Sorry folks, I forgot - it crept up on me.
Hope you find us.
Doodle feel free to delete this and start anew.
All welcome to join us for general chat and friendliness.
Jeeves will welcome you with Prosecco and Pringles.
Italian food sounds very attractive! Proper that is not a heated up pizza from Lidl. I bought salmon for our supper tonight and tomorrow is my Kiwi's last day so not sure what we'll do. I'll miss her.
We went foraging today but there were so few fungi we did tree identification instead. We shared delicious pate made from chanterelle
and hedgehog mushrooms.
I phoned all my DC this morning about 8.30 because they never call
me.
The first was about to go for a run so had no time. The next was about to walk the dog and then watch his DC play football.
The third thought someone had died as I called so early 😳
They were off to a wedding and had been to see a puppy they are thinking of getting.
The last call was to NZ. They were about to watch a film!
Here are some of the trees we saw.
Well we had the builders here for the shed.. hooray! - I know it will be slow going though as lots of stuff still being cleared and access isn't straightforward.
Mr Spaghetti has been baking and planting Spring bulbs today and we had a family visit and a grocery delivery. Managed to clear the laundry including the hand-washing so that's good.
I didn't tell you about our pudding at our Italian adventure 
We had to share one as we were too full!
It was a traditional Tiramisu of the sort you don't usually get these days
Wednesday next week is boiler servicing day... I've had a text message reminder - 7am to 5.30 pm! ... I've already told them I'm not an early bird so will have to call them on Monday to warn them!
Spooky Alexa. The story so far…
Some years ago, I was given this unit by the Blind Foundation so I could listen to their talking books, ask the time, date, weather etc.
I chose a British, male voice and so it has stayed.
I believe you have to go into the app., something I cannot do, to manually change this.
Now read on…
When DS was in London, he'd set up some job interviews but missed Gubbins very much. We had a sad video call one night and I was upset to see him so down and told him to come home.
It was daytime in NZ so I then tried to get on with my day but still upset, spoke to my late friend Phillip, who had so often helped me in life, particularly with IT, at which he excelled. Just saying I wished there was something I could do to help my boy.
I know many people would think me crazy to do this but I have been so long in the Maori world where it's normal to consult ancestors, and frankly I have no proof loved ones don't help, that it seemed natural.
The next morning DS sent a message about this job in Australia. It was a definite, unlike the UK jobs, so he was about to fly to Sydney.
This was so out-of-the-blue and so very, very welcome that I thanked Phil, saying if he really did have a hand in this, I was so grateful and would certainly sleep well that night.
Before I went to bed, however, I asked Alexa about tomorrow's weather, hoping to get some laundry done and a completely different voice answered me. 
I was so shocked that I said, 'Alexa, what's that accent?'
Alexa replied, 'Mate, you should know, it's a true blue Aussie accent.'
Karen, who is an ardent believer in spirit, with numerous supernatural events in her past, was convinced it was Phil's way of confirming he had 'facilitated' the Sydney job.
As for me. Who am I to argue? I'm just glad my beloved son is happy and looking at a great future.
I've never had a 100% rock-solid belief in ^anything Cherry The nearest I ever get is accepting a cautious 'maybe' because, who knows?
I am fascinated by the 47 year meticulous research of Prof Ian Stevenson and his teams, cataloguing the stories of thousands of (usually remote, rural Third world) pre-schoolers who recount in detail past lives.
Hamlet was right.
In the BBC's Just William collection, an Eng. Lit., teacher talked about Hamlet and whether it was written by Shakespear or Bacon. William says Ham? bacon? let’s call ‘em both eggs’.
Now, NotS <wags finger> only last week you said my slow, mundane day sounded tiring and now look! You had a veritable tornado of a day but it must be a relief to have the shed work in progress. Let's hope those tradies are not from the same school as Grammaretto's recalcitrant crew.
Yes, Grammaretto eventually I will have to grasp the Australian nettle but that’s well into the future.
