Mother comes for Christmas

This year for the first time in about 15 years Erle and I cooked Christmas Dinner at home and invited my 88 year old Mother to join us. Usually we all go to a small hotel for a wonder Christmas banquet, but this year they canceled the event and I was forced to resume Christmas cooking. Actually it wasn't all that hard, with a little serious thought I came up with a lovely 3 corse meal with very little bother. We started with crumbed butterflied prawns with mango and tomato salad, then the main course was a boneless Chicken roast pre-stuffed with apricots and lots of roast potato and kumara and our very own fresh green peas, for dessert a big tropical trifle with boysenberries and meringues and fresh cherries. Easy as.
Tasted as good as it sounded too.
Porsche got another wonderful Christmas present too, a Mother Sheep with little lamb that sings and dances, she likes it very much.
Porsche also received a catnip monkey that she enjoyed rather too much, it can be seen on Glennis's Other blog.

Merry Christmas.

I hope you have all been really good so Santa has many gifts wrapped up for you.
Merry Christmas to each and every one of my wonderful visitors who help make my life so much happier.
May the Angel of the lord bless you and make your dreams come true.
Warmest Seasons greetings from hot sunny New Zealand

Christmas decorations at Picton.

My World, Christmas decorations in Picton.
The big silvery Christmas tree is up on top of the War Memorial in Picton, the lamp posts have their flags flying and baskets of flowers looking quite colourful, so Christmas must be nearly here.
The Foreshore Gardens are looking pretty too, sadly the Champagne Fountain was not playing when I was walking past, but it most likely will be later.
Ours is only a small town so that is about the size of the decorations.
At night the silver tree lights up and flashes many different colours.
Do check out lots of My World posts to see many other interesting aspects of the World.

Pink stripes.

A soft pink stripe is all the sun set for this night.
Do check out lots of skies from around the world on this My World meme.

Mystical Family Festival at the Maori Marae

Mystical Family Festival. My World for this week.
The Festival was held at the Maori Marae at Waikawa, not a place I have been to often as I am not a Maori person, so I was keen to take some photos.
When we arrived I straight away bought a Rose Quartz Crystal triangle to put on my windowsill with other interesting gem stones I have collected, then we went into the dining hall and enjoyed a lovely Devonshire Tea of coffee and a delicious scone topped with jam and cream. While we enjoyed the scone I looked around the big room, which was nicely and simply set out for the morning tea and later for lunch, there were many lovely Maori carvings totems and beautifully intricately carved wooden panels that told a story and had great meaning to the Maori people. I asked a lovely elder lady called a Kuia ( a respected older wise women )who had a pretty Moko (tattoo on the chin) if she would allow me to take her photo and she agreed.
We went back outside intending to visit all the little stalls that were set up around the grounds, but the first one I stopped off at was a Reflexology practitioner, I got talking to her and asked for a short session of the lovely foot massage. Wow it was so lovely, I had been working all night the previous night so I was pretty tyred, she just relaxed me and made me feel so much better i decided to have a double length session, it was well worth the price. After that I was so lanquid and relaxed that I didn't feel up to wandering around any more, so I made my way back to the car, on the way I past the big Meeting house with its lovely carved poles and panels, there was a group of visiting entertainers gathered on the steps as I took a photo in passing.
There was also some interesting stone art poles and carvings on top of the palisade around the Marae.
A very interesting place to visit, but I do wish I had been feeling less sleepy had taken more photos and looked at more stalls as there were people taking aura photos, doing healings and tarot readings plus massage artists and possably other types of mystical alternative forms of treatment that I never saw.

Lemon and silver evening

Lemon and silver brightened the sky at Picton last night.
Do check out lots of other wonderful skies from around the world, here.

Alien in the sky, winking.

The progression of slowly colouring sky from silver to gold.
Ends up looking rat6her like an alien in the sky, winking at us.


Sky Watch Friday.

A stealing Gull

Only in New Zealand.

