Farewell to a Friend

Sadly, our friend Pam passed away last week.  She had joined our SLG several years ago and really enjoyed all our outings.The family invited our group around to an “Open Home” and afternoon tea on Friday.  Even though we wish the circumstances had been different, it was so nice to meet Pam's extended family, and put faces to names.  The daughters asked me to say a few words in memory of our friend.  We lit a candle for Pam, and told of her involvement with our group.  It was a lovely afternoon, and gave us all the opportunity to say our last goodbyes.  

 

Pam was petite, but that didn’t stop her from doing anything.  Over the last couple of summers, she single handedly painted the outside of her house.  Pam’s house was on a hillside, and we used to cringe when she regaled us with stories of putting blocks of wood under the ladder feet to make it even.  Then she blithely ran up and down the ladder, paint tin and brush in hand, to get on with the painting.  And we remembered the day when we were all lunching out at a cafe, when the opportunity to take a ride on one of those huge Harley Davidson motor bikes came up.  There was no stopping Pam. She put the protective gear on, a helmet on her head, then climbed up behind the young man.  Away they roared down the road, and when they finally returned half an hour later, Pam was bubbling over with excitement.  Rest in peace, Pam, we will miss you.

 

 

Pam all ready to ride!!

A visit to the Vet

It’s that time of the year again, when Muffy has to go and see the Vet.  Nothing to worry about, we hoped, but just a general check-up and vaccination for Feline Enteritis.  First thing to do was to get the carry cage out.  That always causes Muffy to get a bit worried.  Getting put in the cage can mean two things;  a trip to the Cattery or a visit to the Vet.  We loaded Muffy and the cage on the back seat and secured it with the seat belt.  Then it was just a short drive to the Vet Clinic.

 

Waiting for our turn at the Vet Clinic

The waiting room was busy with people and pets coming and going.  Several people were collecting their pets after surgery.  Then it was our turn and we were ushered in to the clinic.  Muffy was lifted out of her cage and placed on the table.  She behaved really well and just stood there as the Vet ran his hands over her, poking and prodding as he felt for anything out of the ordinary.  Then he gave her the vaccination in the scruff on the neck.  Muffy didn’t even flinch at that, what a good girl.  Nothing wrong, we were told, and she is in excellent condition for her age.  Muffy is now 14 so she is certainly getting on a bit now.  But as Robin says, there is not much stress in her life.  She eats, then sleeps, and is certainly pampered.  But that is what being a pet cat is all about, isn’t it?

 

Totara Park

  Totara trees at the entrance to our suburb

For those of our overseas readers who haven’t visited us at home, we thought it was time to let you have a look at where we live.  Our suburb is called “Totara Park”, developed in the late 1960s after the completion of a new bridge across the Hutt River.  The land on this side of the river was originally the Whiteman Farm.  The subdivision was named Totara Park, after the many large totara trees growing here.  These slow growing native trees can reach a height of 25 metres and the tree trunks have a great girth.  There are several totara trees on the round-about at the entrance of Totara Park, and others scattered around the area.

 

Totara Park bridge

The Hutt River is a steep alluvial river that starts in the Tararua Ranges and enters Wellington Harbour at Petone. The river drains mountainous terrain in the southern Tararua and Rimutaka Ranges and streams and rivers from the Eastern and Western Hutt hills. Our river is very important, supplying most of the municipal water supplies for the Wellington region, held in two large storage lakes at Te Marua, north of Upper Hutt.  The lakes are filled from the river when  there is plenty of water available. Stored water is pumped back to the treatment plant when there is not enough water in the river to meet public demand, when the river is too dirty - after heavy rainfall - or when it is in flood and the intake is closed to prevent rocks and gravel from entering the intake pipes.

 

The Hutt River from the Totara Park bridge

Heavy trucks and trailers laden with logs rumble down from the Akatarawa Forest in the hills and cross over the bridge.  Saw milling has been going on for over 100 years in this area, firstly cutting down native timbers.  Plantations of  “exotics” such as radiata pine are now milled.  I had my trusty camera with me and I just managed to snap a heavily laden truck as it turned on to the bridge.

 

An apple a day

Those pretty little silver-eyes continue to delight us in the garden.  I cut an apple in half an strung it up from the tree, to see which birds, if any,  would take a fancy to it.  It didn’t take the silver-eyes long to find it.  Soon we had a whole group of them fluttering around.  Some were on the bird pudding, and some were daintily pecking away at the apple.  What busy little birds they are, they fly here, there and everywhere, through the tree where we have hung these goodies.  They don’t seem to like to share though.  One will be pecking away at the bird pudding, while another climbs down the string.  Then the first one flies off.  These sort of antics were repeated with the apple – one eating, a second arrives, the first flies away.  We had expected that they would all gather around and eat the food together, but this doesn’t seem to happen.  Until we hung these food treats in the garden, we had never spotted these birds flying around.  So we are really pleased that they are now regular visitors.

