Playing with Water

It’s been a windy old weekend, with bits of foliage broken off trees and littering the road, we noticed.  A branch from one of our trees in the front garden was snapped and left hanging in the strong winds, so that had to be cut right off and removed.  Just as well we are home this weekend and not towing the caravan in these conditions.  And while we are home, we have been playing with water.  It all started yesterday when Robin decided to wash my little blue car.  We were going out for an evening  meal and Robin dislikes going out in a dirty car.  So there he was, with a bucket and soapy water, and he finished the job off with a hose down.

Hosing down the car

Then today it was my turn to slosh a bucket of hot soapy water around.  I decided it was well past the time to clean our (one and only) micro venetian blind so laid it out on the wooden picnic table and washed it down, one tiny slat at a time.  This job took ages, and I had to make sure that the wind didn’t pick the blind up and blow it off the table.  Water went everywhere, and it was a good job the excess just trickled through the decking onto the ground below.  There must be a better way of doing this, I thought.

Cleaning the venetian blind on the picnic table

Hanging the blind up in the garage to dry I had a brainwave – why didn’t I think of cleaning the blind while it was suspended in here, instead of trying to do it on the picnic table?  I’ll know for next time.

Drip drying and clean as a whistle

Meanwhile, Robin was working on the other side of the deck with his bright yellow Karcher water blaster.  This machine really makes a difference to cleaning up the deck, getting rid of all the winter grime from the boards.  He was on a roll when the deck was finished, and ran the water blaster over the picnic table and my sun lounger.  What a guy - he’ll be ready for a cool drink after all that work. 

Cleaning the back deck

Although still quite strong and blustery, the windy conditions have eased a bit from a few days ago when they caused havoc at Wellington Airport.  Gusts of wind up to 110kmh were recorded when severe gale north-easterlies swept the region.  A trans-Tasman Qantas flight had to abort its first landing attempt at Wellington Airport due to 50 knot winds (92.6 kilometres).  Flight Q537 from Melbourne landed on its second attempt, and the rocky landing was filmed and shown on the evening TV news.  What a landing that must have been, and so scary to be buffeted about in such strong wind.