The land of sheep and chocolate

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Hot Dogs and Hot Weather

After lots of false starts and just in time for my Mum and Dad's visit, Summer's finally here in the Horowhenua. After months of wind and rain we've had unbroken sunshine for the last two weeks.

It's all too much for Jake, the shaggy and confused Cavalier King Charles Spaniel whose thick black coat is long and fluffy, ready to keep him warm as toast in the cold English winter. Here in the strong Kiwi sunshine he has been flopping around on the kitchen floor trying to keep cool, and shedding black clumps of hair all over the carpets. So we've given him a drastic haircut and he looks like a puppy again. And under all the hair, we can see enough of him now to be able to tell that, in spite of months of dieting, he is still a bit fat.

Summer also means that the beaches are (relatively) full. At Foxton Beach today the water was sparkly blue with waves gently lapping onto the grey sand. Still a bit cold mind.

Lily's Top 5 words

1. Mum
2. Dad
3. Duck
4. Milk
5. Teeth

Friday, February 02, 2007

My Courgette Hell

How many courgettes does a man need? I quite like them, so I put two plants in and we've been inundated for the last eight weeks. I've let some turn into marrows the size of rugby balls. What can you do with those? There is only so much marrow you can eat at any one time. Being inexperienced in these matters I put another three plants in a while ago and they are now leaping into production. We are going to be buried in courgettes. I think we will probably have enough that we could live on them and nothing else, if we wanted, which we don't. And there's not much else doing in the vegetable patch at the moment. That's my courgette hell.