Done and dusted

No not 2016, although that is certainly done and dusted.

And not Christmas either, although that is well and truly done
 and dusted too.

My reading challenge - done and dusted, thank goodness.

Would I do another one? I don't think so. Having a deadline to finish a book took the joy out of reading, for me anyway, so what's the point? But it meant I got some books out of the way that have been lying around for years in some cases. I will probably do the winter reading challenge at the local library though, it encourages you to look at different genre's, has a bit more focus than just getting through books you haven't got round to reading yet.

Some of the books I enjoyed, some I struggled with and one I didn't finish. A mixed bag. Most of them have now gone to a book sale for  someone else to enjoy.

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

And as it well into New Year's Eve here,

all that remains is for me to wish everyone a 

Happy and Prosperous New Year

Diana

More randomness :)

As you will see, the weather has been random if nothing else.

A couple of weeks ago I walked to help raise money for Hart Walkers.  These walkers or 'child orthotic trainers' cost $NZ9,850. I thought the response to this appeal for people to walk was really disappointing. Below is a picture of everyone who turned up at the event where I took part. We walked around one of the local race courses, several times in fact. I did 10 ks.  I'm not sure how much was raised. It started out cool and overcast and became 

warm and overcast :)

One lovely sunny morning last week both my girls arrived over and decided to take me shopping for flowers for the garden. We headed out towards the airport where there is a roadside stall with an honesty box and picked through the plants for sale. I came home with some lovely pansies that I've planted out into boxes. There was one pottle of sweet little black ones but my daughter got to them before me. Bummer :) That evening we had thunder and lightning and a hailstorm.

I spent long time one evening wrapping small gifts for a ladies afternoon tea I was going to. Isn't it  amazing how long it takes to wrap these small parcels, you look at them and think this won't take long, but in fact when you have a reasonable number of them it can take hours. Still they were appreciated by the people who received them. I took them outside to photograph mid morning after a soft rain had been falling most of the night.

I went to the Christmas ( I know, it's still a while off, well only 8 weeks actually) afternoon tea yesterday and had a nice relaxing time. My little mother came with me but was ready for home after an hour or so. She enjoyed watching the 'passing traffic' as she called everyone, and she had a catchup with one or two people she hadn't seen for a while. There was a nice spread and I was able to bring home a couple of goodies for my GKB. It was a lovely warm day and we had the doors opened out to the lawn so people could stroll about if they wanted to. The lawn has a haha wall before it drops to a lower level and has a lovely view out over the plain. 

looking north towards the hills

 I've finished reading one of the Narnia books as part of the reading challenge I'm taking part in and have started on my next one. I know The Magician's nephew by C.S. Lewis is aimed at children but I enjoyed reading some of this series to my kids. I can't remember reading this particular one to them though and enjoyed it anyway. Easy reading. Some days have been warm and sunny and I have been able to sit outside for a while to read. Actually I rolled my trouser legs up one morning and noticed later in the day that my legs were a bit burnt!

joining Amy and her friends for:
Five on Friday

Randomness

I haven't been up to posting for a few weeks as my Little Mother hasn't been at all well and I have been seeing to her needs.  

I have been looking in on you though and catching up on what you are all doing but I'm sorry I haven't had the energy to comment. 

It's relaxing just to read sometimes.

But I was looking through my photos and found some 

I've taken over the last few weeks that I could use to take part

 in Five on Friday with Amy and her lovely friends.

So number one: A shot taken one day while I was walking along the Silverstream. That is a cabbage tree (cordyline australis) on the bank. It is over the back fence from where a friend of mine used to live. The cabbage tree was given to her and her husband as a gift but she didn't think it went with her garden so she planted it on the floodbank instead. This way we all get to enjoy it. A lot of people think they are ugly but I like them. They are New Zealand natives and native birds find their berries very tasty.

Number two:  Do you remember a few months ago I told you that my friend's cat had departed to where all cats eventually go? Well shortly afterwards  she was offered this little lady. She is a real character and a lot of fun. She loves playing in the box and is a real blessing to my friend who missed her ginger boy dearly. But the thing that really struck us was that her lovely ginger boy was already named Leo when he arrived on the scene and when this little lady came along she was already named Cleo! I'd say it was meant to be, wouldn't you?

Number three: The Children's Marathon challenge. Out walking around the town one day I was passed by these kids out on a run. I see in the paper that a lot of the schools in the area are taking part in a  marathon of sorts. For the past 6 weeks they have been running around courses at the schools until they have clocked up almost  40 k's.  The final section of the run is then done at Logan Park on a running track and when it is over a ballot is taken to see who gets the donated prizes of sports shoes. A good prize for the lucky ones, only 10 to give out I believe.

