Wood Stacking: End of Day 1

I.  Am.  Exhausted.  ! ! !  🙂

But very happy with my progress – lookity lookity!

And with a grand total of roughly 650 logs having been moved from one stack to t’other, I can now definitely see a dent in the pile – here’s the ‘before’ shot again, taken at 8.26am this morning, with an ‘after’ shot taken at 6.16pm this evening:

     

Lookin’ good, huh?? 🙂 🙂 🙂

And Henry Lee slept through it all – so much for him being my Chief Cheerleader and Sideline Supporter – ha!  I might just have to dock his wages and tell him he has to find his own supper tonight …

Fading beauty …

Apart from stacking logs for most of today, I did take some time out to photograph some dead flowers (yellow roses and white fresias) on my windowsill … I know, it doesn’t sound very exciting, does it? But because they’ve been sitting in the sun every day since 22 February, when I bought them, it’s almost as if they’ve been dried, keeping all their petals and just losing their colour (although the leaves have kept theirs):  here, have a look at these photos which I hope show what I mean:

     

     

(Ooh, look there’s a couple of aphids on that fresia – obviously not as dead as I thought it was!)

Don’t you think they have a sort of beauty?  I like the way you can see all the veins and capillaries in the roses, and I love the colour they’ve gone.  Sort of makes me even more reluctant to throw them out! 🙂

Well, having had such an energetic day I am more than ready to hit the sack tonight – I suspect I might have a little trouble moving when I wake up in the morning, the joints are starting to stiffen a little already!  But I’m sure a few barrowloads will soon fix that 😉  The forecast is fine again for tomorrow, only 23°C – but then we did get up to 28°C today, and they only forecast 25°C, so I’m picking it’ll be much the same kind of a day, which suits me just fine.

Talk to you all again tomorrow – and I’m still waiting to hear how you’re going on the Stinky Pinkies …

Afternoon tea: Progress report

 

2:49  Hmmph!  Nothing’s changed here, then …

3:10  Looking good!  Time for a cuppa …

3:11  Nothing like a good (long) cat nap …

3:16  Yup, she’s a warm day all right!  (Although this was in the direct sunlight …  only 21°C in the shade)

3:26  Definitely looking nibbled at the edges! 🙂

Righto, back to work (for some of us, that is – His Nibs is still resting !!)

Wood stacking: Progress report

 

09:25  Tools ready, all set to start work.

Well, some of us are ready – others aren’t so keen …

10:15  Almost an hour into the job and only 110 logs of wood moved so far:  so much to do, so little done!! 🙂

11:34  That looks like good progress – but it’s still only 240 logs stacked, and a gazillion more to go … whose idea was it to get so much firewood anyway???

11:50  Meanwhile, some of us have merely changed our sleeping position …

11:54  You can see what a sunny day it is now – thankfully I’m still able to work pretty much in the shade.  And I can definitely see a dent in that pile of wood – all right, it is only a little dent, but a dent is a dent! 🙂 🙂

12:28  Sunny over here now as well, but making good progress:  time to stop for lunch 🙂

12:31  !!!!!

Holiday today … but work ahead …

Such a lovely feeling to wake just after seven this morning and realise it’s a holiday, so no need to get out of bed just yet 🙂  So you know what I did?  Got up anyway!!  Because this is what awaits me today:

Yup, my load of wood was delivered yesterday, so guess what I’m going to be doing today!  And probably tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day … 😉

It’s a real misty, moisty morning out there, set to burn off during the day and head up to 25ºC, so I guess the sooner I start, the more I’ll get done before the heat kicks in …

I’ll be back later in the day with progress photos – I know you’ll all be urging me on from the sidelines! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Tales at the Pallet Pavilion

In one of my previous blogs I told you about the Pallet Pavilion (see that post here), a Gap Filler project which was constructed on an empty site in Christchurch and opened in December 2012.

I learned from a colleague today (thanks, Sharon!) of a wonderful event coming up next weekend at the Pavilion, from Friday 5 through to Sunday 7 April, and thought I’d share some details of this fun event with you, just in case any of you felt like popping over/down/up to Christchurch for the weekend to join in 😉

Here’s a poster advertising the event:

And here’s some more information (further details will be added to the Facebook page (see link below) over the coming week – check it out for the programme):

Story Festival: Tales @ the Pallet Pavilion, Cnr Durham and Kilmore Streets

Starting Friday 5th April 6.30pm and events continuing through to Sunday 7th April

Come on down on Friday with a picnic and your favourite stories, poems, jokes and songs to share – or just come and listen. Doc Drumheller will be sharing his poetry and getting us rocking and chilling with his original songs and covers from some of the great storyteller musicians: Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and more … Over the weekend there’ll be awesome performances by various local artists and you, too, can be part of sharing stories and creating collective stories with words and music. All ages and all experiences! Entry/participation by koha/donation. Wet weather venue: South Library, 66 Colombo Street. Check out http://www.facebook.com/TalesAtThePalletPavilion for programme details (you can view this even if you aren’t on Facebook).

