October 2019

This month we have been pretty internally focused. I've been working on getting seeds started for the veggie garden and we have been replacing the fencing around the chicken yard, from waratah and wire to proper posts and rails. Here is me with blondie, who is the feisty one that chases the dog.

The weather has had some late Fridays so I don't know how well our fruit trees will go this year. But all my flower gardens are doing really well, I guess they've had a few years to establish now.

At the start of the month a friend asked me to make a cake for a family birthday. It was for a guy, and he was into computer stuff, so I made a motherboard cake.

Unfortunately she had a naughty dog that somehow got up onto the table and ate a third of it. They salvaged the rest. Bit there was a lot of green vomit later!

Now that the weather has warmed up we've started to take weekend outings on the bike. Here we are at the coast that is right at the other end of wainui. We never usually go there because you can't take dogs, as there are endangered birds nesting there.

Today, being Halloween, included some costume hilarity from my team. Its been awhile since we have done silly things, but my colleague recently bought an inflatable Trex costume...

September 2019

This month has been a long one. It was the start of spring and in Wellington we have had a lot of ups and downs in terms of the weather. My plants are coming up well but it's lucky I didn't start to plant my seedlings out yet, because it turned cold again this week. The daffodils have come and gone, the fruit trees are starting to flower, and my lilies are starting to peek up.

The month started on a bit of a bad note. In the first week of September I was at work, in a team meeting, and my phone rang with a number I didn't know. My manager wasn't at the meeting that day so I popped out to answer it. It was one of the builders from next door, I didn't realise they had my number but I'm glad they do because he called to tell me that two roaming dogs had jumped our fence and attacked our chooks. The builders chased them away and called animal control, and helped the cat get down from a tree. One chook was injured - luckily the builders were there to intervene or maybe all my chooks and even the cat could have been killed. At first I thought I would stay at work but I couldn't knowing that there was an animal at home suffering so I came home and found the poor girl in her nest box, pretty still and quiet. I thought it was McQueen but I'm not so sure now, it might have been Goldilocks. I cleared away the feathers and saw a pretty big wound so I took her to the vet, who said the bone was fractured and her internal organs probably pierced. So I had her put down, otherwise I don't know how long she would have lasted and she was probably in shock and pain.

That was a bit of a rough day, and the cat didn't come back till quite late at night. We buried McQueen/Goldilocks in the chook yard and planted a shrub over her. At this rate the chook yard will be revegetated quite quickly! I contacted someone I work with who offered me baby chicks and she said when one of her hens hatches a clutch she'll give me the mother hen and the babies. That will be nice. For now, we just have three chooks left. We are getting much less eggs, but there are now so few of them that I can let them out to garden with me and still keep an eye on all of them.

There was a big plant sale in September too so we bought a bunch of native plants. We are slowly extending our little bit of native bush. I had to go to Auckland for work earlier this month - it was nothing great and two days of catering (and eating too much because it's hard not to try everything) left me very ready to come home. We then took a long weekend and had a little city escape for our anniversary - we got a room at the nicest hotel in the city and went out for window-shopping, food and drinks. We had a bit of a night on the town. It was nice, but the weather was crap. I got flowers - for the first time in six years.


We've been trying to take it easy for the rest of September. There is plenty to do out in the garden but the weather has often kept us in. I have been trying to get into a bit more sewing - I have a couple of projects on the go now. And I have been baking - I'm practising various frosting techniques any time there is a celebration at work that requires cake. Also, I have a sourdough starter and am trying to learn how to make sourdough. It is good, but not perfect yet. We've had some airbnb guests to bring in some money - I really want to get a fence built on our lower boundary soon.

In other pet news, the cat has started stealing the dog's bed every chance he gets, and when he gets pushed out of there he takes the dog's spot on the couch. Cher won't make him move, I have to coax her into bed and when the cat get a bit squashed and stood on, he finally moves. The cat has also been making himself at home in the chicken coop, I have caught him sleeping in the nest box when I went out for eggs, and he is often seen going in and out.