Number four: My reading challenge books for a couple of months. I'd had the Joyce  Meyer one, Look Good, Feel Great, for quite a long time and had read a couple of chapters but no further. So I decided now was a good time to finish it. Easy reading, common sense stuff, but something to give you a prod into taking a little bit of action as well. That was the August read completed. :) 

The September book is going to remain unread I'm afraid. Too cynical, hard, and brittle for me. Nothing relaxing about it or even, for me, entertaining. So after persevering for six chapters I've given it the heave and shall probably be putting it in a bin for a book sale instead. What was it? The Best Awful by Carrie Fisher. 

Someone else may enjoy it.

And finally to Number five: These beautiful daffodils are growing at the boundry fence between our house and the neighbour's. They are the only true daffys I have and so I am reluctant to pick them. But the bonus is that I can see them from my kitchen window and can enjoy them anyway. They are a real promise of better days to come. We have had a few stormy days, snow and hail lately so it is lovely to see this splash of colour along with the jonquils all along the front of my house. See the header picture for a look at a small section of them.

A Daybook post

I thought I might do a daybook post this week

 seeing as it's a long time since I have participated.



So without further ado, here we go.

Looking out my window is not much fun at the moment. It is dark and the street lights are reflecting off the wet tar seal. It is 8.2 C and I am happy to be sitting inside with my heatpump going and the temp. at a balmy 19.9 C.

earlier this week

I  am thinking I will be pleased when winter is over and we can get outside in the sun again. I am not a winter person, much prefer the warmth of the other seasons with the between ones being my favourites.

I am thankful for Sis who took me in hand when I was feeling overwhelmed with organising a family reunion. She helped me plan  the weekend and has left me with a timeline to get things done. I am so grateful. I am not an ideas person but I can get things done once I know what I am doing or aiming at.

I am reading 'Does this Church Make Me Look Fat?' by Rhoda Janzen. It is rather interesting, true story. The blurb on the cover reads - A Mennonite finds faith, meets Mr Right and solves her lady problems. Quite fun and very real. I've just finished reading 'A Journey to The Centre of The Earth.' by Jules Verne. Really fantastical and rather strange to my way of thinking. This was my July read for the book challenge I'm taking part in.

I am wearing really comfy grey pj's with pink trim, pink scuffs and a pink fluffy dressing gown. I like pink, can you tell?

I am hoping praying that my little mother's health will hold out for her to get to the reunion. She has been having the odd health problem lately so I would appreciate your prayers for her. She is the matriarch now with just one sister left out of six of them and the family are looking forward to seeing her again.

One of my favourite things is my daughters both calling in for a cuppa together, and they did today. We had a great old catchup. I drop whatever I'm doing and we put the kettle on and go for it until they have to go. Lots of fun.

In the kitchen I have a vase of what I thought were dead rosebuds. Today I was going to throw them out in the rubbish but guess what? There are new green shoots appearing so I think I'll keep them and see what happens.

In the garden most things are dormant apart from the jonquils which are pushing their way through the earth and some already showing us beautiful bursts of yellow. And my potted polys have needed watering because they grew so well the rain was running off the leaves and onto the outside of the pots. And they got quite badly frosted as well but have come away again now that I have shifted them back under the eaves.

And to finish, on a sign in an op shop today:

Our volunteers are not paid. 

Not because they are worthless

 but because they are priceless.

joining: The Simple Woman's Daybook

I hope you'll go over for a look as well.

Diana

Winter activities at home

Yes, I do in fact, spend time at home and in the winter

 it is a matter of finding things to do on long dark evenings.

So, no. 1: I like to read. This is the latest book I have finished for the reading challenge. A Fistful of Summer by Peggy Dunstan. 

It is a collection of short stories written by a New Zealand author and based on her childhood in Christchurch and Wellington. Although set a decade or two before my childhood days,

 probably in my mother's, I could relate to it and so 

thoroughly enjoyed it. I may have to read it again.

No. 2:  Now I don't neccessarily like to knit but have found myself enjoying it more now that I am not trying to keep my family warm with nice woollen jerseys. It was such a challenge to make sure they all had nice new jerseys for the winter, then as they got older there were those  jackets worn by Starsky (or was it Hutch), and everyone had to have one or they would be the only kid in school looking uncool. I find it more relaxing these days and as well as the snoods for my daughters I have knitted this beanie hat. I will probably put it on a bring and buy table later in the month.

No 3: I quite enjoy doing and completing a jigsaw. This is the latest one and let me tell you it took me as long, or longer, to do the sky as to do the rest of it. The one before this was shades of white and grey with a little bit of blue, this one is shades of pink and peach with some darker shading. I pulled out the next one in the pile and it was shades of white and grey with touches of gold! No! I wanted a change so have opted for a more busy one, I've done it before quite a while ago but am finding it more challenging this time.

