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Mothers'day here was 11th March. Sarah had asked me to get a card and some flowers for Bronwyn. There's a house not far away with a large and productive garden, and an woman who sells flowers, along with jams, pickles, eggs and assorted pot plants. So I dropped by and got the last remaining bunch, and handed them to Sarah, along with a card. Sarah then presented them to Bronwyn in the morning. Later that day, I had a text from Rachael - "Father. Mum will be home between 5-6. You will have something for mothers day when you get back, yes?" I'm not sure why the requirement fell on me... I didn't actually get a chance to phone my mum that week!
Sarah was working a shift at the supermarket on her birthday. Bronwyn came in with some helium baloons and loudly wished her HAPPY BIRTHDAY, and then put a post on the community facebook page so everyone within five miles knew too. Fortunately Sarah is still talking to us.
Yesterday was Rachael's 25th, and Bronwyn's graduation, And the Matamata Festival Of Music, at which the brass band was contesting. I couldn't do all three, so I informed the conductor that my life might be in danger, and she roped in a spare trombone. Just as well; they got a trophy and a gold award! Must definitely sound better when I'm not playing; last time we only got a silver.
Sarah got me to drop by and get another bunch of flowers, and we headed off to the graduation. Bronwyn now has her Batchelors degree in applied theology. She also got an award. There was a trophy for excellence in understanding and practice of mission. I'm thinking; that's got Bronwyn written all over it. So were quite a few others apparently. Indeed, the admin staff had already guessed by the presence of a bar of 86% cocao chocolate next to is. It was quite an emotional moment when they called out her name and described her work on the streets and the hospital, reaching the vulnerable and those that society had rejected. We had quite a few things to carry home.
And then straight out again for Rachael's birthday dinner, which she'd wanted back in the village at the old dairy factory, which has been turned into quite a popular wedding venue. Very nice dinner, plus a pile more presents for Rach to take home!
After a few months of dry summer, after which everything was looking very brown and dusty, we had a few weeks of heavy rain. Everything is now green. Very green. I've had to be careful when throwing tennis balls for the dog. There are two out on the paddock, and I can't find them even though I know within a metre where they are. I'll just have to wait until the sheep return...
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( 4.5 / 2 )It's quiet after Christmas here. It's a good time to get things done. It's also a good time to get a car park in Auckland. But take care, a lot of the plumbers, firemen and doctors are off too.
Festival One didn't go quite as planned. On the Friday before, Sarah got me to drill some holes in her toadstools so she could prop them up with a peg. On the Monday, I felt like I'd still got some sawdust in my eye. So I rang up to see the nurse. No nurses on that morning. But there's a cancellation in the afternoon. Or you could go to the medical centre. So we went to the medical centre (in my car), and they took a look, and rang up the eye clinic, who wanted to see me, which led to a three hour wait for the eye specialists. Meanwhile, Rach and Sarah drove the car and trailer and headed for the campsite. Eventually, we all made it to the campsite. I had a pile of medication for both eyes, to be taken once, three times, four, five and six times a day. The maths was tricky. And Rach had to drive me back three days later for a followup.
Fortunately we got the gas fridge working to keep it all cool, and Rach and Sarah had the tent up before we arrived. I couldn't see a lot though; each morning I'd stumble through the mist to the meal tent, grab my breakfast and return to safety. We got the toadstools up, although the crew tents were squeezed in tight and we were completely surrounded. I also got the paraffin lamp working. It's a railway signalman's lamp, and it has filters for red and green. Green is quite relaxing, but if you want to see anything with it, you need to take the filter off.
We were all pretty tired by the end. Rach and Sarah were on the security team, and had picked one 12am to 4am shift. And the weather swung between drizzle and hot and humid. But it was worth it. Some really fun bands, two featuring an Eb tuba, the ceilidh and a number of characters (I have a photo of Mario and Luigi dancing next to a man dressed as a banana) who made it memorable. Hopefully next year we'll all be in better shape.
