Scarecrows

At this time of year the local gardens does a scarecrow day.
Sometime prior, I must find out when, they make a call for scarecrows to go on display and be judged in several different catagories.
By chance I heard this on the radio so decided we would have a quick visit to view the scarecrows.
What follows is a picture album of some (yes some) of the wonderful scarecrows we saw around the gardens. Some were acting as guides to the main event. The ones for voting on all had numbers.

The one Alex loved

My favorite

My 2nd favorite

The one Ben loved

Unfortunately it rained and so we wandered around with umbrellas looking at them all and voting on our paper to say which one we liked in each catagory and which one should be overal winner.

Unfortunately due to the weather, we didn't stick around for the big unvaling of who won.

This trip around the gardens made me think of harvest time. We sadly do not celebrate harvest thanksgiving here in NZ, well they may in the churches but the school don't, the other thing to consider is the fact that our harvest thanksgiving would fall about April time as summer has ended and autumn is in full bloom then.

So for today I am thankful to all the creative people out there who were prepared to create and showcase their wonderful abilities.

Flexi Time

In my new position at work I am suddenly sat at a desk with flexi time.
It is easy to get carried away with this but oh how life has just got easier and not so stressed.
I know in my line of work that you do sometimes have to be the person who is told what to do, when to do it and how, that is life as a nurse.
However to suddenly be at a desk and told that generally you give and we will take and we are flexible about when you give and when we take is exciting to get use to. Especially as the boss doesn't really want to know every detail of what you are doing and when, he wants you to use your initiative and show him the result at the end, which usually means he wants to see the job finished!

I have finished (well as long as my result comes through good this weekend coming!) my study for the year, so therefore Wednesday are back to being my days to me and to get things sorted.
However being in a new position there are occassions when a meeting comes up on a Wednesday and I know it is important to be there, so I have planned it with my manager that 'if and I mean if' I have to come to work on a Wednesday then I will take the time back on another day during the week. Saves changing payroll and everything just for an hour or 2.

He is happy with this and in fact it is working to my advantage, even though it is nice to have one day a week to get things done it is also nice to know that I can finish an hour early for something when needed.

For some reason, I seem to have succumbed to 3 hours of work this Wednesday (don't worry I won't make a habit of it but job is so new) but on the other hand I am finishing early tomorrow and getting my hair cut and finishing early on Thursday before weekend away, so in fact all works out very nicely.

Could get very use to this line of work, might have to look at getting contract extended next year!

Roses in Bloom

Didn't have to wait very long at all before the roses started to come out in bloom

They smell so sweet too. There are several buds waiting for their big moment as well

However yesterday they didn't look quite like this after a day of rain lashed down on them. Heads were drooping but still there. Hopefully they will dry and rise again.

Challenge #19 - Go to a Sunday Market

Like I promised over here, I finally managed to get everyone out of the door on a Sunday morning to visit the local Farmer's Market.
We were lucky as we managed to visit before the rain set in.
The market smelt great, all these different smells from food cooking and so many people walking around eating.
The many things I saw today were green lettuces or strawberries, there were at least 4 strawberry stalls and they were all bigger and fresher than the next.

carrots anyone, they were so cute

The boys are strawberry mad so we had to come home with some.

big red and so juicy fresh, picked from the field this morning!

The boys just couldn't keep their hands off the strawberries but then neither could we. I asked them to describe the market and they said the following although I think they were referring to just the strawberries they were eating at the time:

• Yummy
• Fresh
• So Ripe
• So Juicy
• Country Fresh
• Smell delish

There was also one or 2 bread and pastry stalls. One had amazing croisants with fillings and another sold my most favorite bread of all time brioche....!

In fact the brioche is tasting so sweet and fresh as I write this munching on a slice!
Today I am thankful for the world, for giving us the ability to be able to grow our own food. For giving us the sun & the rain, the cold & the warmth needed to grow these wonderful flavoursome goodies. Also for giving us the ability and know how to be able to do it.

Too Much Tv

Today whilst getting dressed, my 2 boys came into the bedroom.
Now they know our bedroom door is always open and I have no worries getting dressed in front of them.
However this morning the conversation with Ben went like this:

B: Mummy, why do you wear a bra?
M: Because it is what ladies wear to keep their boobies looking nice.
B: Well you should try an 'Ah Bra'!
M: Couldn't speak as I was laughing so much I just about fell over!
B: Mummy, why are you laughing?
M: Because you are so cute and adorable!

An 'Ah Bra' for those of you that don't know, is a bra that is currently advertised on tv as the next best thing! Haha, looks like crap if you ask me but I just had to laugh so much the fact that Ben had watched the ad and taken so much on board!

In normal fashion they always have deals on about 'Buy 1 get 6 Free' To me if they are so wonderful then why doesn't Littlewoods and Farmer's sell them?

Librarys and Memories

We are lucky enough to have a good public library system within our town.
We have 1 main central library and then 4 smaller suburb locations.
These are all the same company and so we have the pleasure of being able to visit any of the sites to return, order and borrow our books.

We have the normal library charges, you pay to reserve a book, there is a small fine if you are late returning a book, you pay a small charge to borrow DVD's and movies etc and they also have the latest books available on 1 week hire at $5 as they are the most popular ones. There is no charge to borrow the books.

