Kia ora,

We had a few bouts of strong winds at the start of the month causing three of Ann's bonsai to blow over break the pots.

Our microwave finally bit the dust after about 15 years and we had to buy a new one. Of course the new one is more powerful so the power levels and timings that we’ve been using for cooking etc. are now all wrong and we’ve had to go back to basics with everything.

Our red robin hedge is stunning in colour and the corokia hedge has lots of little yellow flowers.

Our vege beds are growing well but Ann has had to put up some netting to stop little paws from digging.
	Ann found a place to put our new sculpture.

We woke up one morning to ‘Poomageddon’ in the garage. Poor Jaz had needed the toilet during the night but refused to go out in the garden because there was a howling gale and really heavy rain so she wee’d and poo’d in the garage – which wouldn’t have been so bad if she hadn’t slipped in it. She was covered in excrement, and had managed to smear it all over the garage floor and walls, especially where the dog bed was. Despite Peter needing to get to work we had to get her in the shower and hose her down, then I had to wash the garage floor before we could get anywhere near the cars.

The grass is growing faster than we can mow at the moment. Ann tried to keep up with it whilst on holiday but the grass was quite wet which meant the mower kept clogging up and the catcher is too heavy for her to lift off so she can clear the chute. So she mowed until the catcher was full, then had to wait for Peter to come home and clear it, next day more mowing until the catcher was full … and so on. It took four days to do everywhere – and by that time the first area to be mowed was almost ready for mowing again!

Ann continues to have physio on her back which is steadily improving.

Ann made plum jam and plum chutney. The chutney is maturing in the pantry – should be ready for Christmas but she let the jam burn so it has a 'lovely' burnt taste now. After three weeks of trying to get the pan clean she admitted defeat and agreed to buy Peter a replacement.

Once again Ann was on the move at school - this time she moved into one of the relocated and refurbished classrooms. Peter and the girls came in one weekend to help her move all her stuff and set up the computer and smartboard.

The bonsai club celebrated its 30th birthday at our annual show. A lot of hard work went into the setup and running but it was worth it. We had around 300 paying members of the public through the doors over the weekend, plus a lot of spare trees and pots on sale. We managed to sell nearly $400 of our surplus trees. One of the sales tables on Sunday.
Two of our trees
	Gordon stopped with us over the show weekend - Maxie made sure he was welcome.

News from Home

Mike enjoyed a trip into Peterborough. He managed to do all his shopping and visit his favourite street café for a hot chocolate. No ‘L’ plates – watch out!
	Savouring the delicious taste of a hot chocolate.