Palmy and back

Off we went to Palmy (Palmerston North) and back today, starting off reasonably bright and early.  And just to remind us to be very careful while driving, we came across a two truck accident.  This was on the corner of SH56 and SH57 – quite a notorious corner for accidents, we have noticed.  It looked like a milk tanker and a truck carrying frozen chickens had an altercation.  And with the truck lying on it’s side on the shoulder of the road  it was an easy guess to see who came out second best.

First port of call was to the local hospital where Robin’s Mum had been residing for the last few days.  She was due to discharged in the morning and our job was to provide transport to return her to the Rest Home.  Unfortunately she was feeling rather poorly and we had a long wait for the doctor to arrive to check her out.  It seemed that she had  a bad reaction to one of her medications, and the doctor wanted her to stay another night.  Hopefully, she will finally return home tomorrow.

Next was a visit to the Herb Farm Cafe for lunch with daughter Nicky.  Driving  along the country road we followed a station wagon and we wondered just what on earth was being carried in the back.  Surely not?  Only in the depths of rural countryside would you see a sight like this.  Not one, but two calves were going for a car ride!

  Spotted on the way to our lunch date

The Herb Farm grow and harvest lots of their own plants and makes all sorts of potions and soaps.  In fact, daughter Nicky is chief cooker-up in the Herb Farm lab. The pretty lavender beds had lots of bees buzzing about.  I love lavender, these plants would be one of my favourites for the home garden.  There are so many different varieties and they always seem to grow so well.

Lavender growing at the Herb Farm

Nicky duly arrived and we all took time to peruse the menu.  While we waited for our meals to arrive we couldn’t let the occasion go by with the obligatory mother and daughter photo shoot, could we?

Nicky and Jenny

There was lots to talk about, Christmas plans, the grand-children – now young ladies, work and recreation, what we were both cooking for the Big Day, and our respective plans for the festive season.  We won’t be seeing them on Christmas Day, so bags of presents were swapped.   Look what we came home with.  Nicky assured me that there was some of her world famous Russian Fudge for each of us in the big bag.  She didn’t make any fudge one year and that just about caused a family riot.

Gifts from the family to take away in the caravan

After saying our goodbyes, we started our way home.  The farmers have been busy cutting their paddocks to make baleage, contained in pale green plastic rolls.  The contents will be used for winter feed when the grass growth slows down.

Baleage on the farm

Things were still busy on the accident corner, although the trucks had been cleared away.  To be still here so many hours after the accident took place, shows there must have been quite a bit to tidy up.  The workmen were putting sand on the road surface to clear up after a spill, and they were also working on the shoulders of the road, we noticed.   This is not a corner to take lightly.

Still at work hours after the accident

We made it safely home, thank goodness.  We unpacked the car, collected the mail (another couple of Christmas cards) greeted Muffy, and decided we really need to put our feet up and relax for a wee while.  We’ll just have something light for our evening meal, the cook decided, after such a big lunch.