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.