What's been happening at home?

One of the things I forgot about Tuesday last week's happenings was that I called in to Porirua after my osteopath appointment to pay for and collect a bike rack. We have a great one for the motorhome, but we didn't have one for the car. And now we do ... 

I constructed it over the weekend, making sure that I read the instructions several times first - important step, I find. It wasn't difficult, but working down on the floor was a bit hard on my knees and back, so I got David to hoist it up on to the table for me - much easier on the 71 year old body.

Tomorrow I am driving to Lower Hutt/Petone to get a towbar fitted - it seems a bit extreme to travel that far, but two mechanics in Kapiti that I spoke to last week said they recommend East Coast Towbars to all their customers. So I called the guy and he said he could fit it before Xmas and it would be their last job before they closed up for the break. So I need to get up and get on my way very early to be there when they open. I have also arranged to meet up with an old friend, Jo B, who we don't see anywhere near often enough. I am looking forward to that - Jo B and I worked together back in Telecom where I was her boss but she reckons that she managed me - she was my super efficient PA, say no more ...

On Thursday last week, we went to the funeral of our dear friend Joy. She had been suffering with pancreatic cancer for well over a year; she had had chemo which required the purchase of a wig, in which she looked great. Then there was a hiatus period where Joy wasn't well, but was coping. And that moved on to being much more difficult. She had some radiation at about the same time David had his, then later a stay in the hospice while they worked to sort her pain relief.

We went to visit her when she came back from hospice before we headed off to the South Island. She was hoping to be here for a final Christmas, but it didn't happen. She died on Monday 13 December after being in a coma for about a fortnight.

Joy was an amazing woman - a lovely friend, an excellent cook, a keen and very good golfer, a most amazing gardener, and a most beloved wife and partner to Grahame, and a dearly loved mother and grandmother.

Grahame (on the right) and his brother Ian - they have the same hairstyles and their voices are identical! On Saturday we took cheese scones around for the family. A lovely coda, and very special to spend some time with them.

I keep looking over our back fence to where she and Grahame used to live. Currently Joy comes into my mind often, and I know that will continue - and I will always smile when I think of her. In my garden I have hydrangeas grown from her cuttings, they are a beautiful deep magenta. They are very special.

I was thinking about Joy and Grahame a lot last week - we are having a concrete pad laid in the back lawn so we can have the outdoor table on it instead of on the grass. When we were neighbours, J&G came over a few times for events here with other friends of ours; and when they weren't joining us, we still thought about them because we get lovely shade from the beautiful magnolia in their former back garden! And we could hear them hard at work in their garden while we ate and drank and laughed!

There is a 4.5m x 3.75m rectangle of turf that has been dug out of the back lawn, loaded into a skip and carted away. The weather has been a bit pants off and on, so we are waiting for the concrete to be poured early in the New Year. So there'll be no parties on the back patio for a few weeks...

Before the guys came to dig out the turf, we checked precisely where we wanted the concrete pad to be. David decided to try sitting at the end of the table... There had been LOTS of rain, and the ground was still very soft. If the chair legs had been longer, he could probably have got to Spain! I had to help him out of the chair, but not before a photo opportunity was capitalised on, of course!

 

Sparrows and blackbirds sharing cooked and surplus brown rice.

I snaffled this cutting on my walk the other day. I have planted two pieces of it in a tub. I will check with Shona to check that I have done all that is required to make sure it is going to take. I don't think I can ever have too many hydrangeas, tbh...

I've had another appointment with Jonathan the osteopath - he is good, but bloody hell, his elbows are sharp when they dig into my sore bits to massage them. My lower spine is improving, but occasionally I still feel as though I'd like someone to put a finger up my bum and yank my coccyx backwards to get it into its rightful position! I have been told by both Jonathan and the chiropractor in Nelson that what I said I felt was required is actually a recognised technique, but neither of them have offered, dammit!

Jonathan however has done some exceedingly strong massage at the base of my buttocks on the end of whichever bone it is that is either side of the coccyx. Painful but effective.

Because of all the rain we have had over the last three weeks, some of the bracts of blooms on the carpet roses along the driveway have gone brown. So this morning, after my walk remotely with Ann I got the secateurs out and did some pruning. After about 7 minutes I was reminded yet again why I pay the wonderful Shona to do our garden - my back was VERY SORE!!! Jillian came out to chat which gave me a good excuse to stand upright for a while, so I could then bend over again to finish off the pruning. Shona will be impressed, I hope!

Roses from around the garden - all beautifully perfumed.

I have done all of my xmas shopping - David's pressie was the new solar panels and lithium battery set up for the motorhome; mine was the bike rack for the car and the towbar. 

Food has been shopped for - I am making a nut roast and a Mushroom and Kumara Wellington, plus mushroom and onion gravy, and a coleslaw. The variety of vegan/vegetarian offerings will complement the carnivore components (poor little piggy and lambie) that Adrian and Gary are providing.

Recent palindromes and milestones:

We have travelled a fair number of kilometres in the motorhome over the last couple of months. We have done more than twice as many kms in the motorhome as we have in the car ...

A milestone, for sure!

 

This one was particularly satisfying for some reason!

Memes and other things that touched me or made me laugh:

Let's all do our best to do all the good we can.

In the vein of doing all the good we can, here is one of the two dogs that our son Tim and his partner Dana have adopted since arriving in Bulgaria. Both newly adopted dogs have leishmaniasis, a severe infection caused by an insect bite. This is Cookie for whom the infection is on her skin. The other adoptee is called Grandad (David is not insulted ...) - the infection for him is internal and his kidneys are failing. We are very proud that Tim and Dana are taking on caring for these dogs who were abandoned on the streets.

This is Grandad. He has been staying outside on the porch because they have to get rid of the ticks and fleas before he can come inside.

Our neighbour Kay has a seemingly endless store of limericks and poems. This one makes me laugh every time. When Kay is feeling breathless (because of her cardiomyopathy) it panics her; so when we ring to keep her company, David gets her to tell us limericks - it makes her laugh, she breathes more deeply, and the panic recedes. Recently she recited limericks to us almost non-stop as I drove between the entry to Bellblock and the motorcamp in Waitara - a distance of about 12 kms.

When I despair over the idiocy of our Opposition parties and the media here in NZ, and how negative they are about every single thing the government does to protect us from covid, I think of this meme and I think to myself that at least we don't have BJ or his Tory cronies; or for that matter, nor do we have the Faberge Egg and Chris Bishflap as the government here ...

Spelling error - should be borcestershire ...

I have only seen the first LOTR film and that was 20 years ago, so really I am no judge. But this did seem apt!

Polish Christmas Post Implementation Tasks - Tusi, Jola and Olga will know what I mean ...

😊😂😇💖