No.4: I have had a few cards to send out this month, bereavements, birthday and invitations. But finally they are all done. Well no they are not really, next week youngest grand daughter is turning 18.   So I will be on the lookout for a nice card for her over the next few days, and a gift to go with it. I can't believe how quickly these kids have grown up.

And so to no.5: Once a month I am rostered on to help in our church hall in the kitchen, I generally enjoy this particular evening out. An alternative church service is held each Friday night and I usually make a dish and take it down. The service is attended by some of the more marginalised people in the community some of whom travel out from the city to attend. They start off with a cuppa and a sing along followed by a bible teaching, then they have a hot meal followed by another cup of tea or coffee. It's my night tonight and I have made a big fish pie. It looks a bit pale in the picture but is set to go into the oven to brown up before I take it down. Maybe I'll grate some cheese onto it as well.

And that's my five for this week.
I'm joining Amy and friends for: 
Five on Friday

Diana

Netball and butterflies and other things in between

This morning my daughter rang to see if I wanted to go and watch the netball with her. Youngest grand daughter was playing a social game at 1pm. It's a while since I've watched her as she has played football (soccer) the past two or three years. I noticed she'll have to get used to using her arms again in defence, she hasn't been able to do that in footy. That's her with the topknot hairdo just under the ball. They played a good game for the first of the season and won 25 - 12. It was played inside where her brothers were playing futsal during the summer.

Autumn has arrived, the mornings and evenings are drawing in and getting just a tad nippy. The days are still warm though, in double figures, and in fact some of them are as warm as our summer days were. Anyway, I have finished knitting my daughter, same one as above, a snood for the winter. It's the same as the one I knitted for her sister a few months ago - I had several balls of  the wool left over so thought I could do that. There is still a ball there so I have decided that I will knit the beanie that is on the wrapper you can see around the wool. It is black I know, but it is fun wool and okay to work with once you get used to it.

I have finished my book for April and as I said I was going to do I picked one that was  light and trite. So much so that I can't remember what it was about. So if you want something light and easy to read and you don't have to worry about, this is a good one. 

That Certain Age by Elizabeth Buchan.

But having said that, I have read several others since. (Excuses, excuses). And I am well into the one I picked for this month. I think it could be classed as an autobiography but I'm not really sure. 

Pippa Blake - Journey.

It is the story of her life with Sir Peter Blake up until his untimely death at the hand of  bandits in December 2001. So far, so good. A Christmas gift several years ago from one of my children.

During the week I ventured down the yard to the roses thinking I would cut them back and then dead head the dahlias. Well the roses were not co-operating at all.  Only one of them had finished flowering and all the others are in bud and starting to bloom again. Honestly, even the plants think it is springtime. So I cut the one back or perhaps I should say I pruned it, and tidied up the rest of them. You can see one of them in full bloom below, with a bud ready to open just behind. Then I walked over to the dahlias to begin on them. They also have a lot of tiny buds on them, but I think the frost will get to them before they get to the opening stage. But who knows? So just the deadheading was done there as well.

Speaking of the garden we have noticed a lot of different butterflies this year, and more of them. Among them were the monarch butterfly which is so lovely. This a photo taken while I was still working. We had hatched some caterpillars in the dining room and released them outside when they were ready. This one flew onto branch just outside the window and stayed there for most of the day, much to the joy of the elderly folk inside. It is sad that they have such a short lifespan, only 2 - 5 weeks.

We also had visits from the Great White or as we know it, the cabbage butterfly. These are far more common than the monarch or any of the others we saw and gardeners regard them as a pest. As well we had visits from a black butterfly with white spots on the wings, which was quite common when I was a child but which I haven't seen often since I moved south. I have no idea what it is called as I have always, mistakenly, thought it was a codling moth! 

The other visitor we have seen is red admirals, I think. I say I think because it is a slightly different colour to the ones I remember, so perhaps these ones were yellow admirals? I used to see more of them when I was a child as well. Of course none of the more uncommon ones stayed on the foliage long enough for me to go in and get my camera, so no pics. But isn't that the way?

And that is it from me today.

I am going to join Amy for Five on Friday

 and hope you'll pop over for a look as well.

Diana

Checking in for the book challenge

It's time to check in for the book challenge - and I am pleased to say I have managed to finish the book I started 20 years ago! How about that? I can't tell you I enjoyed it because I didn't. I found the main character quite obnoxious and kept thinking to myself that in real life in this day and age he would have been heavily medicated to control him or locked up. I found the parts of the book most readable when the main character wasn't part of the narration and struggled when he was. Well, what was it I hear you asking? 

