On Friday we left for Paihia to stay at the Marlin Court Motel for 2 nights FREE, as John and Maureen invited us to stay for the Jazz Festival. The weather was lovely. We walked to Waitangi etc etc. Lots of Jazz on Fridayand Saturday morning lots of Jazzbands in the centre of town. Some very good Bands. I painted a Papaver painting on canvas for Maureen. It was a lovely weekend. [View Full Entry]

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Last night and today we had a "once in a decade" storm!!!! We nearly got blown away - in fact George went outside at the height of the storm and almost got blown away. He had to give up and creep back into shelter pf the house. Later it abated a little and we went to see Robyn and Leigh. We drove the 4-wheel wagon - lucky we did as the flood waters were well over the road in one place. [View Full Entry]

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we had a lovely day out going up north. first stopped at the hundertwasser toilet and took some photo s.(only of the building not the customers) then to KeriKeri to visit Elsa. she is 93 and is doing very well on her own. she gets a lot of callers to see if she is oke. we had morning tea with passionfruit cakes. of to Paihia. we walked all around and bought a packet of lovely hot chips. jammy. more walking and then visited the people from the marlin motel. was very nice. took photo of 2 paintings I did for them. [View Full Entry]

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On day this week we had a hard FROST !! Was it Monday or Tuesday? Anyway I have just noticed the foto's I took to prove that there was indeed a frost in the "winterless North"!!! [View Full Entry]

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today we went to fetch hay from the a local family project and george took some photo s of the fantastic things they are doing. self composting and growing trees for forestry etc. beb visited the neighbours they bought alpacas. two are having creas (babies). it is a hobby for amanda and richard. [View Full Entry]

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last night we had three visitors. it was lovely seeing mike and amy so happy. their baby is due in early november so quite a while to go yet. she is promoted to head nurse now. she loves the work and will do part-time when the baby is born. well after 3 months. she already has booked it in at a lovely nursery. hope you enjoy seeing the photo s. [View Full Entry]

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This bird crashed into our window and was found unconscious. I was able to take a quick photo' before it recovered (with the help of my gentle foot!!) and flew away. We wonder what bird it is. Can anyone identify it? How about you, Carrie???? (there were very bright yellow and black bands on the wings - these cannot be seen on the photo' as I was too late, it had recovered somewhat and withdrawn its wings) Beb has looked it up in the bird book and thinks it is a goldfinch!! Note the new photo'. [View Full Entry]

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So there is to be a power crisis this winter ? We are ready !!! Our friend Niek was watching a programme about " how to manage if the power goes off" and one of the ideas he passed on to us was, to use solar lights normally planted in the garden. "bring them indoors to show the way around the house". So I tried one tonight ; quite a "cool" idea - in more ways than one!. Cannot read by it, but you can see where you are!! [View Full Entry]

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The chickens took their chance!!! Robyn and Leigh were visiting us so the hens thought they would not be seen in Beb's garden!! [View Full Entry]

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A lovely sunny day , so I took some photo" s of the trees around us, also the two painted satellite dishes in the garden. [View Full Entry]

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