Kia ora,
It was very hot for quite a few days with Ann and the girls sheltering inside with the fan and A/C on during their afternoon naps. We’ve only been managing to work in the garden during the mornings and summer pruning the bonsai has been done mostly on the deck under shade. However most of Peter’s jobs mean he’s outside working – mowing, pruning the hedges, mulching the prunings etc.
Summer flowers are out in force with agapanthus and roses covering the verges and hedgerows around the village.
Ann is getting more mobile, her physio now has her using crutches outside the house to help improve her balance and strength. Zoomie is still her helper inside as dogs and crutches don’t really mix.
Honey had surgery to remove three large skin tags from her belly and leg. Altogether she had 8 stitches on her underside and she hated having to wear her ‘Cone of Shame’. First we tried putting one of Peter’s old T-shirts on her but it was too big so she ended up wearing one of Ann’s old pyjama tops with the sleeves removed.
Ann and Honey on their morning stroll around the paddock.
Honey has found a new spot to keep cool – under one of the camellia’s (thank goodness for the top which is protecting the sutures on her belly).
Sox tries to keep on Peter’s good side.
Our new fence has gone in. Peter cut down the pittosporums before the contractors arrived to give them extra space.
Sandra drove out from Hamilton one day and took Ann out to lunch at Amber nurseries cafe in Cambridge. Then it was back to Te Awamutu for some clothes shopping.
Peter came second in the “Decorated Tree” competition at the club meeting. His tree is Cotoneaster “Bear Berry” on a piece of driftwood in a homemade pot with black sand (our nearest beach at Raglan has black volcanic sand), a surfboard and a pile of driftwood ready for a bonfire.
We also had a catch up with Christine over brunch at Churchills in Te Awamutu.
This bridge is at the southern end of the village. Two trucks decided to have an argument over who went over the bridge first. The smaller truck managed to take out part of the side wall of the bridge. Fortunately no one was hurt.
For Christmas Ann had a dozen books ……….
………. whilst Peter got a couple of new locos, a water tower kit and a load of track for the second part of the helix on his railway.
The girls enjoyed a pre-luncheon snooze in the garden on Christmas day whilst we pruned some of the bonsai trees before it got too hot to work outside.
The mower broke again! This time on Boxing day, Peter had mowed the garden and was working out the front when one of the bearings on the mower blades seized. Of course there was nowhere open to repair it till January.
Peter was working at the Hamilton Gardens on both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. He finished early on Christmas Eve as it was quiet and the Gardens closed early at 4pm for the day. On New Year’s Eve he was on his roaming shift training a new volunteer.
Peter and the girls were on cat and chook feeding duty over Christmas, One day Honey decided it was her turn to drive to Bev’s.
Happily for Sox, Peter managed to get her out of the driver’s seat.
New years eve was quiet except for the few fireworks that some villagers just had to light up. Luckily Pirongia is a rural village so early to bed and early to rise kind of people. New Zealand has a law which means fireworks can only be sold to the public on the five days up to and including Guy Fawkes night. Currently there is a bill working its way through parliament to ban sales of fireworks to the public completely.
< November January 2026 >