Dear Diary.....today

I sometimes feel like my blog is like an online diary, not that that's a bad thing. Is it??

So, on Friday.......

I was up and ready because I was spending the day with my lovely friend Rosie Posy (Rose) as she had the day off and wanted me to do an Opportunity Shop day with her.  I love doing this with her because she is fun and an easy size to find awesome clothes for, and she is STYLISH!!  

Oh what to wear?

Turned out I was having a BLACK and WHITE kind of day, and my colourful splash of necklace turned into a black and white scarf as the day was looking grim.  I did wear a purple boiled wool coat on top.

Rose found lots of fabulous things sometimes with my helpful eye zoning in on colours that we both love.  I found the green and black dress which I just knew would be brilliant with the spotted top I had found the previous day.

This is the selection of other bits I found during the day out with Tex trying his very best to photo bomb my purchases.  Because of this he has now entered the modern world and has decided to join Face Book.

Feel free to look him up, he thinks he is the bees bloody knees now.

"Turn the damn flash off woman!!"

Saturday arrived on time, and some how I managed to goof off for most of the morning in my PJs while the sun finally made up her mind on turning up or not.

The cheekiest Chicken in the flock has to be our Joan, she truly believes she is an indoor type of girl.  She comes in, Sheba alerts us to this fact, and one of us herds her back outside.  Only for this to be repeated a few more times.  Someone even laid an egg on the deck!! How convenient, TOF thinks we should train them to lay inside, NAH!

I had to video the antics for you all, Sheba is trying to tell us, "Chicken in the house, I said, CHICKEN in the house!!!"

Meanwhile in slumber land on the deck I was paying no notice of the signage!  Genius maybe, but Guard, I think not!!

Perfect day for the garden swing seat, nodding off is an option I choose most times.  If you are in town feel free to join me.

Slumber in the sunshine seemed to be taking on with the exception of one Black Dog!  "Slumber? What is this thing you all speak off and do?"

Yeah, Saturday was pretty good.

HELLO, it's now Sunday.

After another leisurely start to our day TOF and I went down to the river bank to watch the main event of the Gallagher Great Race.  The final race in a days worth of rowing on our Waikato River.  All kicked off at 9am with Secondary school races, Womens, A Waka performance and then the Mens race.

Three crews of Eight raced, one from our University of Waikato, and one from Harvard University, and another from University of Cambridge.  This crew was out in front and man they were hoofing it up the river, against the current too.

Waikato is closer to the river bank and actually in front of the other crew, my photo just doesn't  show it.

"GO WAIKATO"

And there they go heading off towards the finish line, and who won? Don't know as there was no way we could make it back to the car, drive to the finish line, find a park and see them all cross the finish line.  Guess I will see it on the news, as TV cameras were on the support boats at the back.  Tis an annual event that usually makes it to the TV weekend news.

 

It was such a lovely afternoon and it was great to see so many like minded folk dotted along the river watching the race.  A sunny day always draws out the crowds, and the main area at Grantham Street was packed, we drove past later on.

Well I better go and drag in all the washing before the night chill descends upon us, and I can smell the Roast Pork in the oven cooking, well done TOF!!!

Shall leave you with Tex's poem he posted on his FB page. 

He is a clever old boy that cat of ours!!

 

Night time in the garden

Early evening is a great time to take the camera out in the garden, everything looks amazing with moody sky and flash photography.  Last night my flowers came to life!!

Before it got too dark the sky was looking magical, and the tall naked trees were reaching for it.  Subtle pink Winter Roses almost looked unreal.

The bright Orange Poppy seems too delicate to survive a night in the dark and the cold.  Likewise with the baby pink miniature Camellia, which has branches smothered in these sweet little flowers.

I wore that animal print dress that I got from Morrinsville Hospice with bobble trimmed pants and black jacket.  With my bloody Verruca all taped up and covered it dealt with being encased in shoes for the day. Thanks for your suggestions, it is feeling better, and TOFs back is slowly improving.

My solar lights that change colour were dancing away out the front, and my old wheelbarrow was looking pretty shiny with plants jostling for position in the limited space on offer.

I rescued Big Ears from a shelf in the Salvo near my place, he has had some repairs but he deserved another crack at life so home he came with me.  The multi necklace was to gorgeous to leave behind so it somehow found its way to the counter to be bought as well.