So, will we see you there? 🙂

Stinky Pinkies

A few months ago, while researching an answer to a grammatical query from a colleague, I came across a site pertaining to grammar and composition which I found very informative, and which included an article on “Stinky Pinkies”.  I’d never heard this term before, but a stinky pinky is a sort of riddle where the answer is two rhyming words. 

Example:  Q.  What is a smelly finger?  A.  A stinky pinky. 

(Which is obviously where the term came from …)

So, I think it’s time you all had a quick test on this topic – and, I want to warn you, there is to be NO CHEATING, ie,  no racing away and getting the help of my friend and yours, Mr Google, you understand??!

Good!  Now we’ve got that clear, here are the questions:

A chubby feline = ?

A deceased Marxist = ?

A dismal singing group = ?

A ditch in Paris = ?

The home of a small rodent = ?

A large toupee = ?

A supervisor in a bad mood = ?

A wet puppy = ?

A young cat in love = ?

A superior pullover = ?

A strange-looking goatee = ?

A better café = ?

A fat fish = ?

Let me know when you’re finished and I’ll tell you how well you did 😉

And now a few pictures to help soothe any jangled nerves … these were taken this evening in St James Park in Papanui:  it’s a wee gem of a park, with a lovely rose garden at one of the entrances, and two impressive avenues of enormous deciduous trees which are now turning colour and dropping their leaves, so it’s got a great autumn look and feel to it at present.

   

   

  

   

  

   

  

  

And one final one: stopped on the side of the road on the way home to capture the setting sun, only to realise that I had stopped in the middle of a drama:  Farmer Bill trying to get three sheep which had strayed onto the road, back into their paddock – it was only when I downloaded the photo when I got home that I realised I had caught the sheep and the farmer in the photo too:   looking directly into the sun as I was, I hadn’t even seen them!  (Apologies if the photo’s a bit dark – I’ve tried to brighten it up a little, but didn’t want to spoil the effect of the sun poking out from under the clouds …) 

Bath time in the gardens

With it being Tuesday today, once again I had some time between finishing work and my bridge game at 7.30pm, so off to the Botanic Gardens I went (yes, yes, I know, again??!)  But the evenings are so lovely at the moment, and what better place to capture some of that golden evening light?

 

   

   

Making my way back to the car, I spotted a little flurry of avian activity to my left and on moving closer, I discovered it was evening bath time, where water had gathered in the hollow of what appeared to be a tyre rut just to the side of the path:  I guess with rain being virtually non-existent for some days now, any bathing opportunity is to be seized on, no matter how rudimentary the facilities are! 🙂

 

  Lookout keeping an eye on me …

       Splish, splash, I was havin’ a bath …

     Still keeping an eye on me …

    Woah, it’s getting crowded around here!

 

  Ah, that feels better!

I smiled all the way back to the car! 🙂 🙂

Things botanical

Took a walk through the Botanic Gardens after a lunchtime meeting I had today – it was a beautiful warm, sunny day and there were lots of people (and insects) out enjoying themselves as I was.

      

   

There’s a bit of construction work just beginning in one part of the gardens, with the building of a new information centre which is due to be completed by the end of 2013.  They’ve got quite a nice story board up on the protective fence which surrounds the project, explaining what’s going to be put up and also giving a bit of history of the gardens, given that this year is their 150th year celebration.  I also liked the ‘windows’ cut into the fence at various places, which will allow you to view the construction as it is carried out – it looks as though it’s going to be a rather impressive structure!

             

I always love visiting the gardens, there’s always something to have a look at, and the bird life is quite prolific and, as per my post of a couple of days ago, quite friendly too! 🙂

Here are a few more flower pictures I took on that previous visit as well …

 

Am I right in thinking that the first 4 of these are … zinnias???  And that the pink one at the end is a nerine lily??  Love flowers, but I’m darned if I can remember many of their names!  (Being the keen gardeners they were, my parents up in that great garden in the sky are probably rolling their eyes at my ignorance!)

Well, I think that’s enough botanical stuff for tonight – tomorrow we’ll move on to how to achieve world peace, shall we?  See you then! 🙂 🙂

 

PS  Forgot to say how much I’m enjoying the NZ vs England cricket test at present:  go, NZ Black Caps!!! 🙂

Sunday night and all’s well

It’s been a day of rest for me today – all that walking at the Show yesterday meant I wasn’t very inclined to do much today!