There are more official complications than for the UK where I have a right of residence. With Oz, it’ll be no more than 'resident family' connections when both sons an family are permanently there and DS1 is actually an Australian citizen. It used to be easy for Kiwis to live there, now it isn’t, especially as thousands of “refugees” are still leaving NZ.
No doubt DS and JG will look into that when the time comes.
I'm so glad you enjoyed the garden party Doodle - “nice food and nice people” sounds perfect.
Doesn’t an indoor garden party have shades of oxymoron but it’s always good to have a Plan B.
My day with the grand-children was absolutely wonderful.
We made volcanoes, and fly-away food colours in shallow milk at the touch of a Magic Wand (cotton bud dipped in washing up liquid).
I'd drawn large, initial letters for all our names and we stuck all manner of tiny shells, silk roses, stars and glitter into the shape. This last was much favoured and liberally used by Gubbins and when she saw some had fallen onto DGs shorts, said, 'Ha ha you're going to a dance party!'
She tried on her whatu kakahu and wanted to wear it all the time but as the feathers were already a little ruffled I said no. Hers weren't.
When she arrived and showed me how well she could do somersaults, DiL cried, 'Oh! You didn't put on your knickers this morning.'
'I'm wearing my invisible knickers' she said with great dignity.
Yes, Cherry me too - hope Jan, Mamissimo and Nfk are just having a rest.
A rest? me? You're having a laugh!
Dear friends - I have been utterly absorbed by work lately but I have been reading every day so that I won't be completely lost when I get my life back when this commission is complete.
I have also become somewhat disappointed in the way some people are talking to each other/about each other on other parts of GN and I hate unpleasantness. Once I'm through this commission and have rebalanced my ballast I will no doubt be back posting more regularly.
In news...Spud is walking like a drunk cowboy who's lost his horse my cabbages won Best in Show on Saturday - and Mr M and I are off to Norfolk for a short break this week as we need to relax.
With you in spirit.....x
Nice to se yiu and what an absolutely perfect cabbage, Mamissimo its placing well deserved...but how can you bear to eat it?
I once saw an unusual table decoration, a cabbage - but not as beautiful a brassica as yours, with oxe-eye daisy heads placed between its leaves. Very effective and pretty.
Dear wee Spud, he's such a joy
Snap!
I expect a framed portrait of that cabbage Mamissimo !
Spud and Gubbins, our poster kids. Adorable.
It looks like my friends will be moving into the Helpx room this week while their recently flooded kitchen is repaired. Its quite a turn around. My next helper will begin next week. She's German.
I saw my little DGC briefly yesterday. They were staying at the other DGPs. Other gran has taught them both to knit. They were very proud. The puppy is a cute at the moment Kojak. That is a Corgi/ Jack Russell Cross.
A photo from our walk yesterday.
Hello Doodle, I do hope today is a better one for you. 
To answer your questions.
My other grand-daughter lives in Tauranga, a 3 hour drive away on the east coast but being young and sprightly, she often comes over to see various friends and her Grandma.
My DiL has a 3 hour manicure/pedicure appointment every 2-3 weeks, so leaves the children here.
My grandson was wonderful with his sister and me too, spontaneously washing up and asking if he could help with anything.
He was in charge of the glue during craftwork, neither Gubbins nor I being reliable
He's at least 6ft now and it seems strange to have to crick my neck to look up at him.
He's a talented water polo player in a regional team who have tournaments and pratices quite often, so is filling out as well as growing up I love him very much and am so grateful to have him here while I can.
I'm just back from my kaumatua group where the usual hilarious time was enjoyed.
Today we did a Q & A session. Each person had a list of questions and had to go round asking who was left-handed, had been on a cruise, wore contacts, was an only child, had a Masters Degree, had an allergy, had ever needed stitches, owned a cat and so on.
We learned a lot about one another 
Hope everyone has a good day.
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