Ann & Peter

in New Zealand

On his 3 day course in Wellington Peter managed to book a table at the Logan Brown restaurant. This is owned and run by two guys who have their own TV series where they travel all over NZ catching and cooking local fish, birds and beasts. The restaurant is rated as one of the best in New Zealand. Peter had tuna as a appetiser, followed by Paua Ravioli (Abalone) then because he'd been chatting up the head waiter (from Northampton) he had a free course of scallops, this was followed by duck and finished off with cheese. All washed down with two good local beers. Ann (home alone) managed to reheat a chinese meal Peter had cooked the previous week!

It's now Jaz's turn to practise her escapology skills. She's been getting through the fence and Ann found her three houses away once. So Peter fixed the fence – and Jaz escaped again!, Peter fixed the fence - both Jaz and Maxie escaped - to different houses on Chestnut Lane. Peter fixed the fence – watch this space!

Peter has been trying out new monitor setup at work - 3 x 19" LCD screens. This is not the final setup as he now has a 22" widescreen monitor in the middle to replace one of the 19" monitors

The May meeting of the bonsai club saw a small group of us having a guided tour of Hamilton Gardens. Despite the rain and hail this was a fascinating tour led by Gerard, one of the senior members of The Friends of Hamilton Gardens.

Cathy came over for a quick visit one Sunday with her new puppy Bella. Maxie played a lot but Jaz wanted nothing to do with the little bundle of energy.

After all of the flooding last year the council have decided to put in stormwater drains in Collinson Road. Unfortunately they are not extending it down our road towards us so we'll have to see how much flooding we get this winter.

We’ve discovered a way to get the dogs worm tablets down them. They’re the size of horse pills and both dogs spit them back whole so we have to crush them and hide them in food. We’ve tried jam, peanut butter, cheese and mixing it in with their food – all failures especially with Maxie who patiently sifts through the food separating the tablet pieces from the food. We think we've finally found the solution – a packet of Pedigree dog food which has lots of juice. Even Maxie ate it all up so now Ann has another item to add to her shopping list.

	One Sunday we were sheltering from the rain over lunchtime and saw this Kingfisher sitting on the gate.
We have had the first frost of the year. It managed to get down to -2 overnight.   The dogs are not feeling the cold as they have a heater in the laundry where they sleep. Ann has threatened to go and sleep with them as it's warmer in their bedroom than ours!

Our new next door neighbours have had the line of trees taken down just like us. This not only makes their section look a lot bigger the bottom of our paddock also gets more light.

We have just taken delivery of a few more little trees to grow on as Bonsai, a happy Sunday morning planting 40 more trees. Ann also potted up 50 grasses we are going to use down the side of the driveway.

News from Home

John's (Peter's dad) Naval Association have been raising funds for a memorial to the members of the Royal Naval Patrol Service to be sited in the National Memorial Arboretum at Arlewas. The memorial has just been put in place and one of the members, Arthur Young, sent us some photos. The memorial stands over 8 feet tall and the mine on top weighs over 1 ton. The site just needs a little tidy up before the service of dedication on August 23rd, timed to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the founding of HMS Europa, the RNPS headquarters at Lowestoft.
	One of the images on the memorial is of the Leicester City, the trawler that John served on.
Allison and John have a beautiful new arrival. Michael met her when she was only 24 hours old!

Mel (Peter's niece) has finally had her operation and is recovering at home and has to take it easy for a week or so (she said she can’t do housework!). Darren is not impressed and claims, he emails " I am knackered! She doesn’t want a husband, she wants a slave ". Get well soon Mel.