jigsaws, books and feijoa jam

It's a strange winter - not as wet as usual - but the temperatures are still way down there.

The nights draw in early and the drapes are all pulled around 4:30pm on a bleak day.

And that makes for long drawn out evenings.

So what to do on a long winters night?

Well I don't know about you but I get a bit
fed up with the fare on the telly,

 although there are one or two programmes I like:

Once upon a time.

Castle.

Weekend murders.

Undercover Boss.

Junior Masterchef.
Missing.

just to name a few.

So to while away the time I dug out some jigsaws.

 I haven't done a jigsaw for quite a few years so
 I thought I'd better start slow and easy,

 like a 500 piece one.

It only took a few days so I got brave
 and pulled out a 1000 piece box to do next.

One Sunday youngest grand boy came in and was really
 fascinated by the size of the puzzle and how
 small the pieces were. .

so seeing as he had a birthday coming up
I thought I would see if

 I could find him one that was not too big.
I managed to find a

 60 piece map of the world with some stand up icons
 and he was really pleased with it.  

He rang that night to tell me he had finished doing it
 in one afternoon,

 'not a week like it takes you Granma'.

Don't ya just love 'em?

I also went along to the library and got an armful
 of books out, 'cause I just love reading.

Unfortunately I can be quite anti social when I read,
I get really lost in a book if it has a
good story line, then have to run around like
an idiot getting things done.
It's just as well my GKB doesn't mind, he likes his telly,
I like to read.

I've also made some feijoa jam, it turned out horrible but edible,
 so I am eating my way through it.
Thank goodness it is only a couple of jars.
The next door neighbours have a couple of trees on our fence line and I harvest the windfalls, well the 2 little grand boys do.
 They love going out with a bowl and gathering the fruit up,
though I think they may not all be windfalls,
 but what I can't see isn't hurting and the neighbours don't mind.

The boys are allowed to pick the berries
on our side of the fence in season too, raspberries,
blackberries and there is a nut tree as well,
hazelnuts I think. I can never remember what they are.
We have to wait for them to fall as well,
 they're practically invisible on the tree.
Youngest grand boy loves cracking the nuts open with a rock.
And not many of the berries make it inside either!!

It's 3 degrees celsius outside just now and will probably drop below freezing overnight, which will mean a good frost in the morning and hopefully a nice winters day.

Have a good week everyone, wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

Diana

Bob's birthday bash

              Last weekend my GKB celebrated his 70th birthday!

               All the extended family gathered to party with him.
                       Well when I say all the family gathered
                        I mean all 22 of us who live in Otago.
                         We have family in the other island
                                as well as overseas in Asia -
                               just a bit far to travel for tea!

                   Traditionally we meet for a meal somewhere.
                            This time we gathered at a hotel down  
                               the hill from my eldest daughter.
                           We threatened her with coming back
                                to her place to cut the cake
                              but the roads were so icy we
                                      decided against it.
             Middle grand girl who is 14 baked the cake and I think
                              she did a pretty good job of it.
                      It was rich and decadent and covered with 
                              mostly melted chocolate for icing.

            We had a private bar which was at the back of the pub
                     and was fully self contained, loos and all,
                    so we didn’t disturb any of the other diners
                    and the little grand boys could play around
                             without anyone getting upset.
                    The grand boys thought it was great fun 
                               to sit on high bar stools at a
                                  high round table to eat.
                                              

                      Some of the younger fellows came instead
                   of going to the big footy game, big sacrifice,
                                our teams last for the season,
                 but we had a big TV in the corner of the room
                            and so we turned it on and kept
                   the sound down and all the fans were happy!

I'm afraid that by the time we left though

and the poppers had all been popped

(and the balloons had also been popped)

there was a bit of a mess on the floor -

 but it was a clean mess and easily cleaned up.

A fun time was had by all

even if there were some

tired grands the next day.

(And some tired grandparents as well, haha).