The past week.

The past week has involved food to quite an extent. It's been quite a busy week and it doesn't seem like it was only a week ago we were lunching with our daughters at Kades Restaurant. It was Bob's birthday and we had a lovely meal and chat with the girls.

Then later in the week I was cooking for Friday Light, the local Anglican church's outreach. 

But before that I managed to get the cake baked for the GF dessert I was making for Saturday night's dinner. Once the F.L meal was cooked and down at the church I started assembling the dessert. I thought it would be nicer if it could sit in the fridge overnight but I left the cream until just before we left home. I hadn't made one, a banoffee trifle, for quite a while and wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it was good. And none leftover on the night.

The hall looked really nice with decorated tables and fairy lights strung up. And a little Christmas tree by the door. The food was plentiful and delicious. It was a lovely dinner and a great crowd, over 70 people arrived, but there was enough food to feed an army :) The place was buzzing.

We'd had a red weather alert not long before we left and the rain started as we were leaving home for the dinner and it stopped about 2 hours ago. So it poured for about 42 hours. We weren't affected apart from a little surface flooding but others weren't so lucky. There were evacuations overnight as properties flooded and to make matters worse a valve failed at the waste treatment station and sewage leaked out into the floodwaters. And needless to say the Silverstream is in flood but hasn't breached the flood banks. Once upon a time I would have walked down to take a photo but you'll have to take my word for it this time :) Florida, you could have some of our rain if you wish.

Our storage box is floating and I'm not sure the lid is fully closed but I'll check that when the weather improves. Too late now anyway :)

*****

And just because I can, daughter Jacqui's cat, Sooty, letting the world know what he thinks:)

 

That's all from me today.

Stay safe and well.

blessings,

Diana

Record rainfall

As I sit here typing the sun is shining after a very wet few days. We've had a bit of a weather bomb dumped on us. I'm fortunate in that it hasn't affected me or my family but not everyone has been so fortunate and at the moment nine homes have been red stickered with possibly more to come.

Early in the week we were forecast for one months rain in a period of two days. As it turned out we had two months rain in a couple of days. The rain started on Wednesday morning and we woke on Thursday to be told 80 families had been evacuated from their homes overnight.

 The worst of the flooding, but not all, was out in South Dunedin which is mainly built on reclaimed land. Thankfully the Silverstream at the bottom of our street didn't breach the flood bank, but it came close. But not all the damage was done by flood waters, some was through land slips. 

Eventually the rain stopped late on Friday night, the city having recorded it's highest rainfall for over one hundred years. Roads were closed or cut off to the north, south and west with the sea on the east.

I am very grateful to have escaped this weather bomb unscathed. We didn't even get much water lying around in the yard which is unusual in heavy rain.

The rain has stopped but now the cleanup begins.

That's it for today. 

Keep well, keep safe and I'll be back in a few days.

Diana

Oh this spring weather...

This is what it looked like a couple of days ago even though the forecast had been for rain, hail and snow to low levels.

Well it did arrive and although we didn't get snow here the temps have dropped dramatically and it feels like winter again. This is how it looked a couple of minutes ago from one of my front windows.

A lake is forming in the yard.

And the storage bin began to float...

.

...so my GKB had to go out and rescue it.

It doesn't look like a lot of water but it is!

A pot of soup is cooking on the stove - winter comfort food :)

If only I could I'd send this rain to California.

***********

Well things got worse after I had written this. Flooding, shops, businesses and some homes sandbagged. Some people were told to prepare to evacuate, roads have been cut off and trees down as well as slips. And our power was out for a couple of hours. Apart from that all we have had is a leaking window. Thankfully we had our roof fixed back in February otherwise I think it would have been a different story. It was quite a weather bomb with more to come apparently.

A photo scavenger hunt

I am joining in a photo scavenger hunt this week with Hawthorn and friends over at I live, I love, I craft, I am me. Some of the photo's are from the archives, some I have used recently and some of you will have seen them before but I hope you still enjoy them.

1:  The setting sun

We had been up the coast to visit the blowholes and the pancake rocks. At the end of the day we headed back to daughters holiday accommodation for a pizza tea. This is the view we had of the sunset over the Tasman Sea from the upstairs sitting room :)

2:  My local wild place

This is a garden in the town where my GKB grew up, so although it is local it is not local local. It is on a hill on the other side of the city. It was established by the artist Ralph Hotere and overlooks the Otago Harbour. All of the plantings are native trees and bushes and those legs you see belong to a sculpture by Shona Rapira Davies titled They do cut down the poles that hold up the sky. A lovely peaceful place to sit and relax and enjoy the native bush without leaving the city.

