A Daybook entry...

Not a lot has been happening this week, it's just been one of those ho hum weeks. 

Not that I want a lot of drama, ho hum is good occasionally.

So this week I thought I might join in with 

The Simple Woman's Daybook.

So let's get going.

For Today - 30th June, 2015

 Outside my window... the sun has just set, it is dark and cloudy
 with a tinge of red across the top of the hills
and a cool breeze is blowing. The street lights are on.

I am thinking... it's time I went out to the kitchen
and dried the tea dishes and put them away in the cupboards.

I am thankful... my house is warm, dry and mostly weather proof.
I'm pleased we got the insulation in before the cold of this winter arrived.

I am wearing... blue jeans, blue long sleeved tee shirt,
 bright red socks and white sneakers.

I am creating... I'm not creating anything as such
but I am trying to put together a jigsaw belonging to my daughter.
It is a snow scene and apart from sunlight on a misty mountain
 it is shades of blue, white and grey.

 I think it will take me the rest of the winter!

I am going... to take a break and make a hot ginger drink.

I am wondering... whether writing this piece on Tuesday evening
 is okay because even though it is Monday in the US
it is Tuesday evening in my neck of the woods?

I am reading... Unafraid by Francine Rivers. 
I have only just begun it and so far am enjoying it.
It is one of five novellas telling the story of five women from the bible.
This one is about Mary the mother of Jesus.
I have already read one of the others and found it quite intriguing
 even though it was a fictional account based on the bible telling of the story.

I am hoping... the next few days stay nice and sunny
and we have a little bit of warmth in the sun.
And that the wind stops blowing up from the Antarctic. Please.

I am learning... to live a contented life post retirement :)

In my garden...The jonquils are through the ground
 and beginning to make a bright show along the front of the house.

Otherwise it is in its dormant state as it is winter 'down under'.

In my kitchen... I have a bench covered in feijoas ready to bag up
 and take down to the church for whoever wants them.
I'm the only one here who eats them and
there are far too many for me. All windfalls.

A favourite quote for today... a hand up is better than a handout.
I have no idea who said it originally but I think it is a good philosophy.

A peek into one of my days... What did I do today?
It was sunny skies and a good wind so the beds were
changed and washing all hung on the line to dry.
I picked up my friend and we went around to my mother's
 house for lunch and to watch a devotional video with her.
Then everyone piled into the car and away we headed to do the weekly grocery shop.
Back to my friends for a hot cuppa, dropped Mum off
with her shopping and then home again by about 4.00pm.
Cooked tea and cleaned up, husband is away out, I'm bathed and relaxing.
All is well.

One of my favourite things... a lovely hot bath on a cold winter's evening.

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

I'm also joining Stephanie over at 

The Enchanting Rose for her weekly gathering:

Roses of Inspiration

That's it for this week folks.

Keep well 'til we meet again.

Diana

Blob in a bottle

It's a bit nippy outside at the moment. 

Just on freezing point so good soup weather.

Usually I make homemade vegetable soup

from whatever veges I have on hand and a bought base.

But sometimes we have it out of a packet

especially if it is at lunch time.

And depending on what's at hand

 we have toast or cheese rolls or scones to go with it.

These scones were made by my GKB and they were delicious.

This was my lunch today, yum.

As I was cooking tea tonight I had a text from youngest daughter. 

"The boards are on display between 5:30 and 6:30 tonight".

The 'boards' referred to the science fair competition at our grandsons school

and I had a grandson with a board on show. 

So of course I had to go to have a look.

Tea was quickly cooked, eaten and cleared up 

and I was on the road just after 5:30pm

leaving my GKB to get ready for his night out at darts.
I can't believe how dark it was, so early,
 but of course we have just passed the shortest day and
so it was to be expected really. It's a long time since I've driven at night,
not since I finished work when I drove home in the dark regularly. 

I pulled up outside the school at the same time as daughter and the kids.

We were quite early but one or two people were there ahead of us. 

More arrived as the hour passed.

It was all set up in the hall  and there were

 some quite impressive experiments on display.

Some of the kids had interactive displays but most were 

boards like Jack's with photo's and explanations of what they had done.

Very impressive for years 7 & 8 I thought.

Jack's experiment didn't go through for the big inter-school 

competition but I thought he did very well and am a proud Granma.

Keep well until next week,

Diana

A formal night out

Well, here she is, as promised. Gorgeous youngest grand daughter in her formal dress.

Now I hope you are not going to be bored because this post is mostly pre formal photo's.

Lovely Chloe...

I took my little mother over to see Chloe in all her finery 

a couple of hours before she was due to go out.

It was a bitterly cold  night and the wind was blowing a gale

so we said we would take the dress to her rather than her come over for it.

with her Dad...

She had her makeup done by a friend of her mother 

and her hair done by another friend who is a hairdresser.

Sometimes we older people come in handy...

especially when it comes to contacts.

her beau...

