Market Day

Ready to start selling our wraps for market day lunch. Ryan Displays the Rocket Oil which was oil flavoured by herbs and chillies.

Leah is our managing director and opened the show.

Well the curfuffle of market day is over. We made 218 wraps for lunch, and it is always a bit of a mission. This time we didn't have such good co-operation from the other staff and with 2 people away at religious meetings we ran really short of time to get the lunches made. Still, lots of good learning went on.

The spring gales have started - making everybody tetchy. Bud burst is just starting to happen on the vineyard.

Dont fence me in

We've finally got around to organising a new fence. We had the first of the spring gales the other day and the corrigated iron fence was looking fairly frail. It looks quite different now that Neil has taken this one down. His uncle was a champoin daffodil grower so it was a great time of year to do it. The new fence will be colour steel - not terribly glamorous, but function for keeping the hens and dogs out. He had just been out possum shooting and they always get paid in cash so he bought me his share in cash!!! We were just recovering from all these $notes when David Meban (buyer of vineyard) turned up with the roading engineers, so that is looking a lot more positive too.

Market day at school was not without its problems and we still have a few jars of Rocket oil to sell. However the hankies went well. We had quite a few of the egg wraps left over, but for some reason we made an extra 16 of these.

Out for a duck

What do you get when your dog dies? All manner of livestock, but mainly this pair of ducks, come to live in your back yard. Such big poohs!! Tomorrow we are going for a walk out at Anna's followed by breakfast together. She has had the opportunity to make duck sausages, so I hope these two don't think they should get too comfortable.

A lovely week weatherwise, but we have hardly noticed with our wonderful new heat pumps. The daffodils are out very early - I doubt if they will last to the official Daffodil day so bought this wonderful pot as part of their annual fundraiser.

Next week is Market Day for my year 9 and 10 commerce class. We have made spiced oil which they have named Rocket Oil, hankies - Swanky Hankies and this week we will be up to our armpits in mascarpone which we are making, selling with a recipe book and also making wraps with fillings of

1. Mascarpone +salmon+carrots+chives

2. Mascarpone +egg +parsley+lettuce

3. Mascarpone + ham+cheese+pineapple

4 Mascarpone +apricots+dates+ chocolate chips.

Yes, putting the smmooooth in sweet and savoury.

We have the following Monday off as a midterm break, I hope to get an extra game of golf in that week.

Cough Cough and splutter

I remember as a child driving up Fenton Street past Gough, Gough and Hammer and calling it Cough, cough and Splutter. Well that has been me this week. A gut wrenching cough - my muscles - I was going to say pentecostal muscles but I think its the intercostal muscles between your ribs - are aching. I was sent to the spare room to sleep. No fever, no body aches or other symptoms that might suggest swine flu. Today has been gorgeous weather, and I cant believe that I am starting to shake this cough off. Lets hope I sleep well tonight.
We had heat pumps put in today - a large one in the living room and a wee one in the bedroom. Unfortunately they haven't been checked by an electrician and certified so we are not allowed to use them until tomorrow. I had the Brethren firm come and do them.
Just 4 months now until the sale of our property. The bad news is: it looks like our real estate agent has died - he had already been paid, so the deal better be completed. The good news is : The caretakers house at the racecourse has been shifted off, preparatory to putting the road in up the racecourse entrance to the back of our place. Who knows eh?
Off for my dose of cough mixture.

Somewhere over the rainbow.

Feeling a bit blue this week with no Bella to greet me when I come home. Everybody who knew her has been sorry to hear that she has gone. Here she is enjoying raceday from our Scotsman's grandstand. I've taken her tins of dogfood out to the SPCA and as we didn't have her cremated was able to give them a good donation. We had thought of having her cremated at $150 and sprinking her over the vineyard, but then I would have been unsettled when they start digging it up next year.
One thing that hasn't left us has been the rain, although it has lifted today so I hope I can get my roses pruned. That was a favourite spot for Bella to stash her bones and she loved going back to them weeks later and having a good old gnaw.

Went to the school play "A tale of Two Cities" this week. It was brilliant. The only problem is that because there is no back stage area to the hall, all the props must be carted in from a nearby classroom which makes the scene changes very long. We were asked to be there at 7.15pm and I didn't get home until 1/4 to 12.

Fortunately this was just the length of time that the English cricketers needed to beat the Aussies, so Duncan had a late night too.

Having people from The school's head office this week so I had better do some lesson plans. Duncan is having his annual frame sale, so they are very busy.

Oops, here comes the rain again.

Girls on the go

Millies new clothes courtesy of grandma.

While Duncan and Alex met at the goal mouth at the Oval, us girls went shopping. Millie is very obliging, and while I am trying on things she will strike poses infront of the mirror and check out fabrics on the rack. Jill left us while she went to a meeting and after lunch we waited outside the bank at the Gardens in North East Valley. Jill rang to say she was on her way to pick us up at 1.35pm and at 1.45pm the bank was robbed!!! We weren't so lucky when it came to the earthquake the following night. It went on and on, and so finally we got the kids out of bed and took them under the solid kitchen table. Alex barely woke up, but Millie was quite concerned, but at least she knew the drill - Act Like a Turtle. We had a fantastic night at Plato, one of Dunedin's acclaimed restaurants. Jill phoned ahead to see if we could get half portions, but when we arrived they offered fish (in tempura batter) and chips. Even though I am not very fond of fish this was gorgeous. OK OK so I was sitting next to Millie and just had to try this out.

Jill and Millie do "cats craddle"

We had a lovely card from the Vet in sympathy for Bella dying and this has settled me down. Even though I am in theory in favour of euthanasia I still had nagging doubts about putting Bella down. Of course, all futile as the vet was very sure that she couldn't be saved, only we could find out what had killed her, although the vet was very sure it was old age and catatrophic failure of organs. Will see if the vineyard sells, if not we will get another dog.

Shuffling on Ice

Ok I know Jill has posted BLOG with this name, but really, when grandparents are on the loose, they can shuffle on ice too.
Here is Duncan's lessons on ice. Alex was the teacher.





Step 1 Around the rim, holding on to the wall





Step 2 Using the sled.





Step 3 Freestyle - yah!





Step 4 At Pace!!!!





Step 5 On yer back - I didn't take a photo of this as I was horrified how Duncan's head hit the ice, yet couldn't stop laughing.

I think it was the huge relief as I had just worked up the courage to give it a go when Duncan fell and I decided to just stick to the photo taking.
Back home and coping with the lack of a welcoming committee - see last Blog of Byebye Bella