeballs ache! 😋

Our house is built into a slope, which makes some areas rather interesting. Outside our front door there is a tiered garden, it's in the shade from mid morning on-wards. It's had numerous things planted there, but how it is how I like it best. We have hellebore's and hosta's, and a few ferns that come up, they get huge so we cut them back regularly.

More of the rose arbour, each morning I am treated to more blooms on the Dublin Bay rose, the lavender is covered in bees. My limes have gone past the lime colour stage but are perfectly fine in a gin and tonic

One g&t coming right up!

I re-organised the pantry and gave the booze pride of place, all ready for summer drinking in the garden

I've been making good use of the new bread maker, lunch times are good

Spring always sends people into spring cleaning mode, not me! However we did have a trailer load of stuff to go to the dump, and while Joe was unloading it all I was in the dump shop looking for more crap to bring home! I found an old trolley calling out for a revamp, at $30 it was coming home with me. I may start it next weekend, I already have some chalk paint and some antique wax

Last weekend saw England playing the All Blacks, New Zealand, in the rugby world cup semi final. It would be an understatement to say we were happy with the result!

Michael was extremely happy, he'd been getting a lot of stick before the game. It's always good to beat the All Blacks. And while Michael sang his heart out there were some very quite Kiwis!!

 

The 27th was our 29th wedding anniversary, we took Michael and Natasha out for dinner at the Furnace in the city centre, my dinner, photographed, was delicious

There were a couple of scary moments with a Lime scooter, I thought me life was over people!

 

Last Wednesday I went with Sue who is a  member of Hamilton Gardens, to a preview of a new garden opening this coming Monday. It's called the Picturesque garden, I didn't take any photos because I shall go back when there are less people and better light. After our walk through, we had wine, ham off the bone in rolls with salad and chicken kebabs, there were also fruit kebabs. We all were invited into the Pavilion where Dame Malvina Major talked of her career and of the opera Magic Flute by Mozart. The Picturesque garden walks you through the story of the opera.
Needless to say neither of us lasted more than 10 minute of the rather poor movie of it!
I did take photos of my fave gardens though....

At that point I shall leave you there 

and go pour myself another glass of bubbles, 

have a great weekend xx

Spring has arrived

I always like spring, even if it can be wet some times. All the new growth and the waking of plants after their winter's sleep, when they start to burst into life, always seems to have that affect on me, I'm not a lover of winter, the gloomy weather seems to rub off. But once you get out into the garden on a sunny day it brushes the cobwebs away.
Which is exactly what happened to the covered deck area, cobwebs were brushed away and the spring cleaning began in earnest, in excited anticipation of warm and sunnier days we decided that, like us, the place needed a bloody good clean up and de-clutter.
I haven't taken any before photos, because quite honestly no-one needs to see that kinds of mess. Joe had the Friday off making it a long weekend for him, a bloody long weekend he would no doubt say after we'd finished!
Michael and Natasha are back from their six week long honeymoon, where they spent time with family and friends in the UK and traveling around Europe, they got home on Wednesday. We let them have a rest day before Michael's help was required for some lifting. We had surplus furniture which has made it's way to their house, once that  was all gone we were able to get our home back into some kind of order.
First the family room, which is essentially a lounge, dining and kitchen space all rolled into one.

 

The new rug went down too, we'd held off because of muddy paws

 

Then is was time to tackle outside under the deck, the furniture was pulled off and the concrete washed, the dogs ad made muddy trails around the furniture, already we have more paw prints, courtesy of Dot who likes to dig.

We've had this furniture for years, it's lasted well, until now, Dot is a chewer, I have to make some sort of covers for the arms where she's chewed, little ratbag

 

If we do nothing else this year we want to at least paint the deck railings and balustrades.

 
And now I shall leave you with images from the spring garden, there are a few, enjoy