3:  Mug of favourite drink in the garden

Christmas Day 2016. The family had gathered at youngest daughter's home to celebrate. Dinner was over, the dishes were all cleaned up and put away and it was time to take a cup, or glass, of our favourite drink and relax somewhere and chat. The photo below is me, my daughter and grandaughter sharing a quiet moment together in the backyard. The other two possibly had a glass of wine but my drink of choice was instant coffee, made the way I like it :) Goodness knows where everyone else was, there were at least 20 of us there for the day.

4:  My kind of beautiful

Isn't she beautiful? Well I'm guessing this is a she, cos she looks pregnant to me. Anyway I love these big draught horses and you don't see them around much these days. Don't ask me the breed, I couldn't tell you, I took the photo from the car while we were doing some sightseeing last time we were up Middlemarch way .

5:  Look to the skies

On the same trip up to Middlemarch this was early evening sky at the camping ground we stayed at. My GKB took this photo and some people have said the cloud formation looks like a giant hand in the sky. Anyway I think it is quite dramatic.

6:  Mini beasts

Well you can't see the mini beasts as they are inside the nest. 

This is the nursery web of a nursery web spider and the babies stay inside for couple of weeks. I guess if you don't mind spiders you won't think of them as beasts but if you see them magnified they are very definitely little monsters.

7:  Rain

One evening late last winter we had a shower of rain. Or maybe it was early in spring as I see new buds on these branches. Overnight we had a good old frost. In the morning my GKB took a sequence of photos. The raindrops had frozen on the bare branches of this bush and it looked rather pretty with the early morning sun shining on them. A little like the spindly little bush had been draped with a string of diamonds :)

8:  Something summery

Flowers always say summer but this is 
a photo I love, taken one hot day last summer.

Wouldn't you have thought it would be easier to just get under the table instead of clambering up on top of it to find the little bit of shade afforded by the sun umbrella? This puppy is a real character :)

9:  Urban wilderness

What can I say? An urban area in the wilderness. 

Queenstown, New Zealand.

10: My own choice

Parked up for the winter, caravans on a
 bleak winter's evening in Central Otago.

I hope I haven't been too wordy

See you next week.

Diana

Two intrepid walkers - on a road trip #2

Hello there. Here we are back on the road again.

Make yourself a pot of tea, or coffee, put your feet up

and join Sis and me on the next part of our journey.

When I left you last we had had a break in Otira for lunch 

and now we are headed to the West Coast.

Once you cross over the mountain the landscape changes dramatically. The West Coast is a very narrow strip of land on the coast, bounded by mountains and the sea and we drive through ancient, beech forest to reach it. Rainforest. 

But today the sun is shining and as we drive north up the coast we are in our shirtsleeves. Definitely overdressed. Once we are over the Taramakau River bridge we are almost there. This is a road/rail bridge which throws some people, like my GKB when he first drove on it, but we grew up with it so no problems there. :)

We booked in at the camping ground and decided not to have a cuppa but to go and visit our aunty, who is still living in Greymouth, and have one with her. She was out. Oh well, we had other places to go in connection with our reunion next year. The hotel PR lady was next. She was away for the day! A restaurateur we wanted to speak to. He was finished for the day! We weren't having much luck. I  guess that is what happens when you do things on the spur of the moment. Let's try aunty again on the way back to the camping ground. Aah, finally, she was home and we had a nice visit - and finally too, a hot cup of tea.

We bought fish and chips for tea and ate them back at the camping ground and then decided to go for a walk on the beach. These are not sandy beaches and neither are they beaches I would swim in, the Tasman Sea is too rough and rugged for me. But they are enjoyable to walk on. Not that we went far as the wind was coming up, making it a bit cool and unpleasant. It's winter, remember.

The camping ground is at the beach, leave the grounds heading west, cross a narrow track/road and you're in the flax and grass that borders the beach. As we were heading back we saw a large bird run across the grass in front of us - then another one. A pair of wekas. Weka - also known as wood hen or Maori hen. They had no fear and posed for us before calling to each other and disappearing into the scrub again. But as luck would have it none of my photos turned out so this is a photo of a postcard with a Weka on it. The photo is taken by Dave Foster. We also saw these on the roadsides as we were travelling on the West Coast side.

Weka, by Dave Foster

With the wind getting up and darkness falling we decided to have showers and call it a night. It was 7:30pm! We read and chatted and planned a programme for the reunion, but mostly we read. I couldn't believe how tired I felt. Sometime in the early hours of the morning I woke up, then there was an almighty thunderclap. Sis reckons it was the lightening that woke me. With the thunder came the rain, and did it rain. The West Coast of the South Island gets torrential rain and I hadn't experienced it for a long time

 - welcome home :)

It was still raining when we left in the morning about 10:00am. We caught up with the people who had been away the day before and decided to have a cooked breakfast before we headed off. Above is the view out of the tearooms window as we ate.