August 2019

August began with the most awesome purchase of a really great bookcase. I can't get enough excited adjectives in there, it really was just the best thing ever. Such a great day. It was the 2nd of August and I was a bit bored and checking my email in the evening. Then there was an email saying one of the bookcases I was watching on Trademe had a buy-now added. A buy now of $150 for a rimu bookcase, 2 metres tall and 1.3 metres wide, in great condition. That is such an amazing deal. I bought it and then emailed them immediately because I wanted it right away. We got to pick it up two days later, on Sunday morning. It's huge! And so great. Maybe they are moving house and want to get rid of stuff because when Nathan collected it they said 'do you want this mirror' and so next thing you know we have a new mirror too! It's a full length mirror, solid wood frame and backing, really good quality. I was in need of a good mirror.

 

I also got new gumboots at the start of August. It sounds boring but it was actually great - I got a refund for the cute ones I bought online that turned out to be rubbish and it was enough to get the good gumboots that I wanted, because they were on sale! They arrived super fast and then I didn't have to suffer through wet feet on any more dog walks. And I have a new coat - I made it. I started it last year and got discouraged so I put it away in the closet. I finally pulled it out when the weather got really cold and now it is finished. Of course, it's not cold enough for a wool coat now but I wore it into work once, and everything asked where I got it (it's amazing and purple you see). Now it will be waiting for next winter. Finally since we're talking about wardrobes, I also feel like I have new boots because I bought these great green leather boots in Amsterdam last year, but then I put them in the closet and didn't wear them. After looking at a shoe sale and nearly buying new boots, I decided to save money by wearing the ones that I already have. And they are great.



The biggest event in August was the book fair. After buying a great bookcase we had lots of space for new books. We got up really early (well normal time but it was Saturday), walked Cher and headed into the city to get in line. I got puzzles and books, he got cds (for the car) and books. I would have stayed longer but it's probably better that I got pulled away. We spent $100. And it was still early! So off to the market for fruit and vegetables - unfortunately the rain didn't hold off and we got soaked. So we went for brunch and read new books while we were there. It was nice, we don't go out often any more. Then when we got home and I arranged all the books in our bookcase.


At work our team had to put on a morning tea for our directorate - we take turns to do a themed morning tea. It's a little competitive. Our team in the past has done high tea, international soils day, and the most epic May 4th Star Wars morning tea. This time we wanted to have a science theme so we made it 'Science Fair'. It was a bit stressful to be honest, as I am the organiser and everyone was pretty busy and there was not much time for everyone to get into it. It went well, people were impressed and they really liked the food. One of the top hits was my colleague's sourdough, and she gave out starter for people to try making their own sourdough bread.

Mum came to visit for a night, it was only the second time she has been to our house and a lot has changed since then. I took her to the fabric store (they had a big sale) and I got lining for my next sewing projects, we went to Spotlight for patterns on sale (yay new dress patterns), we went to the new little art gallery that is right here in Wainui (and of course mum talked to the artists for ages) and then we went over to the little boutique 'eco' dress shop, where the lady makes clothes out of old clothes (Mum talked to her for ages too). In the evening we went to an event, it was why I invited Mum up. A friend invited me because she didn't want to go on her own. There is this thing called Sew Social and they put on events for people who sew. This was a cocktail event, it was quite cool to see what a lot of people have made. But it was also very loud, there were a lot of people in a small space. I won a prize, so now I have $50 to spend at a local fabric store. So it was well worth going to the event, I got some nice drinks, the food was decent (though not enough dessert so we had to get ice cream after), and I got 2/3 of my ticket price back in the form of a fabric store voucher.

All in all it's been a busy month. Now it is spring and time to start getting our veggie garden. Nathan made me a little greenhouse out of our old BBQ.

July 2019

July has been a pretty big month. I feel like I have been saying that a lot lately. But it's still true. A lot has been going on. I guess some of it is still the hangover from June though. So after having to book expensive travel to Australia for a wedding and buy a car, this month we had to get surgery for Cher. It was a bit more expensive than what I had saved but it could have been worse. I took a long weekend, I have plenty of annual leave luckily, and she went in at the start of the month for getting her three lipomas (big lumps of fat) removed. She came home all drugged up again, with a cone on because they thought she would nibble at the drain that was sticking out of her armpit wound. She didn't like the cone though and wouldn't settle so I took it off. She didn't worry her stitches or drain at all, but the drain was leaking plenty of stuff so I dressed her in big t-shirts for the weekend. She was pretty whiny for a couple of days, then was better after the drain came out. The wounds were all dry and healing well by the Tuesday, which was good because I was back at work.



