Under The Weather

 

We watched Al Jazeera weather this morning and New Zealand was barely visible, having literally disappeared under a huge storm system that is currently covering most of the country.

The worst of the rain seems to be hitting Christchurch at the moment, with an extreme risk of flooding, and I am hoping all my friends there are coping alright. 

Our weather this last week has turned more wintery.  One day we even had heavy frost with thick fog, clearing to about 30 minutes of sunshine and followed by showers.

The night of the lunar eclipse we were lucky though, as the skies were crystal clear, and we were able to see the super blood moon – at least, I saw it with the shadow halfway across and the colour turning orange-red, and decided that was enough and went to bed!

Millie giving me cuddles

We have two cats in our household.  Usually I talk about Mittens, but her sister Millie is our mouser and gave me half a mouse for my breakfast this morning – it was not appreciated!

She has also taken to sleeping in my lounge chair, but when she found me sitting there decided it was time to curtail my screen-time and sat on my laptop instead.

Grrr, now my touchpad mouse won’t work and I have resorted to a ‘normal’ mouse.  She must have pushed something and I will have to get son onto it and get it reset.

Well that is one way to get me off the computer!

Hope everyone is having a happy weekend,

Margaret 😊

How Do They Know?

 

We have no need of a weather forecast to tell us when it is going to be a cold night – son’s mischief of rats always lets us know.  In fact, they are more reliable than the forecast for knowing when a cold spell is coming.

Today, all four rats (in between bouts of sleeping) have been busy building “nests” of newspaper and coconut fibre, so they can be snug and warm when the temperature drops – which it is forecast to do overnight.

What intrigues me, is how do they know?  How can they tell, when the day is sunny and reasonably warm, that it is going to turn cold?

Nature is truly a wonderful mystery 😊

Margaret

Saturday Morning

 

It is Saturday morning here.  The sun is shining (sort of), and there is a gentle breeze and lots of clouds.  I can hear birds chirruping and a plane off in the distance, so it is all quite peaceful feeling.

We had an awesome sunset last night, such intense orange-red colours that I wondered if there was smoke in the atmosphere.  My photo barely does it justice.

Yesterday I dropped my large cake mixer off at a charity shop.  It is simply too heavy for me to lift now, and I seldom do any baking so it was time to move it on to someone else.

Naturally, I had to wander around the shop afterwards.  Retail Therapy is good for the soul!!

I spent a grand total of $21.50 and came home with: a long scarf, a book about cooking root vegetables, a Famous Five book, a book about decorating your home according to the seasons, a baby’s frock that I think will look good on one of my teddies, two old-style prints (one of spring fruits and the other of autumn) (already hanging up in my room!), a tin to use for a teabag caddy, a china figurine set of a couple enjoying a cup of tea, and a sweet little hand-blown blue glass bird.

After all that excitement, I called in on a sister-in-law and spent most of the rest of the day visiting with her.

Enjoy your weekend everyone,

Margaret 😊  

It Is What It Is

 

First, thankyou my dear blog friends for all your wonderful supportive comments. 

We cannot change the way a person chooses to act or what they choose to say, but we can control the way we react to it.

I am learning that things are what they are, it is what it is, and one cannot go back and change things that have happened.  I need to have patience, love, and forgiveness in my heart, and continue on with my own life.

With that in mind, I have been spring-cleaning my bedroom (in the autumn!).  Son helped me move the bed and drawers around (they are getting too heavy for me to move by myself anymore) and I have hung pictures all over the walls.

They are all paintings and photos that I love and that have good memories attached to them, the type of pictures that make me smile when I look at them.

The aptly-named Hope River in Canterbury

With the sun moving lower in the skies it is again catching my crystals hanging in the windows – for most of the day I have little rainbows scattered across my room whenever the sun is shining. 

More happiness 😊

Margaret xx

 

Life Goes On

 

Families all around the world have one thing in common – they all face good times and bad, happy times and sad.  

Our family seems to be in the bad/sad side of things at the moment.  It is not something I am free to discuss, or would even want to discuss in the public arena, but current family dramas have left me feeling too sad and bewildered to post anything on here lately.

I know things will improve, they always do, so our family will recover and move on.  It just takes time and moving through each day as it happens.