And this is what it was like as we were leaving Kumara and heading back towards the mountains, with no let up as we headed into Otira where there was a beautiful rainbow. We drove right into it and I decided to enjoy the moment instead of trying to capture it.

Can you see though, how it is coming down between the mountains and therefore having nowhere to disappear to.

It was a long haul up the mountain behind two large trucks, I think our top speed was about 15 kpm and we kept waiting for the engine to cut out. Eventually we came to a short passing  bay but it was long enough for us and we made a run for it. Through the passes on the Canterbury side the sun was out and it was a pleasant trip through to Christchurch. Another overnight stay and then we headed back to Otago and the meeting I had to be home for that evening.

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

I hope you've enjoyed our road trip.

I'm joining Amy, and others, for

Five on Friday

so why don't you pop over for a look as well.

Diana

By the way, don't ask me what mountain I crossed, I don't know to be honest, just that it is part of the Southern Alps . Growing up if we were going to Christchurch we were going  'over the hill'. We drove up the mountain, or took the railcar, and went through the passes but it has never occurred to me to find out which mountain we crossed. We knew the name of the passes, that sufficed. Maybe I should find out!

Brightening up a dreary day

It's a dreary day at our place today,

a touch of autumn perhaps.

The temps have dropped a wee bit

and it's forecast to be this way until at least Friday.

So after lunch my GKB said he might go

 up to the Sallies, an op shop, to have a poke around.

This is not my favourite way of passing 

time but I go along anyway. I find I enjoy

 it more each time I go and I think that

 is helped by the fact that they seem to have

 new managers and the store is quite well set out now.

We parked the car and as luck had it 

we had to pass the '$2 and Gifts' shop.

So in we went to have a look.

We have been looking for a cat ornament of some

 sort to put where we have buried our Claude.

This was grandson's (his true owner) request. 

And we found one in here. And it's ginger 

as Claude was, but with more white, Claude was

 totally ginger, but it will do the job well.

Grandson can paint over the white if he wants to.

And of course the danger with these shops 

is that you find all sorts of things you can't

 go home without. Especially if they are 

Christmas decorations on sale. I can't resist them.

But the little haul I came away with cost under $10.00

excluding the cat. A bargain in anyone's language.

Two angels, two snowmen and a porcelain Santa.

I can already see them on my mantle piece next Christmas :)

We did eventually get to the op shop! 

My GKB and I like to poke around in different areas. 

I head for the china and browse the books

 and he heads for the gadgets and cd's etc.

He found himself five DVD's and we have tried

 them all and they are in good working condition.

I think we'll be watching 'High Society' on Sunday

with my little mother if the weather hasn't picked up.

If the sun is shining we'll sit outside and chat.

And this lovely trio is what I found. 

It's a Royal Albert, Old Country Roses. 

I think it is beautiful and my GKB shouted it for me!

I think I'll keep him :)

joining Martha over at:

Martha's Favorites

and Stephanie at:

roses of inspiration

And that's it for today.
Keep warm if you're in the snow, 
keep cool if you're in the sun
and I'll see you back here next time.
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

After the rain

Cabbage tree

It's been a bit of a wet couple of days, not too heavy,

 just wet enough to be a nuisance. 

So today once it stopped I went out for a walk.

This site once housed a school with a playground,

 a large hall, a small hall, 

a house and netball courts. 

Before long it will be occupied by a large supermarket.

I wonder what's going to happen to their old one

 or whether they'll run both of them.

That would give us three supermarkets.

can you see the raindrops on the leaves?

We are a small provincial town with a city 

just 20 minutes away by car.

I don't know that we could sustain 3 supermarkets to be honest.

But time will tell, and they may demolish the old building.

raindrops

blossom

My GKB was out for the afternoon playing darts,
he arrived home to say they had won,
and everyone was pleased to see him back.
He had a good day out so that is all good.

sea fog coming over the top of the hill

The fog comes over the hill from the Pacific Ocean
 but luckily not too far down.
But that is not the case on the other side of the hill
where youngest daughter and her family live. 
It rolls over from the coast to the hill 
and their suburb is right in its path.

But they have marvellous weather in the summer,
a real little micro climate,
so I'd say that makes up for it.

Well , this post is a bit piecemeal sorry folks,
 I'll try to do better next time.

***************************
An update for those of you who asked. 
My hubby had a good report when 
he went to the hospital for his check up.
 He's still got a way to go but hopefully
 by Christmas the clot will be gone entirely. 
He is much better now that he's over the initial shock
 of it all and has started doing the things he enjoys again, 
like darts. He still can't get down to the river 
to fish but that'll come. 
Many thanks for your concern.

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

Until next time,

Diana