I LOVE summer in Canterbury

Hello folks, and thanks for coming back to me. I am sitting on the deck looking out across our view and our lovely city, thinking, ain't life just grand! We went into town this morning where Ma Boiy was a judge in a Barista Competition selecting finalists for the NZ Nationals in a fortnight - Ma Boiy loves the world of coffee and people and all that goes with it, and he is very involved in his work life.
Then we came home and took Katie the German Shepherd for a walk by the river - and she is the one snoring in the background - you are SO lucky you can't hear her!!!
The Captain has some really unusual tasks to fly in her job up north, and this week I got a text from The Captain to say she had flown a dead Maori lady from somewhere in the North Island, back to her hometown of Gisborne - there were lovely moments on board whilst she flew, and one was when the husband started singing Pokarekare Ana to her - The Captain said it was SOO lovely, and then the downside was before they took off, the husband had asked her how long she had been air hostessing !!!! NOT the question to ask a pilot! And it's not the first time - but being my daughter, she just replied about 5 years!
Moments like that, and watching Ma Boiy this morning, we haven't done too badly at all with our kiddliwinkles!
This won't be long I'm sorry but please check out my gorgeous Mrs TS at SOTreadSoftly - she is SUCH a talented lady, and I love the things she creates out of things I wouldn't begin to know what to do with - and Happy Birthday Mrs TS - sorry I missed it this year!
Bless anyone who reads my ramblings, and sorry, no photos of the produce - just can't keep up with it all. Made apricot curd, and tomato sauce this week!!!!

A warm summers day!!

Today is one of Canterbury's best! Sir Ladbrooks and I ventured into the front garden to clear some growth, and finished that by 10, after 2.5hrs work - feeling VERY satisfied! Then inside to hide downstairs under one of the air cons - BLISS!

Now the third photo shows my beautiful Gleditsia at our front gate, number two is the harvested produce from today, yay to me! and numero uno is Mah Boiys new baby - Marley was welcomed to our family about 3 weeks ago, and he comes and spends time with me on the REALLY hot days - lucky me!
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We have had a lot of produce from the garden, including tons of potatoes! And tonight we are having a coleslaw made with home-grown cabbage, cheese, home-grown red onion, home-grown tomatoes - I am LOVING this home-grown!!! Tonight we have Mr and Mrs PB and two other couples coming for a bbq before we all retreat back to our world of little people from ages 5-12 starting with Professional Development days on Monday, thru Wednesday then Teacher Only day on Friday.
It has been a great holiday, and I have achieved megaloads of resources being made ready for the new year - I am working for 2 days a week (Mon,Tues) with another woman at a school about 15mins away from home in the country - in fact, the same one Mr PB works at! We have a yr 5/6 class, and I am really looking forward to it.
well, a bit brief, but contact at last - the PB's and other have just arrived for dinners. Thanks for reading, folks

The world needs to see this!

Apparently the world needs to see my vege garden - I am so excited by what I have been doing in it, and we are eating copious amounts of FRESH veg nightly!! It is such an exhilirating feeling! So, a few photos to be added. I have had no luck with the carrots, but everything else is shooting away like wildfire!

A great savings website!

I REALLY recommend this website - it has helped me during the last year, and I know that there are scores of New Zealanders out there who would find this such a good site. I'll let you navigate your way to it and find out all about it yourself - but believe me it makes terrific suggestions, especially in this hard economic climate. Go, and enjoy!

It REALLY is the New Year!

