Birthdays continue this month in our household.
My sister had hers on the 13th. Visited with her on the day and then the following Sunday we spent a lovely day together in Nelson.
Dallas had his birthday last week. He requested sausages, mashed potato and gravy for his birthday dinner. When I went to the butchers to pick up the fresh pork sausages, that was what the butcher was having for his dinner that night too. Must be something about butchers (and ex-butchers LOL)
Mine was the next day, and a lovely roast of lamb was cooked for me. Gail & Wayne came around to share this with us. I was totally spoiled as I received some lovely smellies, some Australian dollars for my trip this coming weekend and Jamie Oliver's latest book - The Ministry of Food. There are some great recipes in there, and I intend to try a different one each week.
SIL Kaye has hers today. She and Bruce came around yesterday, and we shared some wine and great conversation. Then we all went out looking at some lifestyle blocks a few minutes out of town. We fell in love with them and checked with the real estate regarding prices today. I think they are going to be a wee bit out of our reach. My hope is to reduce our mortgage but I don't think that would happen if we bought one of these. Still some thinking to do, though. Maybe a lower price can be offered . . . and who knows?
I have been dreaming today of gardens and chooks and sheep; of living in a garage until we can afford to build the house piece by piece without having to borrow money to do it. Maybe my dreams are over the top and not really do-able for us. I will be sad if that is truly the case.
Monday, 26 January 2009
Happy New Year
Happy New Year!!!
Off to a slow start, blogwise . . . Have spent the past two weeks working full time at the Lab (minus the two days off work sick) and haven’t even managed to keep up with the housework – let alone a blog!
So – looking back:
I didn’t get Christmas cards out . . . the first time ever. Apologies to those who were expecting them but didn’t receive them.
All my boys were home for Christmas :-) That was the only thing I wanted LOL Karl and Ricki caught the bus home Christmas Eve morning, and left again Boxing Day afternoon.
Anne, Nicola, Dylan & Jaykob were also round for lunch. We had a really nice day, although we didn’t get any gifts opened till after five in the evening!! Liam had to work a morning shift at the service station, then the others arrived before he got home. Just before Anne & co left, Kaye and Bruce turned up.
I worked at the Lab between Christmas and New Year. Dallas stopped working for Christmas Day and I made him stay home on Boxing Day, too, although he wasn’t very happy about it.
Our cherries were beautiful! So juicy and sweet. They were given as parts of gifts to some. Having said that - all the ones around the bottom of the trees were eaten by the dogs. They also ate the strawberries. And the Christmas chocolate – including that which was wrapped and underneath the tree. They unwrapped the socks, boxers, books, etc that had chocolate hidden within. They went into my wardrobe and ate the after dinner mints that were hiding in there. Obviously they weren’t hiding well enough. Chocolate is supposed to be toxic to dogs. My dogs are alive and kicking with minimal disruption to their digestive tracts at the time of the offence.
Our lettuces have been growing well, but are quite bitter. Apparently this is because they haven’t been watered enough. I think next time I’ll get a lettuce with a heart instead of frilly ones – it will be easier for me to tell if they are ready to eat.
We lost the cucumber plant – thank you dogs, again – but have one watermelon doing OK. A stray pumpkin has also turned up in the compost.
The tomatoes – grosse lisse – are doing well and are leading the way in the bet of alcoholic beverages that they will be ready before the neighbours. D swears that ours have the beginnings of red tinges, and he has requested ‘good’ beer, not cheap stuff.
********************************************************************************
OK, so the above was written last week. Yesterday I carefully picked our first tomatoes and the neighbour mentioned above cooked fresh scallops and offered beer on our winning of the bet LOL. And boy, do those tomatoes taste SO good! So much better than shop bought ones!
Off to a slow start, blogwise . . . Have spent the past two weeks working full time at the Lab (minus the two days off work sick) and haven’t even managed to keep up with the housework – let alone a blog!
So – looking back:
I didn’t get Christmas cards out . . . the first time ever. Apologies to those who were expecting them but didn’t receive them.
All my boys were home for Christmas :-) That was the only thing I wanted LOL Karl and Ricki caught the bus home Christmas Eve morning, and left again Boxing Day afternoon.
Anne, Nicola, Dylan & Jaykob were also round for lunch. We had a really nice day, although we didn’t get any gifts opened till after five in the evening!! Liam had to work a morning shift at the service station, then the others arrived before he got home. Just before Anne & co left, Kaye and Bruce turned up.
I worked at the Lab between Christmas and New Year. Dallas stopped working for Christmas Day and I made him stay home on Boxing Day, too, although he wasn’t very happy about it.
Our cherries were beautiful! So juicy and sweet. They were given as parts of gifts to some. Having said that - all the ones around the bottom of the trees were eaten by the dogs. They also ate the strawberries. And the Christmas chocolate – including that which was wrapped and underneath the tree. They unwrapped the socks, boxers, books, etc that had chocolate hidden within. They went into my wardrobe and ate the after dinner mints that were hiding in there. Obviously they weren’t hiding well enough. Chocolate is supposed to be toxic to dogs. My dogs are alive and kicking with minimal disruption to their digestive tracts at the time of the offence.
Our lettuces have been growing well, but are quite bitter. Apparently this is because they haven’t been watered enough. I think next time I’ll get a lettuce with a heart instead of frilly ones – it will be easier for me to tell if they are ready to eat.
We lost the cucumber plant – thank you dogs, again – but have one watermelon doing OK. A stray pumpkin has also turned up in the compost.
The tomatoes – grosse lisse – are doing well and are leading the way in the bet of alcoholic beverages that they will be ready before the neighbours. D swears that ours have the beginnings of red tinges, and he has requested ‘good’ beer, not cheap stuff.
********************************************************************************
OK, so the above was written last week. Yesterday I carefully picked our first tomatoes and the neighbour mentioned above cooked fresh scallops and offered beer on our winning of the bet LOL. And boy, do those tomatoes taste SO good! So much better than shop bought ones!
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