REFLECTIONS AND YACHTS

Our Parkinson Walk was around the Loop today.  The only photo I took was of the reflections of the supports of the Bascule Bridge.

The other day we read that the world's largest aluminium yacht the Sea Eagle II had arrived in Whangarei so, after our walk, we drove down to have a look at it.  It is the one on the right.  The one on the left is closer and is called Clan VIII

We then noticed the scaffolding and white cover thinking it was something on shore but when we went to investigate it was another "yacht" Senses, from Georgetown.

It is great for Whangarei that all these super yachts are coming here for repairs and/or maintenance.

If you should wish to hire any of these yachts the costs are on the links.

WHANGAREI BIRD RECOVERY CENTRE

 We have a wonderful Bird Recovery Centre here in Whangarei run by a husband and wife.  They need funds towards a new boat which is used, among other things, for rescuing and releasing sea birds.  We read recently about the publication of a book of poems and drawings with a strong conservation message where all proceeds go to the Bird Recovery Centre.  

Today we went in to town to buy a couple of copies, one for us and one for a friend's birthday.  It was larger than I expected, 170 pages and I  have only given it a quick glance but here are a couple of items.

Being a soft cover book it was not easy to photograph.

MONARCH BUTTERFLIES

Because it was so wet yesterday, rain all day, Doug did not let any of the butterflies out of the cage.  Luckily, in spite of the forecast for rain, it is sunny today so he has let 16 out.  He puts them onto a piece of shade cloth on the mandarin tree.  Half of them flew away immediately but there are seven here still drying out.

When we went back indoors I noticed Doug had one on his shoulder.

LATER:

Doug released another 3 butterflies.  19  a daily record.

Just checked at 5 p.m. 2 more. They will wait till tomorrow if fine.

FIRST FIRE OF THE SEASON

 A miserable day today - windy and wet.  It is not really cold (reached 20° C) but the damp feel has led me to light the fire.

I suppose it will be the first of many over the next few months.  Que sera sera

AUTUMN

 It feels quite autumnal today.  We had an unexpected shower this morning and then went out and did some heavy pruning (mainly cutting back some Tea tree) that was encroaching on  a punga fern, a guava and our lemon tree.  We also did some mulching.  

While we were doing this I was cooking some vegetables for a cream soup - two types of sweet potato, squash, carrot, a small beetroot, onion, garlic, potato, red lentils, cooked in stock.

We ended up having a late lunch (our main meal) then I whizzed the vegies  up with a stick mixer.  We will be having it for our evening meal shortly.

Bobby seems to be progressing well and is quite relaxed.

Our cream and red roses continue to bloom.  

The dahlias are just about finished.  They are about 4 feet high.

Still a bit more trimming to do on the tea tree but the other plants now have some light.

The finished soup.  It almost looks like tomato although there is none in it.  It is the small amount of beetroot giving it the colour.  I will heat some up right now for our meal.

VINEGAR HILL

Today, the Parkinson Walking Group did a walk from Vinegar Hill Road.  On the left is a stream and a few years ago it was planted with Natives.  The main tree here is Manuka (as in Manuka Honey).

A little further on it opens up and you can see through to the hills

Looking up into a large Pohutukawa tree

On the right of the path is the Kamo Pony Club and as one goes further on the rear of one of the Retirement Villages in the area is visible.

We had eleven walkers today

It was a pleasant walk on a pleasant day.

After the walk everyone came back here for tea/coffee, hot cross buns, Easter eggs, corn bread and various biscuits and plenty of chatter.

TIME FLIES BY.

It has been another busy week.  The forecast heavy rain did not eventuate until last night and it was steady rather than heavy.

On Tuesday it stayed fine.  Doug had an appointment in town in the morning and nearly 3 year old great-grand-daughter came for lunch with her mother (the highlight of the week).  Unfortunately, they could only stay for 90 minutes as we had appointments in town in the afternoon as well.  We then did a little shopping.

Wednesday and Thursday flew by.  I had my exercise class on Wednesday - designed to prevent falls and have also done some baking.

Doug has been working on the outside covered deck.  I am sure we are not the only ones who have people coming and do a tidy up.  We have the Parkinson walking group coming for their caffeine fix on Monday.  Not sure how many, it was 16 last week but is usually about 12 or 13.    Doug has built a new bench and made room so that we can have electric jugs there for tea coffee making and putting out the mugs etc.  He has also given it all a thorough clean.  It all gets regular vacuuming and brushing and I am sure no-one but us will notice any difference but it is a good excuse to do an "Autumn Clean" getting ready for winter.

The temperatures have been good - in the 20's with 25° on Wednesday.  At least with the rain we had last night we won't have to water the garden tonight.

Tomorrow is Market day again and we will try to be early as it is usually busier on Public Holiday weekends.  Daylight Savings ends tomorrow night thank goodness as it is still dark at 7 a.m. and we are tending to sleep in.

Flowers have been moved from the tables ready for Monday.

Space for the Electric Jugs and two new boxes that Doug made to hold gardening bits and pieces with the new bench top above the shoes for mugs etc.