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

It was first published in serial form in 1866 and later published in one volume. I read it at the same time as another much lighter one and that enabled me to finish it, phew. And the reason for reading it was that it was part of a set and I'd already read the others.

an illustration from Crime and Punishment

Finishing this third books gets me quarter of the way up the mountain, Pikes Peak, and on target to finish in December as planned. I have decided to read one challenge book a month along with my other reading.
 One of the things we've been asked to do, if we want to, is Title Scrabble, making a word out of the book titles. I thought I'd have a go as I only have three titles so how hard can it be?  I hope that doesn't prove to be a case of famous last words in the future, haha.

My word is COD.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Out of Africa by Karen Blixen (aka Isak Dinesen).

30 Days to Understanding Church History by

Max E. Landers and Judith A. Lunsford.

It may not always be that easy, especially if I get more vowels than I know what to do with. Anyway, if you'd be interested in seeing what others are reading you can go here and check them out.

Have a great week,

Diana

I've finished book #2.

I have finally finished book number two 

in the reading challenge I am doing.

Out of Africa by Karen Blixen (aka Isak Dinesen).

I have to admit I found it a hard one 

to get into, partly I think, because language

 has changed so much over the course

 of the last 80 to 100 years, and the use of 

words and their meanings have also changed 

just a little. Still the story was interesting 

and the more I read the more I enjoyed it. 

Now I have a third book on the go which I was reading 

at the same time as this one, and hope to have

 it finished before the end of March to keep me up

 with my set task of reading a book a month.

This is the one which took me 20 years 

to finish the first chapter, so wish me well!

For April I think I will pick 
something light and trite :)

Have a great day,

Diana

Books, veges and other stuff...

Well it has been one of those weeks where I seem to have been busy but couldn't tell you what I've been doing. So please, take a load off your feet, make yourself a cuppa and take five minutes and I'll see what I come up with.

What I can tell you is that I have completed my first book in the reading challenge I'm taking part in. I wrote about it here. I quite enjoyed it even though it was a study resource - '30 Days to Understanding Church History' by Max E. Anders and Judith A. Lunsford.

It was easy to read and understand, chapters were short and there was a test at the end of each chapter. I've started another one which I think will take the rest of the year, I've been reading it on and off for about 20 years and only got to the end of Chap. 1 this week so I'll read others in conjunction with it. One day I might even tell you what it is :) I definitely will if I ever finish it!

Today was Shrove Tuesday so we had a pancake morning tea at church this morning. My GKB was coming but missed out because he has come down with a cold and is a bit miserable with it. There was quite a good turnout and we had the vicar and one of the ladies making the pancakes. I had mine with maple syrup. Yum. Some kind people had brought produce from their gardens to share so I came home with rhubarb and a courgette. Actually it is a bit big for a courgette but not quite big enough to be a marrow.

 I'm sure it will still be tasty.

Quite a while ago I said I would show you some of my 

demitasse teacups.These are more that my GKB 

used to bring home for me on a Friday night after work 

when we were first married. They are rather dainty

 and pretty and are stamped with

fine china, Japan.

Aren't they gorgeous? Very feminine.

I love the gold trim on them.

And of course it is Chinese New Year, the Year of the Monkey.

In fact it is the year of the Fire Monkey.

This big celestial dragon was in one of the city malls when we went in on Monday. Sorry the photo's are not clear, it was behind glass and the mall lights were reflected in it. Unfortunately the Lion Dance wasn't taking place until 7pm and we didn't want to hang around for another four hours so headed home. 

A close up of the dragon, if you look closely you will see that he has caught the 'sun' and is holding it in his mouth. I'm not sure whether that bodes well or not.

joining Martha at:

Martha's Favorites

and Stephanie at:

roses of inspiration

And also with Amy at:

Five on Friday

Wishing you all a 
Happy and Prosperous 
year of the monkey.
Diana

Thanks and a reading challenge

I'd like to say thanks to everyone who made such 
kind comments on my previous post about Claude. 
Your kind thoughts are really appreciated.

###########

I have decided to take part in the Mount TBR 

reading challenge this year.

I will be aiming for Pike's Peak level which is 12 books. 

Books I already own, not new ones I might buy, or library books. The idea is to reduce the number of unread books you own and I guess in that way to declutter your bookcase just a little. 

If you're interested and want to know more
 about this challenge go here.

I have found 10 books so far that I want to attempt and there are another two that I have seen just recently and which have disappeared again, so I should complete the twelve okay.

I won't list them here though, but will try to remember to mention them as I cross them off the list. Currently I am reading '30 Days to Understanding Church History' and although it might sound a bit dry I am enjoying it. How much I will retain once I'm finished doesn't really matter these days - this is just for interest. And it takes 30 days to read if you do a chapter a day.

I think that's about it for this week

so take care and I will see you

all here again sometime soon.

Diana