Roll on summer

Last weekend we had our first barbecue of the new 'season':

It may not look very promising, but we had 2 flavours of chicken, sausages, salmon, kumara, and lamb chops. A fine repast!
And then this weekend, I enjoyed mowing the lawns surrounded by some vibrant colours.

The yellow of the last of the kowhai, the pink & white of the rhododendron, the last red of one of the camelias, the bright green of new growth, and the purple of a plant who's name always eludes me.

Summer is nigh!

We've just had a few days away, & I had the weekends either side of those days, so it felt like a holiday.

Sunday was the Final of the Rugby World Cup.

And Monday was a holiday. The kids came around for dinner, and although it was bit blustery, we decided to have the first Barbecue of the summer.

Roll on the warm days!

One of the all-time greats

While travelling back from Taranaki recently, we listened to two LPs by Dr Feelgood - Sneakin' Suspicion and Down By The Jetty.

I tried to explain to Jayne why the guitarist, Wilko Johnson, was so good, and failed at doing so. So I figured the best solution was to show you one of the tracks which best captures his playing style - Roxette:


The official website is HERE and Wilko's site is HERE.

Their respective Wikipedia entries are HERE and HERE.

And there are a whole lot more clips on YouTube.

Re-treading failed views of education

You would think they would know better by now!

I mean, how can someone claim to be "disappointed that @PPTAWeb are so afraid of backing up their assertions over School Choice that they refuse to debate @Steve_Whttngton"

That is one of the spurious tricks used repeatedly by the Right in their puerile efforts to discredit those who disagree with them. This assertion is made with no evidence that PPTA is "afraid of backing up their assertions". Why should they be "afraid"? Of what, for heavens sake?

Ask yourself this: why should PPTA give a fringe player in a fringe party on the ranters' right of NZ politics a platform to air his half-baked ideas?

As PPTA says: Their views are already in the public domain and well-known.

ACT's views are likewise already well-known, and have been consistently rejected by 90-95% of the electorate in every election since 1987. However, ACT candidates are either slow-learners (they still haven't got the message after 7 elections) or are so divorced from reality and messianic they want to impose their views on everyone else.

I say: good on PPTA. Polls tell us almost no-one* else is listening to ACT, so focus your efforts on the slash-and-burn Tory/Tolley government.

* OK, so 2% isn't "no-one" but it is within the 'margin of error' - and the pun IS intentional!

Snow effects

One of the nice things about the snowfalls last month, apart from their novelty, was the effect the snow produced when it fell on individual flowers or corners. Like these:

R i P

Goldie, we'll not see your like again.

 

 

Read Goldie's profile and occasional exploits.

 

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

It's been a very odd week, weather-wise. While those who live in more continental climes, or places closer to the Poles, might scoff, we here in the Hutt Valley & Wellington aren't used to snow in the CBD. In the twenty years we have lived in central Lower Hutt I have never seen snow on our backyard.

But this week we did.

It started Sunday night, as predicted by the Forecasters, with snow/hail falling on our deck.

The next morning there was nothing on the deck or lawn, but when I left for work I noticed he surrounding hills had a dusting of snow.

And from work on The Terrace I could see the eastern hills behind Wainuiomata had a good coating as well.

As well, during the day, snow fell in the CBD, for the first time in my life. And from my office we had a fine view. There were several separate episodes of snowfall, with clear weather in between.

Watch the snowflakes drifting around our windows in Wellington (new window/tab).

So that meant we had good coverage on the hills.
Tuesday started still bitter and cold, with a lot of rain and occasional snow flurries in town. But the action shifted to the Hutt, where we had serious falls in the central Valley floor.
Jayne decided to stay home (she's not silly) and Desiree's school closed early. So they were at home while the snow accumulated. They took themselves off around the neighbourhood and to the nearby Rose Gardens.

The backyard was well covered.

By the time I got home, Jayne and Desiree were ready for a snowball fight. So they did.

See how much snow covered our backyard, and watch the snowball fight (new window/tab).