Greetings and salutations people, and may you all have a wonderful and prosperous 2009 :) Have been absent for ages as I don't have the tenacity of Mrs TS but I shall give you an update on our goings-on!
Where to start? - let's start with Ma Boiy - he is the happiest we have ever known him to be. He has a great position as a barista-trainer, part sales and other things coffee related at a well-established and well-known Christchurch coffee house . He gets to travel, and he's fine-tuning his roastery techniques, and he still gets to doing barista-ing - plus he is one of the judges at a big competition here for baristas, so all goes well for him. He is also in a relationship with a delightful young woman, and they now have got Marley to make their little family more complete! He is a black lab pup, and I'm sure he has been around this earth before...photo if I remember!
The Captain is now well ensconced in her new position at Air Gisborne, where she works three days a week as a pilot - and boy! She gets some terrific jobs - flying around the country with businessmen who need to get somewhere, she also does DHB flights to either Auckland or Hamilton or Palmerston North hospital, taking patients who need to be somewhere else. She really enjoys the flying. To supplement her income, she has a part-time job at the Amcal pharmacy in Gisborne - and of course, she grew up being a pharmacy retailer so she can do that job with her eyes closed - she has been told NOT to do the flying with the same confidence!
But the big news for The Captain is that she is now engaged!!! Abe is a from Fiji ( yes, they met there during her sojourn in the Pacific Isles). He is an Air Traffic Controller based in Gisborne, and they have both settles into a lovely flat by the coast in Okitu. Wedding set for early November!
Sir Ladbrook has bought a new pharmacy - based in the South-west of the city it is another small pharmacy with an established client base and terrific staff! It is only open Mon-Fri 9-5.30pm!! No methadone programme being done there at all - unfortunately, when you have the that running in your pharmacy, those individuals who feel they have a right to the drugs have a tendency to come and get them when THEY feel like it, and Mr CT was sick of 8 armed holdups, and decided he had enough grey hairs living with me, without having to be concerned with " when is it going to happen next!" Have to say though, that the regulars were never the ones who felt they had that right - it was other prats!
And moi? Well, still teaching, and in fact have managed to get a two day teaching week on a regular basis - so I shall be teaching yrs 5 and 6 children at a school a little bit out in the country, where my good friend Mr B http://poppiesanddaisies.blogspot.com/
has been teaching for a couple of years, plus another friend from one of my schools I relieved at, also has secured a position there in Yr 7 - so it is an exciting year for Moi this year! I have not had a regular teaching job EVER - I took over a Yr 8 class on 2 occasions about 4 years ago, but this is totally new! Having conniptions about the forthcoming nuptials - need to lose weight for definite now - the arthritis wasn't enough to do it, but my god, what a thought of ALL those photos in November - shock! Horror!
Just worked out I haven't any photos on this computer, of Marley, that is, so shall add them next time!
Take care, and I AM back now!

Ohmigod it's nearly Christmas

There are SO many things happening at this time of year, but would you believe - my happenings have very little to do with Christmas and the silly season! I have, as I mentioned in my last post, discovered the joy of gardening, and I am now the proud owner of a VERY substantial vegetable garden! In it I have :

beans, carrots, cabbages, capsicum, garlic, cucumber, leeks, spring onions, pukekohe onions, peas, corn, potatoes,tomatoes (3 varieties), lettuces (4 varieties),radishes, and baby beets! Boy am I PROUD of my garden

Photos coming!!!!

Hi there, my few readers - yes, I am feeling lots unloved today, cos it's been a miserable day in a classroom with 9 and 10year-olds who really let me down with the behaviour standard, and that was SO disappointing when they know me so well - so I NEED love and reassurance :(

However, onwards and upwards, the winter has hit, and that is always great as it means that summer is moving closer, and we are nearly at the shortest day!!!

Ma Boiy has gone flatting, and that does our relationship the world of good, and The Captain is home from Fiji, and enjoying being back in the family-fold, allbeit for a short time while she hunts down work!

A dear friend has started working on my garden - she claims to NOT be a gardener, but if you could see some of the things she has done around her new garden at their new home, well, it takes a bit of convincing! She has a knack of moving plants and they don't even know they have been moved, of pruning, and they don't look as if they have been touched, and of working for 3 hours and managing to do 8 hours worth of work - and what's more - she LOVES it!

The photos at the top are just to remind me (and you) what is in store when the weather improves - bring it on!

So, there we are. Another short report to let you know I AM still around - just not making the time to blog like my friends do - that is, frequently. Perhaps that is why I don't get many comments - there's not been much to read, aye?

Well, next time WILL be longer and more enjoyable reading.

Until then, my friends,

Good night