They're at it again...

The neighbours are chopping stuff down.

There is a beautiful macracarpa hedge growing 

between our property and the one next door.

Well there was up until about a week ago.

Over the years the neighbourhood kids have had a lot of fun in there.

Both boys and girls.

They had huts and hideouts and tracks through the branches,

and not necessarily at ground level either.

But as you can see there is a truck up the drive.

Behind the truck is a very nice young man with a chain saw and a mulcher.

He took down about 30 foot of the hedge in the middle.

Right opposite our bedroom window and in front of one of the neighbours'.

I just hope they're going to put up a very high fence to replace it!

Although it does reflect a lot of light back to our place - oh well you can't have it all ways/

When he feeds the mulcher a lot of very fine sawdust

 comes over our fence and leaves a fine film over everything.

Easy to clean off, just a nuisance really.

At one point I looked out the window and 

one of these wee fellows was wandering around

 in the middle of the road looking quite bewildered,

 in fact he was walking in circles.

I rescued him and put him under some bushes well away from the hedge,

and the road, and thought that all was well.

But no, a couple of minutes later he was heading out again

 but this time stopped for a drink out of a puddle

 and then headed back to the bushes. Phew.

Both our daughters  went over looking

to see if there were any of their old toys there.

there weren't, but youngest found an old Sprite can

 she took home to her collector husband.

Work seems to have come to a standstill now though 

and this is what things looks like at the moment.

Not pretty.

Well that's it for today,

keep well, keep warm if you're in the snow

 and enjoy your day.

Diana

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Pancakes for tea

Today is Shrove Tuesday.

The day before Lent starts.

The day we eat pancakes for our tea.

When I was a child we always had pancakes

 for tea on what we called 'Pancake Day'.

I love mine with butter and sugar,

some people prefer other types of toppings

or fillings and some even have savoury ones.
We had a great variety tonight ranging from berries
 and bananas and cream to syrup and honey
just to mention a few.

How do you like yours?

Tonight we had our pancakes at church.

Not too bad a turnout either, 

this being the first pancake tea we've held 

since I've been attending here.
I think the ages ranged from about 10 to 85.

Some people don't know anything about Shrove Tuesday 

or that Lent is supposed to be a time of fasting,

and so I found myself explaining

 a little bit to one of our newer members.

We all enjoyed a nice casual time of being together 

and enjoying each others' company over food.

Followed of course, by a cuppa!

joining in with:

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Wishing you a happy week

as we begin the lead up to Easter,

Diana

Tuesday, Tuesday...

Today has been busy, but then Tuesday is always busy

 once things get going again for the year.

I usually have most of the morning at home, 

which is just as well because today I slept in. Oh dear.

Then it is time to go over to my little mothers' place for lunch 

and up until this week I was picking up a friend to go over as well.

But her routine has changed and now she joins us later.

Today I had an extra hour to muck around in even though I'd slept in

and managed to get a little bit of tidying up done in the garden.

Mum runs a small study group and we all take our own lunch

and she puts on the tea and coffee.

And always a little dish of lollies for us to pick at.

We are only a small group but that doesn't matter.

We are all 'older' ladies, the oldest in her mid 80's 

and the youngest in her late 50's. 

None of us feel old though.

We always watch a video and then we are supposed

to discuss it - and we do have some interesting discussions,

but not necessarily on the subject.

Later, when everyone is gone 

and we've tidied up a bit,

little mother and I usually go grocery shopping.

Normally our friend comes too and we then

 end up at her place drinking more tea,

 and 'putting the world to rights'.

Which is what happened today, 

altogether a pleasant afternoon.

We don't buy our frozens' that day!!

By the time I get home in the late afternoon 

I'm ready to collapse in a heap with a coffee nearby

 and chew on the chocolate bar and grapes 

that little mother gives me for taking her shopping.

My chocolate fix for the week!

She would buy petrol but I won't let her 

so the chocolate helps her keep a feeling of independence I guess.

After tea tonight I went out for a walk, not as long as usual though, 

mainly because I was a bit later leaving 

and I didn't want to get caught in the rain that was threatening.

Well, that's it for now,

have a good week 

and I'll see you next time.

Diana

Catching up

Well we are just back from holiday and catching up on everyone. 

First of all I'd like to say thank you to those of you who have visited from the GYB party. 

I promise I will get back to you soon. I was using a tablet while away but couldn't really figure out how to comment although I did visit some of you. 

And I didn't really want to spend too much time on it anyway, not fair to my GKB.

**************

As we usually do at this time of the year we went up to the caravan at Cromwell for a few days.
It was so hot we didn't really enjoy it, the temps hovered around 30C most days.
The grass is burnt to a stubble and the area round about is tinder dry.

tent and cabin area at camping ground,
that brown stuff is grass

One very hot day we decided to get in the car and go 

for a run up the road a bit to visit a cousin we hadn't seen for a while. 

No matter if they weren't there, the car was air conditioned!

I got out at the top of the Lindis Pass to take a couple of photo's 

and it was quite a pleasant temperature.

 Of course we are up in the mountains here, 

or should I say the foothills, 971 metres above sea level.

Then on up to Omarama where my GKB's cousin lives.

She and her partner run the camping grounds/motels there.

Unfortunately they weren't home but we had a back up plan

 and visited friends who run a B& B which was just around the corner.

After a very pleasant hour or so we headed home again

 through some lovely countryside.

The pic above was taken from the parking lot at Tarras, which someone has described as:

like being dropped in the middle of nowhere. 

There is a tiny (and I mean tiny) shopping village with about 6 tiny shops and a school, 

 a parking lot and a solitary unmanned petrol pump.

Nothing else in sight. Lovely views though.

We were actually hoping to make a comfort stop but the facilities were padlocked! Ugh!

And this picture is Lake Dunstan just up from where we were staying.

We drove alongside the lake for a while and it is quite pretty in places.

My GKB goes trout fishing here and sometimes brings home tea.

The dark green areas you can see are the vineyards/wineries.

It is good wine growing country and dotted with vineyards.

While we were away we also celebrated our wedding anniversary 

and took ourselves out for dinner.

A waitress kindly took our photo, two in fact. 

My GKB looks good in this one and I look better in the other one.

 Oh well, you can't win them all can you,  haha.

And this is what we had, vegetarian fettuccine. 

Not because we are vegetarians but I don't like mushrooms

and that is what was in the other pasta dish. 

And my GKB just follows his leader :)

We had a really nice evening out.

**************

Now we are away to deliver

fresh stone fruit to the family, 

have a wonderful week, 

Diana

joining in the fun at:

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