Spent a good portion of the day sorting through all the photos taken yesterday and putting them onto a new page in this blog (Malvern A&P Show:  23 March 2013), which I hope you’ll enjoy looking through – it was a fun day and I don’t think I saw one glum face the whole time I was there, so obviously everyone else was enjoying themselves as well 🙂

Easter weekend coming up in a few days, and I’ve planned ahead and arranged an extra day off on the Tuesday after Easter as well, giving me a 5-day break, during which I’m hoping to get back to some quilting, catch up on some reading, and – providing it’s been delivered, which I’m hoping will be done by Thursday – moving and stacking 18 cubic metres of firewood 🙂  (I feel I might need a few more days R&R by the time I get all that put away under cover!)

Almost time tonight to feed the cats, make a nice hot chocolate, and head off to bed with a good book – just about to start one called “Everyday Matters”, a memoir by Danny Gregory :

“Danny Gregory and his wife, Patti, were in love.  Their baby, Jack, was ten months old; life was pretty swell.  And then Patti fell under a subway train and was paralyzed from the waist down.  In a world where nothing seemed to have much meaning, Danny decided to teach himself to draw, and what he learned stunned him.  Suddenly things had colour again, and value.  The results is Everyday Matters, his journal of discovery, recovery, and daily life in New York City.  It is as funny, insightful, and surprising as life itself.”

The interesting thing about this book is that it appears to be presented almost in comic form, ie with lots of drawings and sort of hand-written text – could be a bit of a challenge for me to adjust to that, but it’s only a slim volume, so I’m sure I can cope 😉

What’s on your reading list at present?

This and that

What glorious autumn weather we’re having at the moment!  Beautiful blue skies, lots of sunshine and mild temperatures albeit an occasional moderate easterly (which is always our coolest breeze).  Went for a walk in Burnside Park at lunchtime on Thursday and Friday and it was very pleasant – the little bit of rain we had a few days ago has freshened up the playing fields and they’ve regained some of the greenness which they had lost in the long, hot summer we’ve had.  Mind you, autumn is definitely upon us now – just watching the leaves drifting off the trees the other afternoon made me very much aware of that!  Time to order in the winter firewood (done) and arrange to have the chimney swept (yet to do), and make sure the electric blanket is in good working order! 🙂  Daylight saving will be finishing in another couple of weeks as well (3.00am on Sunday 7 April is when we officially turn back the clocks) – that’s when it really hits home with me, because suddenly those lovely long evenings are no longer, and I know we’re definitely heading towards winter.   However, just to keep things positive, in the words of the poet Shelley, “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”  (I’ll have to keep reminding myself of this come June and July, as I battle a bitterly cold southerly storm or gingerly navigate icy roads after a good heavy frost – walks in the park at lunchtime might be few and far between then!!)

Just on that note of autumn, when I was going through my photos the other night I came across some I’d taken on 23 March last year of a tree just down the road from work which was an absolute picture at that time ..

And just to show what a wonderfully warm (and long) summer we’ve had, here are pictures of the same tree taken on Friday 22 March this year …

Quite extraordinary, isn’t it?  I was really intrigued as to why there is such a difference, so did a bit of Googling and found out that once the hours of daylight start reducing, as they do in the autumn, it’s the combination of this plus cool nights which cause the autumn colours:  and since our nights haven’t been that cool at all until very recently, that explains why no autumn colours yet.  Still, it does mean that that pleasure still lies ahead! 🙂

Now, I don’t know about your Monday mornings, but if I’m to be honest, they’re not normally my favourite time of the week.  Monday of this week, however, was a very different experience, as I joined 98 of my colleagues in the first round of presentations of long-service awards to those who have served at least 10, 20, 30 or 40 years of service with Christchurch City Council.  Given that there are actually over 600 staff who are eligible, you’ll appreciate why it’s being done in batches rather than all at once!  I qualified for the “at least 10 years” (I’ve completed nearly 16, but they’re being presented in decades of service rather than individual years), and I have to say it was a rather special occasion.  I’d like to think that I might make it through to the 20 years legion as well, but after that … well, not so sure, we’ll just wait and see.  We each received a certificate and a rather nice little plaque which, if I had a mantelpiece, would certainly be installed there with a fair amount of pride and pleasure.  Really nice to have our contributions acknowledged, and it certainly started my week in the best possible way.

I had a lovely day at the Malvern Show today (oops, yesterday – yes, it’s after midnight again!) – lovely fine, warm day, with a temperature of 24°C:  perfick, just perfick!  I’ve just spent a couple of hours going through the 400+ photos which I took (thank goodness for digital cameras!) to whittle them down to a more manageable number, which proved a tough task:  so much so, that I’ve decided to create a separate page just for the show, otherwise today’s post would go on and on and on! 🙂  That way you can dip in at your leisure as you please (or not, if agricultural shows aren’t your cup of tea).  But just to encourage you to have a look (once I get them uploaded, which won’t be tonight now), here are a few to keep you going …

       

Take care in the meantime 🙂