 

Silver-eye pecking away at the apple

 

But who is this lurking in the tree, watching our pretty little visitors with a predatory glint in her eye?  It is Chardy, short for Chardonnay, the tabby cat from next door.  Robin isn’t having any of this bird catching nonsense, certainly not in our back yard.  So he fills up the water pistol, creeps up to the cat, and gives her a good old squirt of cold water to send her on her way!  Our cat Muffy is too busy snoozing away on the bed to waste her energy chasing the birdies.

 

Watch out Chardy, the water pistol is coming!!

No work today

One of the down sides of working as a “temp” is that our services are not required from time to time.  Yesterday our new Team Leader told all the temps that there was no work for the next couple of days.  “Come back on Friday”, we were told.  That means no pay for the next couple of days.  So I was not working today.  Or……. as the Tui beer ads say, “Yeah, right!!”  While not at work today I: made a big pot of soup, did the laundry, vacuumed the floors, cleaned the bathroom, washed the kitchen and bathroom floors, did the ironing, prepared and cooked the evening meal.  Oh, that’s right, I also groomed Muffy’s coat and got the tangles out.  We have invited friends over for a meal in the weekend – there is nothing like impending visitors to get the house all tidied up, is there?   As usual, Muffy had a nice relaxed day, she didn’t bother with any work at all.  She snoozed on the bed, on the couch, took a short turn or two outside, then came back inside for more snoozing.

 

Muffy, keeping an eye on that noisy vacuum cleaner

The Red-Back on the Dunny

We had a bit of a situation in the caravan bathroom while we were away last weekend which reminded me of the famous Australia song written by Slim Newton. The first verse goes like this:

“There was a red-back on the toilet seat, when I was there last night

I didn’t see him in the dark, but boy, I felt his bite!”

 

What we found however was a white-tail spider sitting on our caravan toilet.  Just waiting……….  White-tails are Australian imports who have made their presence felt here in New Zealand over the last few years.  They do not build webs and are active hunters, specializing in catching other spiders.  They have a very nasty bite and the puncture wound sometimes necrotises.  So they should be avoided at all costs, especially on visits to the loo.  Imagine what would have happened if one of us had gone in there late at night and not bothered to turn the light on.  It doesn’t bear thinking about now, does it?  Luckily Robin spotted our unwelcome visitor before either of us sat on him.  What to do, that was the question.  He grabbed the can of fly spray and after several strong blasts the spider turned up his toes and expired.  Thank goodness for that, crisis averted.  Then with a flourish, Robin flushed that nasty white-tail spider down the loo.  A fitting end to it, we thought!!

It’s may be small, but it can bite!!

Mini Rally at Te Horo

  Only two caravans at this mini rally

There was no caravan rally set by the committee  in August this year.  So we arranged to visit our friends Geoff and Eileen at their property at Te Horo and have our own small mini rally.  Fellow caravanners Don and Pamela joined us there as well.  The lawn was quite wet so we parked in the long gravel driveway.  Their house, known by us all as “The “Manor”, is surrounded by farmland, so is in a lovely rural setting.  Several horses grazed in a side paddock (field) beside a rustic looking red shed, and black and white cattle were away in the distance in a back paddock.  Although it seems that we are in the middle of no-where, the main road State Highway 1 and the main trunk railway line to Auckland are only a short distance away and cars, trucks and trains go rushing about their business.

 

Rural delights

Friday night was very wet and blustery and the rain poured and poured.  Don and Pamela arrived on Saturday morning and brought up some home made savoury muffins for morning tea.  After lunch we had a film afternoon.  Robin plugged our lap top in to our hosts large TV and we showed the slide show of our recent overseas trip, complete with music. The segment of our canal boat trip was of particular interest as Derek and Dot from Narrow boat Gypsy Rover were fellow caravan club members before they changed their life style to explore the canals of UK.  “Lets not cook tonight” was the consensus so off we went to the local RSA club for our evening meal.  Most of us had the roast beef option, very good value at only $12.00 with dessert included. 

Storm clouds gathering

 

Although the sun tried to make an appearance on Sunday morning the showers soon came back.  Well, it is the middle of winter after all.  We decided to make a real weekend of it with not doing too much cooking and took ourselves off to the Red House Cafe for brunch.  Just as well we made it before mid-day as crowds of people had the same idea and the cafe was soon full.  One large party arrived and took over several tables, this was for a 90th birthday celebration, complete with a large birthday cake and presents.  Our table ordered bacon sausage and eggs, eggs Benedict, and black pudding and bacon.  Followed with a rather large cake for dessert and all washed down with a couple of cups of coffee each.  What a nice way to finish our weekend away.