They went over to her boyfriends' home and their group left from there.

The boys looking dapper in their suits, tuxes or whatever they wore, 

I'm out of touch these days, and of course the girls were gorgeous.

and her friends

Photo's were taken by all and sundry,

some on cell phones so not quite as clear as they could have been.

But still a nice record. 

Then it was into another friends' Jeep Cherokee 

to be chauffeured to the ball in style.

the hairdo

An evening of 

 dinner, dessert and dancing.

What more could you ask for?

joining in with:
roses of inspiration

And that's it for now.
See you same time, same place, 
next week.
Diana

Pukekos after the rain

Well let me tell you, I am not going to mention how quiet life is again.

Since last week, when I mentioned the earthquake, we have had floods.

Not too bad at our property but bad enough to close schools, 

businesses and to set up  civil defense headquarters. 

The city was cut off north and south with some of the highways under water.

A lot of homes were flooded and one rest home had 

to be evacuated in one of the low lying suburbs.

Most of last week was spent in clean up mode

 for a large portion of the population.

 Really heartbreaking for some.

We stayed hunkered down at home with only a couple of leaks in the roof.

Everything in our little town is back to normal now but it will take longer in the city.

At the weekend we took a trip over to the local tip

Which is where I spotted some of our feathered friends in the distance. 

Pukekos! 

I had never seen them here before and was quite excited. 

My GKB said they are there quite a lot so he didn't know why I was so impressed.

Since I came down south to live I have only ever seen them beside the highway, 

in places you can't stop to watch or take pictures.

On the West Coast where I grew up they were a lot more common 

and wandered in the paddocks and were quite prolific.

Of course the ground was more swampy in a lot of places

and probably more to their liking over there.

It is rain forest country and can be quite a damp place, to put it mildly. 

As we were leaving we had to avoid hitting some of them wandering on the road.

And then...

around a corner and we came across this fellow bathing.

He was submerging himself up to his shoulders, 

getting up, shaking himself off and doing it all over again. 

We watched through the car window for a couple of minutes then my GKB 

decided to get a bit nearer and try to get a better pic. 

Well Mr Pukeko wasn't having that and climbed out of his bath

 and stalked away at a good old pace, for him, with my GKB in hot pursuit.

And that is why the final pic is a bit blurred.

No co-operation at all, can you see the frown on his face, haha.

If you would like to read a little more about the pukeko you can do so here

joining in with:

roses of inspiration
good fences

Have a good week,

Diana

Extremely loosely connected stuff...

Life has been very quiet of late and there I was last night

 lying in bed thinking that as soon as I get to the end 

of this chapter I'd turn the light off.

Then in the distance I heard a rumble then a bang and an earthquake hit. 

By the time I slammed my book shut and commented  that

'this is an earthquake' and my GKB replied

'I think you're right " it was all over.

No time to leap (it's amazing how fast you can move when you have to) out of bed

and go into earthquake mode because it was all over in about 10 seconds. 

So we lay there for a few minutes waiting to see if  there were going to be any more.

There weren't, but eldest daughter rang to check in and have a chat.

She was home alone with 2 teenagers and just wanted a bit of reassurance. 

It was centred only about 10 miles away as the crow flies and quite shallow

so it was quite a jolt and gave a lot of people a fright. 

Youngest daughter's youngsters slept through it 

but the teenager was on the phone to her boyfriend at the time.

She hung with her mother and father for a wee while after that.

What have feijoas got to do with an earthquake you may ask.

Not a lot but the tree next door that hangs over our fence 

is absolutely laden this year and so when I went out this morning

 there were quite a few windfalls lying about.

But I rather think they were 'quake falls this time. 

Never mind, I still harvested them and have a nice little bowl full.

Now for something completely different.

I just bought this painting of the butterfly about a week ago.

I had been eyeing up another painting for several weeks which was much more

abstract but had all the same bright colours. 

They go well in our lounge.

But when I showed my first pick to my GKB he wasn't terribly impressed. 

He pointed out a butterfly painting that he quite liked

 but it wasn't anything like what I was wanting.

 Then a couple of weeks later we came across this colourful butterfly, 

the colours I wanted with the not quite so abstract picture he wanted. 

A nice compromise.

And ... it was a fraction of the price of the original one.

And talking about butterflies, youngest grand daughter 

is going to her school formal in a couple of weeks.

Her mother arrived over today with her dress which is now hanging in a wardrobe here.

They have 4 cats at the moment and she didn't want to take the risk of them

(2 are kittens) using the dress for climbing practise.

It's rather lovely on her and later I hope I can show 

you a photo of her all dollied up ready to go out with her beau.

And this is just another random picture I took 

in an ice cream shop while we were up at the caravan a while ago.

The walls on the left of the house are all lined

 with small cubby holes filled with jars of lollies. 

It's quite a delightful little gingerbread house.

joining in with:

roses of inspiration

Keep well 'til next week

Diana