It's the Kumeu Show this weekend. Bronwyn was on the St Johns stall today, and we're all on tomorrow. Apparently the band is playing next to the fire, the first aid and the St Johns stalls, so we should be well looked after.
Postscript... Two bright sunny days. Kumeu Show was absolutely cranking. Don't think I've seen so many there before. The band was indeed next to the fire service, who regularly smoked us with their fire alarm demonstration. Apart from one minor asthma attack, we managed to keep playing, and I'm told we sounded great. Bronwyn was on both days, and reported a two collapses from heat exhaustion, a wasp sting near the eye and an injury from one of the rides. Hopefully she can get some sleep this week.
Sarah started her part time job at the supermarket this year. After one month, the boss was going to be away, so Sarah was put in charge of the shop front and loading money into the tills. Apparently she was bored one day and started tidying the rack of lighter refills. The boss was most impressed. The other girls just sit there and scroll on their phones. Sarah has now started at university too, so it has been my job to help her with maths and get her up in the morning.
After a wet December, it's been pretty dry. Good weather for wasps; I found one nest and returned on a late night mission to puff in some powder. Fortunately they were all asleep. Ross has mended the gate that the cow smashed, although I feel it needs a little strengthening. But that paddock is now quite bare and the cows have been moved. That's useful; I can throw tennis balls for Duchy without them getting lost in thre grass. The trick is to throw them down wind and down hill. Less effort for the human.
Around Christmas we had a visit from a bat research society who put up an acoustic monitor by our dam. Don't think they found any bats; we haven't heard back. But my duck feeding mission is paying off. We now have about 20 regulars eating the food, and another 20 who sit and watch, and the acorns are almost ready. That means we'll have more shortly, come for the feast. At least they have plenty of water!
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( 3 / 165 )Happy Christmas to all!
In the last week, I've done 8 hours playing carols. Bronwyn did two carol services this morning, and I got to play for the second one. But finally we have some peace. The family dinner is planned for tomorrow.
As usual, unlike many in New Zealand, we won't be going on holiday until the end of Jsnuary. Just as everyone else is getting back into work and hoping we are too. We're all going to Festival One again. Preparations are underway. Bronwyn and Sarah have been making some toadstools to put outside the tent. And every year we acquire more solar powered lights andchargers.
I didn't mention the car. Bronwyn's brother Allan borrowed her old car (that we'd been trying to sell) to drive up north. He didn't get there. Fortunately an off-duty policeman found him in the ditch shortly afterwards. Allan's OK, but due to a possible blackout from a heart issue, he hasn't been able to drive, and hence hasn't been able to work. He's doing fine, and has been doing some work around the farm instead. The car was a write off, which actually did us a favour.
We might be needing Allan shortly. We moved the cows last weekend, but three calves doubled back and didn't go in. So we shut the gate and left them in the hope that they'd go in the right direction once they got hungry. They didn't. The cows did. The next day, the gate was broken in two. Completely. I also note that they've created a new route into the hay barn. We need to work out which cow currently has a sore head...
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( 3 / 244 )I can tell. Whenever Rachael spends ages cleaning her car, and then having a shower. Oh yes.
No. He's not Sean. He's Taumata. Or Taku. Or generally just T. And Rachael spends quite a while in the city with him. As well as cleaning her car. Thoroughly. She's added decals on the sides, and she's had the headlight glass polished at a detailing shop. Allan has given her some lights to stick under the car, and she's got an animated display on the back window. But mostly, she cleans it.
We're into the silly season. Lots of Christmas lunches and dinners, carolling, reviews and concerts. I've tried to gather everything onto one calendar. It looks a bit untidy.
But everyone's now finished university for the year. Rach has another year for her masters degree. The funding for the job she was hoping to get has been cut, so she's looking at what courses might be more preactically useful. There's one on geotechnics, which would allow her to spend her life drilling holes on building sites and studying mud. But regardless of the current government budget, we're still sitting on a major faultline, and it's not necessarily going to wait for Labour to get back in.
