Tena koutou katoa, Hello to you all,
We began the month by having the roof sprayed to get rid of the lichen that has been building up on there. We then had to wait for over 40mm of rain before we could reconnect the downpipes to our water tank to restart collecting water. Two days later we had 77mm of rain so we didn’t have to wait that long.
Peter’s done more tidying up in the garden, mulching branches, laying weedmat and cutting up firewood.
The bonsai club meeting was all about azaleas – one of Ann’s favourite species.
Also, at the beginning of the month Peter and Sox started meeting Ann in the village after their 5.5 km walk. Peter swapped dogs – Honey got out of the car when Sox dived in. Honey then had a short, as in 200 metre, walk before all four of us drove home in the car. Sox was very happy with this arrangement as it meant she got to ride in the car every day.
Ann’s back deteriorated over a week and Peter had to borrow a wheelchair to take her to the Emergency Department at Waikato hospital. She was admitted almost immediately whilst they did tests, checks and scans – trying to find out why she’s in so much pain.
With Ann in hospital Peter had to change his early morning routine. He was up at 6.00 am and out walking Sox whilst Honey snoozed on the sofa. Then all three had breakfast before Peter let Honey out for a wander around the paddock before taking both girls for a drive around the village. Then he just had time to put some washing on before going to see Ann late morning. Then it was back to give the girls their lunch and dinner (finish any housework) then back to visit Ann before going home for a late dinner himself.
Ann tried to keep things normal by editing the minutes of the latest Hamilton bonsai club meeting and by getting dressed the first couple of days in hospital, but that proved too much after day 2 and she had to accept hospital gowns and the very sexy net knickers.
Now Peter is a great cook but Ann has always done the baking. So whilst she was in hospital Bev came round and baked the girls’ bedtime pumpkin cookies. They were a big hit.
With Ann having difficulty standing up Peter rearranged the sofas. He swapped his (Honey’s / Sox’s) sofa with the settee we brought over from the UK.
One lunch time on his way back from visiting Ann, Peter came across a traffic jam on the back roads near Vilagrad winery. A herd of cows were being moved 400m down the road to a new paddock.
Peter and the girls played host to two groups this month. On a very sunny morning on the 25th, the Bay of Plenty Bonsai Club visited us as the first stop of a three bonsai collections road trip.
That was followed on the 26th by a visit from ‘The Plantaholics’, a small garden club from Hamilton. As Peter escorted the group into the garden one lady told him that she really wasn’t interested in bonsai and came just to look at the garden. Peter gave his ‘Introduction to bonsai’ talk and showed everyone around, answering questions as they went, before having morning tea on the deck. The same lady then told Peter that she was amazed and had changed her whole view of bonsai now. A convert!
Peter did a fantastic job of hosting both groups on his own. Sox helped by going to each and every person and saying a gentle hello with her nose! Honey was her usual anti-social ‘when are they leaving?’ self, hiding around the corner well away from everyone.
Ann finally came home on Thursday 29th after a full two weeks in hospital. Her previous longest stay had been 2 days for each of her hip replacements. The staff were all amazing with their care of Ann but she was so glad to get home!
Peter decided to have a go (successfully) at making the girls’ bedtime cookies.
Peter has learned how to make the girls’ cookies – I think Ann may be out of a job!