With the surgery over, and the memory of my dead head fading, the month started to get a bit better. We've had some good weather, got stuff done in the garden. Went to the zoo for a work away-day and got to see the baby capybaras. Despite having spent lots of money recently, I have been on a furniture-buying spree. We got a cute retro shelf to hang on the wall - I'm not 100% happy with where Nathan hung it but at least my potplants have somewhere to sit in the sun now. The we were looking out for a proper bookcase. After bidding on a few and missing out and trying to figure out what our upper spending limit was, I made such a great bargain. But that was August so you'll have to wait for that one.

I've also been finding time for sewing, and have bought a ticket to a sewing social event. It is called 'Frocktails' and is at one of the cocktail bars in town. You wear something that you have made and meet other like-minded people. Of course I don't much like meeting a bunch of new people, so I'm going with a bunch of people I know already. My friend at work didn't want to go alone and now there's a crew of us. Including my Mum. She hasn't visiting us in Wellington in ages so it will be good to show her the progress on our house and yard.

I've been baking as well - I have committed to making a wedding cake so now I need to practice recipes until I find the perfect white-chocolate cake recipe. After I have been paid I am going to sign up to a cake decorating class as well. I've always wanted to learn more, as I can only do the basics of frosting. There's a place here in Lower Hutt that does a very reasonable price for about 6 or 8 lessons I think it is. As well as learning more about frosting, it will go into making figurines, air-brushing and doing the drip-cake thing where it looks like yummy stuff is dripping down the cake without making a puddle-y mess.

June 2019

Well today might not be the best day to reflect on June. It is July 1 and this morning one of my hens died of a massive prolapse. It wasn't very nice. Don't Google it. I think she was dead when I found her, I couldn't feel a heartbeat and she was only a little warm. But when I moved her I couldn't tell if her leg movement was reflex or actual movement. Luckily Nathan was still home so he made sure of it. But there was flapping - again not sure if it was reflex or if she wasn't dead. It was really not a good start to the day, or the week, or the month. After work we borrowed her and planted some plants on top.

This morning's little adventure came after a bit of an intense weekend. We bought a new (to us) car this weekend. The old car was really making lots of noise, like a grinding noise when turning sharply. Warrant was due in a month so it was just time, not worth fixing. Car shopping is frustrating and stressful but we found something we liked and bought it. It's got great service history and is in really good nick, if we look after it I think it will last well. On top of that, this weekend just been was a big one because we had tickets to the pink floyd experience. So we went out, had food and drinks and went to a completely mind blowing show. It's no wonder I'm so tired today.

Earlier in June we built an extension for the chicken coop because they were all sleeping (and pooing) in the nest box. Plus I wanted more space so I could get more chickens. Which I do actually need now that I'm two down (did I mention one just went missing awhile back?). I'm back to the original four as it was the two strays that are lost/dead.

We also planned a midwinter Xmas that everyone was either too busy or ill to attend - there's been some bad bugs going around. So it was a pretty small party, there were lots of leftovers, we played a great Harry Potter board game that a friend brought along and I will not bother making eggnog again, it is way too rich and creamy for me.

We also had to buy flights to Tasmania for a wedding in January so it's been an expensive month overall! Time to rebuild my savings account. We'll be in the south island over Xmas and New year's, probably in Christchurch but pay Xmas plans aren't set yet.

I gotta say, June was a bit of a rough and exhausting month and I'm glad it's over, shortest day has been and now the days will get longer.

