The Birthday Hat gets an Airing

Three vans from the caravan club stayed at Bridge Lodge, Otaki, for the weekend for our Christmas Rally.  Bridge Lodge is a rustic style camp, and we parked under a large totara tree.  Muffy was keeping a wary eye on two young semi feral cats which had the run of the property.  They keep the rabbits down, we were told, so they must be good hunters. 

Under the totara tree at Bridge Lodge

Bridge Lodge complex is multi functional and is also used for school visits, conferences and group bookings and weddings.  There is an imposing altar on the lawn which dates back to when the complex was owned and run by the City Mission.    However, the days of this property are numbered, as it is under a compulsory acquisition order to allow for a future roading development. 

The outdoor altar at Bridge Lodge

We dined out at the RSA restaurant on Saturday evening, joined by Eileen and Geoff  who live locally.  This establishment was looking very festive with all the Christmas decorations.  A small Santa was waiting in the foyer to welcome us inside.  (What’s that hiding in my large blue bag?  All will be revealed later).

The dining room was full of twinkling lights, Christmas posters up on the walls and a whole group of jolly reindeer lined up waiting for the sleigh.   That old question of what to order kept us all busy for a while as we pondered the choices. 

  Lots of red nosed reindeer

It was an easy choice for me, as I believe you can’t really go past a good old fashioned roast and veggies.  Robin chose steak, and was very pleased with his meal, and everyone else enjoyed theirs as well.  As the staff were busy in the kitchen, Robin decided to set his camera up on a spare chair, engage the delay function, then rush back to his seat to take our group photo. 

In the RSA dining room

Eileen was having a birthday so I pulled my special “birthday hat” out of the large blue bag and placed it on her head.   She sat there quite happy, looking very regal as she posed for a birthday photo.  I think I’ll have to doctor those candles to make them sit up nice and straight for the next birthday celebration, they look all higgledy piggledy and out of control!

Happy Birthday Eileen

The next morning Eileen and Geoff and their visiting family called around to the camp for morning tea and fruit mince pies.  Geoff obviously was trying to upstage the the birthday hat from the previous night and came along wearing his “Bah, Humbug” Christmas hat.

Geoff in his Bah Humbug hat

It was another good rally, small in numbers but brimming with fun, friendship and Christmas good wishes.

Charlie’s Snarlers and French Bubbly

It was time to head off to Bridge Lodge, Otaki, for our Christmas Rally, the last one of the year.  The decor of the caravan had been changed with the addition of  Christmas cushions, a couple of festive wall-hangings, and Santa Bear on the couch.  We arrived at the camp late morning and then enjoyed an “al fresco” lunch with Peter and Elaine, then we took a drive to “Charlie’s Snarler Parlour”, in Levin.  This small company produces some of the best tasting sausages we have come across, so we like to buy up large when we are in the area. 

We come here for our sausages

We were soon stocked up with delicious pork, (my favourite) beef and garlic flavoured sausages.  They will go in the freezer when we get home so that we can enjoy them at our leisure.  It is a busy time of year in this butcher’s shop, with ham orders to prepare on top of  making their sausages and  bacon, and they are hard at work from 3.30am each morning to cope with the demand.  No wonder this hard working couple closes the shop at Christmas and don’t open again till early March!  The garden was a riot of colour with roses in full bloom.

Garden outside the shop

Muffy took herself off to bed for an afternoon nap in the caravan while we were on our shopping trip. We found her all tucked up under the quilt, nice and cosy while she awaited our return.

Muffy woken from her beauty sleep

Don and Pamela provided the afternoon entertainment when it was time to put their new awning up.   It is always a serious business erecting an awning for the first time, especially with an audience watching.  Were the instructions clear (who reads instructions?), were all the bits included or maybe some were missing?  Don tackled this task with a bit of help from his friends.  He stayed on the ground as he fed the rope into the awning track, Peter was up the ladder moving things along, while Robin helped out at the other end pulling it all into place. 

It takes three blokes to put an awning up

Once the awning was threaded on the track, the poles were inserted in the correct place.  Bang, bang, as the pegs were hammered into the ground and the whole thing was tied down with ropes. 

Job almost done

Don and Pamela’s new awning was christened when we gathered there in the evening for our “Wine and Cheese” night.  And not just any old wine either.  For those, like me, who enjoy a glass of bubbly, the top was popped on a bottle of genuine French bubbly, Veuve Ambal, Blanc de Blancs.  Very nice it was too, I had more than my fair share as the others sipped on a cheeky red and a Sauv Blanc.  We had a very enjoyable evening as we nibbled on the tasty cheeses and sipped our wine, while we put the world to rights. 

Only the best French bubbly for you, Jenny

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What’s under here?

Our beautiful Birman Muffy was certainly interested in what was going on under the back steps. She was lying there on the wooden step, with her head in the space between the steps.  This is the view as I stepped around her.

What’s under here?

It must have something really interesting as she hardly moved when I walked down the steps.  What could it be that was holding her interest?  Mice perhaps, or a bird?  Maybe some insects quietly going about their business?  What ever it was, there was no sound coming out.  None that my ears could pick up anyway, but maybe it was all clear as a bell to Muffy.

I’m still watching

As we sat out on the back deck, enjoying our morning coffee, Muffy finally pulled her head out from between the steps and came to join us.  We never did find out what she was so interested in.

