An enjoyable long weekend

No photos for this one as I don't have anything in particular to show. I might go and take some tomorrow for a garden update.

This Monday was Labour Day, which means little to me except that we got a long weekend out of it. I do enjoy not having to get up for work on a Monday morning!  We fit a lot into it, too.

Friday night - Operation Entertainment Book dinner out with Skry in the Flying Burrito Brothers. I haven't done these calculations for a while and there's a backlog, so bear with me:

+ 41.10
+ 30.00 (Mud House Winery lunch a few weeks ago)
=======

$ 71.10 total saved

+ 71.10
+ 30.00 (dinner with Skry in Simo's restaurant for my birthday)
=======

$ 101.10 total saved

+ 101.10
+ 24.00 (FBB dinner)
=======
$ 125.10 total saved

Alright, so that's the Operation Entertainment Book update out of the way!

Labour Day is traditionally when NZ gardeners plant out their tomatoes and peppers and other frost-hating plants. We did not realise that apparently we should have waited for the actual day, and planted ours out on Saturday, on a lovely hot sunny afternoon. Eight hours later, we had rain, wind, and hailstones! Our poor tomatoes :(

Oh well, the rest of the weekend was lovely, and today was an absolute scorcher. I planted some rose bushes and a swan plant (to attract monarch butterflies) and sat on the deck watching the chickens while Skry was off watching some wrestling match at a friend's house. It's all good.

More chicken stuff

We have been getting used to having chickens in the front garden. They get attacked by cats (bad), and they eat my flowers (bad). They have decimated the sweet peas, and made inroads on the sweet william. 

This is the very bold Sean Henn and Beulah, in the middle of my flower garden. They know that they're naughty!

 

But they are lovely to have around, pecking inquisitively at our shoes, wedding rings, and zips, and making contented clucking noises as they sleep on the doormat. 

Cluck Norris sleeps like the dead, literally. She looks like a dead chicken when she's dozing in the sunshine.

Isn't it the picture of urban bliss?

This little piggy stayed at home

One of the main banks here, BNZ, has really cute pigs in its advertisements. Really, they're possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8Y9j9yM6Dc

Skry went down to our local branch and got a piggy bank for me as part of my birthday present! I am delighted. His name is Hamish and he will eat all my spare change, then vomit it out when he's full.

Introducing: Cluck, Sean, and Beulah

Our chickens have arrived! They are currently foraging for juicy insects in the undergrowth around the trees in our garden.


I now proudly introduce Cluck Norris, Sean Henn, and Beulah. I will say up front that I named one of them, and Skry named the other two. You will just have to guess which ones!

The chicken coop is still a work in progress. Things haven't gone smoothly, and I know it's not the most professional looking building, but it'll do for our three girls until we have the will and desire to provide them with something that'll last for years. This should certainly last through a few seasons anyway before it falls apart, and since it's our first building I think we did quite well, considering.

Skry is still out there building the run. I caught him imitating one of the chickens - or maybe it was she who was imitating him. It's hard to tell!



They don't seem at all fazed by the noise of drilling and hammering, and are quite happy pottering about scratching for tasty morsels.


They're still only babies really, and won't start laying until around December. But you can be sure I will keep you posted as soon as our first egg arrives!

A night out

Our friends Mark and Gillian stayed with us for a few days this week, at the end of their holiday around New Zealand. They've been travelling around in a camper van for the last few weeks. Last night was their last night here before flying to Oz, so we took them out on the town.

Our first stop was Yellow Cross. This is a really nice bar with lots of outdoor seating, a stone's throw away from my and Skry's office. I don't drink beer, but apparently they sell some nice ones, and it's always a popular venue. Although it's not necessarily popular with everybody - our barmaid informed us that she was only working there for one more week, and after she left she was going to burn the place down. Hmmm, some workplace issues there I think.



After a couple of drinks, we went to Two Fat Indians for food. I took Skry by surprise when I ordered a vegetarian starter and a vegetarian main course! It's something I might do more often, though, because Indian restaurants here tend to use a lot of brown chicken meat and I really don't like the way it tastes. And lamb tends to be very fatty. I'd rather eat lentils and chick peas than chew on another lump of gristle!


By the time we finished our large portions of food, everybody was feeling a bit full and sleepy (well, everyone apart from Skry, who has more energy than the rest of us put together). We went to the Twisted Hop for one more drink and then headed home. It was a really enjoyable night and the chat never stopped until bedtime. I would like more of this kind of thing!

Blog layout

Please bear with me while I faff about with the layout and colours here. The orange template I was using somehow got broken, so I need something else, but am not quite sure what. You might get a new look every day for a while!

Living Room - Before and After

We have finally almost finished painting the living room - just need to put an extra coat on the corner behind the telly, which accidentally got missed. We painted most of the walls with Resene Quarter Spanish White, and one wall in Resene Cioccolato. In the tin, it looks like melted milk chocolate - mmm.

Before:

After (please ignore the curtains and lampshades, which WILL be replaced at some point):

More mystery plants

Yes folks, it's another update about our house/garden. You must be sick of these by now! But we aren't doing a whole lot else at the moment, other than chipping away at the work here.

The daffodils have died down, and I've done some weeding, which revealed some more mystery plants coming up. I don't have a clue what they are, but we have them in both the front and back gardens. It looks like they're going to start blooming soon.



The garden is full of bloom. Camellias, magnolias, tulips, the last remaining daffodils, and lots of other things that I can't put any names to. The old apple tree is going to be in bloom soon, and so is Skry's little lime tree. I have no idea what lime flowers look like, but it'll be fun to find out!

UPDATE: My friend Linda identified the mystery plant. It is called Solomon's Seal. I looked it up on the internet, and was surprised to find that it is edible.  Here is an excerpt from the Wild Vegetarian Cookbook, which mentions it.