So we use the library a lot, the boys love going there and they have a love of books, well they like the books but I know their love for them is growing and this I am grateful for. I want them to understand the joy books can bring into your life, I want them to know that reading is a great thing to be able to do.

However last week the City Council were discussing how they could save millions of dollars and one area they looked at was the library service.
They wanted to put a charge on all books borrowed, they want to close the libraries on a Monday and they want to reduce the already scant staff to even less.
They feel this would save plenty of money and no one would mind!
I think not, the library is somewhere people can go when they have 30 minutes spare in town, I love the fact people can borrow books free and given this current life at present I like that fact people are still reading books when they can't afford to buy them.

So do I like this idea? Not one little bit.

I am also lucky enough to have a great medical library at the hospital. Now I wasn't sure how important this was going to be to me until I started my study this year when I realised that they had the books that would help me answer my essay questions.
They don't have any charges and even email you when books are due back, in fact they will even email you and let you know that as no one is waiting for the books then they have renewed them and they are now due on the new date. All without you asking them too do this! I am truely thankful for that, because this week they let me know I had books outstanding and I was pretty sure I had returned them 2 weeks ago after finishing my essay, but a little check at home proved this wrong and hey presto I had 4 books of theirs.
Really thank ful to them for checking with me.

My memory of libraries takes me all the way back to when I was about 9 or 10. We lived in Kuwait at the time and I was going to the local (only) English School.
We had a little library at the end of the hall that was seperated by a curtain.
One day I had to go to the library to find a book and at the time I decided that I would just stand on the bottom shelf to reach the book I wanted instead of getting a little chair.
Well unfortunately the shelf collapsed and all the book fell off!
I got sent to the Headmistress who had me retell her what had happened and how it was going to get fixed.
I remember feeling about this big and a little less more in front of Mrs Bird, whilst I stood there and said sorry for breaking the shelf.

So even though I still use libraries, I have learnt that if you can't reach a book, then get a chair or someone else to reach it instead.

Thankfully

I have just got half way through a post about the local library and memories and then realised that in fact I have something to post about that is more important.
I have just been reading Rocking Chair Reflections and she is doing a month of thanksgivings. Last month she did a month of memories.
I really should have done a month of giving thanks seeing as it is now November (holy crap where did the year go?)  but had already said I would do memories, although I think I might mix it over the month.

Anyway, I digress, another Blog I follow, Deb's Doodlings is someone I have met through work, well we met through blogging but then worked out we both work at the hospital so we met a few times, usually in the staff canteen when both buying lunch!
However, when I checked her blog yesterday it was to discover that she had received the call that every parent dreads "Hi, we are calling to let you know there has been an accident, your daughter has been injured!"
For the last week she has been at the hospital with her 11 yr old who is in a bad way, head injury, facial fractures, broken leg and pelvis, more bruises than you want.

Deb is only just resurfacing after having the week from hell, although she still has many weeks to go. Her daughter is non weight bearing for at least the next 6-8 weeks, when she finally manages to sit up for longer than 20 secs.

So suddenly I am thankful that she is going to be ok, I am thankful to everyone that helped them with getting her to hospital, the ambulance, fire brigade and the air ambulance.
I am thankful for my family and that we are all safe tonight in our house together.

Loving Gmail

Last week I told you how I managed to screw up with my gmail account I set up just for this blog, well all is working well now and I am loving it.
I am loving being able to reply to people when they ask me a question, being able to just comment back on a comment they have left.
It definitely opens up the blogging world to me with the people who are following my blog.

It has been lovely talking to you all and getting know you all more.

Have a great day

Spring Time

For us here in New Zealand, the clocks have changed and the weather is getting better.
It is having 2 steps forward and 1 step back at the moment, but the sun is shining more and the days are so much more enjoyable.

Yesterday was one of those days when the sun shone and it was glorious.
The garden was showing proof of it too so thought I would share it with you.....

excuse the weeds in between the slabs, these plants are ground cover and they have done nothing until the clocks changed and the sun started getting to them each morning. Wouldn't mind but the tab said 'shade loving ground plants!'

Proof of a great sunny day, full line of washing

strawberries coming along nicely

Lemon tree went in Nov last year, has grown beautifully and even has buds on it

Courgette plant, although may have to move as I think it is too high in this built up area

Steve was convinced this tree in the neightbours garden was dead and then suddenly, hey presto, blossom

Garlic, growing well

Tomatoes starting well

Alex wanted some roses in the garden, yellow one which has grown at least double its height and ready to flower. Will show pictures of flowers when they bloom

Potatoes and more potatoes

Rhodo in bloom

Red rose waiting to burst its colour

Other red rose waiting to burst

Sunflower starting to poke though, need to move that irrigation pipe though!

Sunflower poking through, this seed was taken from flowers grown last year, so wasn't sure if it would grow or not

Hydrangea growing nicely, although not sure on colour, will let you know when flowers appear

Camillea still in full bloom

We have done some major work to the garden and I really should show you all sometime.
Just need to sit and go through all the pictures and work out which ones to show on here.