Ok, now get outside in your garden at night!!

 

I'm gonna Dazzle you with my poetry!!

The weekends come

the weekends go.

What happens to them?

who bloody knows!

Two days of relaxing

with family and friends,

next thing you know

it's all come to an end.

As long as you did

whatever you like,

reading a book?

or riding your bike.

The weekend is yours

five days off from the job,

so please yourself people

even if you just BLOB!

TOF and I took a drive out to Raglan on Saturday.  It wasn't the flashest weather on offer, and he had hurt his back but sitting driving was ok and we wanted to catch up with some friends.

After our visit we drove out to Manu bay, I wanted to catch the sun going down, but we were too late and the sky was dull anyway.

But good old Raglan still looked GREAT!

Sunday morning our dogs were barking their bums off at the front door, TOF went to see who was there and found this dear little dog.  Cowering in the corner shaking while Tex carried on eating his breakfast, un fussed by all the commotion.

I put a harness on her and took her for a wander down our street to see if anyone knew who she belonged to but came up empty handed.  So I had to ring the dog ranger to come and get her.  She had a fabulous time with Sheba out the back playing while we waited for the ranger.

I phoned the City pound yesterday (Monday) to see if her owners had gone looking for her, but no.  They think she is about 6 months old and if no one claims her by next Monday she will be assessed to see if she can be re homed.  My fingers are crossed that this happens, other wise she will be euthanized.   If we had the space we so would have kept her, but two dogs in town is more than enough.  The lady at the pound said they get lots of really nice dogs that no one claims.  I cannot imagine not going to look for any of my pets that went missing.  There are some sad bastards out there when it comes to pets, that is for sure.  I say register the owners not the dogs!!

Monday was an ok day, I made TOF take the day off and took him to see a doctor about his back.  Our doc was away so we saw a locum. He has been put off work for a week to rest his knackered back, hoping that it will settle down.  He hurt it years ago and we so don't want to go back to those days.  So far he is behaving and resting up, I think lying down is the least painful position for him.

I pottered about home all day keeping him company, venturing out to the garden when he slept.  Sleep is a good healer we all know.

Don't you just love the delicateness of a Poppy, super fine crumpled petals and very over the top stamen. Nice splash of colour as the day started to go down hill and rain.

But look at that pretty sky.

Sheba had taken every single one of her toys outside so I had to collect them all and dry them off in front of the heater.  She does love her softies.

Today was work, woohoo!  TOF has retired to bed and I have just put a Apple Cider Vinegar soaked cotton wool ball on a bloody Veruca on my foot and taped it up for the night.  Hopefully it will make it go away.  Any other do it yourself suggestions out there peeps??  Trying to avoid the cost of going to the doctor.

Will she build an Igloo with all those books?

Yesterday Sue W came into town so we could go to a book fair at the Race course near my house.  She was armed with her list of what she was looking for and I wasn't looking for anything in particular, I was just looking. 

Our laughing started before we had even parked the car!  Let me just say there was plenty of help (not that the driver needed it) to guide her safety into a park under a large tree with big puddles either side of the car. Sue cracked a joke at the youths who did not find her the slightest bit funny.  They were in training and we agreed that maybe the humour part of their course had not yet taken part. In saying that a 'lovely young man' did carry Sue Ws books to the car for her when we were leaving.

We spent several hours pouring over the thousands of well laid out books both coming out with some.  Me only buying four and Sue filled another carton.  Good to see that people still have an appreciation for a good book and the place was full of happy book hunting helpful folk.

We did a tour of our local Charity shops before we stopped for a delightful lunch at Agora Cafe in Frankton.  We both rather like their food and their coffee, well Mocha for me, that is as grown up as I can get.   More Op shops were visited before we came back to mine for a cuppa.

From all the shops we visited I only came home with one incredible long black and white striped dress that I am sure will be featured in a post in the not to distant future.  

You all know that striped dress will end up under my layers, with some colour thrown in for good measure and POW!

Good advise to follow:

So the weekend is here and the day is slowing disintegrating into grey and gloom.  The sun was shining for a brief moment, long enough to give me hope of a fabulous day.  I am sure I will find something to do if the weather goes further down hill.  What ever happens I know I will make the most of the day doing what ever makes me happy.

