What is Labour Day?

It is Labour Day tomorrow, and I am still trying to work out the relevance between Labour Day's name, and the fact that most people I know spend all weekend working in their garden! Am I missing something? Anyway, we got through the Rugby World Cup with many NZ'ers happy that England did not win this morning! Personally, I was in my garden, and I'd like to take this opportunity to share some of my hard work with you - I weeded, and trimmed, and hoe-d and thinned and watered. I am delighted with the colour in my front garden - photos of which I share with you here. I spent about three glorious hours out in the garden, but paid for it later this afternoon when I realised I had not taken my pain killers for the recently diagnosed osteoarthritis which I have in my right knee...the pain has been intense, so I went to a friend up the hill who has a great spa, and sat in that for about an hour - nearly all back to normal...but I have one more area to conquer tomorrow - downstairs.
By that, I mean down the bottom area of our hillside garden. There is a small walkway one can wander through, and Poppy Black, who is a font of all knowledge when it comes to gardens and flowers and breeds of flowers etc, wandered there with me last night with another garden enthusiastic friend, and they showed me what I need to trim and prune in order that some smaller plants can see the light of day, and prosper further - so that is tomorrow's job!
The second garden photo is the right hand side of our driveway, and it is my "pretty" garden - I am not normally a "pretty" flowers person, but my man who does for me planted this mass of plants earlier, and am I glad he did!! Isn't the result glorious?
The next photo is our gorgeous Katie. Katie has a very strong bond with cars, hence she is in the back of the Daihatsu as we potter in the garden. Katie spent the first few months we had her stopping beside every car we came across on our walks, and that is because she spent a lot of her early life as a breeding bitch, travelling around the South Island in cars so she could go to the stud dog!!! There's got to be a joke there somewhere!!
So may I introduce you to Katie, our 6year-old German Shepherd. We also have an old model Volvo that has
not got its latest warrant, so that is parked at the back of our property in the boat park, and when I go out for the day, if it is fine, I leave the backdoor of BigRed open, and Katie spends the day using that as her kennel.
We have a friend from Nelson and her awesome DUDE of a 3year-old son staying with us from Tuesday until Sunday, and then her husband comes down on Friday to take the son to Thomas the Tank Engine show at the WestpacTrust Stadium - now I don't "do" ankle-biters but this kid's a real dude, and SOO well behaved that he is a joy to have in the house. Plus they will be based downstairs so I can leave for work in the morning without seeing them on Wednesday morning...only 2 days work this week, but that suits me as I want to get a lot more work done on my scrap-booking - as I know that today's generation of children are not going to have too many hard-copy photos to admire when they are older, so I want to ensure that future generations have some great memories of our family and what we looked like. I have hundreds of dollars worth of materials all relating to scrap-booking, so the time is now to get these pages done. Plus our photolab has one of the first digital scrap-booking kiosks in NZ, and I am looking forward to playing with that!
People have a really great rest of Labour Weekend, and take care of you and yours. :)

Spring has sprung ....a leak!!

It would appear that spring HAS sprung a leak - as you can see by the photo, Oompaloompah certainly knows the best spot in the house - on the windowsill, on her cushion with the rain beating down outside and the heatpump doing its best on top of her - why did cats get such perceptive behaviours?!
It has been a strange mix of weather recently - and not just affecting Canterbury. We in Canterbury, have a strange weather pattern called the Norwester ( a VERY dry wind that comes over from the West Coast after travelling from Australia. It hits the Southern Alps on the western side, rises up and dumps its moisture, and carries onto hit the Canterbury Plains with strong - occasionally VERY strong, dry winds, which play havoc with sufferers of hay fever-)
On Saturday night we had winds that blew roofing iron off homes, knocked over sheds and created damage and mayhem up and down the island. But the North Island was not spared either. To get from my Nephews home in Greytown -sotreadsoftly
to the capital city of Wellington, they must navigate this hill, and motorists were being advised to stay off the hill over the weekend.
Needless to say, today is an inside day, and a great opportunity to spend time with you. My only regret on my blog, is that, unlike my clever friends and family (see links to the side) I am not arty crafty, more sneaky crafty, so I have nothing to share with you about what wonderful creations I am making on my quiet days - but how I love hearing what Fiona and Al and the others are up to. Should anyone read this and just want to reply and start a conversation, I would LOVE to hear from anyone :)
Since my last post I have had the news that I have osteo-arthritis in my left knee - so I now have a fitness regime on, and the challenge to lose many kilos in order that I might take the pressure off the leg - so it's all on - and I shall need some encouragement - losing weight is not an easy thing after carrying excess for more than 25years!! While I don't want tips (I only got this way by opening my mouth more to eat than talk, and god knows I talk enough!), but encouragement in truckloads would be great:)
The school term started again today, and we are welcoming a new principal into the school with a powhiri at 11am this morning. A powhiri is a Maori welcome. I shan't be going to the powhiri as I shall be at the local pool walking against a Lazy River for exercise for my sore knee.
I have a bit of supply teaching this next fortnight, and that is good - I am wanting to re-do the bathrooms in our home, and Sir Ladbrook agrees - but I like to pay for what I want around the house, and he pays for what is needed - sounds fair to me!
Fortunately my friend Poppiesanddaisies is in the process of buying a block of land and the ensuing house and landscaping, so I am hoping to live my livfe vacariously through that with her and John - I have never built a new house, so choosing materials and carpets and designs will be VERY exciting. I know that Fiona and John are looking forward to it!
Enough! I am sitting here as I write this wondering if ANYONE reads my blog or if I am doing it for my own consolation?!*&%*
If you ARE reading this please enjoy it. Have a great one.

