An ordinary week

Although the temps are still pretty cold at times it has warmed up enough for the bumble bee queens to be out looking for warm dry places to make their nests. After having had half a dozen or so exploring our lounge over the past few days we decided it was time to put up the screen curtain. The bees are quite clever though and have been known to come in low and crawl under the screen and then go exploring :) Last year we had a nest under the house for the summer. If it happens again we may have to have them removed, unfortunately.

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Even though the weather has warmed up enough for the bumble bees to be out and about exploring there are still days when it is cold, wet and with a hint of snow in the air. That is when I get the crock pot out and make up a big pot of soup. Guess what we're having for tea tonight? I think we'll have hot buns with it :)

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We went for a wander up the street one day this week, well we went for lunch originally and then took a leisurely stroll afterwards. It was one of the nice sunny days we are starting to get now. I like to poke around the bargain racks when I come across them and so while my GKB looked through a couple of second hand shops that's what I did. I was very pleased with a couple of tee shirts I got for around the house over the summer. Just $6.00 for the two of them. A real bargain :)

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I've also just spent a morning blanching and freezing broccoli to use next week when I am on duty for the Friday Light outreach meal. I don't cook a meat dish any more but when we are given free veges I think it is shame not to use them. May make a cheese sauce to pour over it, hmm.

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looking in from the doorway of Colour me Crazy

While we were in Aussie we took a short trip to Airlie beach and had a couple of stops on the way. There was a shop everyone said I had to go into in Proserpine. Colour me Crazy was just that ,very colourful and very crazy. Even my GKB was fascinated. I'll take you inside next time I see you.

Diana

An ordinary week

Hoping to join Amy and her friends for 

Five on Friday, if I can come up with five.

So let's have a look at my week.

On Monday youngest daughter sent us a picture of a house 

being demolished and said, "guess where this is". 

We both looked and decided it was house in Port Chalmers 

so just ignored it really. But no, it was a house on our main

 road so we went down to have a look.

It was built in the 1880's and then in the 1950's was converted to a rest home which was run by a christian trust. Unfortunately the trust came to the point in the last year or so where it couldn't 

afford to keep it going and so the home closed and the house

 and site was sold to a developer :(  There were quite a few little boys watching, school holiday time, and quite a few

 bigger boys as well. A sad sight really.

We woke to a nice windy day on Tuesday. Generally Monday is my main wash day but I hadn't done a full wash because the day had started out really cold and bleak. Minus 5C  with a good frost.

But look what I found when I walked out to the letterbox, a tiny daisy trying to open, and another one just in the bottom right

 of the picture that hadn't opened quite as much. Talk about hardy.

Anyway Tuesday, I decided to get the towels and sheets 

out on the line and they got a good fluff up in the wind.

I don't think we saw the sun at all on Tuesday but it was slightly warmer because of the wind. We woke to snow on 

Mt. Maungatua this morning and a cold, biting wind.

On Wednesday our youngest grand daughter turned 18 and 

so we took off for the city to look for some hand luggage

 for her. We found something in our price range in about

 the third shop we went into. I do like these sales :)

 And I don't know what was going on but every shop we went into had done a re-lay so nothing was where it had been and we spent a lot of time wandering around looking for departments. Now tomorrow we need to go back in, but to different shops this time, as her young brother turns 10 tomorrow. We thought we'd find something out here, but not what we are wanting. 

On Thursday I had a meeting to go to and I was also on 'soup duty'. This meant I made a big crock pot full of vegetable soup and took it down to our venue. After the meeting was over those of us who could, stayed for a soup and bun lunch. Luckily for me I had wrapped a big old towel around the crock as somewhere along the way as I was transporting it, it slopped over the top and made a bit of a mess of the towel, but not the car thankfully. I have to admit I went to bed for granny nap in the afternoon, :) No photo's for Thursday.

No photo's for Friday either and it was quite a mundane day. We had 'not quite gale force' winds in the morning and bitterly cold as there was snow about. A bonus with the wind was that we got a few more feijoas from the tree when we thought they were finished. Youngest daughter came in for a visit and a coffee in the morning and during the afternoon we went out to do a bit of shopping and hopefully find youngest grandson his birthday present. My GKB found a light meter for his camera so I suppose that was something and I came home with a pair of tights but that's not what we were looking for.  And that's my five on Friday.

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

hunkering down again and a trip to the vet

 Well here we are hunkering down again for another snow dump. For some reason I'm a bit apprehensive about it this time, the forecast is for snow through to Tuesday or Wednesday. It will be bad enough here, but at least we are on the flat, so will be able to get to places if we need or want to - and of course the GKB will probably be snowed in and I will probably be called in to work again. Oh well, more cash in the holiday fund.

  Now the people in Christchurch I do feel sorry for, some of them are still living in cold, damaged houses after the earthquakes. In fact they are being told that if they think they may not be able to cope with the weather, especially as there are  likely to be power cuts, then they need to move in with friends or family now if they can.

  Hot soup and cheese rolls would have been nice for lunch tomorrow but seeing as we seem to have finished the cheese rolls, soup and hot toast will have to be the order of the day.

  Claude has been sitting looking through the back door for much of the evening. If he had any sense he would come in and make himself at home for the night, but no he is a real outside cat. The only time he tends to come in is in the middle of summer when both the doors are wide open and he can lie spreadeagled in the breeze created in the passage. But, a fortnight ago that changed. He had an altercation with either one of the other cats about the place or with the new powder puff style dog which has moved in next door, resulting in him not being able to weight bear on one of his front feet and a trip to the vet.

 After a slightly fraught trip in the car he tolerated having his ears cleaned, his eyes inspected, his mouth and teeth examined and his coat and skin checked for any unwanted passengers. He really objected to where the thermometer went but short of flattening himself and trying to become invisible he couldn't do much about it. Oh yes, his leg and paw were all inspected too, with a nice shoulder massage thrown in for good measure. Eventually we took him home but not before we were given meds for him and told to keep him inside for the weekend. "Okay" we said. "Oh, and this medication could give him diarrhoea." We climbed into the car, looked at each other and said "outside cat inside for two days with diarrhoea, I don't think so." And when said cat, on arriving home, took refuge under our bed that sealed it. Cars moved out of the garage, old armchair and a dirt box moved in and Claude was a happy camper. He came indoors with us for about an hour every evening and then the caterwauling would start and he was deposited back in his temporary holiday home. All is now back to normal, he is doing his own thing, which includes sitting on the back doorstep, looking plaintively in through the glass until the door is opened for him and then he takes off once more for places unknown.