THE SALT PATH

I read about Raynor Winn's book The Salt Path on someone's blog and put a "hold" on it in our local Library.  I forget where in the queue I was but I finally got the book about ten days ago.  It is about Raynor and her husband who set off to walk the South West Coast Path setting off from Minehead in Somerset after they lost their home and income and her husband was diagnosed with a rare terminal brain disease.

It is an excellent read.  When I had finished it Doug read it and suggested it should be compulsory reading.  Google it and you will find out more  but I give it a 10 out of 10.

OPERATUNITY

It was the Operatunity Concert again today.  There are eight concerts a year and they  take place at 11 a.m. so it is aimed at the senior members of our society.  I was looking for a friend but looking for a lady with grey hair in what I estimated to be about 1,000 people was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Anyway, the Concert was as good as the other ones we have been to.  This one was the Three Tenors - the singers are all part of the Operatunity group.  We had items including You are Love, Girls were made to Love and Kiss, Granada, Besame Mucho, Mambo Italiano, This is the Moment and Hallelujah.  There was also a soprano, the lady who, with her husband, started the company.  In spite of its size it is almost like a family and, in the middle of the concert, they stopped and sang Happy Birthday to a lady who has been to most of the concerts and is shortly to turn 100.

They are all great entertainers as well as singers and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

WARRANT OF FITNESS

We had to take the car in for its annual Warrant of Fitness today and decided to walk the long way back.

We left the Mechanics and walked along the road

past a Retirement Village

to the playing fields that are bordered by the river.  The Retirement Village runs alongside.

The river is behind the trees in the background.

Looking back towards the Retirement Village.

The River

From the road bridge looking towards the top of the Whangarei Falls

from the road bridge looking back towards the playing fields

The 51 trees planted for the Christchurch massacre victims

Looking down at the falls

and to the bottom of the Falls

Not sure what this shrub is that was alongside the pavement but it was covered in flowers and bees.

Samsung Health told me we had walked just over 4 kms and when we went to pick the car up later in the day it was 1.2 kms going straight to the Mechanics.

A very pleasant walk....and the car passed with flying colours.

KAMO SHARED PATH

When it is finished the Kamo Shared Path will run for 6.5 kms from the city centre to the suburb of Kamo (where Max and I lived - it is three years today since he died).  Doug and I have walked various parts of the Path with the Parkinson walking group at different times and, today, we re-walked part of it followed by a part that has just been opened.  It is for walkers, cyclists, skate boarders and everything except cars,vans trucks etc.  It also goes past 8 different schools making it ideal for children to ride or walk to school away from roads.  It actually runs alongside the railway line.  

The part we walked today started off flat and then rose slightly making it ideal as it was a gradual descent on the return.  

Some seats would be good for groups such as ours.  Although I haven't shown them in the photos there are actually some lovely plantings along the way as well as views into back gardens which I always enjoy.

The next stage is due to be completed later this year while the last stage is still in the planning stages.

SPRING FLOWERS

The vase of Waratahs had started to fade (my fault for not replenishing their water) so I popped into the garden quickly to find some spring flowers.

Various Alstroemeria and a clivia.  Not a lot of flowers but nice and bright.  I like colours of the vase which, from memory as it is now full of flowers, is a Crown Devon.

Much Cooler

There has been snow lower down in the island and a very cold wind has been blowing for what seems like the past couple of weeks.  I decided it would be too cold in the wind to do our normal walk so Doug suggested we drive the 2 kms down to Whareora Road and walk through the bush alongside the river to Maire Park where it would be sheltered.  We promptly set off and it was an enjoyable walk.

When we got to Mair Park Doug suggested that we carry on with the walk into town and have lunch at the Town Basin.  As it was after midday I agreed

I forget what this little building is called but it was like an apprentice's piece in that it was built prior to starting on the Hundertwasser Building so that the builders could get used to building something with no straight lines.

By walking up it I was able to get a good view of the Clivias as well as the work on the Hundertwasser Building.

 This is an artist's impression of the finished Hundertwasser Building.

We then went to Mokaba for lunch looking across to the yachts.

On the return walk I took a couple of photos of the board walk through the mangroves and the steps between two roads.

It was an enjoyable walk of about 7.5 kms with the break for lunch in the middle and for most of the time we were sheltered from the cold wind.

EARLY NEW POTATOES

Over the winter I had some potatoes that were starting to shoot so planted them.  Last week Doug got some of the beds ready for spring planting and found these lovely new potatoes. Enough for a few meals for the two of us.