Sights on the morning walks

We plan to get out in the morning for a brisk walk around our neighbourhood before breakfast.  But……sad but true, sometimes it just doesn’t happen.  When it does, it is always enjoyable.  Everything smells fresh and clean in the morning, the sun is usually shining, and all those other people are rushing off to work.  There are always interesting sights to see.  Who is this nosy old thing peeping over the fence as we walk by?

A nosy neighbour

We have heard of bottle brush trees, a pretty native with red flowers, but what about a bottle tree?  This one was glistening in the sunshine as we walked past.  Wonder where they got those bottles from?

The bottle tree, complete with colourful bottles

The native cabbage trees are in flower now.  Cabbage trees have lovely white scented flowers, which turn into bluish-white berries that birds love to eat. Growing 12 to 20 metres high, cabbage trees have long narrow leaves that may be up to a metre long.

 Cabbage tree in flower

There is plenty to see in our neighbourhood.  If we tire of walking around the streets, we can go for a walk along the riverbank for a change of view.

December get-together

The temperatures were hot and sticky all day.  All the windows and doors were open to get a little breeze through the house.  We were meeting our SLG friends for a pre-Christmas get-together and Robin was worrying about what to wear.  After spending all day keeping cool in shorts and jandals he wasn’t too keen to change into his long trousers in this hot weather.  But needs must, and wives have to be obeyed, so after a nice cooling shower he was all dressed to go out to dinner, wearing his  long trousers!  We started our evening with nibbles and a catch-up at our hosts Helen and Calvin’s home.  It was lovely and cool there as we gathered on their large shady deck. Calvin and John sat on the wooden bench and we commented that they rather looked like a couple of the old fellows from the TV series “Last of the Summer Wine”.

Calvin and John

We were dining at “The Furnace” at Trentham and our reserved table was ready and waiting for us.  The set menu which Helen had carefully ordered seemed to have been overlooked by the booking staff, so after a bit of sorting out, the menu was arranged more to Helen’s liking.  There was plenty of choice with some Christmas options on offer, including turkey and Christmas Pudding.  The rack of lamb was declared the winner and really looked great. 

Enjoying our meal at The Furnace

While we were waiting for our choices to come, we were kept entertained with what was happening through the windows.  There was a wedding party in the restaurant next door.  Patrons from the Trentham Race Course just across the rail tracks spilled in to the garden bar outside, all dressed up to the nines.  The girls were dressed in light floaty summer dresses, with fancy wisps of little hats perched in their hair.  We watched in amazement as one girl walked in with a hat sporting three  long pheasant feathers, which had to be at least two feet long!  (This brought murmurings of the Pheasant Plucker ditty from some.) The police arrived to check that all these young people were old enough to be in a bar, and to make sure that the large group behaved themselves.  They didn’t bother to check our party, we obviously all looked much too sensible and middle aged to cause any trouble.  After our meal we returned back to our hosts home for coffee.  Helen is very keen on Christmas decorations and has quite a collection.  Here are a few of her Santa's.

A small part of Helen’s Christmas collection

Our group exchange gifts up to a nominated value at Christmas, and we like to make a game of it.  To select a gift, we each have to throw a six with the dice.  We can then chose a gift from the basket, or perhaps we like the look of something else which one of the others has  opened.  If we take a gift from another person,  that person has another turn with the dice.

The Christmas gifts

This can lead to some very spirited shenanigans, with some being known to try and hide the gifts they particularly want, so no one else can claim them.  One year Calvin and I were fiercely competitive trying to be the one to take home a packet of peppermint creams!  We all had a great night out, a lovely meal, good company, what could be nicer than that.

Hardly worth waiting for

Today’s mail brought a pay slip from my previous employer.  I was a little surprised as I had finished work about 6 weeks ago.  Goodness, doesn’t time fly, and I’m not missing work at all.  The agency had obviously underpaid me, and had to correct their accounting records.  I received a small amount for Annual Holidays, minus deductions for tax and my Kiwi Saver account.  The final amount deposited in my bank account was $1.34.  Now, what do you think I should spend this on?  It was hardly worth waiting for!

Our Nation Mourns

We have just sat and watched the televised Memorial Service for the Pike River Miners, held at the Omato Racecourse, Greymouth.   A table for each of the 29 miners, topped with helmets, formed the centre of the memorial for the Pike River miners. Family members decorated each table with photos of their lost men, flowers, and items from their sports, hobbies, and interests.  We noticed a surf board propped up against one table, and a couple of bottles of Tui beer on another. 

The Memorial Service was very moving, with songs and a poem interspersed between the speeches and tributes.  29 men lost, husbands, partners, sons, brothers, friends and colleagues.  29 families still grieving, and still waiting to put their loved ones to rest.  Although every effort is still being made to retrieve the bodies, it was acknowledged that perhaps the mine may well be their final resting place.  

The Service concluded to the sound of a lone piper playing, and the dignitaries left the stage to place ferns on the  the 29 tables.    Fifty thousand pieces of fern were cut by Conservation Department staff for mourners to place on each of the tables.  The ferns were a carry-over from the Cave Creek disaster, also in the West Coast, which claimed the lives of 14 outdoor recreation students in 1995.   The koru symbolised tightly wound grief and the fern the fact that life went on and that pain eased over time.