If you like, it is a bit reminiscent of my journey through grief after losing my soul mate.  Live each day as it happens, move through bad times the best you can, and learn to be resilient.  Tomorrow is another day and hope must never be allowed to falter.

Our Weather Today

Life goes on, just like the tide that flows in and out, or the sun that rises and sets each day.

Hugz to all my dear readers,

Margaret.

All Aboard

 

Hello there – it’s Mittens here.  I’ve sneaked in and taken over Grandma’s blog so I can show you my latest exploit.

My mum and her friend have been zooming around on this board all weekend, so I thought I would give it a try.  They stand on it and it takes off at great speed, so I thought I would give it a go.

Well, I stood on it and I sat on it but it never moved at all.  And then I tried to get off and it started to move.  I must say I didn’t like that at all and jumped off as fast as I could.  I don’t think I will take up skateboarding any time soon!

Sending everyone lots of cuddly purrs,

Mittens 😻

Busy Days

 

Sometimes it feels like I am never home!  The week seems to have been filled with outings and one day has merged into another, and now here we are at the end of another working week.

I visited Te Awamutu, a neighbouring town, and went on a bit of a shopping spree.  I came home with some winter tops, new underwear, pyjamas, a couple of warm jackets, slippers and a pair of shoes. 

I seem to be one of those people who never wear out their clothes, and, quite frankly, I get a bit bored with wearing the same things over and over so some new ones are most welcome.

(It’s not like I have a lot of clothes, but I am not a minimalist either!).

New clothes ready to be washed before wearing

A visit to see my brother filled in a few hours.  His eye has healed quite well but the actual wound split open after the stitches were removed.  His specialist has said he will need to recut it and restitch it, especially as it is so visible on his face.

Yesterday I was invited out to lunch at Gordonton, a small village near Hamilton.  It was good catching up again with this couple, whom I have not seen for a while.

Of course, it was mandatory to visit The Farm Shop while in Gordonton, with their wonderful array of gifts and organic produce.  I bought a jar of raw honey sourced from Hamilton Gardens and the Zoo grounds, as well as a couple of pieces of homemade coconut ice that I was unable to resist.

I hope everyone is keeping well – I don’t seem to have had the time to visit anyone lately, so I hope you will all forgive me.

Happiness is keeping busy 😊

Margaret.

Excellent Customer Service

 

My cracked windscreen was replaced this morning and I now have a lovely new (very clean) windscreen.

I approached Smith & Smith to do the work and have nothing but praise for their friendliness, helpfulness and professionalism. 

They took care of all the insurance claim side of things, and I didn’t even have to go to the workshop as they came round to the house to do the job.

We had our first frost this morning – and I know some of you will snigger at what we call frost!  It was barely visible on the grass, but there was definitely a tinge of the white stuff there.

NIWA (the National Institute of Weather and Atmospheric Research) are forecasting a dry and warmish winter ahead for most of the country, but, if we get the chance, we are actually looking forward to being able to light the fire again and snuggle up by its warmth.

Smile and be happy 😊

Margaret.

Hunters and Gatherers?

 

I’ve had the most interesting conversation with my son this afternoon.  He had been speaking with a man who strongly believes that European ‘colonists’ should leave our country and let the indigenous peoples return to living off the land, hunting, growing and gathering food, and caring for each other.

Living and working in a “white man’s world” and having to pay their taxes and obey their laws was total anathema to this man.

I wonder how he would get on if we took away his home, his car, his television, his sports games, and all the other trappings of us “colonists” so that he didn’t have to go to work and pay taxes?

It seems to son and myself that this man is only looking at what he perceives as the good side of his culture.  He has forgotten that cannibalism and starvation and slavery were all a part of life before Europeans arrived.

I find people like this very disturbing with the way they think.  I know many bad things happened when these lands were settled, and it is always good to redress a wrong, but surely that is in the past when it comes to how we live our lives today.

The things this man says he seeks are all good, and are freely available to him and anyone else who desires to follow that path.  Does he really need to bring the ugliness of racism and prejudice into it? 

Sorry about the rant, but people like this upset me.

Hope your day is going well,

Margaret 😊