Ann & Peter

in New Zealand

Kia Ora

It has certainly been a month for doggies. First off was a trip to the vets as Jaz had been limping on and off for a few weeks. Arthritis of the left hip is the probable cause and she had to have a course of tablets which certainly helped. This was on the Thursday and by Friday (a public holiday) Maxie suddenly started limping so badly that she wouldn’t even put her leg on the ground. Luckily for our bank account she was fine by the following day and back to chasing the birds out of her garden.
 
Jaz then decided to sneak into the strawberry beds – despite the fact that they were covered in netting! She always gets caught out when she does this as she’s too slow to escape being seen – or she arrives back at the house with soil all over her nose and paws – a dead giveaway really.

We came home from work one day to find that Maxie had started to dig up our 25,000 litre concrete water tank, or else she’s digging a tunnel to Australia. We’ve filled the hole in a couple of times but she just digs again whilst we’re out.

Ann had to have a serous talk with the spotty dog about vomit etiquette after she threw up all over the carpet one evening. Not only that, she did it whilst we were having dinner, and then proceeded to try and re eat the puke!

Maxie is fascinated with next door’s pet rabbit and guinea pig. Their cage and run is right by the fence so she will sit and watch closely to see what they’re doing (and possibly to check out any weaknesses in the fence so she could slip through in order to get up close and personal with them). As she’s got terrier blood in her we dread to think what would happen next!

We had a quiet Easter – went out for a drive one day, spent the rest of the week-end working in the garden – weeding, cutting down more of the berberis hedge, reinforcing fences (to protect rabbits and guinea pigs), planting more veges, reinforcing the netting over the strawberry beds, tidying the hot house and shade house, reinforcing the ground around the water tank – funny how reinforcing things features prominently in our gardening work list!!!

When we go out in the ute we have the windows down so Maxie and Jaz can get some fresh air. Maxie sticks her head out fully whilst Jaz is more refined. Eventually though both get their fill of fresh air and fall asleep.

We’ve had a huge invasion of flies this month. The whole country seems to be swamped by the irritating little beggars. We put some old net curtain up at the deck door which has helped to keep them out, but it has also confused two dogs ‘with little brains’ and they spent a day or so just standing in front of it waiting for us to ‘open’ it for them to go in and out!

Peter’s boss is very pleased with the way IT Partners has been expanding lately. When Peter first joined he was the third engineer, and now there are 9 with one more starting in June.

Ann’s school had a very good inspection last month and the final report is ‘Outstanding’. They will not have to be inspected again for five years (only a handful of all schools in New Zealand have this rating apparently). 

About 12 of us from the bonsai club went up to Auckland for the day, visiting several bonsai collections and a nursery (where we managed to purchase a few pots).

After a very dry Summer and Autumn we've had our quarterly water bill. We actually used $6.26 worth of water. This is only the second time we've had to rely on the town supply for a top up. Peter also checked the gas bottles we use to run the hob, the first one is almost empty - after 3 1/2 years.

News from home

Lisa sent us this gorgeous photo of Paige. Isn’t she beautiful (takes after her mum!)
	Mark had a role in a new movie all about Zombies. He certainly looks the part. Will let you know when it's released.

Mike wasn’t able to go out into his garden much during April as a couple of pigeons took up residence in the bird house, made a nest and laid a few eggs. He now has to wait till they’ve all gone before he can get out and do some planting, mowing, weeding and potting up.

The Icelandic volcano caused a few problems, Dave and Ann were stuck in Turkey, an old school friend of Ann's was stuck in the Algarve and one of the secretaries from Pat Ave was stuck in Italy for an extra week.