And that means you!

Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass....it's about learning to dance in the rain!

Seriously people our weather has gone completely and utterly bonkers!

We get a couple of gorgeous 'let's get outside because it is sunny' days and then it all goes tits up and we are back with RAIN!!  In fact quite a lot of the bloody wet stuff.  But there is absolutely nothing you can do about the weather but work with it, going against it just doesn't get you anywhere.

I worked on Monday as it was the end of the month and I always have loads of stuff to do with the accounts and other such officey things..  I love being busy and I sure was.  I wore the animal print dress I scored last week from the Hospice in Morrinsville.  Put a black ruffle edged skirt under it, and leggings as I just don't do pantyhose. I wore my long black coat most of the day, mainly to keep dry when getting to and from my car.  Monday was basically shit, I hunkered down with the animals inside in the afternoon.

Of course there was time in between the showers of rain on my way home to call into the Hospice shop in town, and I am glad I did.  The blue top is like a mini dress and made from Merino, the skirt is brown needle cord with the best bead work on the hem, both only $2.50.  The orange shoes are an expensive brand and they don't appear to have been worn so such a good buy for $6. The fabric embroidered animals I found in Remains To Be Scene when I called in there.

Magazines are free at the Hospice and the glossy NZ Fashion Mag is this years, I will not pay the $10.95 that shops want, but thanks very much I will take that bugger for free.

Tuesday was still wet but not cold, and another busy day at work for me.  When I got home the girls were all chilling together in the sheltered part of their back yard abode.  That is where I had to feed them as puddles were everywhere else. Thanks for the EGGS!!!

Tuesday was a cobalt blue and black/white day with some lacey red soxs for that flash of colour.  It got quite warm in the afternoon making me think all was coming good with the weather and then the dark clouds rolled in AGAIN!

I gave Oscar a trim on the weekend, he looks so small, and he has been wearing his Adidog top to keep him warm at night.  Tex has taken up sleeping in his indoor bed because of all the rain.

Wednesday turned into an Orange and Blue day.  I wore the Orange shoes I found on Monday.  The sun made an appearance so I faffed about outside after work because I could.

Hello garden, welcome back you gorgeous colourful flowers you, oh how I have missed you all.

Tex made his way outside and settled on the side steps off the deck in a sheltered spot in the sunshine.

 

More Daffodils have pushed there way through the soil.

Those dirty clouds snuck up when I was busy taking photos of my garden, REALLY AGAIN!!

I love the simplicity of White daisies especially seeing the world as they see it, looking up to the sky.

                                                        Yes Tex,
                                  I love you too!!

These beauties so far have survived being battered by rain.

Because I worked Monday to Wednesday this week today was a day off.  In fact I now have five days off in a row, back to work on Tuesday.  I got all layered up this morning and added my Fornasetti badges to my jacket.  I had an Orange dress under this jacket, this was taken on my phone because the battery was flat in my little camera.

I spent my morning out doing grown up things (chores) and then came home to do more grown up things in the afternoon.  One of those things was cleaning the Canary cage out.  Well it's not really a cage, more of a small Avery on wheels that my dear dad made me years ago.  Well as you can see Elton and Freddie escaped.

They had a grand old time flying about the garden, mingling with the girls, but they didn't come back.  My climbing trees to catch runaways are well over so I set up a small cage with it's door pegged open and treats leading into it in hope that they would be enticed back.

When it started to rain they flew back to the deck, one even flew inside, but I couldn't catch either of them, I really could have done with a net.  So they are still outside in the big bad world and it is dark now and very wet and cold.  Not confident that they will survive the night let alone return in the morning.  Funny thing is old George sung his butt off all afternoon, I had to wonder if he was celebrating getting the pad back to himself, the old bachelor.

I did my housework today, I know, even I am still in a state of shock. Bloody Sheba has walked all over my kitchen floor and left her muddy footprints everywhere so I am about to mop it again now!  Biarch!!

Tomorrow (Friday) me and the Webber Woman (Sue) are going to a Book Fair because she hasn't got enough books yet!!  I'm thinking the op shops might get a visit as well.  Hopefully the weather will be kind and not leak all over us.