And again - greetings to you. There is SO much happening in my world at this time, that where to start is a problem. I shall, therefore, just go randomly as I think of things to share, and as it is about to pour with rain I shall tai-ho at the moment and collect the washing.
So, that's done - well, Ma Boiy is home from Melbourne for a while to consolidate - he is keen to try driving big rigs in Western Australia sometime, so is getting his HT licence here as it is cheaper. He is also doing a computer course so he has a bit more up-to-date information regarding those wretched things that rule our lives - he is lucky he hasn't got hooked into them yet!
The Captain is contemplating staying on in Nadi for a few more months - watch this space! I am on school holidays at the moment - but the weather thus far has been atrocious, and I have spent the best part of the last three days in my office downstairs sorting through things - the old philosophy of "if I haven't used it for 3 years, it's a goner" is running rampant in me at the moment. It was the garage's turn on Monday!
I have also taken more shots of my garden - for which I take absolutely no credit whatsoever - I have a lovely man who "does" for me in the garden, and between us we plan, and then he gets busy doing it - my kind of arrangement! So I shall try to remember to put those photos up before I send this live - I'm getting quite forgetful these days - NOT old age just don't seem to want to remember stuff that is not relevant immediately!
My blogging buddy poppiesanddaisies is over in Mooloolaba this week - so be sure to look onto her page shortly thereafter to catch up with their holiday. And my other best friend is off there with her three daughters this week - so I am catching up with my other friends whom I don't see through term time - coffees and lunches are the order of the day - yay!!!
The pictures are of: my beautiful Chatham Island Lily, which are really hard to be successful with - well, obviously NOT as I am NOT a gardener and this is how well it has done!; and my glorious blossom tree at the front gate and a delightful little camellia that graces the front of our home - so you can see that my little man does a good job!

I just can't get enough!

I am back on my hobby horse - and the joy is I'll never know how bored you are with this coz I won't know if you click off!! But these two were taken this morning - Christchurch had a 4degree frost, and while we rarely get them here, the top one was the close up view from the lounge at 7.47a.m. The second pic was about 30mins later when the local fertilizer factory started up for the day. Fortunately it is far enough away from us to be only used as a wind direction-finder - as you can see from this, there was NO wind at photo time. As I write this 90mins later, there is a slight easterly tilt to the smoke rise.
News from the family - The Captain texted (wonderful way of keeping in touch) and told us she is now officially a B Cat instructor in Nadi - that topped of one her most dreadful days in Nadi during this posting for her - a student at The Pacific Flying School was involved in a car crash on Tuesday, but the family had to decide to turn the life support off yesterday, and the whole Flying School staff were able to go and say their goodbyes earlier - not a nice experience for anyone to know what is going to be happening - one of the moments where being a parent is not such a good thing - to not be able to be there for the kids at times like this is heart-wrenching!



On a brighter note - the top photo is my favourite tree in my garden - this Magnolia is looking amazing at the moment, and as you can see, I have two bird feeders in it. we are lucky that Oompaloompah is too fat and lazy to climb and catch birds - she just lies in her window and watches (that photo will follow another day!

I SOO love our view!

I really do have a thing about the view from our lovely home, but I still can't believe the changes from day-to-day with the sunsets (and sunrises coming!) This was one evening recently after a horribly overcast, glum Christchurch day, and then the sun shone through this gap known as the "Nor'west Arch" - just before the dinner hour when Sir Ladbrook (who misses most of these glorious views due to having to bring home the bacon), comes home.So that was MY moment when I sit and contemplate my day, and enjoy the peaceful surroundings.
I now have to to share a bit about the residents of this lovely home - we have Moi, Sir Ladbrook, The Captain (26) and (no, Not Tenille) Mah Boiy (25). Both presently live O/seas: one in Nadi where she is a flying instructor for The Pacific Flying School -

and Mah Boiy who is a barista in Melbourne...more on them later, I'm sure!!

There is also Oompaloompah - our Very spoilt black cat who lets SL and I sleep in HER bed and..Katie (and Duck)...so there you have the tenants of our home on the hill..and this does not include the many, many birds we encourage into the garden, and the two bellbirds who serenade us of an evening.(it's ok- Oomplaoompah is too rotund to do any catching of said wildlife!)Anyway people. Later :)

Paradise re-visited

I am beginning to feel that I shall be doing a n incredible amount of blogging on my glorious Canterbury. I sat on my deck last evening admiring the most wonderful colours in the evening sky - and when I rang SIR LADBROOK (not his real name!!) who was on the "flats" of the city, he was unable to see the sunset - another reason why hill-living is so terrific. This picture was taken at 5.47 on the last day of winter 2007. Thus, today is the first day of spring in NZ.
I shall endeavour to share the beauty of Spring in Canterbury with those of you not fortunate enough to reside here - it is an experience...we can have the most perfectly still, calm, sunny days, but also have to endure either a howling easterly (our predominating wind) or temps that send one scrambling for the thermals once again.
So begins another glorious day in Paradise on Earth.
Later, folks :)

Are we there yet?

Thank you to those "experts" who have guided me through a couple of things - anyone can now add a comment, which should make for interesting reading :)
Another glorious day in paradise today, although the easterly came up later in the day - always ruins a perfect Canterbury day :(
This photo shows the sunset at 5.54pm this evening - quite special, I thought.
I shall probably end up doing short and sweet blogs initially until I get the hang of this and once I find out what kinds of snippets people are interested in reading from me.
Ka Kite