Pot

It's been a while since the last post and we intended to write the next one about our trip to France,, but it's just not happening, so I thought I'd continue the theme that has developed of publishing posts about the animal members of our family. So this one's for Pot. She's awesome - she loves living out here where there is so much space it makes her head hurt, and she is quite happy just sitting outside listening to all the birds she will never catch. Recently, we discovered that of an evening, Potty likes a bit of a spanking. Seriously. Don't even bother asking how we figured this out. But here's a video with the proof:


She just keeps coming back for more... Such entertainment.

Boo's Kitchen

We got a dog. She turned up at work as she had been found roaming and nobody came to collect her from the pound. She was pretty cute and I took a liking to her and now she lives with us. Her name is Colonel Boo Boo, or Boo for short.

She seems to be settling in well. She keeps up with Matt while he's training (and is much less exhausted than him when they get home), and she has taken a real liking to the DS:


She is a New Zealand Huntaway - Heading dog cross, which means she needs loads of exercise. I think she's quite good looking, so I have made her the face of my Beetroot Relish (which I made with my own beetroot from my own garden):

We are off to France next week so she is going to stay with friends, hopefully she remembers us when she gets back.

Someone though she got her name from this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u04KEg_rDHk

But she didn't, even though it's a cracker of a ditty.

Merry Christmas.

Possum.

I first met Possum while living in Auckland in 1997. She turned up at my flat, but she permanently squatted at a flat up the road. The following year I coincidentally moved into this flat, and when this household dissolved I took her with me. She was riddled with scabs from a flea allergy, and would curl up into a tight tight ball on my bed and wouldn't budge when poked. I took her to the vet to get cleared up and she was a different cat. She spent the next four years moving around Auckland, sleeping on the end of my bed (I trained her to only sleep on a blanket on the end - I forgot to mention I was severely allergic to her). In 2002 she moved south to Christchurch where she retired with my parents. Here she really thrived. But, she got gradually stiffer and slower, and skinnier. Mum and Dad decided last week that the time was right for her to go to the "cattery in the sky", so took her in to their local vet. They offered me the privilege, but I just don't think I could have done it.


Now she's in the vege patch, where she used to sit and watch the day pass.

Rest in peace Possum. The queen of the silent meow.

Crap, a leopard!

At work we're having our annual charity art auction. It goes like this: everyone in the company, from the managing director all the way down to me, creates an 'art' piece. The stuff is then auctioned for a local charity and everyone's happy.
Problem is, we're not artists. We work in an office. With computers and Bluetooth devices. Anyway, mine's called Books I never wrote. This guy would really tear me to pieces, "Ding Ding! Here comes the shit-mobile".

Cushion #2

Following on from our very first post (June 2007) we have another cushion. This one was hand sewn a couple of months ago.




Again, the Bernina came out, but a fair amount of time was also spent hunched over squinting and sewing (in the bleak winter evenings) beside the fire.

When we were very young...

The internet is too weird. With my broken hand I have spent an inordinate amount of time online and have googled everything and everyone. Then I googled me:


Circa 1984 - ah the memories - Mrs Parsons, the school gymnasium, nomads, the fact that I was one of the minorities whose mother made me were the optional school uniform (which maybe explains my ongoing penchant for skivvies, or polo necks as I like to refer to them now). Ah, the days were just packed....

Greetings earthlings

I smiled when I saw this thing out behind Christchurch Airport. Not an alien spacecraft but a Finnish Futuro house made in the 1960s. It was sitting derelict and faded amongst a paddock full of relocated farm houses. The internet tells me there's less than 100 in the world. What is it doing here?