May 2019

May was quite an eventful month. It started with a trip to Christchurch. We arrived on May the 4th and my sister wanted us to do a May the 4th be with you party (don't even get me started on the trip to the airport that Saturday - let's just say that midday Saturday is not a good time to drive through Wellington and that despite low speed limits in airport carparks, people can still manage to have massive car crashes!). So the May 4th plans led to my making a jedi costume, and considering that I was going to a moderate amount of effort, Nathan agreed to make it worth my while by wearing it for the entire day. So he wore it to the airport, in the plan, around Chch streets and then in the evening while we ate pizzas and watched a couple of Star Wars movies. The next day I got my sister a cat, as her graduation present. Meet Minnie, a 1 year old tortoiseshell girl. She's small and very cute. So if that sounds like enough excitement for one trip away, you'd be wrong. There's more. There was a birthday dinner (for my sister-in-law), and Rochelle's graduation dinner was also the first time that our parents all met each other. And then there was graduation itself. It was a very long four days! We had housesitters looking after everything in Wellington, and we were very glad to be home.

May here in Wellington has featured some nice weather, but cold. Cold enough that the cat has suddenly started joining us on the couch in the evenings - which Cher is not so impressed about. I have re-done my lily garden and redistributed all my bulbs. Unfortunately the weather didn't hold out long enough for us to really get everything sorted before winter - the grass is so long. We began building an extension for the chicken house. I never did think it was big enough and they all started sleeping in the nest box instead of on their roosts. Plus they are getting older and have stopped laying for the winter. So I want to get some more chooks, add to my flock (I currently have 5). If we have a few more they will need more space. So we have a frame, a floor and a roof. It just needs cladding! I've also been offered four 3-year-old Orpington hens. I wasn't intending on getting four more, but I am a sucker for animals needing a home so we'll see.

Also in May I went to Napier for work. It was nice to be away, it helped me to get less stressed about all the things on my work to-do list, and then I felt more ready for the next couple of weeks. I saw a friend I hadn't seen in ages, and another friend that I hadn't seen in a few months. Napier is not that far away, I really should have visited there before now. Anyway, I think I'll be going back sooner rather than later because they have this Art-Deco festival every year and I want to go. I have a few friends that are keen on dressing up so I reckon we'll make a road trip out of it for the next festival, or maybe the one after.

The other big thing that happened in May was the Tough Guy & Gal Challenge. Me and two friends were going to do it but one friend was sick so Nathan took her ticket. It is one of those run/obstacle course/wade through mud sort of things. It was held here in Wainuiomata. It was 6k but so, so much harder than a 6k run. I swear it nearly killed me. It was all well and good until I got to the hill. It was so steep, you couldn't just walk up it, you had to pull yourself up on ropes! I managed the course in 55 minutes, and then when I finished, I got myself an ice-cream. There was a cold wind though and I should have got myself some dry clothes! I have learnt for next year though - because we will probably do it again and hopefully manage to pull a team together, now that we can tell everyone how great it is (from first hand experience). After the race we found out that of all the events around the country (they have them in lots of different places) the Wellington one is the hardest, with the most obstacles and the only one with a big hill. The Rotorua one ends with a hot-pool - Rotorua is smelly but a hot-pool would have been nice...

April 2019

April has passed by so fast, I feel like just yesterday I was writing about March. Things that I thought I had loads of time to get done are now fast approaching. Work has been busy and home has been pretty busy. We have finished the patio and I have been hemming curtains. I spend time making Easter treats and at work we had an Easter baking competition - that I won. There were only three entries but it still counts. I learnt how to make marshmallow Easter eggs and that is definitely going to be a yearly thing from now on - I even managed to do the yellow yolk!

That's pretty much the extent of the excitement in April. We had a good few days off - some nice weather to get work outside done, some grey weather for staying in and watching movies. I discovered that Nathan is a master popcorn maker - guess I had just never asked him to make me popcorn before! I have done a bit of gardening but the job of lifting my bulbs and redistributing is still to come - hopefully we continue to get clear sunny weather through May! I also took Cher to Mitre10 twice this month - so we have gone from not knowing she was allowed in to almost becoming a regular. She was an embarrassment the first time but on the second time she was much better, probably on account of the cheese cubes I had in my purse! The poor girl seems to have a really itchy ear so I'm going to go to the vet and ask for advice - I can't just take her to the vet, she freaks out too much and would need to be sedated for them to look in her ear properly. I'm hoping that can wait until she goes in to get her lumps removed - which is looking like June because I just can't take any time off work in May.

May is going to be busy and it's day 2 already! Off to Christchurch this weekend, for various family celebrations. There will be May the 4th, a couple of birthdays, a graduation and hopefully a cat adoption.

