The time has come.

Officially signing off - no time or energy to keep this blog updated. And Facebook seems to be doing the trick quite nicely.  It will be nice not to have this sitting on my shoulder . . .

Adios Amigos - take care and look after yourselves.

A word (or two) from the boys . .

I don't have many, but ~

here are a couple of flowers from the garden  :)

Cherry Blossom

Red Red Rose Camelia

Tulip

Camelia

The day has dawned

bright and breezy.  A nice change from the rain.

But my clothesline is still broken.  I have sheets, towels and clothes for six people waiting in the wings.  Clothes airers can only hold so much.

:-((

Marty - please, please find a clip to fix it . . .

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

The Kinks - Lazy Sunday Afternoon . . .

Well it's Sunday afternoon, but not a lazy one.

Have business stuff to sort;

Dinner is in the crockpot - silverside - yummmm

Pie is in the oven for tomorrows dinner

Washing is being recycled through the machine, the clothes airer and the dryer.

And here is Sunday afternoon in the garden:

Pukekohe Onions and Beetroot

Clockwise from top left: Great Lakes lettuce, Peas, Bright Lights Silverbeet and more peas

Onions, carrots & hen-pecked silverbeet

Lettuce leaves ready for sandwiches, but not much else

Nectarine

 

 

 

 

Apricot

Cherry

Also looking good in the garden, but not on the camera:

Strawberries

Blueberries

A couple of  potato plants

Peach

Joshs Quilt

Finally finished!  Feels good to have it done - and he LOVES it.

For someone who is pretty much a non-sewer - I'm really pleased with the final result.

Two weeks ago I . . .

Planted seeds

Made a strawberry garden

Had an audience

Also, after reading Sue's blog Living the Good Life where she was doing some decluttering I decided I had at least one hallway cupboard in particular that I needed to declutter, too.

Before:

During:

After:

Don't ask me where the rest of the cr@p has gone - got rid of a huge bag of rubbish, but am now waiting to buy a cupboard for the photos albums and board games.

Those pics I promised . .

There were SO many seals, just having the most wonderful of times.

And what a perfect setting.

Busy weekend!

Well another weekend has come and gone - HUMP day already - and the next weekend is just around the corner.

We spent Sunday through to Tuesday in Christchurch, visiting with the boys and checking out some blocks of land for sale.  I think we have decided that Oxford is too close to the Alps - I can imagine it being VERY cold! 

Ricki has his very first car - a Nissan Primera . . . looks good, too. Black, with a sunroof and spoiler.

We went out for a meal on Monday night.  If you are ever in Christchurch and are starving, go to Sequoia 88 - they do a smorgasboard menu and it's amazing.  I have never seen so much food!

On our way home yesterday we stopped off at the most magical place - it's just north of Kaikoura.  A few minutes along a walking track is this little pool with a waterfall and it is absolutely full of seals playing. It is an incredible place, and one I will definately stop at again. Photos will follow when our internet has sped up a bit!

Sundays

Sundays are normally spent thinking about all the things I need to do before going back to work on Monday . . but today I know I have an extra day up my sleeve.  Having a day off paid work tomorrow as we have the heat pump men coming to put a heat pump in the hallway in the morning and the dishwasher man coming in the afternoon to hopefully sort my dishwasher out.

Made yummy lemon drink this morning - so easy:

6 lemons
1.5kg sugar
50g Citric Acid
Boiling Water.


Peel the rind of 2 of the lemons being careful to get just the outer skin; no white pith.  Place the peel and 2 cups of the sugar in food processor and run the processor until the rind is really ground up and the sugar is yellow and oily looking.
Squeeze all 6 lemons and mix the juice with the lemon sugar, the remaining sugar and citric acid.  Add the boiling water to make up to 3 litres - stirring until the sugar dissolves.  Cool and store in the fridge.  Dilute cordial with cold water, fizz, soda, or hot water.

Easy peasy.  I have a jar of it at work - hot lemon drinks are perfect on cold mornings!

Have spent an hour this afternoon cuddling with a brand new baby - Oliver Carl - such a wee sweetie, but I forgot to take my camera!!

I think I want to come back as a cat.

The demon threesome waiting for their dinner.

Murphy

Joshs quilt - nearly finished

Home made clochey thing - also protection from the chooks and dogs LOL

Mustard growing alongside.