Trees

 We had lunch out today..a little late, so Let's Go For It !!

Then a walk in a park after a browse around the Ayrshire Art Society's annual exhibition.

Pirate on the roadway...for size comparison! I had to angle the camera to get it all in!!

We are trying to get a walk in every day..this was more of a wander.

District Nurse tomorrow, hopefully we will get more answers to questions..or she can tell us who and how to ask....

Palliative care is ok, managing pain...but knowing what is causing the pain would help understanding.

Pirate is chatting with a friend in Whanganui now...how we would love to be there again !  He sends us photos of everyone, great to see how they are getting on.  It raises the spirits, talking with them, gives us hope and strength to carry on.

Changing ways and plant ID

 I have decided to get back properly to getting up when I wake up.

It has been too easy to lie there until the alarm at 7....or even turn it off and lie some more..

But that ends up with feeling grouchy!

So far, waking and rising has resulted in more energy and quietly getting things done before breakfast instead of in a rush afterwards.

We went to town by bus, did shopping , banking and failed to find Gutermann quilting thread...although the knitting shop has their all purpose thread. 

Back now and it has turned hotter, we have now reached 18⁰C!!  So pirate is having a siesta, our lone swallow is chattering on the line and after blogging I shall get on with quilting.

I was hunting for my quilting needles yesterday and found a pack that I had bought in NZ..unlike here, a pack of household needles includes ones for quilting!!

When it is cooler I hope to finish the outside painting on the workshop.

I think the plant in the grassy field may be Dodder?

A friend has remembered it..red bartsia, partly lives on grass roots and partly its own, in poor soils.

Ticking over

For a few days we haven't been feeling 100%.. we haven't had a decent summer yet, and friends in Whanganui have been having a warmer winter than we have summer! Although that has changed I hear, with snow warnings on the Desert Road and snow on Te Aroha.
A quiet day today, retrieving a parcel from what used to be our local sorting office..a thirty mile round trip, as a parcel had been sent by a friend to where we lived eight years ago. Of course he hadn't put sender details on it, so it hadn't returned to him. We were lucky that it hadn't been sent to the UK centre for misdirected parcels...in Belfast!
Then back, Pirate to sort bike bits and upgrade the gear on my bike. Me to do potting on, planting out and garden tidying.

The calm

Hopefully not before the storm!!
Most of the packing done, and now the problem that we are 3.36 kg over the hold limit...with a little more to pack..we will see what will go in the carry on bags.

I have already been weeding out clothes, giving almost new away to someone they fit much better than me, and other things going to the Op Shop...and some worn out so going for rags or the bin.

The pictures of Storm Ciara and the flooding and devastation she has caused are worrying..but I think we will be ok at home in Scotland.  There has been much flooding damage in the Southland here, and in Fiordland.
We have heard that the jackdaws have broken into the eaves at home, so they will have to be evicted.  Probably the ground cover will have blown away from the cultivated part of the garden...but that can cheaply be replaced. At least the report is that the shed rooves are still on!! No word on the wee polytunnel so that must still be there too.

A little bit of us is looking forward to seeing Scotland again.
We have enjoyed being here for almost three months, and certainly enjoyed three months of good health.

Weather and travelling thoughts

Just thinking that we arrived here in Christchurch in the tail end of a horrendous hailstorm...and mostly since then it has been t-shirt and shorts or cycling kit weather, unless we were at altitude...and even then!!
Now with Storm Ciara barreling its way across Europe, it looks as if we will be arriving back in Glasgow on the tail end of another!

We are busy car cleaning and resting. Two friends we had hoped to meet up with here are busy with family and funerals of aged relatives.
Another was away in India and Nepal, until we left the North Island...
Things happen. New friends are made too.

We have done just over 4800 km...a little over 3000 miles...in our almost three months here, plus the distance pedalled.  I wish we could have done it all by public transport, but it would not have worked, unfortunately.
We will be making up for all those miles travelled when we return, apart from when we go on a Visit Family Trek...but we will have to see if that can be done by public transport!...all 1500 miles round trip to see them all!!

Pictures from the South, 2

Up from Naseby...which starts at over 600m above sea level...and up and over Dansey's Pass...at over 930m!! Only about 150m lower than the top of Yr Wyddfa/ Mount Snowdon in Wales.
It is mostly gravel, but well made and graded...not suitable for campervans or caravans but ok in a car driven steadily.
Pirate enjoyed the views...I don't do heights!!

An old bank building in Kurow...so many beautiful old buildings are around !
We headed up valley to cross the river Waitaki, not wanting to go through Oamaru again, and to go on a road new to both of us.
The river was blue, deep, wide and fast..and full! Impressive.
Back towards the coast, through Waimate..another place to visit properly next time...full of murals and history, with this on an old flour mill silo...

And back to Geraldine...

The top 10 campsite kitchen table
Then a wander around town before we left to return to Tai Tapu in the morning.
Geraldine is a lovely, lively town, full of thriving small businesses...long may it thrive.

Last coffee before we left at the Running Duck cafe!
We followed the Scenic Route 72 , but saw mainly fields and very tall hedges...at least 15 metres tall! As the wind blew (and we were thankful for the hedges!) and it rained steadily we crossed the mainly flat country between the Rangitata and Rakaia rivers...
We must have been climbing more than we realised, as suddenly we were heading into the Rakaia gorge...breathtaking!

Steeply down then across several river flows and steeply up again...then more straight and flat roads to our home for a few days.

Pictures from the south...1

Ready and fit to ride

Hudson,,the Waikouaiti campground cat..we were greeted as returnees!

The road races had dry weather..then it rained..

Coffee and cake at the village stores in Karitane...and walking round Peter and Laura's garden in Waikouaiti...lush!!

Then we headed for the South Otago hills and Naseby, where they had just has hail and 4 degrees Celsius!!