And all that after a glorious weekend of 18 degrees (it's officially winter in two weeks!) and it's much hotter in the north island.
We had some good news from Paul and Deb at the weekend which was earlier than expected, they got their residency which is good for them as now Deb can look for jobs so good luck, we will be keeping our fingers crossed for you. Congratulations xxxxx
So I'm not going to show you any photos of the drizzle as that would be pointless. This was our house on Saturday with beautiful blue skies, just amazing. That is our 'orange' tree in the front, we have no idea what it is but it goes a beaut colour in the autumn. We spent lots of time Sunday sweeping up the leaves, Derek even did the berm and we bagged them all up for mulch next year. Last years stuff was great, anything to beef up the very sandy soil here.
And this photo is for you Phoebe with Dax, he is growing fast and will be all grown by the time I get home.
68 days and counting
So back to the weekend. As I said ages ago now it was glorious on Saturday so we decided to go to Alexandra so that we could get Derek some new trainers and jogging bottoms so off we went. It was a perfect photo day and I took lots from the lookout point on the other side of the Kawarau River looking back on to Cromwell.
We drove along the Earnscleugh Valley which has become a real favourite place of ours. It lies between Clyde and Alexandra and it was once famous for being home to one of NZ's largest sheep stations. There are still plenty of sheep about but now it is full of orchards growing cherries, apricots, nectarines, peaches and apples and wineries and they have just opened a new gold mine there so Paddy told us later. You can read about our local area on this site if you want to http://www.centralotagonz.com/discovery
We don't usually get to Alex so early in the morning and it was good to see all the shops open, a lot of them close at 2 o'clock so it was busy. After our shop we wandered round and had coffee and a doughnut in the Courtyard Cafe which is always good and sat and boiled outside in the sun. I had three layers on and soon had to take two of them off!
Sunday night we had our treat and went to Queenstown Events Centre to see Billy Connelly. We've been dying to see him for the longest time and he didn't disappoint. He was on stage for 1.5 hours, not bad for a 71 year old and his stories are still as funny as ever even though his language is so blue. He wouldn't be him if it wasn't would it. It was packed, not an empty seat in the house. He is looking older now though which sounds silly but I know what I mean. He is recovering from cancer and has Parkinsons too which is all just such a shame but he seems to be OK with both. Long may you carry on Bill.
So what have I been doing for the rest of the week? Sewing and crocheting mostly in the evenings at least. And watching 'Homeland' - we have watched two series and loved it, can't think how we missed it when it was aired on TV and Derek got hooked very quickly. I must say the lead actors are great. Hope series 3 will be just as good when we get it.
'Greys' started again for us this week too and after watching the whole 9 other series over summer in the evenings, we have been anxiously waiting to see what happened to Richard Webber and now we know!!!
I made myself a little bag to go with my chicken I bought last week at the Fayre and have put my eggs in it. I love it and the tutorial for it can be found here at http://ayumills.blogspot.co.nz/2010/08/tutorial-lunch-bag.html
It came together really easily as the tutorial is so good (so is some of the other stuff on her blog too).
So it's now 2.30 pm, I've hoovered, tidied and blogged and scarified the back lawn this morning too and put down some grass seed, not for your supper either sparrows! So think I may go and look at the 'Craftsy' class that I bought the other day in the front lounge on my computer. I like sitting in there to read etc. it just feels the right place to be.