February 2019

February has flashed by and not much has really happened up here in Wainui. We had some guests, the weather turned bad, then it got better, and now we've finally started on making a patio for our entryway. We did so much in January that this month I have largely failed in my goal to do more interesting things. But I have plenty of March plans so I think one quiet month is OK.

We have been making the most of nice weather. We've been to the pool to play on the hydroslide and been to the beach - not just to walk Cher but to go swimming. Cher doesn't much like it when we swim, she stays on the beach and barks at us. So we tempted her in with a tennis ball and then played piggy-in-the-middle to keep her in the water with us.

Then last weekend we spent the whole two days moving paving bricks. We bought them via trademe from a guy in Wellington city, and then we hired a trailer and went in to get them. We estimated the weight of the bricks and basically just filled the trailer. Then got a bit worried at how low the tyres were squished down so we went and put some air in them, and more oil in the car - it seemed to be completely empty. And then we carefully drove home, managing a high speed of about 30k over the Wainui hill. We called some friends to help unload, then went back to the city and did it all over again. When we got home the second time we weighed a brick and did some math - we reckon we were towing at least 2.5 times more weight than we should have been! We are very lucky we didn't ruin our car, or the trailer, or both. Cher seemed quite interested in the wall of pavers we built. By the time of my next post, we'll have pictures of the completed patio for you!

So after that weekend of hard manual labour, I could hardly move. But that eased up after a day. I felt very silly at work though because every time I sat down or stood up my muscles were so stiff and sore that an involuntary pathetic moan would come out.

A couple of days after that, I got a flat tyre. Luckily I had driven all the way to the bigger station that day in Petone, because I had shops to visit. When I realised that noise was coming from my car and must be a flat tyre, I was just around the corner from the tyre place. I could have stopped to change the tyre but I don't think I would have been very successful on my own ad it probably would have taken all night. So I drove to the tyre place but in doing so ruined the tyre. While checking it over they also looked at the other tyres and told me that they all need replaced within the next 6 months. So that was great. I got a new tyre to replace the one I ruined and before our next warrant, we'll get all the rest. Paying for the patio comes first, then new tyres. Yay. They lasted 2 years - the tyre guy was very impressed they lasted so long with going over Wainui hill every day. Apparently it's really that rough on your tyres.

March 2019

*Just went to publish this and found that February was never published - for the record, I did write it on time*

March has been a very busy month, which is why it has taken me so long to say anything about it. We started March by buying a whole heap of paving stones. We learnt some lessons about towing and luckily did not destroy our car or the trailer. We did have two back-breaking weekends though, first with moving the pavers to our place and then the next weekend, laying them. We definitely did the maths wrong because we have loads left over. We haven't finished yet though, we still need to hire a paver-cutter to do the edging. But first we are re-doing some of the centre because there's a bit of a noticeable hump. Only we have had guests and bad weather so finishing the job has been put off for the last few weekends. Actually last weekend was really unseasonable hot - too hot to work. So that is where we are at - we nearly have a patio. Summer is over and the weather has turned bad but still, we finally did something about it.

March has also been spent making preserves. Several weekends were spent making jam and relish. Our peach tree started dropping peaches by the bucket-full, but they were mostly unripe and not great for eating. I think I'll rename it the Jam tree because that's mostly what it's good for. I have so much jam, and the freezer is full of peach puree. There was a good crop of wild blackberries this year and I seem to have done OK with relishes this year too. None are excessively vinegary.

This month has also included dealing with a sick dog and a sick car. The car had stopped a couple of times just in the middle of driving. The car turned out to need a new cam-sensor. It wasn't so pricey to fix as I was worried about and the engine light is off after being on constantly for about two years. The mechanic didn't even say anything about my ignoring it for all that time. As for my poor dog - we noticed a new lump under one of her forelegs. She has a couple of fat lumps already but this had appeared so suddenly that I thought it must be an allergic reaction or something. So I took her to the vet but she freaks out at the vet - it's like she has a complete personality shift. Which means the vet can hardly look at her. They thought it was probably another fat lump but to be sure they needed to be able to put a needle in it, which they couldn't do with her going crazy and crying and struggling. So the next morning I took her in and they sedated her. I collected her after lunch - and it was just another fatty lump. I'm glad I got her early because she's not used to being in a cage or crate, so she started really acting up as she woke. I took her home, where I was torn between laughing at her (she couldn't keep her tongue in her mouth and could hardly walk, let alone go in a straight line), and feeling so sorry for her because every time she woke up she started crying again, so she must have felt quite ill. It didn't wear off till about 3am so next time I do this (and there will be a next time because I'm saving up to get her lumps removed) I will be taking two days off work, so that if she keeps me awake all night crying, I won't have to work the next day!

