the windy city is a winner

Wellington turned on a perfect day for Catherine and Michael's wedding - sunny, low 20s and minimum wind. Guests assembled at Te Papa museum on the waterfront where we boarded a bus for the church at Johnsonville. 

 

Ilga adjusting Richard's button-hole flower

 

After the ceremony the happy couple drove off in a red Jaguar followed by two buses - skilled drivers required.

 

To the most amazing venue, Boom Rock,  perched on a cliff high above a huge flat sea.

 

It's a breathtaking view out over the wide expanse of Cook Straight and a great background for photos.

 

Bride & groom plus her family and Richard on the right

 

The wind was incredible,  as apparently it always is there, but it was hats and sunscreen rather than the Drizabones lined up in the hallway.

 

Drizabones for the rainy days

 

There's a golf course along the cliff and clay shooting for those interested.

 

Golf course - a hole-in-one has been known

 

Catherine and her bridesmaids looked gorgeous,

Bridesmaids in grey, school friends each end.

 

Michael was appropriately devoted, speeches were witty and not too long and the dinner was excellent; venison sausage rolls as nibbles were brilliant and NZ lamb racks melted in the mouth.

 

Richard, Ilga and Michael

 

 

 

 

boomsmas on holiday

We have left the beach to Alison and Christopher who volunteered to look after Willow while we go to New Zealand for a wedding.

 

Michael, son of David's brother Richard, is marrying Catherine, whose parents live in Wellington, so we have joined forces with Richard and his wife Ilga and are en route to Wellington for the ceremony.

 

We landed in Auckland then set out in a hire car for Lake Taupo.

Richard's GPS is determined to take us via the shortest possible route which means up and down steep hills, through quiet valleys and over dirt tracks,  making for an exciting trip with marvellous scenery.

 

 

No-one on this dirt road but us and some cows

David and Richard watching the sunset over Lake Taupo.
The next day a sky-diving plane crashed into the lake - no casualties

 

willow returns

Christmas celebrations at the beach went ahead with neighbours, friends and relatives - no Willow, who was still in hospital, now with a urinary infection from all the blood and protein in her urine.

 

On Christmas Night she decided enough was enough and ripped out the drip so the vet decreed she could go home.

 

All she wants to do now is sleep, preferably on my lap, without even the energy to hiss at visiting cat Zara.

 

She's on the mend but Nonie's grandcat has been bitten twice so we can assume they don't learn.

 

 

 

party weekend

We're still in the throes of moving - so hard -  had seedEnergy's Christmas dinner at Beechwood,  outside in the shelter shed area away from the wind - but by dessert time it was too cold so we ate Di's plum pudding upstairs in the Lookout Room where we could watch the birds and see pelicans fishing.

 

Saturday night was Daisy's boyfriend ChrisB's 21st birthday party in Mount Gambier Old Gaol and on Sunday we had our annual Bubbles and Bagels party,  the 22nd one, with good weather and just as successful as its predecessors.

 

 

All was overshadowed by finding our cat Willow,  barely able to walk and floppy. David instantly diagnosed snake bite which the vet later confirmed with a blood test so she was given antivenom and put on a drip to wash the venom through her system. Three days later she is still in hospital and we are missing her.

Let me out of here!

Dragging out the moving has been a mistake.
If there's ever a next time I'll just walk away and let the professionals do it.
Our freezer is still at Foote Street, the iron and ironing board (not that I really want them), sewing materials, half a shed of tools and STUFF and strangely my big mixing bowls have gone AWOL.
 

 

 

goodbye to the compactus

 

I had to be at Foote Street Monday morning to admit the family team who have bought the compactus: removal a bigger job than they expected, involving a trip home for a full set of tools.

 

Included in the 3-generation team was the boy who bought David's didgeridoo, dying to tell me how well he is getting on. He has been practising hard and can make a kookaburra call plus the sound of a boomerang fading away into the distance and coming back. His granny is pleased with the way his breathing has improved: he can run to the corner and back without puffing.

 

 

Josh was in charge of removing the shelves

carpe diem

Saturday was to be the big move to permanent residency at Beechwood - but nature intervened with 35' and a north wind,  perfect for fishing off our beach. So David seized the day and was rewarded with a nice catch of garfish before he had to leave for tennis. I battled on, shoe-horning my clothes into the available wardrobe space: Port Mac op shop will get the rest.

 

Today David faced the same dilemma with a twist: his clothes couldn't move in because the wardrobe was full of books but the bookcases wouldn't fit unless he cut one in half. Joe came to help with this high-tech operation: note the garden fork which was needed to pry the two pieces apart.

 

also note the freshly picked cucumbers

 

wind wind and more wind

Jennifer and Peter (my sister and her husband) came for the weekend and all plans had to be modified due to the constant 20 knot winds. The guys went fishing at Pelican Point which is the most sheltered spot on the coast: true fishermen - they froze but stuck it out and caught 12 garfish and 3 nice mullet.

They met our neighbours, Di & Rory and Angela & Joe, went for bracing beach walks and admired the tunnel house and its green harvest.

Here they are at Pebbles with David, looking - not surfing: