DIY

The boys are away skiing with Grandma this week so I decided, in my wisdom, to do over Williams room. At present it is a corridor between the kitchen and toilet on one side and the rest of the house on the other. Sort of an en suite kitchen :) It is his birthday at the end of the week so I thought we could get it done easily in the time. Ha! Fat chance. First Matt got a really super bad cold and couldn't do anything for several days and then, just as we put in the outside door with access to the other rooms minus the handy little porch yet to come, it snowed! We could see it through the huge hole in the wall left from the removal of the window. And feel it of course. The only saving grace is that it opens into a hallway which we don't heat anyway. Having a shower was rather 'interesting' as the back door is now in what remains of the bathroom. The shower is scheduled for relocation sometime soon (I hope).

I had rallied the family in to help but, due to the snow, they had to go almost before we got started. They did help get the main bed frame into place but that was about it and now it is weekdays and they all have jobs.

The frame for the upstairs bunk is almost done and I have spent most of today filling cracks in the ceiling which seems a mile high (I'm not that keen on heights and I need to be one step off the top of the tall ladder!!!!!!). I need to paint the ceiling (two coats) wall paper the walls (mostly to cover imperfections as I can't afford new wall board yet) and set up the room again with all its bits and pieces like bedding, drawers etc.

The boys are due back midday tomorrow.........I get the strange feeling that William will end up helping to wallpaper his own room!

viv in nz

These were taken a few years back but the view is just the same only snowier!

viv

cold

Its been a really cold week round here - rain, snow, hail, sleet etc. That cold I caught last week has not been helpful either so I have mostly hidden in here. However, I'm going to have to face the great outdoors soon or run out of clothes. Washing does tend to pile up at this time of the year waiting for a half decent day but, due to that really nasty cold, I went and missed the last half decent day!

Sprocket is no longer a boy. He was neutered a couple of days back and came back very affectionate after his little trip. The vet said he either smooched everyone or ran round and round like a mad thing - too much energy in that small fur ball. Trying to keep him quiet for 24 hours was merely an exercise in frustration!

He has bounced back just the same as ever so I don't think it affected him much.

He found my dried beans this morning and has been playing with them all over the house (they are still in their pods and rattle and rustle well when attacked). There was also a marathon running session up and down the hall, across the bed onto the windowsill and repeat.....lots. He has now gone to sleep on the couch. I will probably be finding beans in all sorts of places for a while :)

I finished the pair of mittens I started last week and they will go onto the stall at the school fair too as they are still not a perfect fit. I will play around with the pattern a bit more as I think it can be improved quite a bit yet. I also have a pair of socks to knit for a friend who is going to renovate my wooden needles for me (one at a time so I don't have to stop knitting) and I have a few improvements to make in another pair of socks for a dancer. I think some extra ribbing in the back of the heel and under the instep should do the job.

School holidays will probably slow things down round here but I do hope to get William's room fixed so that he can do his dance practice there. His exams are coming up rapidly and he needs to do some extra work as he is grade 5 this year and can't just rely on what he does in class.

I'm going to investigate my photos - probably be as irrelevant to the post as ever :)

viv

Two photos from the Catlins and one sunset from the back yard :) The Purakanui Falls are just wonderful if you ask me :)

viv

Sprocket

Well, she makes a nice little boy!!! We now have to transition to him. Fortunately his name is just as good as ever.

It has been a week of school interviews, report cards and I took Mum to the knitting squad where we generally froze as there was a conference on (mental health nurses!) and there were staff taking things hither and yon and leaving the door open. It was absolutely freezing outside and there was nowhere else to decamp to due to numerous displays etc.

I now have a cold......I just hope Mum doesn't catch it with her health being what it is but we weren't to know. Anyhow, I got half a mitten made which was something, along with the usual chit chat. We are a very diverse bunch of people which makes for interesting conversations.

The school reports etc were all fairly glowing which doesn't sound like my lot at all - I was complimented on my nice, quiet and thoughtful young man - you know - the one we think is outrageously noisy and out there! We even had teachers enquiring about what classes he wanted to take next year and please could they have him again!!!!!

Sprocket has got bigger!

Funny things get seen on our road quite a bit. Some sort of fancy scooter just went down. I missed getting a photo unfortunately but I did snap this a few weeks back.

viv