Sarah passed Maths 102. She was so pleased. She's quite good at the coursework; it's making sense. But the final exam questions can be hard because they sometimes put things backwards. "Here's the result the student got, what did she start with?" which means you have to not only understand it but be able to do the steps backwards too. She got enough to pass. It's Maths 108 next year, but Rachael says that it's just Maths 102 in more depth, so not so bad.
Bronwyn has just passed her Batchelors in Applied Theology. This has taken about 7 years, and involved a lot of assignments as well as case studies and quite a bit of Maori panel weaving.
With all three of them currently Advanced First Aiders, they'll all end up more qualified than me. Although I still have my three star canoeing certificate. They haven't beaten my Eskimo rolls just yet.
Meanwhile, Dmitri and DeLorean are out in the paddock and learning how to be sheep. I'm still feeding the ducks, and I now have a core group that are semi tame. There's a family of ten Paradise ducks, and three mallards. The Paradise ducks are larger and louder, but tend to feed out in the open. So I've been giving them a couple of handfuls out on the jetty in the dam, and putting the rest up on the bank behind the long grass. I know there's a few others around, because I sometimes see other ones on our driveway.
We've got through quite a bit of chicken feed this year. Both for the ducks and also for the extra four chickens that we've acquired this year. We've just lost one of the older ones, so we're currently at seven, and about 2 or three eggs a day. More than we can eat, so we've occasionally had to give them away.
It's getting warm for once, and plenty of rain. Great weather for ducks and sheep, but not the ones with hay fever. I need to get the garden under control. May need the baler.
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( 3 / 247 )Every morning, we have issues regarding who fed the cat. He can lie very effectively when you emerge from the bedroom. Bronwyn wrote "CAT HAS BEEN FED" on a random bit of cardboard. Trouble is, we now also have the dog, plus the chickens and two lambs. I want one of those sliding signs so we can keep track!
Of our two lambs, Dmitri must be about 5 weeks old now, and growing fast. He can also get past any barricade we put up, particularly when he's hungry. DeLorean is about 2 weeks old and still at the easy going tiny stage. But also growing fast. He doesn't latch onto the teat very well, so it can be tricky guiding him gently while fending off the monster who wants both bottles if at all possible.
Bronwyn started her new job last week aa mental health chaplain at Auckland Hospital. After a few months to recover from the concussion, she's also now back working full time. She's on the 8am shift though, so it means leaving very early in order to get through the traffic. She has made many friends on the streets through her previous job, and has had multiple farewell dos to say goodbye to everyone. But she'll still be dropping in at the cafe for breakfast, so they haven't seen the last of her.
We finally have all the cars back on the road again. Bronwyn's new car has been repeatedly showing warning lights, and has been in for tests and checks. They decided to open the engine properly, and fixed a cracked head as well as several other bits. Cost a lot, but we're hoping it's now fixed properly!
Sarah has started Psychology, and is also doing a foundation maths course. It covers several years of maths in about 5 months, so I've been helping her get her head round it as much as possible. She's got permission to postpone Chemistry for a semester so she can focus on the maths. As well as the psychology. Unfortunately I don't know a lot of psychology, so I can't help with that.
Rach brought a boy home. OK, briefly, then we left for the weekend. His name is Sean, and they started chatting over Minecraft. He'd never left Australia before, so we decided to take him to Rotorua because he's also never seen anything remotely volcanic either. Very nice chap. Left us some chocolates and a nice note. He'll be back for a music concert later in the year.
Straight after Rotorua, I was off again for the youthwork conference, and a week or two after that to the national brass band contest. Fortunately both events were in Auckland, which made things easier. We came second in everything at the contest. It's the regionals next month. I appear to be playing a solo with lots of high notes, so I'll need to get practicing. Meanwhile, I'm still teaching an extended family of Burundians how to play trumpet as well as transporting them to a brass band to get a lesson. They can now play a recognisable version of Jingle Bells without my help. That's a big improvement over January when I was fearing for their neighbour's sanity.
Down to ten ducks on the dam now, but they seem to be pretty settled. Seem to have acquired a couple of geese too, and several pukekos. I've put the feed out on a polystyrene raft to give the ducks a fighting chance...
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