A seagull in Dunedin has developed the habit of stealing ETA Chips from a neighbourhood convenience store. The seagull waits until the Manager isn't looking, and then walks into the store and grabs a snack-size bag of cheese chips.

Once outside, the bag gets ripped open and shared by other birds.

The seagull's shoplifting started early this month when he first swooped into the store in Dunedin , and helped himself to a bag of chips. Since then, he's become a regular. He always takes the same type of chips.

The Manager thinks it's great because people are coming to watch the feathered thief make the daily grab and run, and that's good for business, and especially since customers have begun paying for the seagull's stolen bags of Chips because they think it's so funny.

However, the Manager did say, "This is New Zealand , and if that seagull starts to grab a 6-pack of beer to go along with the Chips, I may have to put a stop to it.

Taxi Stand Blenheim.

My World for this week is the taxi stand at Blenheim in Market Square. I seem to have been working all week to assist other drivers that needed time off. Not that I have minded, as I still enjoy the work and the extra money. This is the company I drive for Gateway Taxis. Often there are far more taxis on the stand, both this one and the feeder stand around the corner. I have also been driving a Toyota station wagon and will drive a Camry station wagon tomorrow. The changes make for more interest, as I have to remember to call the right cab number each day.
The small clock tower behind us came from the original old Post Office building that has now been demolished, behind that is the Cleghorn Memorial Band Rotunda where music is often played.

NZ Whitebait

Whitebait.
These are Whitebait, fresh from the river still with little leaves among them. These leaves must all be picked out and the whitebait washed before you cook them.
These little native fish will grow to be big fish if they manage to avoid being caught by fisher men.

Sunset at Wairau Diversion.

Sky Watch Friday.
A lovely evening sunset at The Wairau River Diversion, where lots of whitebaiting is done during the season. Whitebait being very small clear little fish that are a new Zealand delicacy. That's me draging the whitebait net along to scoop the little fish out of the river.
The whitebait are eaten cooked into a battered fried patty or fritter or in an omelette, with a squeeze of lemon juice over them.

The Wairau Diversion is a man made channel made to assist with flood control and to give irrigation water to another area.

Pretty evening sky Port Douglas Australia.

Sky Watch
A pretty evening sky we saw when in Port Douglas Australia while we were there last year.
Looking over Fishermans wharf .

Picton Marina renovations

My World Meme.
Our new marina renovations are started, a new concrete retaining wall is in place and the wooden board walk is started. The marina looks very empty and the water calm and peaceful. But several dozers and excavators are working on the bank.


Part of the new floating dock that is being put in place in the Picton Marina. A big floating derrick is sinking the big piles of the first dock. Soon the marina will be full of boats again.
You can compare this post with the old full marina below in my last post.

Orange evening at Picton.

Sky Watch Friday.
A beautiful Orange Evening at Picton. This is completely untouched, with its power lines and orange coloured sea and sky..
One of the ferries are in port. This was taken before the harbour renovations started. The long narrow boat in the front is a houseboat that is available to rent out during the summer. Now that would be fun!

My Daughter's Medals

My World for this week is a bit late, but here is my Daughter Nyle with her Gold and Silver Medals that she won for Race Walking at The World Masters Games in Sydney Australia earlier this week. Silver for the 10kms and Gold for the 5kms her favoured race. She walked a Personal Best in both races.
Well done Nyle! To read more of her Race Walking click here.

Floating Gypsy village Thailand

Sky Watch for this week is from when we were in Thailand. We visited a floating gypsy village at Phang Nga, by long tail boats such as you can see at the side of photo, stayed for a meal and to meet some of the people who dwell over the water all their lives. A nice clear blue sky.
Do check out some of the other sky photos from around the world.

Spring blossoms

My World Meme.
Spring blossoms.
Three different fruiting trees, two different apple, a plum and greengage blossoms.
Our little Burmese cat likes to sniff the plum flowers.
Also a branch of yellow Kowhai flowers, this is a native tree that flowers to herald spring in New Zealand.