The grape harvest is well under way and they are expecting a bumper season only marred by the awful frost we had a week on Wednesday which killed off so many of the vines; doesn't seem to have affected the grapes though.
We have had so many apples from our tree that even though I am eating and cooking so many of them, an apple a day plus tarte tatin tonight (that was yummy, never made it before), giving away bags full to neighbours and the girls next door at Sothebys where we work, there are still a good hundred or more in drawers around the house and another hundred or more still on the tree!! If we had an apple press we would have made cider! We were going to but the more we read about it the harder it seemed to do. The thought of standing and mashing hundreds of apples to bits then somehow pressing the life out of them just didn't turn our motors in the end.
We have new neighbours moved in a the back of us today so they must be renting. They look nice but have two yappy dogs who were 'owning' their new territory today, only for a little while though.
Everyone is settling in now waiting for the snow to come so the mountain bike shops will soon morph into ski shops and the new set of workers will be coming to Queenstown in the hope of getting work in the ski resorts. That is a real waiting game for all involved, the season was so late last year that they had to set up 'soup kitchens' for them but they are expecting an early start to the season this time, we'll see.
So not much to tell you really.
So good to speak to Becky and Phoebe this morning after nearly 3 weeks. They have just moved in to a new home, handed over the keys to their old one and Phoebe has started her new school which she loves. 14 boys and only 6 girls in her class including her and she seems to have settled in already.
She also gets to see her Auntie Julie some days as the school she works at (the one I worked at too) is at the bottom of the hill to Phoebe's so she gets to see her on the way in as Becky is parking near there. It is Becky's old school too and there are still two teachers there that she used to have.
Funny how things go round and round isn't it?
Good luck to Kathy with the viewings on her flat too, everything is still crossed for you poppet!
TTFN for now everyone, take care of each other and 'don't carry more than you can hold' . xxxx