Just as well we put the decorations up the weekend before last as I had another bout of vertigo this weekend and was good for nothing.  Luckily, I had improved on Monday as it was the Walking Group Morning tea. 14 had said they were coming but we ended up with 18 and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

Instead of having Christmas crackers that make a lot of rubbish I printed off just the riddles and they went down well.  

Today I have finally been to the hygienist as my previous appointments were all cancelled because of covid restrictions.  We then went over to Doug's youngest daughter's place and got her van and dog and took him to the Groomers.  She will pick him up when she finishes work.  Yesterday, she worked a 14 hour day so I hope it is a bit shorter today.

First thing this morning I downloaded our Vaccination Certificates although mine showed blank on my phone so I printed it out in the meantime.  We will have to use them from Friday when we go into a new "Traffic Light" system and Northland will start on Red mainly because of the low vaccination rates here.

The oak leaf hydrangea is looking really good this year.

The decorations in the back porch ready for yesterday's morning tea

The vegetables are doing well (and the weeds are as well and show up more in a photo!)

One lettuce picked for tea.

SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT.

 We have been very busy here but had a break today when something a little different happened.  I went into the garden and there was a huge crane in the garden behind us.  

Most of the neighbours were outside watching.  A "cabin" had been trucked to the garden a couple of houses down from us and was being lifted over the fence to the house behind.  The crane was huge there were five more extensions that could have been extended (they were going to use a smaller one but it was out of action).

The cabin and a smaller one containing a bathroom is for the couple's daughter and her husband as they had to leave their rental accommodation and properties either to rent or buy are hard to come by. 

It was actually a lovely day today but looking at the photos some clouds must have come in just as the cabin was being lifted.

I have not been blogging or viewing blogs as we have been busy in the garden as well as getting things ready for Christmas.  We put our decorations up last weekend as we have the Parkinson Walking group coming here for their Christmas morning tea on Monday.  

Covid has been slowly spreading up here and people from Auckland are to be allowed to travel out of the city prior to Christmas so it is bound to get worse. For this reason we are trying to get as much shopping as possible done beforehand.

THE TEDDIES

We haven't done our usual morning walk for a week or so and decided today was the day to start again.  We found the teddies had a new conversation.

Today was the first time we have met the "man behind the conversations" . We had a long, interesting, chat and it turns out the feathers that he had for sale a few weeks ago were peacock feathers as he does culling on a couple of nearby farms.  He asked us if we would like some and gave us these.  The colours are wonderful but don't show up well in the photo.

We also discovered that any peacocks culled are put to good use as food for the lions in the nearby Lion Park.

FOXGLOVES AND WIND

A dull overcast, windy day here today.  No rain but that is forecast for tomorrow.  We will see.  Foxgloves have self seeded all over the garden but they do not like wind so I have just picked a few that had blown over.

Meanwhile the ones left in the garden are getting a hammering along with the roses.