Merry Xmas From the Pyne's

---

Merry Christmas

No, we’re not on another trip, however using the blog seemed to be the best way to communicate with everyone for Christmas and New Year. So, MERRY XMAS and a HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR to all of our family and friends. We couldn’t get the whole family together at once, so we decided to have a "boys vs girls" sing-along and shot the video in two halves, we hope you like it, although we would never have made it on Bing Crosby's Christmas show. The video is at the bottom of the page; let it load before playing it.


Since getting back from the big OE the weather here in New Zealand has been less than perfect, lots of wind and rain and very little fishing and diving. The lawns are growing, the olive trees need weeding and the rain keeps coming down. Every so often, I hear La Nina whispered, but whether this is truly an La Nina year I don’t know……



Caroline “The PowerQuilter” Pyne has been working on setting up classes for the New Year. She heads off every morning to quilting central; her shop is called “The PowerQuilter” and is next to the “Pub around the Corner” in beautiful downtown Russell. Our daily routine has us getting up around 6:45, followed by a brisk walk of 3-4km and then Caroline is off with a positive attitude and the hope that a bus full of quilters will descend on sleepy old Russell. To-date the bus hasn’t arrived, however slowly but surely her business is getting known throughout the quilting community.



Harrison purchased a car in November and within a week of owning it, the car was stolen. It was recovered by the police in a high speed chase 5 days later (with a table strapped to the top of it) and has since been in the panel-beaters to get repaired. It's now back and in very good shape after having the hood, driver's and passenger door replaced; he now has an alarm and a club. Anyway, he’s off to Gisborne (lately of earthquake fame 6.8) for New Year and this seems to be the venue of choice for everyone in New Zealand under the age of 25. He’s also finished school and is awaiting his A level results before starting courses in biological science and psychology at Auckland University. In the meantime he has got a job as a waiter at the Duke of Marlborough hotel in Russell, this is a piece of New Zealand history and is the oldest continuously operated hotel in the country.



Maryvonne dropped by Russell last week on a cruise to Sydney and was in town long enough to lend her voice to Caroline’s for the Xmas video. She’s totally enjoying her job with the “House of Travel” and has a new horse which she intends to spend lots of time riding in the New Year. She’s a real farm girl with chickens, dog, cats, boyfriend and a horse.



Back on the farm, we have just purchased a ram to enhance our flock of sheep. It looks as though he was mistreated, anyway he’s skinny, fairly quiet and has only one horn, the other one was torn off. We are hoping that he can be brought back to health and that he’s firing on both cylinders. Naming him was a tough one, I always refer to the sheep as the “Wild Bunch” as they prefer to have absolutely nothing to do with me, so we thought that we’d call him “Butch Cassidy”. And if he manages to sire any lambs the firstborn will be known as “Sundance”. Our chickens have also been rooster-less for around six months, so as a Christmas present to them we are getting a new silkie rooster. Hopefully, all of the animals will be happy and we won’t have an Orwellian experience in the near future.



The Pynes….. Kevin, Caroline, Maryvonne and Harrison

---

Photos

Merry Xmas
Please excuse the sunburn.

Butch Cassidy
Poor guy only has one horn.

The Wild Bunch
They look pretty placid, but looks can fool you.

Comments

[Jay Brara]

Happy Holidays!
Looks like you're back to your beautiful, serene surroundings. Quite a contrast from L.A.

[Chris]

Am only now having a chance to read your Christmas blog. Poor H having his car stolen but am glad he got it back....am somehow curious to know if it was a "native"...am I PC enuf here? Jim and Mel would want to know. Rossdear, too. And that poor Butch Cassidy....such a sweet face. Hope his libido doesn't match his horn..... Had such fun talking with you yesterday...Tori left today and her car was loaded to the gills (fortunately darkened windows) and she was getting very owly about being an hour behind. She finally declared she looked like the Clampetts! and it took me five minutes to stop laughing, no exaggeration. Love to you all, Moi