You'd think that would be enough for March but all of the above was within the first two weeks of March! We also had a visit from a friend from Germany. We did some tourist stuff in the city, we went to Weta Workshop (the tour is not as good as it was a few years ago) and we went horse-riding. My butt was so sore after, and my horse was quite lazy. Her name was charm but she wasn't that charming - she kept farting! There was also a pop-up second hand clothing sale and I got a great dress and a string of real pearls! I was pretty pleased with my shopping. Finally, for the last weekend in March, we went out on the motorbike to a beers and bbq festival in Upper Hutt. I have just got proper riding boots so we had to test them out. Half an hour is quite a long ride on the back of the bike though. The festival was good, but they weren't expecting it to be so popular - the bbq food trucks ran out of food!

So that was March, and now it's April. Don't have any exciting plans yet so I'll have to work on that. Already have lots of plans for May though so maybe we'll just keep things quiet for the next couple of weeks.

January 2018

At the end of last year I said I would try to do more interesting things this year. A very vague and quite easy New Years resolution really. Or at least, it's easy while you're still on summer holidays. We have started the year well, first off I got a motorcycle helmet for Christmas so we've started going on rides together. So there's something new. My helmet is cute and girly. The we had the in-laws visiting and they had their dog with them - she's a guide-dog pup so while she's still in the training programme she gets to go everywhere. However she has a heart condition so she won't be a guide dog. And I discovered that having a second dog in the house is way more stressful than I expected, especially when it's not your dog so you haven't trained it and it doesn't see you as the boss. Cher was OK with it, just a bit growly because she's a lot older and doesn't want to play constantly. However the cat hated it and hardly came inside the whole four days of the visit, and he is an inside cat at night so struggling to get him in at night stressed me out further. Finally, the pup chased my chooks. So all in all, I won't be welcoming someone elses' puppy into my home again! But at least she was cute.

Of course, just because I am trying to do more interesting stuff I have not stopped taking photos of the pets and garden, so here are my roses. I only choose ones that are both pretty and have interesting names. So from left to right below I have Betty Boop, Claude Monet and Blue Moon. They got black spot but we sprayed them and they're doing better.

Next up in January was Nathan's 30th and he never did think of a present for me to get him with all the money I had been saving up over the year, so we spent it all on activities instead. First we went up to Kapiti Coast and Nathan got to fly a helicopter. He said it was really scary.

 Next we went to Upper Hutt and had lunch at a fancy garden venue, then we did some clay bird shooting and archery. I enjoyed the archery most, though I was more successful at close range and they didn't have arm guards so I ended up with a huge bruise up my arm. Nathan liked the shooting most. I think both activities could probably be done better - a more open space for the shooting and a knowledgeable instructor and arm guards for the archery would have been good. And it was super hot out there. But we had fun, and I'd be keen to try archery again.

The last birthday activity was axe-throwing. There's a place here in Wellington that has set up an axe-throwing place where you go with a bunch of people and play target practice with axes. It was probably the best activity of the bunch (except maybe the helicopter flying but I didn't get to do that). It was something completely different, the guy running it actually taught you the technique and gave you tips, and made it into a competitive game the whole way through. Daniel and his girlfriend were visiting us so they came along. I was really gutted that I didn't manage to beat Daniel. Usually you have to have a large group but January in Wellington is pretty quiet so we got lucky in being allowed to book for just four people. They also played good music so all in all it was a good day.

The rest of January has been the usual. We still have plenty to do outside and around the house. It's been really hot, and on one of the really hot days we had a very impressive fog to start the day off. We are lucky in that our house sits above the fog level so we just get this great view.